be as widespread a problem for higher levels of education, but it is a big problem for lower levels, because gaps in learning can make related future learning difficult and frustrating.
Second, the skills and competencies that we teach through TBI are usually ones that our learners will need to transfer to a broad range of situations, especially for complex cognitive tasks. However, in TBI learners typically use a skill only once or twice in the performance of the project. This makes it difficult for them to learn to use the skill in the full range of situations in which they are likely to need it in the future. Many skills require extensive practice to develop them to a proficient or expert level, yet that rarely happens in TBI.
Third, some skills need to be automatized in order to free up the person’s conscious cognitive processing for higher-level thinking required during performance of a task. TBI does not address this instructional need.
Finally, much learner time can be wasted during TBI – searching for information, doing busywork, repeating the use of skills that have already been mastered, and struggling to learn without sufficient guidance or support. It is often important, not just in corporate training, but also in K-12 and higher education, to get the most learning in the least amount of time. Such efficiency is not typically a hallmark of TBI.
Given these four problems with TBI – difficulty ensuring mastery, transfer, automaticity, and efficiency – does this mean we should abandon TBI and go with direct instruction, as Kirschner, Sweller and Clark (2006) propose? To quote a famous advertisement, “Not exactly.” I now explore this issue.