Application

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Application: Overview

The purpose of application phase is to elevate learning from passive reading and watching to applying and creating knowledge. This phase includes the instructional interactions with the content, the instructor, and others that facilitate practice of knowledge and skills. After a skill is demonstrated, the learners should be given ample opportunities to apply their new knowledge with guidance and feedback that is corrective, specific, and timely. Citing research on instruction, Merrill (2007, p. 12) Links to an external site. suggests application activities should:

  1. Give learners an opportunity to practice and apply their newly acquired knowledge or skill.
  2. Include application (practice) and assessment (tests) consistent with the stated or implied objectives.
  3. Follow practice with corrective feedback, and an indication of progress (as opposed to just right-wrong feedback).
  4. Offer learners access to help or provide coaching when they are having difficulty in solving the problem or doing the task wherein coaching gradually diminishes with each subsequent task until learners are performing on-their-own.
  5. Require learners to use their new knowledge or skill to solve a varied sequence of problems or complete a varied sequence of tasks.

Examples of Application Instructional Activities

The following are a few examples of activities can be used for the application phase.

  • Practice activities help your learners apply knowledge and skills taught during the instruction.
  • Discovery and case study activities can be used to motivate and encourage your learners to invest mental effort in practices or problem-solving.
  • Games and Simulations can be used to have your learners apply information in a more realistic environment to motivate them.

Practice Activities

Practice activities encourage and prepare your learners to apply the new knowledge and skill as well as they build confidence in the ability to apply learning. Types of practice activities are:

  • Hands-on activities are the activities where your learners use real tools with guidance, such as filling in a form or using calculation. The instructor starts out explaining the purpose of the activity. Then, the learners perform each step and receive feedback about their performance. The instructor helps the learners when they can’t perform a step or task. Finally, the learners test their ability to perform the task or procedure on their own.
  • Guided analysis activities are the activities where an instructor leads the learners through an analysis task with step-by-step instruction. Guided analysis can be used in different forms. The instructor can guide the learners to compare and contrast alternatives by creating a side-by-side comparison. The other methods for can be to classify items or put the items in a hierarchical order. When using guided analysis, the instructor needs to focus attention on the principle. Also, the instructor should keep the analysis simple and provide all information that needs to be analyzed to the learners. During the activity, always ask questions that provoke deeper thinking, such as,
    • What is wrong with this item?
    • How can you correct the error?
    • What would be the results of performing this action?
  • Teamwork activities can be used to have your learners collaborate to perform complex tasks. Teamwork activities should be preferred when the skills you want to teach require more than individual efforts, such as creating a report for art class. Using teamwork activities can be challenging because each learner brings a different approach. To prevent possible conflicts and misunderstanding, the instructor needs to make clear grading criteria. Also, a suggested timeline should be given to the learners to encourage the learners to complete their part on time.

How to use practice activities

  1. An instructor assigns a task for the learner to perform.
  2. The learners perform the task.
  3. The instructor evaluates the learners' performance and gives feedback.
  4. The instructor allows the learners to practice until the learners reach high performance.

Best practices for practice activities

  • Let learners practice as much as they need.
  • Ensure that learners apply the right knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
  • Do not oversimplify practice.

Discovery Activities

Discovery activities are an alternative to presentation-based teaching. You can use discovery activities for:

  • Exploratory learning to help the learners discover skills and knowledge by themselves rather giving them.
  • Revealing principles to help the learners discover relationships for themselves, which reinforces their learning.
  • Stimulation of curiosity to motivate the learners by allowing them discover and look for possible explanations for what they discover.
  • Case studies
  • Case studies enable learners to apply analytical and problem-solving skills when they attempt to discover and abstract useful concepts and principles.
  • When using case studies, the instructor uses a real-world event, process, or system so that learners can answer the questions or generalize the principles revealed by the case.

Case Studies

Case studies are useful to teach complex skills. When you are using case studies to teach a subject, always pay attention to following four questions:

  • Personal goals: what do you hope your learners to gain by examining the case?
  • Summary: what does the case say?
  • Reaction: what is significant about the case for your learners? What do your learners’ background and experience tell you about it?
  • Utility: how can your learners apply what they learned in this activity?

Games and Simulations

The idea of using games and simulations are used in education has been around for a long time. Games should be used to teach first and entertain second. Games enable learners practice tasks, apply knowledge, and infer principles. Different types of learning games can be used (e.g., quiz-show games, word puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, etc. Links to an external site.)

Pause.png Before you move on ...

Consider the practice of application. How do you think learner application promotes learning?

Design Checkbox.png Your Evaluation Decisions

Think about the personas we reviewed within Module 1 and the lesson you chose to evaluate. Review the lesson plan and related instructional materials and reflect on the following:

  • What specific application activities (if any) are included within the lesson that require learners to use (apply) the new skill or knowledge?
  • Is the learner guided in their application / problem solving via feedback and coaching? If so, what learner guidance (from an instructor or the materials) is given within the designed application activities?
  • Are the learner practice opportunities consistent with lesson's objectives?
  • Overall, to what extent do you feel these application activities are effectively and efficiently designed?
  • What examples from either Adding TEC-Variety Links to an external site. by Curtis J. Bonk and Elaine Khoo or Kelly Rowan's glossary instructional strategies Links to an external site. are applicable to the application phase?
  • What other application activities could incorporate into a redesign of your lesson for the subject and topic of instruction you are evaluating, as well as the learner persona you are contemplating?