What has to happen in order to actually teach someone something?
If simply exposing people to information is not the same as actually teaching them, how DO we actually teach, especially online?
Educational theorist and researcher Robert M. Gagné studied good teachers in action, and discovered what they were doing that made their teaching effective.
His research revealed that highly effective teachers were following nine specific steps, which he called "The Nine Events of Instruction".
It's hard to remember nine things at a time (the limits of our short term memory make five to seven things the maximum length for easy mental processing).
So let's break the nine events of instruction down into three groups, each of which only has three things in it that you need to remember at any one time. (See what I did there? 🤔 💭 💡⁉️)
In order to teach effectively
in any context
(but especially online):
So that means:
Presenting the instruction is only ONE of NINE steps needed to teach effectively...
..and if all you are doing is PRESENTING information, you are only doing A FRACTION of what it takes to effectively TEACH that information.
Here's your main takeaway for today (unfortunately, it's not an actual piece of pumpkin pie):
In order to teach effectively online (or anywhere, but especially online), there are NINE THINGS you have to do, in the right order.
Presenting the information is only ONE of those nine things.
Next we will talk about the three things you have to do BEFORE you present the instruction, so stay tuned!
