This study aims at costructing an instructional design support system and evaluating its effectiveness for classroom activities by teachers. Main features of this system are based on an expert system using OPS83 and a data base management system with content frame data. Using this system, teachers input information on teaching style/strategy of class readiness and atmosphere. The system will then generate appropriate documentation for an instructional plan which can be modified and used in the classroom. Teachers can revise the plan after class and refine the accuracy of decision making for instructional planning though this process.
It is extremely difficult to predict instructional events occurring in the classroom when designing classroom teaching and lesson plan construction. The authors presume, however, that it is possible to describe a lesson plan in the form of a set of hypothesis and to examine their validity after actually teaching with it. The hypotheses can then be amended according to actual events observed and recorded during teaching and further refined to be more reliable in their objectivity. This method was applied in designing a lesson on Social Studies at the junior high school level and discussed in light of its validity.
In order to study instructional characteristics offered by chatting on computer networks as a teaching medium for distance education, on-line teaching was carried out. Participant attitude and the quantity of utterances were investigated and the following results obtained. Concerning teaching with a computer network, (1) although the learner is active in communicating, utilizing this medium as a substitute for normal teaching lengthens teaching time and increases communication difficulty due to keyboard input ; (2) a plan utilizing characteristics for learning with concise utterances and easy to understand and use images needs to be examined ; (3) a questionnaire on participant attitude indicated a higher value was place on this teaching medium than normal teaching and also revealed low psychological resistance to it as a teaching medium.