Instructional Principles for Career and Technical Education
By Paul A. Kirschner, Mirjam Neelen, Tim Surma
It seems like everyone who has ever gone to school is an expert in how to teach. And all of this “folk wisdom” seems based on two simple thoughts: “Well that’s the way I learned and look at me now!” if the results turned out positive, or “Boy did I hate school; it was all wrong!” if they were negative.
Perhaps this pervasive folk wisdom is why there are so many myths about teaching and learning, including the notion that 70 percent of our learning happens informally (via experiences), 20 percent happens socially (via others), and 10 percent happens formally (via school).1 While there is absolutely no evidence in the scientific literature to support that idea, it is of course true that informal learning and learning from and with others is very important, especially in the workplace.
As educators and cognitive scientists, we want to support excellent instruction and efficient learning in all contexts. So we’ve been considering how the 10 principles of instruction described by Barak Rosenshine (a high school teacher turned educational psychologist) apply to learning in career and technical education (CTE).2 These principles are based on three compelling lines of research: cognitive science, expert teachers and what they do, and cognitive strategy instruction. The major strength is that even though these are three very different bodies of research, there is no conflict whatsoever between the instructional suggestions that they provide.
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