Announcement: Task-based Learning vs. Direct Instruction

No Author
2016-09-14T18:40:33-06:00

Folks,

In response to Sabrina's question (and my ignorance) today about Task-Based Learning and Direct Instruction, I've read through some sources on TBL and its use in the classroom. Here is a 1-page overview that seems to relate many of the ideas that I read through to better understand this idea.

http://ingles.ing.uchile.cl/otros/downloads/task-based%20learning.PDF

You'll notice that most TBL discussions are directed toward its use in second language acquisition. Here's an example from a different domain of TBL being used (in medicinal training).

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1046/j.1365-2923.2000.00698.x/asset/j.1365-2923.2000.00698.x.pdf?v=1&t=hmnrhehs&s=d17766ae8d7bd2d4e7ec33c704ca6522df3860a9

Regarding direct instruction and its relationship to the first principles, here's what Merrill stated,

"While there are many different variations of problem-based instructional strategies, a typical problem-based instructional strategy gives a small group of learners a complex problem to solve, identifies resources that can be used to solve this problem, and expects learners to acquire the necessary skills by searching the resources and struggling with the problem solution. Learners are expected to learn from each other and to seek other sources when the identified resources are insufficient to solve the problem. A large body of research during the past several decades has demonstrated that this type of open problem solving is frequently not only inefficient but often ineffective in teaching the desired skills (Kirschner, Sweller, et al., 2006). A task-centered instructional strategy is not the same as problem-based learning. A task-centered instructional strategy is a form of direct instruction but in the context of authentic, real-world problems or tasks. Van Merrienboer (1997) has described such a task-centered instructional strategy in some detail."

So, the confusion in class comes from the closeness of the term "Task-based learning" and Merrill's reference to task-centered learning, which are totally different. To better understand Direct instruction, here's a brief overview describing what it is:

http://www.education.com/reference/article/what-direct-instruction/

And an article that compares direct instruction with discovery learning: