Instructional Design and Media Selection. Eisa H.R. Hasan. Also available in print:

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1 Instructional Design and Media Selection Eisa H.R. Hasan 2001 Ph.D. thesis University of Twente Twente University Press Also available in print:

2 Instructional Design and Media Selection

3 The research reported in this thesis was funded by the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training in the State of Kuwait. The photograph on the cover represents the Council of Education (the old name of the Ministry of Education) in the State of Kuwait. It was established in In this building the first attempts for the development of the program for the education of teachers in the State of Kuwait were made. The photograph was taken in Publisher: Twente University Press, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, the Netherlands, Cover design: Dennis van der Meij, Grafisch Centrum Twente, Enschede Print: Grafisch Centrum Twente, Enschede E.H.R. Hasan, Enschede, 2001 No part of this work may be reproduced by print, photocopy or any other means without the permission in writing from the publisher. ISBN

4 INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN AND MEDIA SELECTION A STUDY ON THE USE OF INSTRUCTIONAL-DESIGN THEORIES AND MODELS IN A COLLEGE FOR TEACHER EDUCATION PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Twente, op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof.dr. F.A. van Vught, volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op woensdag 12 september 2001 te uur door Eisa Hasan Ramadan Hasan geboren op 14 februari 1960 te Koeweit

5 Dit proefschrift is goedgekeurd door de promotor prof.dr. S. Dijkstra

6 Acknowledgements During the four years of my study at the University of Twente, I received much support from Institutes and individual persons to do my research and finish this dissertation. I would like to express my profound thanks to the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training in the State of Kuwait for the financial support which made the completion of this work possible. I am grateful to my supervisor, Professor Dr. Sanne Dijkstra for the constructive ideas, adequate feedback and proper support. The continuous discussion and the intellectual support he provided helped me to accept and overcome the difficulties and problems I met. This work could not have been completed without his supervision and assistance. For the data coding I appreciate to thank Dr. Yousef Al-Zalzalah from Kuwait University for his assistance. He also offered me an office with required facilities during my work in Kuwait. Other persons at the University of Twente were helpful for the data analysis, I am thankful to Frans Houweling and to the colleague Fahoom Shalabi from the Administration and Management Department. I like to thank the faculty members in the Department of Educational Technology at the College of Basic Education in the State of Kuwait for the facilities and for assigning the groups of students to participate in the experiments. I am grateful to my colleagues of the Department of Instructional Technology, Tessa Eysink, Koen Veermans, Mark Gellevij, Casper Hulshof, Renate Limbach, Bregje de Vries, Irina Shostak, Rijanto Purbojo, and Mohammad Saleh for the constructive discussion during the Pro-IST meetings. Special thanks go to Tessa for making the Dutch summary Nederlandse samenvatting.

7 ii I would like to thank the secretaries of the department, Thyra Kamphuis - Kuijpers, Eveline Heijink, Pauline Teppich and Daniëlle Egbertsen. They were helpful not only for the secretarial work but also to facilitate the issues related to the living in the Netherlands. My sincere thanks go to Thyra for her assistance in editing the chapters of the dissertation. The experiments involved a number of students in the College of Basic Education in Kuwait. I wish to thank those students who accepted the invitation and positively participated in the experiments. They were the students of the teacher training program and the students of the media specialist program. This work is dedicated to my family who have missed me for such a long time. Firstly, my wife who is the first person who encouraged me to take the opportunity of the Ph.D. scholarship. She spent tremendous efforts to take care of educating our children during my study, which provided me confidence and concentration to do this work. Secondly, my children who took the responsibility on their performance at school. Ala a, who is in the first year at Kuwait University, Ahmad who is in the honor board and will be in the final year of secondary school, Amnah who will start her first year in the secondary school, Eiman who will be in the third class of the middle school, and Amira who will start her middle school. To my family, I love you so much.

8 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. CONTEXT OF THE STUDY: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW Introduction to the context and goal of the study Teacher education Problems of the teacher training program Instructional-design theory as an integrative framework Overview of the content of this dissertation 4 2. INTRODUCTION TO INSTRUCTIONAL-DESIGN AND CHOICE OF MEDIUM Educational goals, instructional communication and media Instructional Design The main concepts of Instructional Design Philosophical foundations of instructional design The Problem-based Instructional Design Theory and Model Theoretical foundation of the Problem-based Instructional-Design Theory and Model Subject matter, information and problem solving procedures Construction of knowledge and skills as a result of solving problems Instruction, Instructional communication and Instructional Design Types of problems Educational goals and level of performance Instructional design and media Media and learning Research on the effect of media on learning The effect of media on cognitive processes Constructivistic assumption of the effects of media on learning The selection and use of media Features of objects and choice of media Research questions THE TEACHER EDUCATION IN THE STATE OF KUWAIT Introduction Facts and figures of teachers and students in Kuwait Education in Kuwait Historical background of education Education in the Constitution of Kuwait Structure and organization of the Education System General goal of education in Kuwait Teacher training in the State of Kuwait 45

9 iv Pre service teacher training in Kuwait The development of the teacher training in Kuwait Historical development of the teacher education program at the College of Basic Education (Public Authority For Applied Education and Training) First attempts The start for female students Teacher Institute Teacher Dar Teacher Education Institute College of Teacher Education College of Basic Education The Public Authority for Applied Education and Training The foundation of PAAET Objectives and policies of the Authority Activities and functions of the Authority College of Basic Education at PAAET Objectives of the College Organization of the College Numbers of staff and graduates of the College of Basic Education The College of Education at Kuwait University Historical background Department of Education College of Education General objectives of the College of Education Programs of the College of Education Organization of the College of Education Number of staff and graduates of the College of Education Future Prospects THE INTEGRATION OF INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY PRINCIPLES AND SUBJECT MATTER CONTENT: A SURVEY Introduction Domains of the teacher education program The culture domain The domains of the formal and empirical sciences The vocational (professional) domain Problems of the curriculum Method Participants Materials Procedure Data Results 72

10 v Reliability Factor analysis The mean scores on the subsets of the questionnaire Written responses Discussion EFFECTS OF INSTRUCTIONAL-DESIGN THEORY ON THE SELECTION OF MEDIA IN THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS AND MEDIA SPECIALISTS Abstract Introduction Instructional communication and instructional design The medium Reality or a representation of reality Method Participants Material Tests and questionnaire Results Discussion EFFECTS OF INSTRUCTIONAL-DESIGN THEORY AND MEDIA CHARACTERISTICS ON THE SELECTION OF MEDIA IN THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS AND MEDIA SPECIALISTS Abstract Introduction Instructional communication The medium Reality or representation of reality Media choice Media and learning Method Participants Materials Design Test and questionnaires Procedure Results Discussion 129

11 vi 7. GENERAL DISCUSSION Assumptions on the use of instructional design theories and models for teacher training Instructional-design theory and the selection of media The instructional-design model and its use in teacher training practice Discussion of the results Concluding remarks 141 REFERENCES 143 ENGLISH SUMMARY 151 DUTCH SUMMARY 157 ARABIC SUMMARY 165 APPENDICES 169 Appendix A 171 Appendix B 173 Appendix C 175 Appendix D 176 Appendix E 179 Appendix F 180 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 182

12 Introduction and overview 1 CHAPTER 1. CONTEXT OF THE STUDY: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW. 1.1 Introduction to the Context and Goal of the Study The author is working with the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training of the State of Kuwait. The Authority consists of the Board of College of Basic Education. The Authority agreed to the study described in this dissertation. The study is based in the curriculum of the college, and is inspired by the special problems faced by the teachertraining program, especially in the production of instructional materials and the choice of media. The participants in this study are students of the college. The goal of the study is to understand the problems faced by teacher-trainee college students in the production of instructional materials and in the selection of appropriate media. The students will be provided with an instructional design theory and model they can use for their teaching activities, production of instructional materials and the choice media. The effects of the theory and model as an integrative framework will be studied and discussed. 1.2 Teacher Education To train teachers for elementary and secondary schools, the State of Kuwait has adopted a system of training their teachers in colleges. The programs train students for the different levels of education, and for various subjects and special tasks in order to achieve the objectives and standards required by the State. The teacher-training program is realized in two special colleges. The College of Basic Education at the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training trains teachers (all females) for kindergarten, and teachers (both male and female) for elementary schools. The College of Education at Kuwait University trains female teachers for kindergarten, and both male and female teachers for elementary, middle and secondary schools. The teacher training program introduces the students to various domains and subdomains, such as psychology, especially learning theory and theory of motivation,

13 2 Chapter 1 teaching methods (instruction) and learning processes, and information and communication technology. The main focus of the program in these two colleges is to develop the teachers knowledge and skills in three domains: (a) the cultural domain, (b) the formal and empirical sciences domain, and (c) the professional and vocational domain. Each domain consists of several courses. 1.3 Problems of the Teacher Training Program One of the problems the teacher education students in the State of Kuwait encounter is in integrating the information from the three basic domains into a coherent body of knowledge and skills that can be used for teaching (Abu-Zaina, Hassan, Al-Jazzar, 1990). The course content of these three main domains should be presented and discussed in such a way that the students will be able to integrate it and use the integrated knowledge in their job. The problem, however, is that the courses in each of these domains are presented and studied separately, and the relationships between the content of these courses are not taught to the students. The students, therefore, are unable to integrate the content into a coherent body of knowledge. Teaching the courses as separate pieces of (information) knowledge does not clarify the relationships between the content of the courses and may possibly prevent the students from getting insight into these relationships, whether within the same domain or between different domains. Moreover, the importance of the courses has not been explained to them. Therefore, the students often express their concern and wonder at the reasons for studying these courses and the benefits of these courses for their teaching jobs. An effective teacher education program comprises of courses from different domains, and develops and integrates the students knowledge and skills in such a way that these can be used for teaching. Among other required courses, the students in the teacher-training program in the College of Basic Education in the State of Kuwait have to acquire and practice instructional technology principles. The instructional technology courses are considered as core courses that all students have to study. There are two main courses - Introduction to Educational Technology, which consists primarily of the theoretical basis of instructional technology and Production of Instructional Materials, which consists of prescriptions for the design

14 Introduction and overview 3 and production of instructional materials, which are then put on media (as information carriers), such as transparencies, educational boards, slide series, video productions and so forth. In their jobs, teachers have to apply the principles of the different domains, such as the sciences, psychology and instructional technology for the construction of instructional messages (information, tasks, problems for the students), and then put these messages on media as information carriers, and other media. They further have to use rules for evaluation and assessment, and apply all of this in an integrative manner. In a teachertraining program the principles of different domains should be presented and integrated in order to develop the teachers capabilities and competencies in teaching. The students of a teacher training college have to learn how to design the instructional communications with their students, how to select a proper medium that will promote learning and how to produce instructional materials to be presented with those media. For the students, these tasks are complicated as they have to integrate three subtasks - categorize subject matter, relate the representation of the reality with media selection, and design and develop instructional communications from understanding instructional design theory. Finally, they should integrate all these into a coherent body of knowledge and skills. The relationships between these conditions should be found and presented to the students, so they can develop their knowledge and skills for designing instructional messages and making a proper choice of a medium. 1.4 Instructional Design Theory as an Integrative Framework In the study described in the following chapters, instructional design theory and theories of media are used as a framework for the production of instructional materials and choice of media. After discussing the various instructional design theories and models available, the Problem-based Instructional Design Theory and Model (Dijkstra, 1997b, 2000, 2001) was selected as the basis for this effort. This theory and model is used as a basic source of knowledge for the teachers and as a framework for media choice. It is supposed that an instructional design theory and model, which is general, can help the students integrate the knowledge of specific domains, design specific instructions and make a choice for a proper

15 4 Chapter 1 medium. Further, it is supposed that this particular model is both relevant and representative of the kind of framework required to support this integrative objective. The goal of this dissertation is to develop an instructional framework that can support the students knowledge and skills in the teacher education program in the State of Kuwait. The students knowledge and skills on the design and development of instructional materials and the selection of a proper medium that represent these materials needs to be improved. 1.5 Overview of the Content of this Dissertation The presentation of an instructional design theory and model and the associated development of knowledge and skills based on the use of the theory and model in the practice of teaching are the focus of the study reported in this dissertation. In chapter 2, the definitions and conceptions related to instructional design and media are presented and clarified. The development of each perspective and their relationships with other aspects such as learning theories, epistemology and cognitive science are discussed. The Problem-based Instructional Design Theory and Model is introduced as a theory that encompasses these perspectives and provide instructional design framework for the design and development of instruction and for the selection of a proper medium. Therefore, that model is used for the design and development of experimental instructions based on which the students have to solve problems. The study was conducted at the College of Basic Education in the State of Kuwait. Therefore, the teacher training system in the State of Kuwait is introduced in chapter 3. It includes the development of the system and its objectives. The general educational system of the State of Kuwait illustrated with figures and numbers is also included in this chapter. The problems, found in the teacher training program in the College of Basic Education in the State of Kuwait, is presented in chapter 4. A survey to identify and specify particular problems was administered to the students of the program who took the Production of Instructional Materials course. The results of the survey and the problems of reaching the determined objectives of the course are discussed in this chapter. The results of the survey are presented in chapters 5 and 6. In chapter 5, the effects of a

16 Introduction and overview 5 general instructional design theory on the selection of adequate media are investigated. The prior knowledge of the participating students is also considered. Therefore, students from two different programs - teacher-training program and media specialist program - in the college were selected. The results of the study are presented in this chapter. In chapter 6, the effect of three specific conditions of the instructional design model with increasing details about media on the choice of the medium are examined. The students of the same two programs who participated in the first study (chapter 5) were selected for this study because of their different prior knowledge. The results of this study are presented in chapter 6. In chapter 7, general conclusions are given based on the assumptions, the results of the survey, and the overall study and analysis.

17 6 Chapter 1

18 Instructional design and media 7 CHAPTER 2. INTRODUCTION TO INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN AND CHOICE OF MEDIUM. 2.1 Educational Goals, Instructional Communication and Media The oft-described goal of institutionalized education is that students will develop knowledge, skills and attitudes to understand reality, and be able to adapt themselves to the situations and tasks with which they will be confronted. The content of the knowledge, the steps or operations of a skill, and related attitudinal tendencies are usually described in textbooks or other instructional sources. Because the scope of information and problemsolving methods just for the sciences and their applications is so vast, it has been the norm in education to break up the information into different subjects and topic areas (e.g., social studies, science studies, mathematics, art, religion, and so forth). For these subjects, instructional designers and teachers develop problems to be solved and tasks to be carried out by students. Teachers have to: find ways of communicating with learners about the context and content of the problems and how to solve them; provide information if the students need it; and, explain the context in which the problems arise. In these communications the teacher has to represent reality in such a way that students are supported in gaining appropriate knowledge about the particular reality, and can then learn and practice desired skills. Depictions of reality can take various forms, such as signs, pictures, portrayals, sketches, and so on. These will function as media for representing objects (entities, things, situations, and events). Content can usually be presented in many different ways with different representations. The sign as a medium for representing reality historically appeared after the use of voice and gestures (Seel & Winn, 1997). This interpretation of the word medium as a way to represent reality is but one use of the term; other uses of medium are discussed below. Later, when written language and script were developed, both the depiction and the description became mediated. Pictographic and other signs (representations) as well as entire descriptions are now stored in such a way that they can be presented (displayed) to readers and learners whenever necessary. For storage, an information carrier is used (paper,

19 8 Chapter 2 celluloid, silicon chips). The information carrier itself represents a second interpretation of the work medium and now is part of media representation in education. For centuries paper has functioned as a storage (also display) medium. Often a technical device is used to present stored information to a reader or to a student. Such devices include books, overhead projectors, computer monitors, and so on. The display device represents another meaning or interpretation for medium. This use of the word medium to refer to the display device is well known to and often by teachers. Designers and teachers need to select a medium for use in their teaching and instruction. How do they make the selection and why? A general condition is that the medium or media should appropriately represent and use the subject matter content in such a way that the intended goals of the curriculum are likely to be supported and reached. The selection and use of a proper medium or media has been considered a task to be accomplished keeping in mind the effect of a certain medium or media on learning. The rules for the selection of an adequate medium or media have been designed and developed in relation to different learning theories and are presented in different instructional design models (e.g., Cantor, 1988; Reiser & Gagné, 1983; Reynolds & Anderson, 1992; Romiszowski, 1988). Since the media have been considered as merely a vehicle (Clark, 1983) for the presentation of information, the research on media has been merged with the study of the effects of each type of medium on the cognitive processes and learning results in comparison to the performances of a control group. This approach has been criticized (Jonassen, Campbell & Davidsen, 1994; Kozma, 1991). The effect of media should be studied in the context in which the medium is presented or selected or used (Jonassen, Campbell, & Davidson, 1994). The effect should be studied as a result of media characteristics: technology, symbol systems, and processing capabilities (Kozma, 1991). The contention is that the design of the learning and teaching context contain epistemological assumptions: about knowledge, about conditions for understanding that knowledge and for skill acquisition, about the content of a subject to be presented, about the teachers' and learners' tasks, about the means of communication, and about the representation of the reality. The decision has to be made whether to use the real object or a representation of the object, or both. These aspects have to be combined into an integrated

20 Instructional design and media 9 theory and model that prescribes how to design instruction. The content of a subject consists of a description of the reality that can be examined as concepts, principles, assumptions and theories of that domain. For the development of these concepts, principles, assumptions and theories by the students, problems have to be designed. The solution of the problems fosters the development of knowledge and skills. Such problems can be designed in special contexts (Bransford, Sherwood, Hasselbring, Kinser & Williams, 1990). The teacher has to develop learning environments, including media, to represent the objects in a problem or problems. Students have to be active learners and solve problems to acquire the intended knowledge and skills. Therefore, media selection and use has to be incorporated in an integrative instructional technology. Such a technology should take the aforementioned aspects into account. The selection of instructional media is considered to be one of the main phases or activities in the design of instruction. The selection of the medium should be grounded in an instructional-design theory, and be one of the components of the instructional-design model. The selection of a specific medium may be a difficult task for instructional designers and teachers because only a few rules are known about what the most adequate media will be in a given circumstance and when to use them (Dijkstra, 2001) and because of the numerous criteria that have to be taken into account (Dörr & Seel, 1997). The delivery or display system, which is one use of the word medium, integrates representation (another form of medium) with subject matter content and instructional strategies. Thus instructional design is always concerned with selecting or developing appropriate delivery systems. In general, instructional design theories and models have shown many developments often influenced by findings and theories from related fields. Accordingly, instructional design theory and the phases and steps of the model were often revisited and modified. In the following part of this chapter, a few developments in the field of instructional design will be addressed. The focus will be on media research and on the influence of media on learning. The Problem-based Instructional Design Theory and Model (Dijkstra, 1997b, 2000) will be considered for its use in media selection. The theory will be used for designing and developing different types of instructions for the selection of adequate media

21 10 Chapter 2 and studied in the experiments on media selection. The studies will be presented in subsequent chapters. 2.2 Instructional Design Instructional design is concerned with specifying the rules that have to be applied to make instruction. If these are proper rules for making instruction, grounded in an instructional- design theory and experimentally confirmed, it is supposed that the instruction will promote the students learning and possibly improve it. The various instructional-design theories and models reflect many different approaches. The underlying basis for most instructional-design models is a theoretical foundation, a research base confirming the actual use of the instructions, and a description of the instructional situations where the principles of the theory can be elaborated (Tennyson & Schott, 1997). There is a relationship between epistemology, learning theory and instructional design theory (Dijkstra, 2000). That means that a development in any of these fields will probably effect developments in the others. A specific design for a subject can be derived from a general design model. Such a design is also influenced by developments in other related fields, especially epistemology and cognitive science. Therefore, the instruction for developing the learner s knowledge and skills on a specific domain should be designed and developed on the basis of an instructional- design model that corresponds with developments in the related fields. In this section of the chapter, the definition and the importance of the instructionaldesign theory is provided. The importance and effectiveness have been considered from various perspectives. However, all of these perspectives aim at the same goal, which is the facilitation and occurrence of learning, and more specifically, the acquisition of the intended knowledge and skills. An instructional-design theory consists of assumptions and explanations why specific instructional designs will foster specific kinds of learning. An instructional design model puts that theory into a set of heuristics that can effectively guide instructional planners in developing instructional designs. An instructional design specifies what has to be done by the designers or teachers for specific learning outcomes to be optimal in a particular situation.

22 Instructional design and media 11 Different instructional design theories and models have been developed, such as: the Principles of Instructional Design (Gagné & Briggs, 1979), the Instructional Transaction Theory (Merrill, 1997), and the Four Component Instructional Design Model (van Merriënboer, 1997). Overviews of these theories and models are given by Reigeluth (1983, 1999), Tennyson, Schott, Seel, and Dijkstra (1997a), and by Dijkstra, Seel, Schott, & Tennyson (1997). The Problem-based Instructional Design Theory and Model (Dijkstra, 1997b, 2000), will be used for the research that is described in the following chapters. The theory and the model were chosen for the design and development of instruction and for the selection of media. The theory is grounded in constructivist epistemological principles and embedded in the psychology of problem solving and thinking. The research was carried out in the College of Basic Education in the State of Kuwait. The goal of that college is the training of teachers for primary education The Main Concepts of Instructional Design The various terms and definitions used to refer to instructional design (e.g., instructional design, instructional development, educational/instructional technology, instructional systems development/design) reflect the theoretical assumptions and practical descriptions of instructional design (Elen, 1992). An instructional-design problem is an instance of the category of design problems. The general heuristic to solve a design problem is sometimes used as a model to guide the activities. This is, for example, done in the descriptions of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT). From a theoretical point of view instructional design (ID) is defined as a theory that consists of a set of statements that interpret why an instruction will lead to the intended goal. From the theory, prescriptions are made for determining appropriate instructional strategies to enable learners to acquire the indicated instructional goals and objectives (Merrill, 1997). Seel and Dijkstra (1997) contended that ID is considered both a discipline and a technology for instructional planning. They state: As a science ID aims at detailed and theoretically wellfounded specifications for effective learning situations. From a technological point of view, ID mainly consists of creating concrete instructional materials and environments in which