CHAPTER 4 IDENTIFYING SUBORDINATE SKILLS AND ENTRY BEHAVIORS

Objective:

·         Describe approaches to subordinate skills analysis including hierarchical, cluster, and combination techniques.

·         Describe the relationship among the subordinate skills identified trough subordinate skills analysis, including entry behaviors.

·         Apply subordinate skills analysis techniques to steps in the goal analysis and identify entry behaviors as are appropriate.   

Background

Identifying subordinate skills and entry behaviors is a second step in instructional analysis.The purpose of this step is to identify the appropriate set of subordinate skills for each step. If required skills are ommited from the instruction and many students do not already have them, then the instruction will be ineffective. It means that, if superfluous skills are include, the instruction will take more time than it should and the unnecessary skills may actually interference with learning the required skills.

Concepts

There are 2 approaches in subordinate skill analysis.

1.      Hierarchical Approaches

Hierarchial approaches is used to analyze individual steps in the goal analysis that are classified as intellectual or psychomotor skills. To understand the hierarchial approach, consider an instructional goal that requires the students to justofy the recommendation that a particular piece of real estate should be purchased at a particular time. This approche suggested by Gagne. In this approache, the designer can identify one or more critical subordinate skills that will be required of the learner prior to attempting instruction on the step itself. This hierarchy of skill is helpful to the designer because it can be used to suggest the type of specific subordinate skills that will be required to support any particular step in the goal

2.      Cluster Analysis

Cluster analysis makes little sense to try to do a goal analysis of verbal information goal because no logival procedure is inherent in the goal. Cluster analysis may not involve going from one step to the next. The most meaningful analysis of a verbal information goal is identify the major categories of information that are implied by the goal. With verbal information you are not identifying a squence of steps, but mainly you are just identifying the information that is needed to achieve your goal.

There are three sub skills in subordinate skills:

1.      Subordinate skills analysis techniques for attitude goals

2.      Combining instructional analysisi techniques

3.      Instructional analysis diagrams

Entry Behaviors

This chapter will describe how the designer identifies entry behaviors and indicate why this is so important. The procedure used to identify entry behaviors is directly related to the subordinate skills analysis process. Identify exactly what learners will already have to know or be able to do before they begin the instruction. The procedure used to identify entry behaviors is directly related to the subordinate skills analysis process. Assume that you have such a highly developed hierarchy. It represents the array of skills required to take a learner from the most basic level of understanding up to your instructional goal. It is likely, however, that your learners already have some of these skills, and therefore not be necessary to teach all the skills in the extended hierarchy.

In order to identify the entry behaviors for the instruction , examine the hierarchy or cluster analysis and identify those skills that a majority of the learners will have already mastered before beginning of the onstruction. Draw a dotted line above these skills in the analysis chart. The skills that appear above the dotted line will be those you must teach in your instruction. Those that fall below the line are called entry behaviors.

Entry behaviour is important because They are defined as the skills that fall directly below the skills. Without these skills, a learner will have a very difficult time trying to learn fromthe instruction. Entry behaviors are a key component in the design process.  Instructional design should identify expected entry baheviors of learners by continuing the instructional analysis the point that skills identified become basic for their learners.

The Tentatives of Entry Behaviors

The idenification of entry behaviors is one of the real danger spots in the instructional design process. The point is that the designer is making assumption about both what learners must and should already know. It should be noted that the designer is making a set of assumptions at this early point about the learners who will use the instruction.

In summary, to conduct a subordinate skills analysis, it must analyze each of the major steps in a goal. Hierarchial analysis should be used with intellectual and psychomotor skills. During the subordinate skills analysis phase, each of the behaviors would need to be analyzed and be careful in determining entry behaviors.

CHAPTER 3 CONDUCTING A GOAL ANALYSIS

Objectives

·        Classify instructional design in the following domains; intellectual, skill, verbal information, psychomotor skill, attitude.

·         Perform a goal analysis to identify the major steps required to accomplish an instructional goal. 

Background

The major purpose of instructional analysis is to identify the skills and knowledge that should be included in our instruction, and how the designer determines the major components of instruction trough goal analysis. It will focus on goal analysis procedures.

Concepts

An instructional analysis is a set of procedures that, when applied to an instructional goals, result in the identification of the relevant steps for performing a goal and the subordinate skills required for a student to achieve the goal.

There are two steps of goal analysis; the first is to identify the goal statement, and the second is to identify and sequence the major steps required.

Example:

1.      Given a list of cities, name the state of which each is the capital.

2.      Given a bank statement and a checkbook, balance the checkbook.

3.      Set up and operate a video camera

4.      Choose to make lifestyle decisions that reflect positive lifelong health concerns.

   

Verbal Information

-          Require the learners to provide specific responses to relatively specific questions.

-          We can spot a verbal information goal by the verb is used.

Intellectual Skills

Intellectual skills are forming concepts, applying rules, and solving problems. So the learners can classify things according to labels and characteristic, can apply the rules, and can select and apply a variety of rules in order to solve the problems.

Psychomotor Skills

-          Involves the coordination of mental and physical activity.

-          The characteristic are the learners must execute muscular actions, with or without equipment, to achieve specified result.

Attitude

-          Tendency to make particular choices or decisions.

-          Can be viewed as influencing the learner to choose.

Goal Analysis Procedures.

-          The best technique in analyzing a goal is to describe, in step-by-step fashion, exactly what a person would be doing when performing the goal. –

-          Goal analysis is the visual display of the specific steps the learner would do when performing the instructional goal. –

-          As you analyze your goal, you may find that have difficulty knowing exactly how much should be included in each step.

-          Doing the goal analysis would be similar to preparing an outline of topic contained in the goal, but there is no sequence of steps per se.  

-          In summary, goal analysis for intellectual and psychomotor skill is an analysis of the steps to be performed; for a verbal information goal, it is a list of the major topics to be learned, and either approach is used depending on the nature of an attitudinal goal.

Analysis of Substeps

-          Doing a goal analysis for each step as originally did for the goal itself.

-          It is better to identify too many steps rather that too few.

-          Should stay with the more general statement of the step in the goal.

Summary

-          Several steps in the goal analysis:

o   To classify the goal into one of the four domains of learning (intellectual, skill, verbal information, psychomotor skill, attitude)

o   To identify the major steps that learners must perform to demonstrate they have achieved the goal.

-          Intellectual skill and psychomotor goals, as well as most attitudes, a sequential diagram of the steps to be taken is appropriate.

-          Initial product should be viewed as a draft and should be subjected to evaluation and refinement.

-          The final product of goal analysis is a diagram of skills.

CHAPTER 2 ASSESSING NEEDS TO IDENTIFY INSTRUCTIONAL GOAL(S)

Background

Two basic methods are used to identify instructional goals: the subject matter expert approach and the performance technology approach.

SME emphasizes the communication of information from instructor to student in the instructional process.

Instructional designers favor the performance technology approach, where instructional goals are set in response to the problems or opportunities. Goals are usually stated as skills, knowledge, and need.

The purpose is to show that everyone wins when instructional provide learners with skills necessary to solve an organizational problem or to take advantage of an opportunity.

In summary, instructional goals ideally derived through a process of needs assessment that establishes rather broad indications of a problem that can be solved by providing instruction. Then an analysis of that goal is undertaken, either in their context of a curriculum or job. As a result, more refined specific statements emerge that focus on what learners will be able to do and the context in which they will be able to do it.

   

Concepts

Performance analysis

A performance analysis is a study conducted to determine the exact nature of an organizational performance problem and how it can be resolved.

The purpose of a performance analysis study is to acquire information on each of components in the model in order to verify problems and identify possible solution.

The outcome of performance analysis study is clear description a problem in terms of failure to achieve desired organizational result and the corresponding desired and actual employee behaviors, evidence of the causes of the problem, and suggested cost-effective solution.        

Clarifying Instructional goals

To analyze a vague goal, first write it down. Next, sort through goal. As a last step, examine the goal statement and ask yourself. You have developed one or more goal statements that collectively represent the achievement of an important goal. An analysis should be undertaken to identify specific performance outcomes that are implied by the goal.

Learners, context, and tools     

Indicate, 1) who the learners are, 2) the context in which they will use the skills, and 3) the tools that will be available.

Criteria for establishing instructional goals

Any selection of instructional goals must be done in terms the following concerns:

1.      Will the development of this instruction solve the problem that led to the need for it?

2.      Are these goals acceptable to those who must approve this instructional development effort?

3.      Are the sufficient people and time to complete the development of instructional for this goal?

Examples

The examples are based on an identified problem, need assessment activities, and a prescribed solution to the problem.

Summary

Instructional goals are clear statements of behaviors that learners are to demonstrate as a result of instruction. Instructional goals are selected and refined through a rational process that requires answering questions about a particular problem and need, about the clarify of the goal statements, and about availability of recourses to design and develop the instruction.