The Design And Practice Of Project Teaching Based On First Principles Of Instruction In High School Information Technology Courses

With the continuous teaching innovations and educational reforms in China,previous teaching models used in information technology classrooms can no longer meet students’ needs and are unable to maximize their effect on increasing students’ abilities.The revision of “Information Technology Curriculum Standards for General High Schools(2017 Edition)” emphasized project-based teaching and the abilites of problem-solving.However,most teachers currently still use traditional teaching models in their classrooms,which give less opportunities for students to practice autonomous learning and cooperation.Moreover,the content of instruction is not closely related to real life.Although project-based teaching may solve these problems,the previous project-based teaching models only focused on how to make students learn,but ignored how teachers teach.Therefore,there is an urgent need to improve project-based teaching models so that it can be better used in school settings.This study was guided by constructivism theory,pragmatic theory of education,Lewin’s group dynamics theory,and “behavior-oriented” theory.A project-based teaching model was designed based on first principles of instruction.Then,we conducted an experimental study to examine the effects of the model.We first measured students’ problem solving abilities by using a questionnaire.After an intervention last for 8 weeks,teachers and students were interviewed to evaluate the effects of the intervention.The results revealed that the model effectively increased students’ motivation and improved their cooperation.Moreover,students were more positive when they faced problems,they got more strategies of problem solving and used them more flexible.In addition,students reported they liked the class very much.Finally,this study proposes some suggestions for the instruction of information technology course in future.