Les Howles (llhowles@doit.wisc.edu)
Fri, 11 Jun 1999 13:08:00 -0500
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 1999 13:08:00 -0500 From: Les Howles <llhowles@doit.wisc.edu> Subject: Pedagogy & Constructivism
List address to send message to everyone: ifets-discuss@LISTSERV.READADP.COM
Details of current discussion: http://ifets.gmd.de/discuss.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is my first post to the list and I'm also seeing how it works.
As an instructional designer who has worked in business/industry and
academia I've always been amused with the constructivist vs behaviorist
debate. Philosophically, constructivism makes a lot of intuitive sense.
But as I develop instructional materials, courses, and modules I personally
don't care about philosophy and neither do most the customers, clients and
faculty I consult with. What we are most concerned with are learning
outcomes. I have never found it a liability to formulate behaviorally
stated objectives (which incidentally came out of the behaviorist camp).
In fact, disciplining myself to formulate clear objectives which can be
observed and validated (I don't always want to it) has been extremely
beneficial and contributed greatly to the quality of instructional products
I've developed. I also pay a lot of attention to learner engagement and
involvement in acquiring and applying new knowledge and skills as well as
cognitive strategies used by individual learners (I guess one could say
this emphasis comes out of a constructivist orientation). The point is,
as an instructional designer I don't really care what's considered
constructivist or behaviorist and I wouldn't want to be classified as
either. I guess you could say that philosophically I lean toward
constructivism but practically when operating in the real world designing
instruction I'm a pragmatist with a behavioristic leaning.
One observation though. I have attended dozens of instruction design
workshops and seminars over the last five years and have listened to the
constructivist attacks at traditional instructional design and the evils of
lecturing using a didactic model. I have been lectured to till I'm ready
to pass-out on the virtues of constructivism. Quite frankly, it all seems
so philosophical and religious to me. I ask why do constructivists always
fall back on didactic lectures to convince us that this new educational
philosophy is so superior? Could you please do something more innovative
than lecturing and preaching. Or, is there a place for lecturing when
trying to teach certain content?
Les Howles
Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison
---------------------------------------------------------
Forum website: http://ifets.gmd.de/
Forum's contact person: kinshuk@ieee.org
Info on Join/Leave List: http://ifets.gmd.de/maillist.html
---------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Mon 14 Jun 1999 - 00:37:16 MEST