Instructional Models

Phase 1: Preparation - Arousal

The goal of the Preparation Phase is to arouse learners’ interest, give them positive feelings about the forthcoming learning experience, and put them into an optimal learning state: relaxed, alert, curious. This is done through:

$ positive suggestions

$ learner benefit statements

$ clear, meaningful outcomes/goals

$ creating a positive physical environment

$ creating a positive emotional environment

$ calming people’s fears

$ removing/reducing learning barriers

$ raising questions & posing problems

$ arousing curiosity & creating interest

$ getting people fully involved from start

Phase 2: Presentation - Encounter

The goal of the Presentation Phase is to help the learners encounter the new learning material in ways that are interesting, enjoyable, relevant, multi-sensory, and that appeal to all learning styles/ This is done through:

$ collaborative pretests & knowledge sharing

$ observation of real-world phenomenon

$ whole-brain, whole-body involvement

$ interactive presentations

$ colorful presentation graphics & props

$ variety to appeal to all learning styles

$ partner- and team-based learning projects

$ discovery exercises [personal, partnered, team-based]

$ real-world, contextual learning experiences

$ problem-solving exercises

The combination formed by your own perceiving and processing techniques forms your own unique learning style.

3. Type One Learners are primarily interested in personal meaning. Teachers need to create a reason – WHY?

Type Two Learners are primarily interested in the facts as they lead to conceptual understanding. Teachers need to GIVE THEM FACTS that deepen their understanding.

Type Three Learners are primarily interested in how things work. Teachers need to Let Them Try It.

Type Four Learners are primarily interested in self-discovery. Teachers need to Let Them Teach It to Themselves and Others.

4. All learners need to be taught in ALL four ways, in order to be comfortable and successful part of the time while being stretched to develop other learning abilities.

All learners will “shine” at different places in the learning cycle, so they will learn from each other.

5. The 4MAT System moves through the learning cycle in sequence, teaching in all four modes and incorporating the four combinations of characteristics.

6. Each of the four learning styles needs to be taught with both right- and left-mode processing techniques.

The right-mode dominant learners will be comfortable half of the time and will adapt the other half of the time.

The left-mode dominant learners will be comfortable half of the time and will learn to adapt the other half of the time.

7. The development and integration of all four styles of learning and the development and integration of both right- and left-mode processing skills should be a major goal of education.

8. Learners will come to accept their strengths and learn to capitalize on them, while developing a healthy respect for the uniqueness of others, and furthering their ability to learn in alternative modes without the pressure of “being wrong.”

9. The more comfortable they are about who they are, the more freely they learn from others.

Perceiving

We perceive things differently. We take things in differently.

In new learning situations, some of us sense and feel our way, staying with our direct experiences. Others think things through, preferring to move quickly to abstractions. Those who perceive in a feeling way, an intuitive way, sense the experience, connecting the information to meaning. They learn through the lens of the affect, the emotional. These sensor-feelers believe in their intuition, They are, by their very nature, holistic. The gestalt of Direct Experience at 12 o'clock is home to them. On the other hand, those who think through their experiences tend more to the abstract. They analyze what is happening, examining the parts. Their intellect makes the first appraisal. They reason experience.

The second major difference in how we learn is how we process what we experience, what we do with what happens to us.

Some of us jump right in and try things, others watch what happens and reflect on it before jumping in. Some of us reflect, some of us act. Both approaches have their strengths and weaknesses. Schools ask learners to watch and listen and reflect. This is frustrating for those who need to act, to do, to try things. (This is a great loss for those who prefer to reflect as well.) Those who prefer to reflect filter new learnings through their own experiences. That is how they make meaning connections. Those who prefer to act need to try things out, they need to do it, to extend it into their world. That is how they make meaning connections.

1. Connect: co (with) + nectere (to bind) Establish a relationship between your learners and the content connecting it to their lives, not telling them how it CONNECTS, but having something actually happen in the classroom that will bring them to make the connection themselves. The experience must encompass the heart of the content.

2. Attend: ad (to, towards) + tend (to stretch) Have your students analyze what just happened, have them ATTEND to their own experience and to the perceptions of their fellow students; how it went, what really happened. Note another form of the word, "attention".

3. Imagine: imaginen (to form a mental picture). You need your students to IMAGINE, to picture the concept as they understand it, (Einstein seeing light curving) have experienced it, before you take them to the experts.

4. Inform: in (in, into) + form (form, shape. mold). Now they are ready for the left-mode step of Quadrant Two, receiving and examining the expert knowledge. Now you INFORM them of the content they need to understand.

5. Practice: praktikos (capable of being used) Stay first with the left mode. Your students must PRACTICE the learning as the experts have found it. It is not yet time for innovation, or adaptation. They need to learn by practicing, they need to become sufficiently skilled before they can innovate. Create work practice that is fun, yet demanding. Facilitate the moving through the activities, the centers you create to help them achieve mastery.

6. Extend: ex (out of) + tend (to stretch) This is where innovation begins. Students know enough, have enough skills to begin the tinkering, playing with the content, the skills, the materials, the ideas, the wholes and the parts, the details, the data and the big picture, to make something of this learning for themselves, to be interpretive.

7. Refine: re (again) + fin (the end, limit, boundary). Stay first with the left mode again. The students have proposed an extension of the learning into their lives. They need to evaluate that extension.

8. Perform: per (through) + form (form, shape, mold). Lastly, have your students perform: Here the content takes a new shape, as it is formed through the learners. Look for originality, relevance, new questions, connections to larger ideas, skills that are immediately useful, values confirmed or questioned anew.