Instructional Design Analysis
Western Governor’s University
February 4, 2014
Instructional Problem I have recently noticed an instructional problem in the elementary school that I work at. Several of the teachers seem to have problems aligning their instruction with the curriculum they teach. I have witnessed numerous times, teachers incorporating activities into lessons that don’t even relate to the curriculum concepts being taught. The activities being incorporated into the lessons do not align with the objectives specified in the lessons. Therefore, the students are not learning what the objective claims that are. For example, I once observed a kindergarten teacher using a color by number activity to help her teach number order. I believe this was an ineffective way to instill the desired knowledge into her students. Color by number activities are fun and do require students to have number recognition skills, but they do not require the students to put the numbers in number order.
Current vs. Desired Conditions Currently, several teachers in an elementary school are ineffectively teaching curriculum concepts they are required to teach. In return, students are confused, frustrated, and falling behind. When students are confused by what their teacher is trying to teach them, they become frustrated. When they become frustrated, they give up and end up not learning what the teacher wanted them to learn. This in turn causes them to make bad grades and fall behind grade level expectations. Desirable, if the teachers described above were incorporating activities into their lessons that actually related to the lesson objectives/curriculum concepts, a lot less students would be considered below grade level. When lesson activities relate to the lesson objectives/curriculum concepts, the students will gain a deeper understanding of the content being taught and will