Thank you for sharing your investigation into the Inquiry Approach of instruction. It seems that the process of inquiry as you outline it encourages students to learn deeply whatever their interests may be and share what they learn with others. Since you have chosen the topic of your Learning Design Blueprint and provided resources and structured tests, would you say that your alignment is with early-stage inquiry-based learning? It is an intriguing approach to teaching and bound to motivate students to follow their curiosity to learn more!
Category: edci335 (Page 2 of 2)
Design Thinking is a human-centred approach to problem solving, meaning that it revolves around meeting the needs of the people who require solutions. The process consists of five phases (Dam & Teo, 2024):
- Empathize – At this stage, the designer collects quantitative and qualitative data and considers both to gain a robust understanding of target users’ needs.
- Define – Once user needs are established, the designer can define the problem. In real life, problems are not always well-defined. For this reason, this stage may be revisited at any time, as user needs are better understood, to revise the problem.
- Ideate – The designer generates ideas to solve the problem.
- Prototype – A solution is fleshed out.
- Test – The prototype is tested for efficacy.
This process is non-linear and iterative. Rather than follow the steps sequentially, any phase can be revisited to improve upon the solution (Dam & Teo, 2024). However, the intent is to create working protypes early so that they can be tested and learned from (Belling, 2020). The approach encourages the designer to understand users, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems with the end goal of improving products (Dam & Teo, 2024).
Alignment
The Big Ideas of our Design unit are “variety and balance are vital to healthy eating” and “fad diets can negatively impact physical and mental health.” In Health Promot J Austral, Romero & Donaldson (2024) include many examples of design thinking in public health education, which suggests that design thinking would align with our health topic as well. We currently have planned an activity in which students learn to evaluate the healthfulness of a meal and create healthy meals to apply the understanding of healthful eating to make personal choices. We could alter this assignment to involve design thinking by asking students to help a fellow student make improvements to their diet.
First, they would interview the other student in order to understand their current diet. Next, they would define the problem by choosing something in the diet to improve. They would then ideate by coming up with some ideas of changes to make in order to improve the diet, and prototype by creating a plan to make those changes. They would propose the plan and seek feedback from the other student to test the prototype. Is this a plan that the other student could realistically follow? Does it seem consistent with food guidelines as they understand it? The student would use this feedback to improve their suggested plan.
This process would require the learner to understand both the target user and guidelines around healthy food choices, addressing the first Big Idea of the unit.
References
- Dam, R. F. and Teo, Y. S. (2024, December 3). What is Design Thinking and Why Is It So Popular?. Interaction Design Foundation – IxDF. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/what-is-design-thinking-and-why-is-it-so-popular
- Romero, V. and Donaldson H. Human-centred design thinking and public health education: A scoping review. Health Promot J Austral. 2024; 35(3): 688–700. https://doi.org/10.1002/hpja.802
- Belling, S. (2020). Design Thinking with Agile. In: Succeeding with Agile Hybrids. Apress, Berkeley, CA. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.1007/978-1-4842-6461-4_10
Topic Overview
Concise Description and citing of at least 2 academic articles:
Health education is vital to everyone’s success. Education on what an appropriate diet consists of is necessary to see an overall growth of healthy relationships with food. Through social media and scientifically unsupported sources, there has been an unprecedented amount of encouragement towards dangerous dieting and fads. Oklahoma State University (Cena, H., & Calder, P. C., 2020) explains how fad diets contribute to increased body dissatisfaction, lower self-esteem, and lead to an increased risk of mortality, the development of eating disorders, impaired bone health, and infertility. Healthy food habits refer to well-balanced food intake and creating meals that emphasize proper diet, a comprehension of what you’re eating, and adaptability. These habits show massive health benefits. Research done by Cena, H., & Calder, P. C. (2020) helps link these dietary patterns to health “Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes, obesity, and cognitive impairment are among the leading causes of death; indeed, the marked rise in chronic NCDs has a causal link to global dietary patterns.” The increased prevalence surrounding fad diets highlights the need for a balanced, evidence based approach to educating the population about nutrition. Lot’s of individuals are falling into this trap Canada’s Food Guide (2024) explains that a proper diet is not about eliminating specific foods but rather focusing on variety, balance, and moderation. By focusing on nourishment and not repression, individuals can create lifelong healthy habits that support both physical and mental health, reducing the risks with non-communicable diseases and disordered eating patterns.
This learning plan will equip students with the knowledge to make informed dietary choices, be able to debunk fad diets, and understand the nutritional benefits for long term health – understanding that is grounded in academic research and Canada’s food guides. This plan combines quizzes, meal plans, and a media presentation to reinforce learning. By fostering critical thinking and practical application, this resource promotes lifelong healthy habits and combats misinformation.
1-2 misconceptions about your topic. What do people usually misunderstand about it? What mistakes do they often make?:
One of the most prevalent misconceptions about living a healthy lifestyle is that fad diets offer a quick fix to health issues such as obesity, acne, and mood problems (Kumar & Docter, 2023). These claims are often not supported by research and generally have an extremist approach, meaning they tend to involve eating plenty of one thing or restricting too much of another. The issues with these approaches are that they are often not sustainable because they cut too many calories to support daily activities, create weight loss and weight gain cycles, and may create too much focus on food which interferes with enjoyment of other activities (Dixon & Doctor, 2023). Additionally, fad diets pose many potential health risks such as energy deprivation, inadequate nutrients, and a poor relationship with food. Another common misconception about achieving a healthy diet is eliminating ‘unhealthy’ foods entirely. Unfortunately, this often leads to many adverse health effects and cycles of guilt, overeating, and general stress about food. Again, this extreme approach does not promote long-term health or sustainability (Kumar & Docter, 2023).
Rather than these restrictive and extreme methods for creating a healthy lifestyle, Canada’s Food Guide (2024) recommends striving for balance and aiming to prioritize whole, nutrient-dense foods. An important consideration is that there is no “one-size-fits-all”; and rather, individuals have different goals, preferences, and lifestyles. Therefore, one should focus on enjoying their food, forming good habits, and maintaining overall health to achieve what works for them.
A rationale for developing your learning resource based on this topic. What is it about this topic in particular that is of interest to you?:
The rise of fad diets, often promoted through social media and other non-expert sources, has become a significant concern in today’s society. These diets claim to provide quick fixes for weight loss or health improvement but are rarely sustainable and can even be harmful (Sciarrillo et al., 2020). Many individuals, particularly younger people who are more engaged with social media, struggle to critically assess dietary information, making them vulnerable to these misleading claims. This is why the development of this learning resource is essential. It addresses a critical gap in nutritional literacy, equipping learners with the skills to recognize the dangers of fad diets and make evidence-based decisions about their diet.
The topic is particularly important because unqualified sources often promote restrictive eating practices that prioritize short-term results over long-term health. Inadequate understanding of nutrition can lead to unhealthy relationships with food and increase the risk of chronic health conditions. By promoting the importance of balanced and sustainable eating habits, this resource aims to counter these harmful trends and encourage a more mindful approach to food. Canada’s Food Guide (2024) underscores the importance of eating habits that are not only nutritious but also enjoyable and sustainable. It challenges the notion of careless restriction, emphasizing that long-term well-being is best supported through balanced eating. This learning resource aligns with that approach, helping learners apply credible knowledge in practical ways, such as through meal planning activities. By teaching critical thinking and providing tools to assess nutritional information, it empowers individuals to make decisions that foster long-term health and well-being.
Learning Design
Time to complete: 2 hours
Format: asynchronous online, with synchronous group activities
Target Learner: general public
| Big Ideas Variety and balance are vital to healthy eating. Fad diets can negatively impact physical and mental health. | Essential questions: 1) How should one eat to attain optimal health? 2) Why should one be concerned about what we eat? 3) How can we change from unhealthy eating habits to healthy ones? 4) How can I recognize diet messages that are harmful to me? |
| Learning Outcome(s) The learner will be able to… | …evaluate the healthfulness of a meal, according to Canada’s Food Guide …apply their understanding of variety and balance in eating to make healthful personal choices …identify unhealthful diets …explain the dangers of several fad diets …identify several myths related to health and diet |
| Evidence of Learning | – The learner correctly edits a given meal to be one that is consistent with Canada’s Food Guide. – The learner creates a meal plan that is consistent with recommended foods, proportions, and portion sizes. – The learner achieves at least 50% on a test/quiz. – The learner’s presentation shows understanding of 2 – 3 myths/fads and their dangers. |
| Assessments | – Write a test / quiz – Create a healthy meal plan – Give a presentation about fad diets and diet myths |
| Learning Activities | – Video introducing link between unhealthy eating and disease – Read an article and a webpage about healthy food choices. – Read information from a given fact sheet created using Canada’s Food Guide. – Given a picture of an unhealthy meal, make substitutions from available choices to transform it into a healthy meal. – In groups, plan a healthy meal to share between you. Include amounts of each of your ingredients and explain why you made the choices you made. – Read about and/or watch videos about several fad diets and myths. – In your groups, create a short video, comic, or essay to convince people that fad diets and myths can be harmful. |
List of Resources Learners need to access
- Mayo Clinic Minute Video introducing links between unhealthy eating and disease
- Article developed for this course
- fact sheet developed for this course
- Canada’s Food Guide
- Illustration of an unhealthy meal
- Articles and videos about fad diets and diet myths
- No Nonsense Nutrition: How to Spot a Fad Diet, American Heart Association, or Fad Diets, The UK Association of Dietecians
- Keto Diet: Does it Really Work for Weight Loss
- The Vegan Diet
- Nutrition Myths – Busted!
- Guidelines for meal correction assignment, meal planning, and presentation assignment
- Access to Internet
- Moodle
- Zoom Meetings or other online meeting software
- Optional: Video capture technology, such as a smart phone.
References
- Canada’s Food Guide. (2024, January 4). Diets and food trends. https://food- guide.canada.ca/en/tips-for-healthy-eating/diets-food-trends/
- Cena, H., & Calder, P. C. (2020). Defining a healthy diet: Evidence for the role of contemporary dietary patterns in health and disease. Nutrients, 12(2), 334. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12020334
- Kumar, M. M., & Dixon Docter, A. (Eds.). (2023). Fad diets and adolescents: A guide for clinicians, educators, coaches and trainers. Springer Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10565-4
- Sciarrillo, C., Joyce, J., Hildebrand, D., & Emerson, S. (2020, November). The health risks of fad diets. Oklahoma State University Extension. https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/the-health-risk-of-fad-diets.html
Project Plan
| EverythingSoup | Learning Activities |
| Ethan | Assessment |
| Conrad | Overview, citations |
| Ahyun | Rationale, citations |
I enjoyed the connections you made in this blog post, Kate. Your journey of learning Spanish illustrates very well the different lenses of behaviourism, cognitivism, and constructivism. I can see how memorization of vocabulary and rules would be limiting. It sounds like the lack of support for learning beyond facts contributed to your lack of confidence at the time. I’m curious if your search for more engaging ways to learn influenced your teacher’s cognitive approach or if their approach and your need was a happy coincidence? Or perhaps, this evolution of need is anticipated by teachers as learners reach a particular point in language learning? In any case, it is clear that the move to cognitive and constructivist approaches allowed you to take your learning to a level where the language was useful for communication. How brave you have to be to put yourself into these situations where you must make many mistakes in order to learn from them.
Integration of the approaches as you describe it for your high school social studies class makes a great deal of sense. As you found from your experience, the foundational knowledge gives a student knowledge and ideas to connect and apply, but the opportunity to make those real world and personal connections is so important to engagement. Would you use a similar structure for an elementary class? Does the level of learning affect how you would balance the approaches?
In the blog post, “Overcoming Challenges in a New Professional Role,” Conrad describes his experience adapting to his first job requiring his training in first aid and CPR. He talks about the power of learning with the constructivist approach, in which he performs in real situations, gets feedback from a colleague, and applies the learning to new situations. He also talks about applying information he has learned from studying principles and procedures using behaviourist and constructivist approaches of learning.
I can really see the progression of learning through this description of your experience, Conrad. As in the class readings, you note the difference in approaches, from behaviourist during practice and with repeated exposure, to constructivist, where you utilize higher thinking skills as you solve unique problems in real situations. I think you made an important observation when you drew on the things you learned with behaviourist and cognitivist approaches in order to support your ability to learn more in a constructivist approach. We really cannot rely on one approach for everything, can we? I am curious, because you mention both behaviourism and cognitivism, but give an example only for behaviourist learning, in what ways did cognitivist learning play a part in your training?
It sounds like the learning in your constructivist phase of this experience was more challenging and a bit disquieting. Having those answers or solutions that we, as learners, can identify as definitely right or wrong makes us feel safe. But, as you said, exploring the grey areas where we look at things we can do better or worse allows us to gain deeper understanding and a different kind of confidence. Now that you have that richer understanding, do you still find yourself ever going back to relying on the memorized knowledge you gained?
What are some other examples of situations where you think combining learning strategies is applicable?
Post #1
Blog Post Prompt: Based on your reading, would you consider your current instruction style more behavioralist, cognitivist, or constructivist? Elaborate with your specific mindset and examples.
Many teachers develop their instructional style intuitively, based on how they themselves learned and how they believe people learn. In order to gain more instructional tools, it is useful to reflect upon the ways in which people learn and make connections with one’s own teaching style. In EDCI 335’s course reading, Learning Theories (2025), three major theories of learning are described: behaviourism, cognitivism, and constructivism.
| Behaviourism | Teaching based on behaviourist theories focus on helping students change their behaviour based on what they are taught. For example, a behaviourist would consider a student to be successful at learning 3 x 8 if the student can consistently respond to the question with 24. |
| Cognitivism | Cognitivist teaching is concerned less with what students can observably do and more concerned with students’ thinking processes. A teacher using cognitivist strategies strives to help students develop skills for problem solving, reasoning, language, and mathematical thinking. For example, knowing that 3 x 8 is 3 groups of 8 or 8 groups of 3, and being able use that idea to solve problems is more important than simply knowing the result, 24. |
| Constructivism | Constructivism considers that learners make their own meaning from personal experience and reasoning. A teacher using a constructivist lens attempts to create authentic situations, similar to those in which the learners will apply the new knowledge, and guides learners to construct meaning and check themselves for accuracy, as in an apprenticeship. |
Where Do I Fit?
When I consider my own current instructional style, I think I lean towards cognitivism. I like to present students with novel problems which allow them to show me their current understanding of concepts and the lines of reasoning they use as they attempt to solve them. As well, part of my explicit instruction is to point out similarities between the strategies they have used to solve problems with new strategies that can be useful. As a Math teacher, I feel that helping students be aware of ways of visualizing concepts and applying this understanding in their reasoning and problem solving is an important part of my job. Additionally, I include in my lesson planning plenty of time for practice with immediate feedback to help students effectively assimilate new concepts and processes.
Although cognitivism is a large part of my teaching, I also feel that behaviourist and constructivist lenses play an important role in my instructional design. As more students arrive in my high school classes not knowing facts such as multiplication tables, I have begun to incorporate behaviourist strategies like asking for fact recall during instruction and reviewing periodically so that less information is forgotten.
I have also heard from many people who say that they struggled with learning Math because the problems were so different from how they might apply it outside of the classroom. I try to construct authentic problems for my students to help them make those connections. As well, to allow students to create more personal meaning to their learning, I encourage them to work together on the problems and identify things they learn during the process, and I create opportunities for them to apply concepts and strategies in creative ways. I coach them in learning to validate their own solutions and make judgements about the quality of their solutions.
Overall, I feel that it is important not to subscribe to a single theory of learning, but to use the lens most appropriate to designing for what we hope our students will learn. In the BC Curriculum, we want our mathematics students not only to be able to calculate using established algorithms, but also to develop their reasoning, demonstrate understanding, make personal decisions, and reflect upon connections. Teaching each of these Curricular Competencies needs a distinct approach and requires us as teachers to be well versed in all three of the major theories of learning.
References
Learning theories. EDCI 335. (2025). https://edtechuvic.ca/edci335/learning-theories/
Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. (2018). Chapter 11 Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism. In Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology West, R. E. (Ed.). EdTech Books.
Featured Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com.
Hello, welcome to Learning with Technology! I am EverythingSoup, which is a lot like something I make for my family at the end of the week. The soup has a little of this and a little of that, using things that aren’t necessarily often cooked together, but combines to make a dish that works.
Professionally, I am a secondary school Math (and, technically, Science) teacher. Having moved to “The Island” from the Lower Mainland a couple of summers ago, I find myself working in part-time contracts, and thought that the time I have spent not working could be put to good use in upgrading my teaching skills. I hope that I will learn a great deal in EDCI 335: Learning Design in Technology-Mediated Environments.
My interest in using technology for learning comes from a few different experiences. I spent a decade as a co-owner of a video production company, where I picked up skills related to the use of website, graphic design, and, of course, video production software. I also supported my children in Distributed Learning and Online Learning programs throughout much of their K-12 education. We found some learning environments to be easier to navigate and learn from than others. When I returned to classroom teaching a few years ago, I found that online resources and applications were being widely used in schools. At the same time, the classroom is still very different from online spaces and other digitally delivered programming. I look forward to digging deeper into the ideas and practices around course and environment designs for effective learning.
Personally, I am a quiet person. I am mom to two young adults and share life with my wonderfully creative and joyful partner. In my free time, I love to ballroom dance, go on hikes, or cuddle up with a good book.
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