week 8 : instructional strategies for procedures learning

In this lecture,
we learnt the definition of procedure knowledge.
In its layman terms, it just "knowing HOW..."

Using a procedure refers to applying an ordered set of actions to achieve a goal. There is often more than one procedure to goal achievement. Procedure is sometimes referred to as a technique/ skill/method. It can be either mental processes or physical skills. Most procedures are a combination of two.

Mental processes: intellectual skill =ability to execute procedure

Physical Skills: ability to state the steps.

Procedure/Rule-using Knowledge contains characteristics of :

1. Sequences of action
   
2. Algorithm
   
3. Physical and/or mental processes
   
4. Decision points (for complex procedures)
   
5. Automaticity (to execute the procedure unconsciously)
   

Words for procedure objectives are included:
Demonstrate, perform, practice, apply.

There are Key instructional elements for procedural learning.

Generated from Task Analysis

1. "When to use procedure"
   + learners to know when to execute the procedure and when NOT to.
   
2. "Steps"
   + collecting steps and decisions points and putting them in proper sequence
   

Which after…

1. "Demonstration"
   + to show how procedure is executed
   
2. "Whole to Parts"
   +looking at the complete procedure then going step-by-step.
   
3. "Practice" OR "List the steps" OR "Execute"
   +to allow learners to try
   
4. "Feedback"
   +to allow learners to understand what's being correctly/wrongly done
   

Practice and feedback events are the hardest for teaching procedures.
I suppose it's because different learners have different way of doing a certain procedure and yet the software for e-learning is not flexible enough to tailor /customise to these details.