Chapter 12 page 300
E. Instructional Skills
In this chapter, you have learned different ways to make new information more understandable to your
students, by activiting prior knoweldge and teaching strategies, by presenting general schemas, and by
developing conceputal models and clearer explanations.
Regardless of which methods you use, the crucial thing to remember is that all efforts to make information
more understandable must begin with an analysis of students’ current knowledge. In general, you should
always follow these steps in this order:
Step 1. Determine where students may have gaps in background knowledge.
Step 2. Determine where students’ background knowledge may conflict with the new information.
Step 3. Outline an explanation (or conceptual model, etc.) that will address the gaps and conflicts.