Student-centered Instructional Design Models And Instructional Methods In College In The United States

This study is about the systematic survey and research of the new instructional design models and instructional methods created by American universities in the process of student-centered undergraduate education reform(hereinafter referred to as SC reform).SC reform puts students in the first place and improves college instruction from three angles: promoting students' development,strengthening students' learning and paying attention to learning outcomes.Compared with the traditional instructional model of "textbook-centered,teacher-centered and classroom-centered",SC reform emphasizes "student development as the center,student learning as the center and learning outcomes as the center",so it is also called "new three centers" reform.In the United States,the reform began around 1990 s and has been going on for 30 years,sweeping all colleges and universities in the United States.To this day,the reform continues.In the reform,teachers and researchers at American universities have created many new instructional ideas,instructional design models and instructional methods.All these have greatly improved the learning level of students,promoted the development of students,improved the undergraduate education in the United States,contributed to the development of American society,and made the American undergraduate education model become an example of learning for many countries in the world.The success of SC reform in American universities is related to the great progress made by the international academe in the fields of brain science,development science,cognitive science and learning science in the past hundred years,especially in the past 30 years.It is these academic progresses that show that the traditional three-center model is outdated,while the new three-center model is more scentific.Therefore,when studying the instructional design models and instructional methods of SC reform,we must pay attention to its scientific bases.Only in this way can we really put SC reform based on science.Only by understanding the scientific bases can we improve the consciousness of SC reform and improve the effect and benefit of the reform.At present,China has begun a similar college instructional reform.In 2018,the higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education launched a national “battle” to revitalize undergraduate education in an all-round way,ushering in a new era of undergraduate education in China.The direction of this reform is to promote student-centered college instructional reform.Its focus is to reform the instructional of undergraduate courses,and to create "gold courses(means quality courses)",put an end to "water courses(means inferior courses)" as the standard.This battle to revitalize the quality of undergraduate education in China has caused great repercussions in colleges and universities all over the country.However,in the reform,many teachers' spirit is willing,but the flesh is weak.They do not know how to create "gold courses",how to put an end to the "water courses".The instructional design models and instructional methods created by American universities in the SC reform are obviously worthy of our reference.Unfortunately,there is no systematic survey and introduction of these instructional design models and instructional methods in both Chinese and English literature.To promote college instructional reform in China and help teachers fully understand and master the instructional design models and instructional methods created by American universities,this study systematically researches and introduces the instructional design models and instructional methods created by American universities in the SC reform as the research theme.This study has made efforts in four aspects.The first is to comprehensively collect and sort out the instructional design models and instructional methods created by American universities in the SC reform,and make a proper analysis and evaluation of their achievements,experience and influence.Second,it briefly introduces the academic progress of international academe in the four fields of brain science,developmental psychology,cognitive science and learning science,and explains their value and significance to college instruction.Third,based on researching these instructional design models and instructional methods,this paper attempts to put forward a unified conceptual framework and classification models to better understand the logical relationship between SC instructional design models and instructional methods.Fourth,in the surveying and research,to find the cracks and gaps of the relative knowledge,and to try to put forward new instructional design models and instructional methods.The ultimate goal is that this study can provide a reference for teachers at Chinese universities to learn the instructional design models and instructional methods of American universities,and it can contribute to the revitalization of undergraduate education in China in an all-round way.This paper consists of five chapters.The first chapter is about the research question,including the introduction of research topics and research significance,research methods and research ideas,literature review and so on.The second chapter is about the theoretical bases,including defining basic terms,introducing classified research methods,and summarizing the progress of international academe in brain science,development science,cognitive science and learning science.The purpose of this chapter is to lay the foundation for a deep understanding of the essence of SC reform and its instructional design models and instructional methods.Based on systematically surveying the instructional design models created by American universities in the SC reform,the third chapter puts forward a four-classification system of instructional design models.This chapter criticizes the universal trend in the research of instructional design model in American universities.At the same time,it puts forward that the course-specific design models ignored by American academe are the basic models to improve the academic research of college instruction,and they are also important solutions to thoroughly solve the problem of lack of pertinence in instructional consultation in American universities.The fourth chapter systematically surveys the various instructional methods in the SC reform in American universities,and sorts them into a six-classification system according to the method function classification.The advantage of this classification is that the nature of the instructional problem determines the choice of instructional methods.Therefore,teachers should choose the appropriate instructional methods according to the nature of the problems to be solved in instruction.The fifth chapter is a brief summary.Therefore,this study has three innovations: 1)for the first time,it makes a systematic research on the different instructional design models and instructional methods created in the American SC reform,and introduces their scientific basis;2)this paper puts forward the four classification system of college instructional design models for the first time,and points out that the instructional design models of curriculum specialization should be developed hard;3)this study is for the first time to survey all kinds of instructional methods created by American universities in the SC reform,and puts forward the functional classification of instructional methods,that is,the principle of selecting appropriate instructional methods according to the nature of instructional problems.However,it should be pointed out that all these innovations are still tentative and need to be further improved and perfected in the future research.This study also has three limitations: 1)the scope of the study only involves the instructional problems of teachers,not the instructional support system;2)the research mainly relies on the literature,lack of on-the-spot observation and discussion;3)the research mainly pays attention to the instructional design models and instructional methods,and does not involve instructional environment,instructional technology,and assessment and evaluation of learning outcomes.These aspects are obviously also important aspects of college instruction.It is hoped that these problems can be further studied in the future.