Teachers' Cooperative Design of Instruction with Media for Social and Environmental Studies.

This study examines how a group of Japanese teachers cooperatively designed lessons using a television program and other materials for social and environmental studies. Teachers started the design by identifying their aims of instruction through examining the contents of an educational television program. This program described how a group of volunteers dug a well using traditional machinery of bamboo trees and seeks to apply this method in other countries where people need water and where modern technology is not appropriate to use. The cooperative design proceeded through several decision points of teacher domain and media domain. Based on this work, three different instructional sessions were conducted in which the television materials were used in order to accomplish the teachers' aims which differed from one another. This work showed that teachers can attain individual aims from the common materials and also presented a model for cooperative design of classroom instruction. (Contains 6 references.) (Author/TMK)