31.3 For the present: the generative model of teaching and implications for the design of instruction

The goal of instructional message design which follows generative learning theory is to create effective instruction that is organized and causes some level of mental activity on the part of the learner. "Effective instruction [in the generative model of learning] causes the learner to generate a relationship between new information and previous experience" (Wittrock, 1974a, p. 182). As a generative model of teaching, generative learning theory offers many practical guidelines and suggestions that extend beyond simply suggesting those teaming activities that induce relationship building. From the description of the components of generative-leart-ting theory presented earlier in this chapter, one must recall that generative-learning theory has four processes that work in tandem to create learning: motivation, learning, knowledge creation, and generation. Ignoring any one of these processes could result in the learner's taking a "passive," mentally disengaged approach to learning.

The generative model of teaching (Wittrock, 199 1) takes into consideration these four components. Creating a teaching model to provide practical prescriptions for teachers was his original intent in pursing this area of research. As such, he provides some important teaching recommendations that affect the four processes of his model.

31.3.1 Motivation Processes

Wittrock (1991) specifies interest and attribution as the two essential and linked components of motivation processes (see Figs. 31-1 and 31-2) that are activated by arousal and intention through the descending reticular activation system. Research from other areas suggests that attribution of effort, or the process of giving credit for success or failure to one's own effort, can influence whether or not the learner will exert the effort to learn actively. If the learners attribute success to themselves, it follows that motivation to exert effort will be greater than if they attribute success to external forces (Weiner, 1979). The influence of intention on motivation for meaning generation flows from within the learner. Wittrock (1990, 1991) suggests that addressing this component means providing opportunities for the learner to "take control and responsibility for being active in learning" (p. 175). Teaching and design strategies that deal with attribution should result in enduring interest, persistence, and motivation. He suggests those activities or teaching strategies that:

• Attribute learning to their own effort
• Improve self-concept
• Create satisfaction from the process of learning
• Modify their perception of themselves as learners
• Create control and increase responsibility and accountability for learning
• Use rewards and praise that can be directly attributable to their effort

31.3.2 Learning Processes

Arousal and intention in the brain also influence an individual's learning processes. External stimuli arouse attention through the ascending reticular activating system. Without active, dynamic, and selective attending of environmental stimuli, it follows that meaning generation cannot occur regarding that environmental stimuli. The influence of arousal on attention flows from the environment outside of the learner, but interacts internally. The learning process that is key to this model is attention. Without attention, learning cannot occur. Teaching and design activities that can assist in gaining and maintaining attention include those that:

• Provide attention training by self-control, planning, and organizing
• Provide behavioral objectives and adjunct questions
• Provide interpretation of the importance of topic selected
• Use problems, mysteries, inconsistencies, suspense, and enigmas
• Direct students' voluntary attention to meaning

31.3.3 Knowledge Creation Processes

Knowledge creation processes are those components of memory-including preconceptions, beliefs, concepts, metacognitions, and experience's-activated through the frontal lobes of the cortex, which manage the receipt, coding, and storage of information. It is between these existing beliefs, concepts, preconceptions, etc., and environmental stimuli that relationships are formed, and, thereby, understanding and comprehension are generated (Wittrock, 1990, 1991). Much of his writing and research with colleagues addresses the notion of preconceptions as they influence learning misconceptions (Kourilsky & Wittrock, 1987). Some would assert that creating dissonance in the learner is one way to "unteach" misconceptions. Wittrock (1990) would argue that those dissonant situations must be carefully selected experiences that are real to the learners so that the situation cannot be easily dismissed by the learner as untrue. He also suggests teaching scientific conceptions early-before preconceptions are formed.

Preconceptions about learning and the learning process also function as a primary influence on learning. It may be necessary to change one's beliefs about learning and the learner's role in order to understand the value of participating in generative activities.

Other strategy recommendations offered by Wittrock (1990,1991) include:

• Relating instruction to background knowledge and interest
• Teaching metacognitive processes to monitor learning actively
• Demonstrating tangible results from active leaming

31.3.4 Generation Processes

"The art of generative teaching is knowing how and when to facilitate the learner's construction of relations among the parts of the text and their knowledge" (Wittrock, 1990, p. 353). Stimulated by the frontal lobes of the cortex, learnersgenerate relationships between parts of what they see and hear. By integrating that information with what exists in memory, learners reorganize, elaborate, and/or reconceptu alize information.

There are two types of activities that can be judged as generative. Those that generate organizational relationships between different components of the environment include "titles, headings, questions, objectives, summaries, graphs tables, and main ideas." Those that generate integraQ relationships between the external stimuli and the memory components include "demonstrations, metaphors, analogies, examples, pictures, applications, interpretations, paraphrases, inferences" (Wittrock, p. 354).

Both of these types of activities can be used in an instructor-provided or leamer-generated format. In other words, the teacher can create titles and headings as organizers, or ask the learner to create a title or heading. When the instructor provides the actual relationship, it should be done in a manner that would direct attention. One way to do that is to relate those connections to ideas that are highly relevant to the learner. They should capture attention and motivate learners to think actively about the information. Wittrock advises that even -though the instructor makes connections for the learners, learners must make those connections actively themselves in order for them to be teamed. Passive observation will not suffice.

Given that there are many types of relationship-building activities that can be selected, a guide for selecting from among those activities is appropriate. Although Wittrock claims that levels of thinking are not represented in his the ory and only designates two types of relationship building, it is evident that, by examining the level of mental effort required for each of these activities, the two categories can be broken down even further. Those activities that relate parts of the information in the environment together include coding, organization, and conceptualization levels of thinking, while those that relate parts of the information to prior knowledge include integration and translation tasks. Those activities that relate to the various levels are shown in Table 31-3 (Grabowski, 1995).

31.3.5 Summary

The recommendations that follow from Wittrock's writings provide straightforward ideas to be implemented by teachers and designers for any instructional medium, and should not be ignored. Whether we are designing for the computer, print, television, or instructor-led training, these principles hold. Engaging the learner in active processing of the information should be our primary goal.

The computer can be exploited as a powerful means to engage learners by tapping its capability as a mental construction tool, rather than in the traditional page-tumer sense. Following Wittrock's principles, one should put the control of learning in the hands of the learner by creating an advisory environment in which learners manipulate information by moving text, graphics, and media segments around mentally or physically, testing their own ideas. This does not mean placing the learner in a total learnercontrolled information environment, but rather in one in which success can be guided, rewarded, and reinforced.

Creating a transactive environment (between the learner and the materials) is more of a challenge when designing for more static media, but it can be done cleverly by giving conscious attention to the design of the message to induce thinking-such as "stop and think activities" (Amone & Grabowski, 1992), incomplete messages, and rhetorical adjunct questions to direct and engage thought.

The second important message from Mrittrock is that more time and effort be spent on identifying important factors about the learner than is traditionally spent in the instructional design process. Identifying the learner has always been an important step in the instructional design process; however, how to do this, or the kind of key information to gather, is rarely specified. Wittrock's writings show some clear elements: Gather conceptual preconceptions, preconceptions about their learning the topic, preconceptions about their role as learners, prior knowledge relating to the topic, general prior knowledge, and metacognitive abilities. This knowledge, combined with a good understanding of appropriate activities that draw relationships, should result in very effective instruction.