Instructional Strategies

Introduction

Teaching, or instruction, has been defined as ‘anything that is done to facilitate purposeful learning’ (Reigeluth, 2000: 20). The assessment of teaching, then, needs to be referred to the process it aims to stimulate, i.e. learning, and the actions which may be taken to foster it. A variety [Page 462]of theories of learning have been proposed among which cognitive constructivist theories have been prevalent for some decades now. Important differences can be found among them, which come along significant differences in instructional theories. However, for brevity purposes we shall focus here on their common points. The main assumptions of constructivist theories hold that knowledge cannot be passed on from one mind to the other but needs instead integrating new information with existing knowledge and has ...