Useful Instructional Methods

Many instructor-led technical training programmes appear to suffer from the “death by PowerPoint” syndrome. In many cases, the instructor is reduced to a reader of PowerPoint slides rather than being a facilitator for learning. Needless to say, the training programmes are not as effective as they should be.

To improve the efficacy of training programmes, curriculum designers must consider a variety of instructional methods or tactics for delivering specific chunks of content. (The specific instructional method you choose depends on a few factors: the kind of content, the number of students in the class, the time at your disposal, and so on. But, that's a topic for another time.)

The results from a study conducted by Darryl Sink (Darryl L. Sink & Associates, Inc) suggest some useful instructional methods. In the study, Darryl and a group of training professionals evaluated a list of instructional methods in relation to learning domains, number of students, and desired outcomes. The following is their list of the 16 most useful instructional methods rated on a 5-point scale.

Instructional Method	Score
Game	4.01
Role Play	3.91
Problem Solving/Lab	3.83
Simulation	3.82
Project	3.78
Guided Lab	3.73
Field Trip	3.70
Team Project	3.69
Lab	3.67
Discovery, Group	3.65
Cooperative Group Learning	3.58
Think Tank/Brainstorm	3.57
Apprenticeship	3.51
Seminar	3.46
Demonstration	3.46
Case Study	3.45

A higher score means that the instructional method is more useful under more conditions than the instructional method with a lower score. Click Descriptions of Key Instructional Methods for descriptions of the above methods and others.

Of course, you and I may rank these instructional methods a little differently based on our own experiences. But that doesn't take anything away from Darryl's study. It will definitely help to have the results of the study by your side at your design desk.