INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

In an instructional unit, an appropriate instructional strategy should be used. The goal is to help the learner learn the content as well as to learn strategies for using the content. (In this case, that's in filling out, correctly, the next death certificate encountered -- and knowing why each choice made in accomplishing that task is "correct.")

THEORY

The basic idea of an instructional strategy is that the way you teach the learner the material should relate to what you want the learner to do with the material after learning it. With the death certificate, there are two main tasks -- (1) minor form-completion procedural matters and (2) the decision-making that goes into completing the cause of death statement.

PLAN

In this unit, we're addressing sophisticated learners who already know the content. The task is to help them apply it.

The instructional strategy, then, should be training for effective decision-making, or strategy training. Therefore, the material we've "chunked" has been grouped around "decision-making" points. The strategy in putting together the instructional program is to try to have the learner apply the content (test items) and also to apply it in the way that the learner will apply it in the real situation (performance objectives).

In general, then, the instructional strategy we're using is strategy training.