New Wave College Instruction: Some Thoughts and Approaches.

"New wave" instructional theory and approaches are surfacing in dialogues on teaching and learning and in classroom activities of avant-garde instructors. In an adaption and sequal to Toffler's ideas on the rapidly fading industrial age, instruction in higher education needs to be updated with the application of futuristic thinking. To change, it will be necessary to alter assumptions and beliefs about college students and the validity, long-term importance, and durability of the information that is taught--for example, what is important in preparing young people for the high technology space age. The kind of creative thinking about what and how college instructors teach needs to be grounded on the future. Five "new wave" recommendations are to (1) create a responsive environment; (2) design experiential learning activities; (3) develop cooperative learning efforts; (4) foster metacognitive growth in learning; and (5) provide for diverse learning styles and modes of acquiring information and displaying learning. (Seventeen references are appended.) (MS)