Instructional Design

Introduction

It is a lesson plan for a light painting workshop targeted for 15 - 20 secondary 6 students. The frame work of the plan mainly follows Biggs' theory of constructive alignment by Biggs and Tang (2007), which includes 3 components: intended learning outcomes (ILOs), teaching/learning activities (TLAs) and assessment tasks. Both the activities and assessment tasks center at the outcome which is student - oriented.

In planning the teaching and learning activates, it mainly bases on the 9 philosophies in Gagne's theory. Each of them includes contents and teaching strategies (Butt, 2008). Teaching strategies included questioning through group work and discussion and feedback provided by the teacher.

How the characteristics of participants match the goal and duration of the work shop

Since this workshop targets the students aged 17 - 18. They have longer attention span.(XXXXXX) Therefore the workshop can be designed with longer duration, which may not be tolerated by smaller age group student. Besides, Erikson's theory of psychological development, this age group is ready to undergo the transition from adolescent to early adult. They have relatively mature identity to themselves. Thus, they achieve certain cognitive level and psychological status in exploring inner thoughts and feelings. Also they have enough verbal information to present or describe their inner feelings and communicate in group works.

Student - centered approach is used

As an effective teacher, a lesson plan should center on students.(butt, 2008) therefore, in writing the ILOs, "students will be able to..." is used. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of a lesson, measurable ILOs are written. (Price & Nelson, 2011)

The function of the introduction

Before the workshop start, the ice breaking game aims to gain students' attention. It helps orient students to be receptive to incoming information. It is a one off workshop. No previous knowledge needed to be recall. It begins with new concepts, new knowledge and new techniques. The idea of the workshop is first introduced so that students know the purpose of being here. They are aware and prepared to learn light painting and develop expectation about what they are supposed to learn in the coming hours. They will be more alert to any stimuli related to light painting which is more benefit for receiving information. (Driscoll, 2000)

Demonstration

One of the goals for this workshop is to understand the concept of light painting as an art form and use this technique to create art works. Another goal is also achieved by using this technique. Thus, the method of making it is explained.

In analyzing the light painting technique, it mainly involves sequencing movement of body parts, memory, control of the flash light, imagination on how the movement and sequence affect the whole picture. Simply, they can be summarized into 2 skills: motor skills and cognitive strategies. Driscoll (2000) suggested that demonstration on desired outcome or giving verbal directions are useful in presenting such skills and strategies. Therefore, video and real demonstrations are used by the teacher.

Practice with guidance

From Driscoll (2000), the amount of guidance depends on the goal of the workshop, the ability and sophistication of the student. Since the process or experience of exploring individuals' inner thought and feelings is to be emphasized in the goal, it can be a kind of discovery learning. Too much guidance on choosing the topic and designing the picture will break the goal. Therefore in this aspect, the teacher is preferred to give comments or little suggestion only after students come up with their own ideas.

On the other hand, participants are not required to be a visual art students, their ability in this area may not be high enough to design or make their design become real. Moreover, light painting is new to most people. Primary or secondary schools rarely teach such technique in visual art subject. Therefore, the practice session is arranged after the demonstration. The teacher will guide the student with verbal instruction and demonstration. Then the practice is upgraded by providing verbal instruction only. Students need to imagine the outcome picture and guess the sequences of movements with visual facilitation.

Independent practice is preferred after guide practice. (Schoenfeldt & Salsbury, 2009) however, due to the new technique that most people are not familiar with, it is arranged as a group practice, with little guidance. That is students need to design the picture and think of the movement first. They also have to try by themselves in order to see whether movement can create the expected picture. During the trials, the teacher will continue to provide appropriate guidance for further improvements. This idea of "semi - independent practice" is also used in the individual task.

Other purposes of having group and individual tasks

Since learning must be inferred from behavior, through the task, students can present what they have learnt.

In order to confirm students' learning, eliciting performance is an indicator of what they have learnt. In this process (Driscoll, 2000). For the teacher, it serves as an assessment on the outcome.

The group task tries to encourage questioning which is a teaching strategy. This strategy is used to stimulate higher level thinking. (Schoenfeldt & Salsbury, 2009) It also helps develop students' skills & cognitive competence in making lighting painting and incorporate abstract meaning with an art work. A study found that 80% of classroom discussions consisted of asking, answering, or reacting to questions. (Sadker, D., Sadker, M., & Zittleman, K.R., 2011) Although it is not a formal lesson, it has similar environment as classroom. If the discussion is focused, it helps in such a way.

How the sharing session works

The sharing session involve 2 elements. The first one is a presentation of their outcome. Students are required to tell the concept of their own art work, the procedure of making it, the reason for choosing this story, any thoughts or feelings

Through this presentation, the teacher can assess how much students can cooperate their own life story with the painting, how well they can express their thoughts and feelings through the painting. The second one is a chance for teacher providing feedback. The teacher will jot down some important points for each presentation and