Instructional Design for Science Teachers: Using the Idea of Mental Models to Drive Learning

How does a teacher organize instruction to maximize student learning?

This question has been important for the entire time humans have taught each other:

• Early humans learning survival skills;
• Later humans learning a trade; and,
• Current humans learning through courses.

Although people can learn on their own, learning is accelerated with the help of other people. However, the amount of learning changes depending on the instructional design, making the instructional design for learning important.

No matter the topic for learning, poor instructional design leads to confusion and minimal learning — whereas excellent instructional design leads to robust understanding and maximized learning.

As with every subject area in formal schooling in the United States, science education has evolved over the years:

• First efforts were the creation of high schools in the late 1800s;
• Next efforts were the work the scientists in the classroom in the 1950s; and,
• Current efforts are the Next Generation Science Standards.