The Exploration And Application Of The Elaboration Theory In Teaching Practice

The Exploration and Application of the Elaboration Theory inTeaching Practice ——Taking the Computer Teaching of the Secondary VocationalSchool as an ExampleIn 1950's, with an unprecedented successful application of system methodin the U.S.A. military, industry, commerce, space technology etc, it also startedto be valued increasingly in the educational circles. In latter stage of sixties,many the educational technology researchers concentrated on applying themethod in the practical research of teaching, form the method of educationalsystem gradually, applied in the design of the instructional system of every level,and set up the theory and the method of instructional design system.Chrles M.Reigeluth ,the educational technology researcher of the UnitedStates, puts forward a kind of instructional design theory of the course contentcalled" the Elaboration method" based on fore persons' research . It provides thedesign of the teaching sequence, according to the analysis of the knowledgestructure and the comprehension to the process of studying and cognizing. Itemphasizes the whole cognition of knowledge, considering both the logic orderof the course and the students' cognizable sequence , and is a kind of advisingmaneuverable theory.This research ,at the basis of Elaboration Theory for the basis, aiming at theproblems of content sequences in the computer textbooks of the secondaryvocational school , tries to reorganize and redesign the course content accordingto the students' cognizable sequence: whole to part, skimming to elaborating.According to the elaboration theory, the teaching begins from a kind of special"epitomize" ,including the most typical, basic , simplest overview, then gradesthe order of appearing , according to the interaction between these selectedconcepts . Equally , in the following courses various kinds of theselected concepts which are more complicated and detailed will be put intoeach epitomize of teaching unit during the teaching process, summarized andsynthesized afterwards, until getting the teaching goal.Making the database course of computer major of the secondary vocationalschool as the design target,we reorganized and graded rudimentary knowledgeand operational order content in the teaching material. According to theprinciple of Elaboration Theory, from the epitomize to the first class elaborationprocess to the second class elaboration process until all the knowledge detailsare presented out. Teaching process begins from the big general content,concentrates on the details of the task composition and difficult pointsprogressively, then exactly integrates a greater conception. Through such arepeated course , it help students to study meaningfully ,and makes them formthe clear cognitive structure progressively .Guiding in redesigned course contentby the the teaching lessons , it implemented the preliminary teachingexperiment, and had a try in the guidance of theory to the elaboration in practice,and then accumulated some experience in the theory instructing teachingpractice . It improved the teachers' education theoretical level and educationscientific research ability at the same time.