Investigation of the Effects of Model-Centered Instruction in Individual and Collaborative Contexts

This study investigated the effect of model-centered instruction (MCI) in both individual and collaborative contexts. The study focuses on learning effectiveness in acquiring instructional design knowledge, developing mental model of instructional design, and acquiring instructional design skill by making lesson plans when an expert model is presented and a cognitive apprenticeship model is applied within a collaborative context. The main research question is what are the effects of model-centered instruction and collaborative learning on achievement and mental model development of novice instructional designers? This study included a total of 126 undergraduate students enrolled in four sections of an Educational Method and Educational Technology (EMET) course. Four intact groups were assigned randomly to four treatment groups for this study. One key factor was model-centered instruction (model-centered instruction (MCI) group vs. non-model-centered instruction (non-MCI) group) and the other was collaborative learning (collaborative learning group vs. individual learning group). Three times during the learning activities, all participants were asked to make lesson plans on social studies topics for middle school students. All participants made lesson plan A before the instructor taught about instructional design and the strategies used for making a lesson plan. After receiving instruction about instructional design and the strategies for making a lesson plan, participants revised their lesson plan A using the same topic. According to the treatment condition, students in the MCI group were given an expert lesson plan to use while they complete their task—making a lesson plan. Then, the students in the MCI group had instruction developed according to the modeling, coaching, and scaffolding. During this process, the students were asked at each stage of the instruction to compare their mental models for making a lesson plan to an expert model for that same lesson plan task. On the other hand, the expert model was not presented to the non-MCI group. Therefore, the non-MCI group students did not have opportunities to compare their mental models to an expert model. Instead, they received standard instruction and were asked to evaluate their mental models for making a lesson plan using principles of instructional design theory and tactics for making lesson plan. The learners in the collaborative learning group revised lesson plan A with their partners, and the learners in individual learning group worked alone. After the learners in the collaborative learning group completed the lesson plan, they presented their lesson plans to the whole class. During the presentation they could articulate their mental models of making a lesson plan. Then, their classmates asked some questions or gave suggestions or comments to improve the lesson plans. The dependent variable was learning effectiveness as measured by three types of performance: (a) responses to questions for measuring mental model improvement about instructional design; (b) the overall quality of their lesson plans; and, (c) scores on general knowledge tests of the instructional design process as judged by acknowledged expert practitioners. To assess the quality and improvement of the mental model of instructional design, the learners' mental model about instructional design was compared with the expert model. The similarities between the expert's model and the students' model were calculated by the T-MITOCAR program which is a language-based diagnosis tool. Results of the analysis showed that there was statistically significant difference between the collaborative learning group and the individual learning group on the general knowledge test. Also, the results of the data analysis about instructional design skill indicated that there were statistically significant differences between the MCI and non-MCI groups on instructional design skills as well as between the collaborative and individual groups. Also, there was interaction effect of MCI in the collaborative learning group and the individual learning group on instructional design skill. The results indicated that the use of model-centered instruction with an expert model was effective in improving learners' instructional design skills. Also, the results suggested that collaborative learning was helpful for novice learners to enhance general knowledge of instructional design and instructional design skill. Therefore, this study provides support for the basic theoretical assumptions that novice learners need a chance to modify their mental models by comparing them with expert models as well as collaborative learning with their peers for effective learning.