Education Commons^™

Constructivism And Instructional Design: Some Personal Reflections, Brent Wilson

Brent Wilson

Some personal reflections on instructional design and its relation to constructivism are explored. Instructional design in its present form is out of sync with the times in that its orientation, methods, and research base are behavioristic, or positivistic. However, a constructivist theory of instructional design is possible, particularly if constructivism is recognized as a philosophy rather than a strategy. To better fit the needs of practitioners, instructional design theories need to be better grounded in a broad understanding of learning and instructional processes. Generic principles and specific heuristics are needed for dealing with recurring problems and situations in instructional design …

Engineering Education Research To Practice (E²R2p): Nsf Grant 1037808, Steven Villachica, Donald Plumlee, Linda Huglin, Drew Borresen

Linda Huglin

The E²R2P team employs a unique interdisciplinary approach to facilitate faculty adoption of research-based educational strategies across the engineering curriculum. As part of a "Sounding Board" of potential adopters, faculty will provide guidance, review components of redesigned courses, and participate in a series of workshops highlighting a variety of problem- and project-based instructional strategies^{1, 2}.

A "Test Bed" will act as a venue for the visible redesign of existing courses in ways that employ authentic learning and assessment activities--where students do real-world engineering in the classroom. The redesigned courses will also help students inbound into their community of …