Brief Instruction Steps
Overview
Providing instructional steps clearly and concisely can help learners understand classroom expectations, reduce cognitive load, and complete tasks more efficiently. Reduced cognitive load can also promote Learner Mindset reducing the perceived difficulty that can be affected by the learner's Motivation. This is particularly important for adolescent learners who are often expected to work independently on more complex tasks. When outlining steps for a specific task in writing, educators should be sure to ensure directions are sequenced clearly, and have sufficient visual spacing, taking care not to overload learners with too much information at once. Breaking down instructions into steps gives students the capacity to hold and process smaller amounts of information in Working Memory more effectively while attempting to create new schema or activate existing schema in Long-Term Memory, enhancing overall retention and learning. This can be especially important for students with learning disabilities who may struggle with cognitive processing speed, Attention, or Auditory Processing, and for multilingual and multicultural learners who bring varied backgrounds and experiences, so may still be developing schema related to the learning content. If giving directions orally, supplementing these instructions with visual cues can further support Working Memory. Providing brief, step-by-step instructions multimodally gives structure and multiple entry points to access, organize, and remain engaged in the lesson.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Watch this high school chemistry teacher walk through her process of outlining instructions for high school students to enhance autonomy and ensure learning, using a checklist to monitor understanding:
Design It into Your Product
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
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