Merrill's What Makes Effective, Efficient, Engaging Instruction?

Summary:

In this reading, Merrill starts off by identifying three recent approaches for instructional design and development including “problem-based learning, communities of learners, and distributed learning via the Internet” (p. 1). Merrill states that many times people consider these approaches to be distinct and separate when really they should be integrated in order to produce instruction that is effective, efficient, and engaging. Merrill asserts that his First Principles can be used to integrate the approaches and bring on e³ instruction.

While explaining his argument, Merrill briefly discusses two memory processes: associative and mental models. He explains that much of the instruction in the world relies on an associative model, which is not as effective as a mental model. By being problem-centered, Merrill’s First Principles rely more on mental models. 

Critique:

I’ve enjoyed exploring Merrill’s thoughts in more depth this semester and this reading is no exception. However, one of my pet peeves with Merrill is that his diagrams aren’t very intuitive to me and he doesn’t provide as many examples as I would like. Also, the examples he does provide could be more concrete and visual. For example in the second paragraph on page 4, he outlines how peer interaction might take place in the classroom. Rather than keep the scenario in general terms, I would have loved a specific example that I could actually visualize.