Lesson 3 - Instructional Analysis, pt. 1

• Read Chapter 3, Conducting a Goal Analysis, from Dick and Carey

Background Information

Now that you have a description of your learning need and an appropriate, feasible, and clearly stated instructional goal, it's time to begin developing an Instructional Analysis. This is the next step in the Dick and Carey model (see below). According to Dick and Carey, "An instructional analysis is a set of procedures that, when applied to an instructional goal, results in the identification of the relevant steps for performing a goal and the subordinate skills required for a student to achieve the goal" (pg. 38). Thus, the instructional analysis breaks the skills described in your goal statement down into smaller steps, and then identifies any other relevant skills that might be necessary. The instructional analysis is developed from your goal statement, which highlights the importance of making sure your goal statement is well written and worthwhile. Dick and Carey actually break the instructional analysis step into two parts: Goal Analysis and Subordinate Skills Analysis, with each one covered in a separate chapter. We'll follow their lead and begin by discussing the Goal Analysis in this lesson. In the next lesson we'll look at the Subordinate Skills Analysis.

There are two fundamental steps involved in conducting the goal analysis. The first is to classify the type of learning outcome involved in achieving the goal (Classifying Outcomes). The second involves taking your goal statement and analyzing it in order to identify the relevant steps involved in order for someone to perform that goal (Determining Goal Steps).

Now, lest you get confused about all of these steps and substeps, let's try and make it clear before we go further. The Instructional Analysis is the second step in the Dick and Carey model. This is broken down into two steps: Goal Analysis and Subordinate Skills Analysis. The Goal Analysis part of that is further broken down into two steps: Classifying Outcomes and Determining Goal Steps. Those are the two things we'll be discussing in this lesson, and is what Dick and Carey discuss in Chapter 3 of their book.

Now that we've hopefully cleared that up, let's take a look at the different categories of learning outcomes.

Categories of Learning Outcomes

In order to classify goals, instructional designers need to be aware of the different types of learning outcomes. Robert Gagné developed a set of common categories (or domains) he thought would allow designers to group all the different types of subject matter to be learned. This is part of a larger instructional theory he has developed over the years that has been very influential in the field of instructional design. His theory can be broken down into three major elements. First, it is based on a taxonomy, or classification, of learning outcomes. Second, it proposes particular internal and external conditions necessary for achieving these learning outcomes. And third, it offers nine events of instruction, which serve as a template for developing and delivering a unit of instruction. One of the aims of his theory is to assist in classroom instruction.

To begin with we'll look at Gagné's five categories of learning. In subsequent lessons we'll explore his conditions for learning, as well as the nine events of instruction.

Gagné's five categories of learning are:

1. Verbal Information - Reciting something from memory. This could be names, facts, principles, and generalizations. Verbal information often serves as a perquisite for further learning, provides labels required for everyday communication, and functions to provide a vehicle for thought. Here are some specific examples:
   • Stating the requirements for achieving an A grade in a given course.
   • Reciting the state capitals.
   • Stating the date Columbus landed in America.
   • Stating the rules for scoring a tennis match.
     
     
2. Intellectual Skills - Skills that require the learner to perform some unique cognitive activity. The intellectual skills one learns enables one to respond to entire classes of interactions with the environment. Gagné divides Intellectual Skills into the following subcategories, depending on the complexity of the mental processing involved. This is a hierarchy, which means that each higher-level skill requires the lower skills as a prerequisite.
   • Discrimination - The ability to distinguish one feature of an object from another based on one or more physical dimensions. Discrimination is a very low-level skill. It does not include the ability to name the class of objects; if the learners can do that, they have acquired a concept. Examples of discrimination include:
     • Hearing a difference between two notes played on the piano.
     • Distinguishing among different colors of socks in a drawer by pulling out a matched pair.
     • Distinguishing between the symbols < and >.
   • Concrete Concepts - Concrete concept learning involves learning to identify a stimulus as a member of a class having some characteristic in common. Examples of concrete concepts include:
     • Identifying the middle of a group of objects.
     • Arranging a group of different sized straws from largest to smallest.
     • Marking all the squares on a paper showing circles, triangles, and squares.
   • Defined Concepts - Concepts that cannot be identified by pointing them out and must be defined. Examples of defined concepts include:
     • Family.
     • Justice.
     • Energy.
   • Rules - Rules make it possible for us to do something, using symbols, and for us to respond to a class of things with a class of performances. Examples of rules include:
     • Applying Ohm's law, E = I x R (not just stating it).
     • Showing that force equals mass times acceleration.
     • Creating a sentence such as, "The boy went to the store."
   • Higher-order Rules - Involves applying complex combinations of simpler rules in order to solve problems, perform tasks, or explain, describe, and predict phenomena or events. Examples of higher-order rules include:
     • Planning a balanced budget, given fixed income and fixed expenses.
     • Planning a lesson plan, given certain class objectives, activities, time, and resource constraints.
       
       
3. Cognitive Strategies - Refers to the metaprocesses we use to govern our own attending, learning, remembering, and thinking. Similar to other intellectual skills, but focus on the learner's own cognitive processes as opposed to external objects and events. Cognitive strategies are generally learned over a long period of time. Note that Dick and Carey omit this as a separate category in their descriptions, choosing instead to consider cognitive strategies as a form of Higher-order Intellectual Skill. In any event, some examples of cognitive strategies include:
   • Rehearsal strategies
   • Elaboration strategies
   • Organizing strategies
     
     
4. Motor Skills - Motor skills represent physical activities requiring movement and coordination of all or part of the body. Examples include:
   • Learning to ride a bicycle.
   • Changing a flat tire.
   • Drawing a straight line.
     
     
5. Attitudes - An attitude is an acquired internal state that influences the choice of personal action toward some class of things, persons, or events. Attitudes represent intrinsically motivated choices people make. Some of the most important outcomes are really attitudes. Examples include:
   • Choosing to eat healthy.
   • Preferring to read science fiction over other types of stories.
   • Choosing to camp rather than stay in motels during a cross-country trip.

Gagné's belief is that "within each of these five categories, regardless of the subject matter of instruction, the same qualities of performance apply" (Gagné, 1988). In other words, similar instructional strategies can be applied to goals that fall into the same category, even if the goals cover different subject matter. Therefore, once you have classified your goals according to the proper learning domain, you can then apply appropriate learning conditions, or strategies, in order to bring about different kinds of human performance. For example, what does it mean to ask if someone "knows" a concept such as "the Pythagorean Theorem?" Do we want to know if they can...

• state or write the formula for the Pythagorean Theorem?
• explain what the formula means?
• use the formula correctly when told to do so?
• know when to use it, without being told?
• know how to interpret the results?

Gagne thinks it's important for teachers and instructional designers to think carefully about the nature of the skill or task they want to teach, and then design the instruction to match. In other words, if we want someone to know when to use the Pythagorean Theorem, and be able to use it to solve real problems, then it is of little use to test them only on their ability to write the formula.

In addition to helping choose different conditions, these categories also aid in grouping objectives of a similar nature together, and these groupings can then aid in determining the sequencing of instruction.

Determining Goal Steps

After sorting the goals according to learning outcome, you will begin to perform the goal analysis. This is done by describing, in step-by-step fashion, what a person would be doing while performing the goal. In order to perform a goal analysis it is important that the designer possess enough information of the subject matter that he/she be able to describe what learners would be doing if they were demonstrating that they could perform the goal. Ask yourself, "What exactly would learners be doing if they were demonstrating that they could already perform the goal?" If you can't answer this question, you need get in touch with a Subject Matter Expert (SME). A SME is a person who is qualified to provide information about your content area as it relates to applicable aspects of the subject matter. They can be consulted at the beginning of the design process, or can be employed to check for the accuracy of the instructional materials, activities, and assessments as they are developed. Most of you are subject matter experts in one or more areas. However, instructional designers are generally not subject matter experts in all areas, so you may occasionally need to seek outside help. For teachers, that may mean consulting with teachers in other areas. In addition, a good source of information in schools is the librarian or media specialist. This person should be able to help you research and locate pertinent information about a topic.

Once you have the required knowledge of the subject matter, it's best to start by simply going through and listing the steps that you would perform if you were attempting to achieve the goal. This can simply be done in bulleted or outline form. Try to list all of the steps that are important; at this point it's better to have too many steps than not enough. Keep in mind, however, that if you are an expert the steps may seem more obvious to you than they will to others. In addition, if the sequence of steps is important, make sure that you have identified the proper sequence.

Once you have the goal steps and the sequencing down on paper, Dick and Carey suggest that you create a flowchart that presents this information. The use of a flowchart allows you to present the content and the sequence in a way that shows the relationship between the various steps in the process. As you create the flowchart, you should include each of the steps and indicate the behavior being performed at each step. Each step should have an observable outcome. In addition, they should be sequenced in the most efficient order. If there are decisions to be made along the way, include decision steps to indicate that there is more than one possible path. Often the goal is put in a box at the top of the flowchart (see below).

Note that with verbal information there may not be any specific sequence inherent in the information. In other words, it may not involve going from one step to the next. In this case you would not need to connect the boxes in your goal analysis; your flowchart would merely indicate the information that must be covered (see below).

If you have an attitudinal goal, then it is necessary to identify the behavior that you will look for to determine if the attitude is being demonstrated. What would people be doing if they were demonstrating that they were following the desired attitude? This is done by attaching this behavior to the attitudinal goal at the top of your flowchart, and then listing the steps from there (see below).

Substeps

Once you have the main steps written down, you should examine each of them to determine if there are any substeps required in performing a particular step. Certain steps may require substeps. Think about the complexity of each step for the identified learners to determine if substeps are needed. Is it a single process or one that requires several steps? If a step is too large then it may be best to divide it into several simpler steps as opposed to substeps.

On the flowchart, substeps are indicated in boxes that drop below the main step. Notice that the arrows on the lines connecting the main step to the substeps point away from the main step and toward the substeps.

The final product of the goal analysis is a diagram of skills, which provides an overview of what learners will be doing when they perform the instructional goal. This framework is the foundation for the subordinate skills analysis, which is discussed in Lesson 4.

Examples

Let's revisit our earlier example of teaching students how to use the AltaVista search engine to perform research. If you recall, the goal statement was as follows:

Given a research topic, first-year English students will use the Alta Vista Internet search engine to locate information related to their topic and then evaluate the quality of the sources they find to select the most worthwhile.

Here is a goal analysis that was developed after determining the major steps necessary to reach the goal. Note that no substeps were identified at this point:

In addition, Appendix B in the Dick and Carey book gives an example of a Goal Analysis for their goal on story writing.

Instructional Design Project Part Two

At this point you should have a goal statement that addresses a relevant need. As you learned in this lesson, the next step in the instructional design process if to classify that goal into one of the learning domains, and then break that goal down into relevant steps. In this activity you will begin to develop Part 2 of your ID Project. Part 2 will be comprised of the activities from Lessons 3 and 4, so you will not turn this part in until after Lesson 4.

Step 1: Classify Goal

After you have received feedback regarding your goal statement, and made any necessary revisions, classify the revised goal into one or more learning domains. Do this by answering the following questions:

1. Which one of Gagné's learning domains does you goal fit into? Review the descriptions given above to help you determine the appropriate domain.
2. Why do you think it fits that particular domain?

When you have answered these questions, summarize your answers in a single paragraph.

Step 2: Determine Goal Steps

Once you have your goal categorized, you should begin to break the goal down into steps. To begin with, write down your goal statement. Then, answer the following questions about your goal:

1. What are the identifiable major steps associated with accomplishment of the ultimate goal? At this point you may simply list them in bulleted form. Keep in mind that your finished project should be something that can be covered in a single lesson. Try to shoot for around 5 main goal steps at this point. If you're ending up with too many steps at this point, then you may need to go back and revise your original goal statement to make it more manageable.
2. Some, or all, of these major steps may be easier to understand if they are broken down into a series of steps. If that is true, which of your steps can be broken down, and what are those steps?
3. If the sequence in which these steps occur is important, what is the proper sequence for the steps you have identified?
4. How did you determine these steps and their sequence? (Experience, observation, subject matter experts, etc.)

Use this information to create an instructional analysis flowchart for your goal. Pay close attention to the diagramming conventions used in the Dick and Carey book (e.g. rectangle for goal step, diamond for decision step, etc.). They give some good examples for you to follow starting on page 47. When you are finished, insert your completed flowchart into your Word document, and tell us the software you used to create it.

There are several good programs that can assist you in drawing flowcharts. The most convenient solution might be for you to use the drawing tools available in Microsoft Word. If you turn on the Drawing toolbar you will see that you can draw the necessary shapes and connectors right in your Word document using the AutoShapes. You can easily add text to a shape by right-clicking on it and selecting "Add Text". However, these tools are not full-featured and can be a little difficult to use. If you are interested in using a flowcharting program, here are some suggestions. Most of them allow you to download a 30-day full-featured trial version.

• Inspiration - Good program that is used by many teachers.
• Edge Diagrammer - Another good one.
• SmartDraw - Yet another good one.
• Visio - Excellent program. Unfortunately, they only offer a trial version on CD, which means you'd have to wait for it to come in the mail.

If you use one of these other programs, you will need to insert your completed flowchart into your Word document. All of these programs have way do this, either by cutting and pasting or by exporting your flowchart and then importing it into Word. However, when creating the flowchart make sure that it will not be too big to fit on a Word page. If need be, you can use landscape mode in Word just for the page you put the flowchart on. To do this move your cursor to the end of the document, and then go to "File/Page Setup...". In this dialog box select the "Paper Size" tab. On this tab, under "Orientation" select "Landscape", and then next to where it says "Apply to" select "This point forward". This will keep the rest of your document in portrait mode, while allowing you to insert a wide image after it.

Submitting Part Two of your ID Project

Part Two of your ID Project should be typed up in Microsoft Word. At the top of the paper type "ID Project Part Two: Instructional Analysis". Underneath that include your name, email address, and the date. When you save the file name it "analysis.doc". You will continue to work on Part 2 of your ID Project in Lesson 4, so you do not need to submit it in until then.