CRI Curriculum Design & Development 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A CRI instructor wants to reduce cognitive overload for beginning steno students. Which instructional strategy BEST addresses this goal?
- Presenting all steno theory rules in a single introductory unit
- Chunking new information into small, manageable segments (Correct answer)
- Requiring students to take dictation at 100 wpm from day one
- Providing detailed written manuals without guided practice
Correct answer: Chunking new information into small, manageable segments
Chunking breaks complex material into smaller units, reducing cognitive overload by limiting the amount of new information processed at once.
Question 2: Which curriculum design approach organizes content around real-world professional tasks rather than academic subjects or disciplines?
- Subject-centered design
- Learner-centered design
- Problem-centered design (Correct answer)
- Core curriculum design
Correct answer: Problem-centered design
Problem-centered design organizes curriculum around real-life tasks and problems students will face in their professional roles.
Question 3: When conducting a curriculum mapping exercise, what is the primary goal?
- Creating a visual layout of the classroom seating arrangement
- Documenting what is taught, when, and how it aligns with outcomes (Correct answer)
- Mapping geographic locations of practicum sites
- Designing the physical layout of the instructional materials
Correct answer: Documenting what is taught, when, and how it aligns with outcomes
Curriculum mapping documents the content, skills, and assessments across courses to identify gaps, redundancies, and alignment with program outcomes.
Question 4: In criterion-referenced assessment used in court reporting programs, student performance is compared to:
- The performance of other students in the class
- A predetermined standard or level of mastery (Correct answer)
- National averages for the same exam
- The instructor's subjective judgment
Correct answer: A predetermined standard or level of mastery
Criterion-referenced assessment measures performance against a fixed standard (e.g., 95% accuracy at 225 wpm) rather than against peers.
Question 5: Which learning theory most directly supports the use of immediate corrective feedback in steno speed drills?
- Constructivism
- Behaviorism (Correct answer)
- Humanism
- Connectivism
Correct answer: Behaviorism
Behaviorism emphasizes reinforcement and corrective feedback to shape behavior, making it highly applicable to skill-drilling in court reporting training.
Question 6: A court reporting program wants to integrate real-time courtroom scenarios into the curriculum. This approach is BEST supported by which learning theory?
- Behaviorism
- Cognitivism
- Situated learning theory (Correct answer)
- Maturationism
Correct answer: Situated learning theory
Situated learning theory, associated with Lave and Wenger, posits that learning is most effective when embedded in authentic, real-world contexts.
Question 7: When a CRI instructor revises a course based on poor student performance data, this action is BEST described as:
- Needs analysis
- Curriculum evaluation and revision (Correct answer)
- Summative assessment
- Program accreditation
Correct answer: Curriculum evaluation and revision
Using student performance data to identify weaknesses and revise a course is a core function of continuous curriculum evaluation and improvement.
CRI Curriculum Design & Development 5
A CRI instructor wants to reduce cognitive overload for beginning steno students.
Which instructional strategy BEST addresses this goal?