Instructional Psychology PDF

Instructional psychology **How do psychologists work to promote inclusive education?** - Psychology of teaching and instruction in helping remove barriers to learning **How can psychology help us support more effective teaching and learning environments?** Is the method effective for ALL s...

Instructional psychology **How do psychologists work to promote inclusive education?** - Psychology of teaching and instruction in helping remove barriers to learning **How can psychology help us support more effective teaching and learning environments?** Is the method effective for ALL students? -- does it support retention? Is she testing ALL students? - E.g. teacher uses a lot of repition, uses a song (different modality) and visuals to support retention - Checks that the learning have occurred: picks on random pupils rather than using hands up (also means "shy" pupils are engaged) \+ ensures that all children are engaged in learning \_ those who suffer from anxiety can find this stressful -- may lead to school non attendance : may be more beneficial to combine inclusive methods with flexible questioning techniques (e.g. name calling but giving time to think about answer) - Uses names and encourages children to give them a sense of belonging - BUT sometimes when children made errors these weren't corrected - children at the back often were unfocused and weren't engaging **Key principles of instructional psychology** INSTRUCTIONAL PSYCHOLOGY: branch of psychology with roots in behavioural psychology Concerned with identifying: - key factors in a young persons learning environment that could influence achievement - the most effective teaching styles and methods - e.g. modelling, repetition, engaging with an adult - Which is most beneficial for the individual child Early instructional psychology researchers (Engelman et al...) set out to identify features of quality instruction and effective learning - What enables learning to progress & can this be reduced to key factors Failure to learn = failure of instruction - Every child has the potential to learn & if they aren't then how they are being taught needs to be changed Engelmann and Carnine "Theory of instruction" (1982)- 3 core aspects of cognitive learning: 1. The learner 2. What is taught 3. How it is taught More of a "nurture" theory: things can be achieved through using the right environment The 'nature' still needs to be considered (how they learn) but this is taken into account through the nurture context Key principles - Teach one skill at a time (need to teach one skill well until going onto the next) - Teach to high levels of fluency (becoming automatic) - Separate teaching for skills that are readily confused (e.g. similar phonetic sounds taught separately and don't confuse the child) - Teach the most useful skills first (e.g. teach reading first -- can access a whole range of different skills) - Distributed practice (spacing) (don't over learn the learner by spacing out learning) - Interleaved learning (mix the learning it up) - Contextual diversity (how we make a rich environment to enhance learning -- e.g. songs, visual, practical) - Teach new skills directly and explicitly - Teach meta-cognitive strategies (understanding 'how we learn') Solity (2008) Rosenshine (2012): cognitive science supports these practises : instructional procedures such as thinking aloud, providing students with scaffolds and models are particularly useful "Master teachers" (those who's students made the most progress) employed: - Teaching new material in manageable amounts - Modelling - Guiding student practise and offering support when errors are made - Asking a large amount of questions and checking all student responses - Monitor independent practises - Engaging with students in weekly and monthly reviews \_ heavily focus on structured academic learning: breaks apart children's creativity -- could lead to disengagement for some learners : important that we combine these foundational learnings with some curiosity and creativity **Teaching learning approaches informed by instructional psychology:** **Task analysis** (break task into a series of discrete skills and steps to complete a task) and **behavioural objectives** (task analysis is used by teacher to structure teaching) - Planning of and setting targets for learning - Student learns each discrete skill and only moves onto the next skill when they have achieved the pre requisite skill 2 main characteristics: 1. Contain an action (e.g. understanding symbols (+/-), numbers (1-10), using sums) 2. \+ are observable (e.g. recognise 1-5) Teachers are better able to plan their teaching activities with an explicit goal for the learner in mind (Ainscow and Tweddle 1979) Shows how children progress/ learn across literacy How children learn across maths Evidence that from 7-13 child was functionally illiterate but a change in how he was taught increased learning massively Critics argue that if spread across a pupils whole curriculum: behavioural objectives approach would deliver an extremely restricted and excessively dull educational diet - Fairly boring - Extremely restrictive and dull educational experience - Could be used regularly but not across the whole curriculum - More used for key early skills May find difficulties finding people to deliver these: need training -- high resource demand and this is difficult in current climate - Constrained by personal available : extremely personal response Advocates argue that a regular approach for a small part of every day can produce considerate and valuable gains in essential skills **Direct instruction** - a teaching approach : highly teacher directed (Bereiter and Engelman 1966) - e.g. teacher gives child new work -- child and teacher say it together -- child says it alone Carnine et al (2004): *"...an approach to teaching... that emphasises the use of small group, face to face instruction by teachers and aides using carefully articulated lessons in which cognitive skills are broken down into small units, sequenced deliberately and taught explicitly"* - clear structured sequence - intentionally repetitive in order to embed learning Aims: to teach more in less time - teach and explicit and specific target - ensure mastery in a pupils learning by allowing them time to practise their skills Principles: All children can be taught - all children can improve academically - low performers and disadvantaged learners must be taught at a faster rate in order to catch up to high performers - all details of instruction must be controlled to minimise chance of students misinterpreting the information being taught; to maximise the reinforcing effect of instruction - motivation and relationship Each run through/ trial is quickly completed and the child is either 'correct' or 'correct with correction' - student should always finish with a correct response to achieve 'errorless learning' - if not then they will be corrected with modelling again - important to not knock the child's confidence: lots of praise and engagement necessary DI and the instructional hierarchy (haring and eaton 1978)  Basic teaching procedure: Model -- the teacher demonstrates (e.g. my turn) Lead -- the teacher guides or leads (e.g. do it together) Test -- the teacher requires the pupil(s) to perform the skills independently (e.g. your turn) Review -- the teacher retests the pupil(s) after varying lengths of time Sequence is easy in a one to one situation May need to be adapted to different formats when teaching groups; ensures that all pupils are attending and are all equally engaged in learning Most effective through using unison responding Importance of correction: should correct for mistakes as fluency cannot be achieved if the child isn't 100% correct Project follow through: "the largest educational experiment ever" (1960s) - over 9 years the effects of a range of different educational interventions were carried out during the first 3 years of schooling & these were compared (Carnine 1979) Observed: the approaches based upon DI were the only interventions to produce positive outcomes in basic skills, cognitive skills and affective measures - positive effect for early basic skills Kahr and Nigram (2004): supported the effectiveness of DI (compared with discovery of learning in science education) -- especially in terms of basic procedures for designing and interpreting simple experiments and subsequent transfer and application of basic skills to scientific reasoning Dean and Kuhn (2006): challenged this and argued that over a long period of time there were no superior effects \+ newer studies \+ model- lead -- test- review framework is easy to implement and adaptable to different contexts \_ child may feel pressured by the teacher: can be daunting (especially for neurodivergent students- don't know why they're being "picked on") in a one to one environment for some students : requires a lot of cognitive demand and high amounts of pressure \_ may be okay in this one to one setting but as soon as learning moves to a group setting it is forgotten/ cannot progress further -- not possible to consistently use these one to one techniques (not enough time or resources) **Precision teaching** - assessment of a teaching approach Teachers (especially those with learning difficulties) often point out that these pupils have considerable difficulty when retaining their learning e.g. "fine on a one to one basis but can't do it in class" Lindsley (1971): developed precision teaching in the US as a method to improve learners fluency - made daily assessments of progress and provide immediate feedback to both learners and teachers Enthusiastic take up in the UK by a number of educational psychologists in the West Midlands in the early 1980s (Booth and Jay 1981; Raybould and Solity (1982); and Williams and Muncey (1982). Key features: brief structured teaching (around 5 minutes) - followed by a 1 minute probe : random presentation of the target items being learned to assess progress towards success criteria - "charting" and sharing of data IT IS NOT: A method of teaching in itself/ a teaching programme BUT IT IS: an evaluation tool we can use to monitor the effectiveness of an intervention, a method to evaluate the precision of the teaching input Tells us works best for the individual child - Very small steps - Focuses on concerns related to the curriculum - Combines teaching and continual assessment to identify what teaches best When to use precision teaching: Children who: - Struggle to retain new learning - Have "gaps" in their learning - Are "behind" in their learning and need to 'catch up' - Require a more structured approach to their learning - Need to work on a specific area of difficulty - Pupils who benefit from practise that is little and often Probing/ testing - To encourage **fluency** and **accuracy** - Timed assessment of performance - Directly **related** and **customised** to the skill you are teaching - Measures performance in terms of a rate i.e. responses per minute There is a lot of resources involved (one to one daily for a month): TAs often do this Beneficial as it indicates how well a pupil is progressing on a specific skill General aim rate is 50 responses within a minute with fewer than 2 wrong E.G. - Ayesha: 6 years old, with identified literacy needs. - An area of need: Reading high frequency sight words. - An aim rate for accuracy (50 correct, no more than 2 incorrect in 1 minute) is the objective. - Daily teaching intervention (5 minutes) followed by presentation of a 1 minute timed 'probe sheet'. - Record data on Ratio Chart. One is assessing the effectiveness of the teaching. Research: - Downer 2007; Hope 2013: recognised as a potentially powerful and evidence based tool - Roberts and Norwich 2010: successfully employed across groups identified in secondary schools to support reading skills - More typical accounts in UK demonstrate its value as a targeted intervention to teach specific skills for small numbers of underachieving children" maths, literacy \+ by consistently monitoring students we assure that we do not miss any gaps in their learning which could prevent further progress or difficulties in later life \+ short, frequent interventions do not require a large cognitive demand and is therefore more accessible to a range of pupils \_ again uses a one to one interaction with pupil which is not always feasable \_ other students may see this as favouritism; become upset OR may see it as "sucking up" to the teacher and target the student \_ no intervention application: cannot be a sole use for instructional psychology -- only an added measure **The** **instructional hierarchy: haring and Eaton 1978** Pyramid shows the time and effort needed to develop a new skill: as we start at the bottom we require more of this - New skills are cognitively demanding; requires a lot of thought process - For struggling learners acquisition stage will require more time - As we develop this skill it becomes easier and more fluid Acquisition stage: cognitive exercise, clunky Interventions aim to bring this to a level of fluency (perform without thinking, automatic) Mastery and maintenance: can leave the skill and come back to it with ease (e.g. can still read words after the summer holidays) Generalisation: can perform the skill in multiple contexts (e.g. students can read words of a board, in a story book, as subtitles...) Adaptation: can perform a similar but slightly different skill (e.g. students who can read can also write poetry -- using the skill creatively) Bereiter and Engelman (1966): highlight the importance of implanting practises within pre school aged children -- this will ensure all children begin mainstream education on equal footing - pre school music program which involves singable songs rewritten to improve language skills - advocates for direct instruction - verbal bombardment: immersing the child in a language rich environment - use of motivators: rewards such as cookies or praise - ability grouping: dividing children into groups based on abilities to maximise learning \[ + early intervention which means problems don't progress drastically \_ ignores contextual factors that continue to impact learning \_ disadvantaged students require continued support: not an immediate remedy \] **Instructional psychology in practise** - Instructional Psychology Approaches have tended to be employed in the context of individual or targeted small group work - In the UK context -- this is in line with common practice - Very relevant to EP individual case work in this area However instructional psychology can raise the attainment of all children: through the application of principles from instructional psychological to teaching, learning and curriculum design across a whole school Direct instruction: particularly in the form of literacy and numeracy instruction has been widely utilised in the development of whole class instruction Context of instructional psychology should be re considered in todays society: with technological aims helping to assist teacher practises - E.g. more assessment practises can be implemented through online testing (e.g. accelerated reader to monitor reading age/ literacy skills) Wali and Popal (2020): technology has positively influenced the learning of postgraduate students - Despite this student sample being much older than primary/ secondary school age: findings still apply -- technology is widespread and used with younger children -- with 97% of children having access to the internet (Ofcom 2023) with the majority of children having a mobile phone by age 9 (Ofcom 2023) **Early Reading Research** (Solity et al. 2000) Six experimental and six comparison schools (n=370), across two years (YR-Y1) - Teachers were trained in distinctive **instructional principles** - After two school years in the experimental school children outperformed the comparison school children on all measures of literacy -- word reading, comprehension, letter sounds, synthesis, segmentation and spelling (all pupils not just lower learners) -- high achieving students also benefited - A significant impact on the learning outcomes of both lower and higher achieving pupils Shapiro and Solity (2008) consolidated this evidence with an intervention focusing on the phonological skills of children. - Significant reading gains were made by all, but in particular, the *lower* but not *lowest* achievers in a class group. (is it beneficial for all achievers?) - Those who benefitted most were those identified as the 'under-achievers'. - May be because they have more progress to make and more gaps to fill Evidence suggests that instructional psychology, which asks teachers to set clear goals for their students and to guide them in specific instructional ways, can play an effective part in raising achievement. Gallagher and colleagues (2006) go so far as to suggest that: - it is the development of [dysfluency] that contributes to much underachievement in schools in the first place, - and that instructional psychology is very effective in tackling such dysfluency, and hence 'underachievement' Implications: - Educational psychologists have a role in contributing to that minority of 'low achieving' young people who are seen as having special educational needs. - Some have argued that they can broaden that contribution by drawing on ***instructional psychology,*** addressing a far wider group of low achievers. - Instructional psychology, under this argument, is seen as the key to ensuring that all children progress. A lot of these practises are beneficial as they target the individual child BUT they ignore how the environment can play a role in their learning - Not enough to simply target the child but to also look at the context of learning: no improvements could be made if other environmental factors are halting their learning Marchand et al 2014: undergraduate students within a noisy learning condition reported worse learning - Other students can impede the learning of those around them: problematic as we must promote an inclusive education for all but to what extent - Noisy/ disruptive students are preventing those around them from learning -- do we remove/ isolate these students? \[ This study was conducted on university students and may not be reflective of primary / secondary learning which intrinsically is much more interactive and disruptive in itself \] \[ other research refutes this criticism: Zhao 2021 -- whilst this does not research within classroom learning the study indicated that disruptive students decreased their peers time spent on homework, impeding their learning \] - Muller 2018: BUT this peer influence on disruptive behaviour was lowered when students perceived teacher instructions to be supportive and interesting - BUT it was heightened when teachers used ability grouping - Informs instructional psychological practises Bronfenbrenner's ecological model (1979) : may not just be these internal school factors but the child's wider environmental context - E.g. Parents disengaged with child's learning offers little support or motivation: may not attend parents evenings and regard school as pointless: child has little motivation to engage with school - Also less likely to offer support with homework or missed learning: child remains confused - E.g. children from low socio economic backgrounds may not have the financial resources for extra curricular learnings (music lessons, tutors, textbooks ) that would enrich their learning: strategies like pupil premium would be extremely beneficial Zhao et al 2021: discovered that children with alcoholic fathers and troubled families had lower test results than their peers - Shows the importance of this wider context : not just within classroom processes that instructs learning Summary: Carefully sequenced ***behavioural objectives*** can provide motivation and successful learning opportunities. ***Direct instruction*** has been found to be an effective approach to instruction in terms of basic skills, cognitive skills and affective measures. A 5-stage ***instructional hierarchy*** developed by Haring and Eaton, with stages of *acquisition, fluency, maintenance, generalisation* and *adaptation,* has helped account for some of the difficulties commonly experienced by slower learning children and their teachers. ***Precision teaching*** approaches can be used to make daily assessments of learning and to improve learners' fluency --and hence maintenance- levels. Some educational psychologists have provided examples of larger scale applications of successful teaching interventions deriving from ***instructional psychology***. \[ Different cultures and different learning styles (e.g. China: teacher led methodology with a heavy focus on logic/ UK is more mixed with discussion based learning but also teacher instruction delivery/ Australia is more active as it focuses on 'gamification': applies levels to learning processes) - Globalisation has meant that school co horts have become much more diverse - Are these instructional methods culture bound? Largely follow a teacher delivery approach? Would this work for all students? \] Tomlinson (2001) notes this diversity within US classrooms - Students "come from differening cultures and have different learning styles" - Have different emotional and social maturity, different interests and academic readiness Cannot implement a "one size fits all" approach: students have varying needs and interests - Highlights the need for assessment (support for precision learning): helps the teacher to learn about students and gain insight into what works for the individual student -- becomes a catalyst for instruction on how to promote potential Whilst it is integral to focus on these students that require added support: it is important that we do not loose sight of other more capable students - Advanced learners can quickly become lazy: without vigorous use the brain looses capacity: important to recognise and target these students as well with more challenging work