Demonstration

First Principles Demonstration.png

Demonstration: Overview

The purpose of the demonstration phase is to show learners how to apply skills instead of merely telling them what to do. Demonstration activities can provide a meaningful context to general information, help learners develop mental models about the concepts, attract the learners’ attention, and sustain their curiosity. While demonstration activities are used to deliver the content, the learners don't need to be passive recipients.

Citing research on instruction, Merrill (2007, p. 10) Links to an external site. suggests demonstration activities should:

  1. Demonstrate through examples what is to be learned rather than merely telling information about what is to be learned.
  2. Provide demonstrations that are consistent with the content being taught, including examples and non-examples for kinds-of (i.e. concepts), demonstrations for how-to (i.e. procedures), and visualizations for what-happens (i.e. processes).
  3. Include learner guidance techniques, such as directing the learner's attention to relevant information, including and comparing multiple representations, relating new information to previously recalled or provided information.
  4. Incorporate media that are relevant to the content and used to enhance learning.

Examples of Demonstration Instructional Activities

Let's consider two examples of demonstration activities: (1) presentations, and (2) story-sharing. Presentation activities are used to demonstrate a process, model a behavior or show concepts. Storytelling brings human dimension into the lesson.

Presentations

  • When to use presentations: Presentations can be used to demonstrate procedures, model human behaviors, or deliver basic information. Done effectively and efficiently, presentations supply information in a clear, well-organized, and logical manner. 
  • How presentations work: Presentations work best in a sequential structure in which the introduction, body, and summary are presented in a way that the sequence clarifies the subject.
  • Types of presentations:
    1. Slide presentations can be used to convey information. Usually, they are not effective because the learners are not mentally engaged in the topic. One way to increase the effectiveness of slide presentations is to put less information on each slide so that your learners need to work to fill in the gaps, and learn strategies to solve the problems.
    2. Physical demonstrations are useful to show performing a physical procedure, such as repairing a car, or model a human behavior, such as using body language. The purpose of the physical demonstration is to show the right or wrong way to interact with a three-dimensional object.
    3. Information films are a type of demonstrations activity that the documentary films or films of that nature are used to educate, inform, and motivate learners. They can be used to explain a subject in a definite logical order.
    4. Discussions can be used to challenge learners or encourage learners to reveal opinions or important information. The different types of activities are debates, interviews, panel discussions, etc.
  • Best practices for presentations: Horton (2006) suggests some of the best practices for demonstration activities include:
    1. Reinforcing the message with visuals.
    2. Supplying examples and non-examples to clarify the topic to enable learners to elaborate on the topic.
    3. Combining presentation with the application and integration activities to ensure that learners will not be passive so long.

Sharing Stories

  • When to use stories: Stories show the human dimension of a subject by demonstrating how it affects the life of a person. Stories give concrete instances of the subject matter; they encourage and motivate learners to overcome difficulties as well as stories can be used to show the importance of a topic. Using stories increases the probability of sticking information in our memory because stories have a framework and an internal logic, and characters that attract people’s attention.
  • How story-sharing works:
      1. The instructor introduces a story by mentioning the importance of the story. Then, the instructor states how it is related to the topic.
      2. The learners listen to the instructor’s story.
      3. The instructor asks the learners to share a story that is related to the subject.
      4. The instructor recaps the main points of the story.
  • Best Practices for Story-Sharing:
    1. Use a short and focused story to deliver the content.
    2. Use credible stories to share experiences.
    3. Combine story-sharing with other activities.

Pause.png Before you move on ...

Circling back to the learning log you started at the beginning of this module, consider the practice of demonstration. How do you think it promotes learning? Also, think about the possible ways to use demonstration phase for the next possible scenarios.

  • Scenario 1: You will teach your learners about a feature of a device. How would you demonstrate it?
  • Scenario 2: How would you incorporate demonstration with your learners when teaching about an animal's behaviors?

Possible Answers:

  • Scenario 1: Have your learners interact with the device as a part of their learning experience. Give specific real-world tasks to your learners that requires them to use relevant features of the device.
  • Scenario 2: Use pictures and videos to demonstrate the animal's behavior.

Design Checkbox.png Your Design Decisions

Thinking about your target audience of learners, your lesson's objectives, and the learning context for the lesson you are designing, what types of demonstration activities could you incorporate into your lesson to demonstrate (versus tell) what is to be learned? How could you incorporate presentation, storytelling, or other demonstration strategies? What learner guidance is needed within the demonstration?