ABSTRACT

The purpose of this chapter is to review selected microinstructional methods that may facilitate learning and development in subject matter domains. It focuses on methods that can be manipulated by instructional designers or teachers to enhance learning and for which a research base exists. The focus on microinstructional methods is intentional and dictated by both the limitations on my expertise and the space available in this chapter. Although my focus is microinstructional, I argue that rarely are taught topics intended to be learned in isolation. Facts, skills, procedures, concepts, principles, problem solving, and metacognitive strategies are taught to help the learner understand and act to solve problems in realworld domains. The fundamental goal of most instruction is to facilitate the development of knowledge structures that support flexible classes ofperformances in some domain ofinterest. However, a comprehensive understanding of learning and instructional processes requires attention to both the molecular and the molar. Research that focuses on broader scale methods is essential; but any broader scale method consists of a series of more molecular interchanges between students and the instructional environment. Broader scale methods differ on the nature and types of molecular interchanges they attempt to package to produce learning. This review focuses on methods that influence such molecular interchanges. In addition, the chapter primarily adopts a cognitive information-processing focus (Andre & Phye, 1986) within a constructivist perspective (Hegland & Andre, 1992).