Instructional Theories Assignment

Instructional Theories
The way people define learning should relate to how institution conduct it in order to change what they know and do. However, their different designs of giving instructions; behavioral, constructivist and cognitive. They all give directions of how learning should be conducted for a better foundation of institution planning. Moreover, each learning perspective is determined by specific interpretations of the learning process as well as the required outcomes. It is thus important to evaluate the comparison of the three designs in order to understand how the differences should be incorporated into practical applications of instructional command.
Many students fail to understand the order of operations not because they are poor in learning, but it’s because they are exposed to poor learning methods. However, using behaviorist approach to teach students about the order of operations in math gives them a way of remembering without necessarily referring to their books. The parenthesis, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction criteria of handling calculations helped many people to remember how operations are carried out. On the contrary, it failed to leave the “from left to right” requirement for multiplication division and addition subtraction. Due to the behavior adaptation of the criteria, many students assumed multiplication always go before division and addition go before subtraction.
For instance, some students say that the answer of 4 – 2 +1 equals to 1 rather than 3.

This is because most of them works first on 2 + 1 and rather than 4 – 2. Order of operations in math is not something that one can be taught but rather something of memorizing. In cases of operations, the best way of memorizing is by using the phrase Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. The phrase helps in the behavioral change where a student always refers to it whenever in the situation relating to the order of operation. For instance, when tackling the question: 5 + (4 – 2) ^2 * 3 / 6 – 1, one starts with parenthesis first which is 4 – 2 = 2. Then it left to be 5 + 2 ^2 * 3 / 6 – 1. Then the exponent is circulated next 2 ^2 = 4. The operation becomes 5 + 4 * 3 / 6 – 1. The next stage involves dealing with multiplication and division from the left side: 4 * 3 = 12 leaving the operation as 5 + 12 / 6 – 1. Then moving to the right to solve 12 / 6 = 2 and then leaving the problem as 5 + 2 – 1 =? Addition and subtraction follow starting from left to right. 5 + 2 = 7 leaving the problem as 7 – 1 =? Lastly, moving to the right: 7 – 1 which gives the final answer as 6.
The other instructional design is the cognitive approach. The approach concentrates on helping a student understand concepts and information through connecting different approaches within the targeted study. The approach can be used to teach students about mammals as well as helping them understand what makes them unique compared to other types of animals. To increase the understanding of students, it is important first to evaluate all the materials that are necessary for the related study. After the evaluation, all the materials should be broken down as well as connecting them to other concepts. Cognitive theory concludes that human thinking determines how he/she feels and behaves at the same time.
To understand mammals while using cognitive approach, it’s important first to understand what mammals are and what differentiate them from other animals. It’s clear that all mammals feed their young ones with milk. More important to understand about mammals is that they live in all climates and regions. To give students a clear mind of what mammals are its essential to give some examples of mammals. The fact that human beings are in the class of mammals makes it easy to understand. However, students are given a task of accessing what makes them unique compared to other animals. As the students try to incorporate different concepts, they come up with a tight idea about mammals that will be hard to forget. Moreover, there are three characteristics of mammals that make them totally different from other animals. First, they have mammary glands which help them in feeding their babies. The evolutionary adaptation of mammals also gave them the name. Second, they have hair all over their body. The characteristics that help them adapt to different climates and lastly, middle ear bones. All mammals have the bones and hence helping students in identifying them.
Lastly, it’s the use of the constructivist approach to teach students about how to make healthy choices when shopping for food. A constructivist teacher uses the idea of giving questions to students and then helping them to find answers. They thus use different perspectives; first, he/she guide students on how to make their own questions. Second, he/she gives a chance for students to give multiple interpretations; they believe it’s a way of addressing their intelligence. Therefore, in the class mentioned above, students are supposed to address various eating habits and then come up with a list of healthy eating foods. Later, students need to give different interpretations of healthy foods. It thus leads to a conclusion that analyzing healthy foods before going shopping is a better strategy of promoting improved eating habits. The constructivist approach aims at teaching students through the incorporation of different concepts. Therefore, when students want to remember what was taught, they need to remember one concept which will connect them to others.