My clinical practice is built on Merrill’s First Principles of Instruction, applied to teaching programming. The whole curriculum is one artifact: a todo-list web application the student builds up step by step. Here is what each principle actually looks like on a Tuesday.
Task-centered
The curriculum is an artifact rather than a topic list: a real application the student builds up step by step. Concepts arrive when the app needs them rather than "for later," and the task grows as they do.
Activation
Lessons usually open with a warm-up that revisits the last session by doing, rather than by me recapping it.
Demonstration
I introduce and play with the new tool using example data, while the student watches.
Application
The student practices a similar task while I watch. They explain each piece back to me as it lands, the AI's lines included, and I coach by question where a question will get there, and answer outright when it would only stall them.
Integration
The student actually uses what they built, and keeps a running list of its annoyances and the features they wish it had. Those lists become the next lessons, which they now drive.
How the four cycle around the one task
Task-centered
Activation
Demonstration
Application
Integration
A 50-minute lesson usually runs this cycle
- Warm-upactivation
- Live demodemonstration
- You buildapplication
- Reflectintegration
References
- Merrill, M. D. (2002). First principles of instruction. Educational Technology Research and Development, 50(3), 43–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02505024
- Merrill, M. D. (2013). First principles of instruction: Identifying and designing effective, efficient, and engaging instruction. Pfeiffer.
Also at /clincal-practice on the Moreland site