45 The Influence of Advertising
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Discuss how social media has altered the advertising landscape
- Explain the influence of advertising on consumers
- Analyze the potential for subliminal advertising
The advertising industry revolves around creating commercial messages urging the purchase of new or improved products or services in a variety of media: print, online, digital, television, radio, and outdoor. Because as consumers we need and want to be informed, this feature of advertising is to the good. Yet some advertising is intended to lead to the purchase of goods and services we do not need. Some ads may make claims containing only the thinnest slice of truth or exaggerate and distort what the goods and services can actually deliver. All these tactics raise serious ethical concerns that we will consider here.
The Rise of Social Media
Relevant to any discussion of the influence and ethics of advertising is the emergence and dominance of social media, which now serve as the format within which many people most often encounter ads. Kelly Jensen, a digital-marketing consultant, observed that we inhabit a “Digital Era” in which “the internet is arguably the single most influential factor of our culture—transforming the way we view communication, relationships, and even ourselves. Social media platforms have evolved to symbolize the status of both individuals and businesses alike. . . Today, using social media to create brand awareness, drive revenue, engage current customers, and attract new ones isn’t optional anymore. Now it is an absolute ‘must.’”
These are bold claims—as are the claims of some advertising—but Jensen argues convincingly that social media platforms reach many consumers, especially younger ones, who simply cannot be captured by conventional advertising schemes. For those who derive most of the significant information that shapes their lives solely through electronic sources, nothing other than social media–based appeals stands much chance of influencing their purchasing decisions.
This upending of conventional modes of advertising has begun to change the content of ads dramatically. It certainly presents a new stage on which people as young as their teens increasingly rely for help in choosing what to buy. Many marketers have come to appreciate that if they are not spreading the word about their products and services via an electronic source, many millennials will ignore it.
Undeniably, a digital environment for advertising, selling, and delivering products and services functions as a two-edged sword for business. It provides lightning-quick access to potential customers, but it also opens pathways for sensitive corporate and consumer data to be hacked on an alarming scale. It offers astute companies nearly unlimited capacity to brand themselves positively in the minds of purchasers, but it simultaneously offers a platform for disgruntled stakeholders to assail companies for both legitimate and self-serving reasons.
Paul A. Argenti, who has taught business communication for many years at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University, has studied this dilemma. As he put it, “mobile apps have created a new playground for cyber-thieves.”
And consumer advocates and purchasers alike “now use technology to rally together and fuel or escalate a crisis—posing additional challenges for the corporation” in the crosshairs of criticism. Finally, “the proliferation of online blogs and social networking sites has greatly increased the visibility and reach of all current events, not excluding large corporate”
bungling.
Regardless of the delivery platform, however, any threat that the advertising of unnecessary or harmful products may pose to our autonomy as consumers is complicated by the fact that sometimes we willingly choose to buy goods or services we may not necessarily require. Sometimes we even buy things that have been proven to be harmful to us, such as cigarettes and sugary drinks. Yet we may desire these products even if we do not need them. If we have the disposable income to make these discretionary purchases, why should we not do so, and why should advertisers not advise us of their availability?
Does Advertising Drive Us to Unnecessary Purchases?
By definition, advertising aims to persuade consumers to buy goods and services, many of which are nonessential. Although consumers have long been encouraged to heed the warning caveat emptor (let the buyer beware), it is a valid question whether advertisers have any ethical obligation to rein in the oft-exaggerated claims of their marketing pitches. Most consumers emphatically would agree that they do.
The award-winning Harvard University economist John Kenneth Galbraith directly addressed this issue in The Affluent Society, first published in 1958. In what he depicted as the “the dependence effect,” Galbraith bemoaned the power of corporations to harness wide-ranging advertising strategies, marketing efforts, and sales pitches to influence consumer purchasing decisions.
He asked whether it is possible for a sophisticated advertising campaign to create a demand for a product whose benefits are frivolous at best. If so, is there anything inherently wrong with that? Or are informed consumers themselves responsible for resisting tempting—though misleading—advertising claims and exercising their own best judgment about whether to buy a product that might be successful, not because it deserves to be but simply because of the marketing hype behind it? These questions remain fundamental to the manager’s task of creating ethical advertising campaigns in which truthful content is prioritized over inducing wasteful consumption.
Psychological appeals form the basis of the most successful ads. Going beyond the standard ad pitch about the product’s advantages, psychological appeals try to reach our self-esteem and persuade us that we will feel better about ourselves if we use certain products. If advertising frames the purchase of a popular toy as the act of a loving parent rather than an extravagance, for instance, consumers may buy it not because their child needs it but because it makes them feel good about what generous parents they are. This is how psychological appeals become successful, and when they do work, this often constitutes a victory for the power of psychological persuasion at the expense of ethical truthfulness.
Purchases are also affected by our notion of what constitutes a necessity versus a luxury, and that perception often differs across generations. Older consumers today can probably remember when a cell phone was considered a luxury, for instance, rather than a necessity for every schoolchild. On the other hand, many younger consumers consider the purchase of a landline unnecessary, whereas some older people still use a conventional phone as their main or even preferred means of communication. The cars and suburban homes that were once considered essential purchases for every young family are slowly becoming luxuries, replaced, for many millennials, by travel. Generational differences like these are carefully studied by advertisers who are anxious to make use of psychological appeals in their campaigns.
A consumer craze based on little more than novelty—or, at least, not on necessity or luxury in the conventional sense—is the Pet Rock, a recurring phenomenon that began in 1977. Pet Rocks have been purchased by the millions over the years, despite being nothing more than rocks. During the 2017 holiday shopping season, they retailed at $19.95.
Is this a harmless fad, or a rip-off of gullible consumers who are persuaded it can satisfy a real need? In the annals of marketing, the Pet Rock craze denotes one of the most successful campaigns—still unfolding today, though in subdued fashion—in support of so dubious a product.
As long as marketers refrain from breaking the law or engaging in outright lies, are they still acting ethically in undertaking influential advertising campaigns that may drive gullible consumers to purchase products with minimal usefulness? Is this simply the free market in operation? In other words, are manufacturers just supplying a product, promoting it, and then seeing whether customers respond positively to it? Or are savvy marketing campaigns exerting too much influence on consumers ill prepared to resist them? Many people have long asked exactly these questions, and we still have arrived at no clear consensus as to how to answer them. Yet it remains an obligation of each new generation of marketers to reflect on these points and, at the very least, establish their convictions about them.
A second ethical question is how we should expect reasonable people to respond to an avalanche of marketing schemes deliberately intended to separate them from their hard-earned cash. Are consumers obligated to sift through all the messages and ultimately make purchasing decisions in their own best interest? For example, does a perceived “deal” on an unhealthy food option justify the purchase ((Figure))? These questions have no consensus answers, but they underlie any discussion of the point at which sophisticated advertising runs headlong into people’s obligation to take responsibility for the wisdom of their purchases.
No one would argue that children are particularly susceptible to the ads commercial television rains over them regularly. Generally, young children have not developed sufficient judgment to know what advertised products are good for them and which ones have little or no benefit or perhaps can even harm. Research has even shown that very young children have difficulty separating what is real on television from what is not. This is especially so as it pertains to advertising for junk food. Savvy marketers take advantage of the fact that young children (those younger than age seven or eight years) view advertising in the same manner they do information from trustworthy adults—that is, as very credible—and so marketers hone pitches for junk food directly to these children.
What restrictions could we reasonably impose on those who gear their ads toward children? We could argue that they should take special care that ads targeting children make absolutely no exaggerated claims, because children are less capable of seeing through the usual puffery that most of us ignore. Children are more literal, and once they gain the ability to understand messages directed toward them, especially when voiced by adult authority figures, they typically accept these as truthful statements.
When adults make poor consumer choices, who is responsible? Is it ourselves? Is it our society and culture, which permit the barrage of marketing to influence us in ways we often come to regret? Is it the persuasive power of marketers, which we should rein in through law? Do adults have the right to some assistance from marketers as they attempt to carry out their responsibility to protect children from manipulative ads? We have no easy answers to these questions, though they have taken on special urgency as technology has expanded the range of advertising even to our smartphones.
Is Subliminal Advertising Real?
It may be possible for marketing to be unfairly persuasive in ways that overwhelm the better judgment of consumers. Whether it is the consumers’ responsibility to resist or marketers’ to tone down their appeals, or both, will continue to be debated. Yet the question of where responsibility lies when consumers are steered to make choices certainly has ethical ramifications.
Some psychologists and educational specialists claim that the very old and the very young are particularly ill prepared to exercise good judgment in the face of subliminal advertising, that is, embedded words or images that allegedly reach us only beneath the level of our consciousness. Other experts, however, disagree and insist that subliminal advertising is an urban myth that no current technology could create or sustain.
A U.S. journalist, Vance Packard, published The Hidden Persuaders in 1957, contending that subliminal messaging had already been introduced into some U.S. cinemas to sell more refreshments at the theaters’ snack bars. Alarms sounded at the prospect, but it turned out that any data on which Packard was relying came from James Vicary, a U.S. market researcher who insisted he had engineered the feat in a cinema in New Jersey. No other substantiation was provided, and Vicary’s claim was eventually dismissed as self-promotion, which he seemed to concede in an interview five years later. Although the immediate threat of subliminal advertising receded, some people remain concerned that such persuasion might indeed be possible, especially with the advent of better technologies, like virtual reality, to implement it.
A 2015 study at the University of South Carolina found that thirsty test subjects placed in the role of shoppers in a simulated grocery store could be subliminally influenced in their choice of beverages if they were primed by images of various beverage brands within fifteen minutes of acknowledging being thirsty. After that window of time passed, however, any impact of subliminal messaging receded.
So the scientific evidence establishing any real phenomenon of subliminal advertising is inconclusive. Put another way, the evidence to this point does not definitively demonstrate the existence of a current technology making subliminal marketing pitches possible. Given this, it cannot be clearly determined whether such a technology, if it did exist, would be effective. Another question is whether virtual reality and augmented reality might eventually make subliminal advertising viable. Real subliminal persuasion might render children, the elderly, and those with developmental disabilities more vulnerable to falling prey. Could even the most skeptical viewer resist a message so powerfully enhanced that the product can be sampled without leaving home? Would you be in favor of federal government regulation to prevent such ads? What sort of ethical imperatives would you be willing to request of or impose on sophisticated marketers?
Is subliminal messaging real? Watch this video where BBC Earth Lab investigates a bit whimsically what truth might lie in the claim that subliminal advertising is real to learn more.
Advertising plays a useful role in informing consumers of new or modified products and services in the marketplace, and wise purchasers will pay attention to it but with a discerning eye. Even the exaggerated claims that often accompany ads can serve a purpose as long as we do not unquestioningly accept every pitch as true.
Summary
The Internet and social media present new canvasses for marketing that possess great power and for which rules and ethical norms are being developed. Psychological appeals and subliminal messaging present their own ethical issues. Discerning consumers currently must rely on their own sensibility to ferret out factual claims for advertised products and bear the burden of shielding those under their charge from the worst manipulative effects of marketing.
Assessment Questions
True or false? The phrase caveat emptor means the seller is principally responsible for purchase decisions, not the buyer.
False. Caveat emptor means the buyer is principally responsible for purchase decisions, not the seller.
True or false? Children are discerning viewers of television advertising.
False. Research studies indicate that children are the least-discerning audience for much advertising content.
Psychological appeals succeed when they ________.
- make consumers feel better about themselves
- let consumers compare themselves to their peers
- show consumers how to save money
- introduce new products
A
True or false? Even rational adults often fail to cast a suspicious eye to sophisticated ad pitches and end up making frivolous purchases.
True
Endnotes
Glossary
- advertising
- commercial messages urging the purchase of new or improved products or services that reach us in every medium: print, online, digital, television, radio, and outdoor
- psychological appeal
- advertising intended to bolster consumers’ self-esteem if certain products or services are purchased
- subliminal advertising
- appeals including words and images that reach us at a level below our consciousness


46 Feminist and Gender Studies
Feminist and Gender Studies (FEM)
eGirls, eCitizens∗
Edited by Jane Bailey and Valerie Steeves (University of Ottawa)
2015
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
eGirls, eCitizens is a landmark work that explores the many forces that shape girls’ and young women’s experiences of privacy, identity, and equality in our digitally networked society. Drawing on the multi-disciplinary expertise of a remarkable team of leading Canadian and international scholars, as well as Canada’s foremost digital literacy organization, MediaSmarts, this collection presents the complex realities of digitized communications for girls and young women as revealed through the findings of The eGirls Project (www.egirlsproject.ca) and other important research initiatives. Aimed at moving dialogues on scholarship and policy around girls and technology away from established binaries of good vs bad, or risk vs opportunity, these seminal contributions explore the interplay of factors that shape online environments characterized by a gendered gaze and too often punctuated by sexualized violence. Perhaps most importantly, this collection offers first-hand perspectives collected from girls and young women themselves, providing a unique window on what it is to be a girl in today’s digitized society. (Description from UO Press)
Format: PDF
Suggested for:
FEM 2110 Sexuality, Gender and Popular Culture
Gendered Lives: Global Issues∗
Nadine T. Fernandez (SUNY Empire State College) and Katie Nelson (Inver Hills Community College)
2021
Licence: CC BY 4.0
A gender studies textbook that takes an anthropological approach. Gendered Lives takes a regional approach to examine gender issues from an anthropological perspective with a focus on globalization and intersectionality. Chapters present contributors’ ethnographic research, contextualizing their findings within four geographic regions: Latin America, the Caribbean, South Asia, and the Global North. Each regional section begins with an overview of the broader historical, social, and gendered contexts, which situate the regions within larger global linkages. These introductions also feature short project/people profiles that highlight the work of community leaders or non-governmental organizations active in gender-related issues. Each research-based chapter begins with a chapter overview and learning objectives and closes with discussion questions and resources for further exploration. This modular, regional approach allows instructors to select the regions and cases they want to use in their courses. While they can be used separately, the chapters are connected through the book’s central themes of globalization and intersectionality.
Formats: Pressbooks webbook, EPUB, and PDF
Reviews: Open Textbook Library
Suggested for:
FEM 2109 Gender and Globalization in a Transnational World
Gender in Canada: A Companion Workbook
Edited by Rebecca Yoshizawa (Kwantlen Polytechnic University)
2023
Licence: CC BY 4.0
This workbook is designed for first or second-year sociology of gender or gender studies courses, focusing on the Canadian context. It is divided into five topics – Theory and Concepts, Institutions, Work, Family and Intimate Relationships, and Bodies and Health. This workbook does not replace a textbook, instructor teachings through lectures, class discussion, class assignments, or other standard undergraduate course materials. Instead, this is an activity book: a course companion, working alongside and with those course materials.
Formats: Pressbooks webbook and PDF
Includes: activities, glossary
Suggested for:
FEM 1100 Women, Gender, Feminism: An Introduction
Global Femicide: Indigenous Women and Girls Torn from Our Midst∗
Edited by Brenda Anderson, Carrie Bourassa, Shauneen Pete, Wendee Kubik, and Mary Rucklos-Hampton (University of Regina)
2021
Licence: CC BY-NC 4.0
Laying our Canadian stories alongside the global phenomenon of femicide in other colonized countries such as Mexico and Guatemala, this book underscores the common, interlocking effects of racism and sexism on Indigenous women. Family members, scholars and researchers, artists, activists and policy-makers provide their decade-long perspectives, providing testimony and evidence that sexualized and racialized violence is not only a product of historic colonization but continues to manifest in entrenched systems of colonization and global femicide. The analysis and the heart of all the authors is generously shared, exemplifying what resistance looks like.
Formats: Pressbooks webbook, EPUB, and PDF
Suggested for:
FEM 3108 Indigenous Feminisms
Global Women’s Issues: Women in the World Today (Extended Version)∗
Bureau of International Information Programs, United States Department of State, with additions by Janni Aragon and Mariel Miller (University of Victoria)
2019
Licence: CC0 public domain
This global politics text has been positively reviewed and has been successfully adopted by other faculty. It covers concepts in women’s political issues, from women and education to the rights of children. We cannot solve global challenges unless women participate fully in efforts to find solutions. Female participation in the private sector is a crucial economic driver for societies worldwide. Economic security benefits every facet of a woman’s life, with positive effects on the health, education, and vitality of families. Learn about women who are changing their societies for the better.
Formats: Pressbooks webbook, EPUB, PDF, MOBI, and more.
Includes: Keywords, multiple-choice questions, discussion questions, essay questions, summaries, and a list of additional resources
Reviews: Open Textbook Library – BCcampus
Suggested for:
FEM 1100 Women, Gender, Feminism: An Introduction
Introduction to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies∗
Miliann Kang, Donovan Lessard, Laura Heston, and Sonny Nordmarken (University of Massachusetts)
2017
Licence: CC BY 4.0
This textbook introduces key feminist concepts and analytical frameworks used in the interdisciplinary Women, Gender, Sexualities field. It unpacks the social construction of knowledge and categories of difference, processes, and structures of power and inequality, with a focus on gendered labor in the global economy, and the historical development of feminist social movements. The book emphasizes feminist sociological approaches to analyzing structures of power, drawing heavily from empirical feminist research.
Formats: Pressbooks webbook, EPUB, PDF, and more
Includes: Videos
Reviews: Open Textbook Library – BCcampus
Suggested for:
FEM 1100 Women, Gender, Feminism: An Introduction
Introduction to Queer Studies 101
Jimena Alvarado Chavarría (Everyday Social Justice and Portland Community College)
Licence: CC BY-NC 3.0 US
This course is an introduction to queer studies, with a focus on intersectionality and social justice. I’m starting from a beginner perspective assuming that folks are coming into these ideas for the first time. The course begins with some of the typical patterns that people experience when they’re confronting their privilege for the first time, including resistance, fragility, guilt and shame. I encourage folks to always stay focused on their privileged identities, whichever those are. Since it’s an introductory course, there’s a lot of interesting ideas, but we don’t delve deep into any of them. We explore the roots of hatred and the gender binary, and the roles science and religion have played in creating and maintaining queerphobia.  We explore some of the similar patterns that different identities face, like issues around visibility, disclosure, and familial relationships.  The course uses a flipped-classroom methodology that centers student conversations during class time.
Formats: Online, PDF and Word
Suggested for:
FEM 1100 Women, Gender, Feminism: An Introduction [as supplementary resource]
Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies 101
Jimena Alvarado Chavarría (Everyday Social Justice and Portland Community College)
Licence: CC BY-NC 3.0 US
This course is an introduction to intersectionality and social justice. I’m starting from a beginner perspective assuming that folks are coming into these ideas for the first time. The course begins with some of the typical patterns that people experience when they’re confronting their privilege for the first time, including resistance, fragility, guilt and shame. I encourage folks to always stay focused on their privileged identities, whichever those are. Since it’s an introductory course, there’s a lot of interesting ideas, but we don’t delve deep into any of them. We explore some of the similar patterns that different oppressions face, like victim-blaming, competition, internalization, issues around visibility, disclosure, inheritability and familial relationships. We analyze economic systems around work and employment and question the structures and systems that shape our lives. I encourage students to develop their humility, ally and activism skills. We wrap up with hope for how to reimagine a better society. The course uses a flipped-classroom methodology that centers student conversations during class time.
Formats: Online, PDF and Word
Suggested for:
FEM 1100 Women, Gender, Feminism: An Introduction [as supplementary resource]
LGBTQ+ Studies: An Open Textbook∗
Edited by Deborah Amory (SUNY Empire State College) and Sean G. Massey (Binghampton University)
2020
Licence: CC BY 4.0
This textbook is designed to provide an introduction to and an overview of LGBTQ+ Studies for the introductory level college student and the curious public. It offers accessible, academically sound information on a wide range of topics, from LGBTQ+ history, LGBTQ+ relationship, families, parenting, and health, to LGBTQ+ culture. It employs an intersectional analysis, highlighting the ways in which sexuality and gender are simultaneously experienced and constructed through other structures of inequality and privilege, such as race and class. This intersectional analysis is grounded in social theory and the social sciences. It also seeks to highlight a more global perspective on LGBTQ+ issues, from the ancient world as well more contemporary ones. Finally, it aims to support multiple learning styles by integrating visual elements and multimedia resources.
Format: Online
Suggested for:
FEM 3107 Queer Theories


Bishop Heber
FROM Greenland’s icy mountains,
From India’s coral strand,
Where Afric’s sunny fountains
Roll down their golden sand;
From many an ancient river,
From many a palmy plain,
They call us to deliver
Their land from error’s chain.
2
What though the spicy breezes
Blow soft on Ceylon’s isle;
Though every prospect pleases,
And only man is vile;
In vain with lavish kindness
The gifts of God are strown;
The heathen, in his blindness,
Bows down to wood and stone.
3
Can we, whose souls are lighted
With wisdom from on high;
Can we to men benighted
The lamp of life deny?
Salvation! O salvation!
The joyful sound proclaim,
Till each remotest nation
Has learned Messiah’s name.
4
Waft, waft, ye winds, His story;
And you, ye waters, roll,
Till, like a sea of glory,
It spreads from pole to pole;
Till o’er our ransomed nature,
The Lamb for sinners slain,
Redeemer, King, Creator,
In bliss returns to reign.


2 Chapter Two: Pronunciation
Chapter Title: GUIDE TO PRONUNCIATION
Stephen Colbert and Saoirse Ronan: The Irish Lesson:
From Ireland’s Immortals: A History of the Gods of Irish Myth by MARK WILLIAMS, Princeton University Press. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvc775gk.6
S O UN D S
During the Old Irish period there was a gradual change in how vowels were pronounced in unstressed, i.e. non-initial, syllables. Early on they all sounded distinctly different, but later they all (with the exception of ‘u’) became a nondescript ‘uh’ sound, like the ‘a’ at the end of English sofa, technically called a schwa and written as ə in phonetic notation. This was particularly obvious at the ends of words: by about 875 the names Lóegaire and Banba―note the different final vowels—ended when spoken with identical ‘uh’ sounds of this sort.
The key uses the following five symbols:
i. ə the ‘uh’ sound at the end of sofa
ii. ɣ a throaty gh sound, similar to the –ch in Scots loch but further back and down in the gullet. Not to be confused with the letter ‘y’
iii. kh the ch in Scots loch, spelled with a k– to avoid confusion with the ch in English child, a sound which did not occur in Old Irish
iv. ð the th– sound at the start of those, that, and than, which is different from the th– sound at the beginning of thick, thin, or think
v. ʸ indicates that the preceding consonant is ‘palatal’, that is, accompanied by a y-glide like the m in mew or the c in cute (contrast moo and coot). This often occurs at the end of a word: in a form like the place-name Crúachain, given in the key as KROO-əkh-ənʸ, the ʸ is there simply to indicate that the final consonant is pronounced like the first -n- in ‘onion’: it does not add a syllable.
Acallam na Senórach AG-əll-əv nə SHEN-or-əkh
Áeb aiv (to rhyme with English ‘hive’)
Áed aið (to rhyme with English ‘lithe’)
Aengus AIN-ɣəss (a Middle Irish form: ‘AIN’ probably to rhyme with ‘fine’, but in Anglo-Irish writings this name tends to be pronounced ENG-guss. See also Óengus
áes dána ice DAHN-ə (ice as in English)
áes síde ice SHEATHE-ə (ice and SHEATHE as in English)
áes trebtha ice TREV-thə (ice as in English)
Aí approximately the same as English ‘eye’
Áine AHN-yə (later AWN-yə)
Aillenn AL-yən
Aillén AL-yane (yane to rhyme with ‘mane’)
Airmed AR-vəð
Aisling(e) ASH-ling, ASH-ling-ə
Aldui, Allae AL-wee, AL-ə
Alloid AL-əð
Amairgen AV-ar-ɣənʸ
Ana, Anu ANə, ANoo
Aobh see Áeb
Aoife EE-fʸə (or modern EE-fə)
Auraicept na n-Éces OW-rə-kept nə NAY-gəss
Badb BAð-v
Balor BAL-ər
Banba BAN-vəh (in later Irish, BAN-ə-vəh)
Beira BAY-rə (an anglicization)
Bé Binn BAY VIN
Bé Dreccain BAY ðRECK-ənʸ (not unlike English ‘bathe reckon’, said quickly)
Bé Néit BAY NʸADE (rhymes with ‘made’)
Bóadag BOW–əð-əɣ (BOW rhyming with English ‘crow’)
Bóand BOW-ən (BOW rhyming with English ‘crow’)
Bodb Derg BOðv DʸERg
Bran mac Febail BRAN mack FEV-əlʸ
Bregon BRE-ɣən
Bres BRESS (to rhyme with ‘press’)
Brian BREE-ən (not like the English pronunciation of the name)
Bride BREE-jə (Scottish Gaelic; not like English ‘bride’)
Bríg BREEɣ
Brigit BRI-ɣid (anglicized Bridget is often substituted, especially when referring to the saint)
Bruig na Bóinne BROO(ɣ) nə BOW-nʸə (BOW rhyming with English ‘crow’)
Bua BOO-ə
Buí BWEE
Cáel Kail (like the modern name ‘Kyle’); in later Irish this came to be pronounced a bit like the English word ‘quail’
Cáer Iborméith KAYR IV-ər-vayth (KAYR rhymes with English ‘fire’; vayth rhymes with ‘faith’)
Cailleach Bheur KAL-yəkh VUR (VUR to rhyme with ‘fur’)
Caillech Bérri KAL-yəkh VAY-rə (VAY to rhyme with ‘day’)
Caílte KYLE-tʸə (KYLE like the modern name ‘Kyle’) or, later, KWEEL-tʸə
Caíntigern KAIN-tʸiɣ-ern (KAIN to rhyme with ‘pine’)
Cairbre see Coirpre
Cas Corach KASS KOR-əkh
Cath Maige Tuired KATH MAɣə TOO-rəð
Cé KʸAY (to rhyme with ‘day’)
Cermait Milbél KʸER-məd MʸIL-vʸayl (vʸayl to rhyme with ‘pale’)
Cessair KʸESS-ər
Cessán (Ceasan) KʸESS-ahn
Cían KEE-ən
Coirpre KOR-brə
Conchobor mac Nessa KON-khəv-ər mack NESS-ə
Conn KON
Connlae KON-leh
Cormac KOR-mək
Créde KRAYð-ə (KRAYð to rhyme with English ‘lathe’)
Credne KREð-nʸə
Crom Crúach KROM KROO-əkh
Crom Dub KROM DUV (DUV like English ‘dove’, the bird)
Crúachain, Crúachu KROO-əkh-ənʸ, KROO-əkh-oo
Cú Chulainn KOO KHULL-ənn (KHULL rhymes with ‘skull’)
Curcóg KURK-ogue (rhymes with ‘vogue’)
Cú Roí KOO ro-EE (later KOO RWEE)
Dagda DAɣ-ðə
Dáire Donn DAH-rʸə DON
Dairenn DARʸən
Dál Cais DAHL GASH
Dalua də-LOO-ə
Danann see Túatha Dé Danann
Delbaeth DʸEL-əv-ayth (ay in the last syllable is like English ‘eye’)
Dían Cécht DʸEE-ən KAYkht Díarmait (later Diarmaid) DʸEE-ər-mədʸ dindshenchas DIN-HEN-khəss
Donand DON-ən
Donn DON
Éber AY-vər
Echtrae Chonnlai EKH-trə KHONN-lee
Esrus ESS-rəss
Etan ED-ən
Étar AID-ər (quite close to English ‘aider’, provided the final ‘r’ is sounded)
Elatha EL-ath-ə
Elcmar ELK-vər (going by Modern Irish Ealcmhar)
Eochaid Airem YOKH-əð AR-əv Eochaid Ollathair YOKH-əð oll-ATH-ər Eochaidh YOKH-ee
Étaín The Old Irish pronunciation was probably AY-dine, to rhyme with English ‘fine’, but the name is conventionally pronounced by most scholars in the Modern Irish way, as AY-deen (modern Éadaoin)
Ethliu ETH-lʸoo
Eithne (Ethne) ETH-nʸə
Éremón AY-rə-vone (AY rhymes with ‘day’; –vone rhymes with ‘phone’)
Ériu AYR-yoo
Falias FAL-ee-əss
Fand FANN
Ferdoman FʸER-DOVən
Fer Maisse FʸER MASH-ə
Fíachna FEE-əkh-nə
fían, fíana FEE-ən, FEE-ən-ə
fíanaigecht FEE-ən-a-ɣekht
Fidbadach FIð-vəð-əkh
Fidchell FIð-khel
Fid Rúscach FIð ROOS-gəkh
fili, pl. filid FIL-ee (later FIL-ə), pl. FIL-ið
Findias FINN-ee-əss
Finnbarr FIN-var
Finn mac Cumaill FIN mack KU-vəl (KU-vəl rhymes with ‘shovel’; later it became KOO-wəl, close to English ‘cool’)
Fintan mac Bóchra FIN-tən mack BOW-khrə (BOW rhymes with ‘crow’)
Fionnghuala FʸONN-ɣoo-ələ (= Fionnuala, Finnula)
Fir Bolg FEER VOLg (FEER like English ‘fear’); later FEER VOL-əg
Fir Dé like English ‘fear they’
Flann mac Lonáin FLAN mack LON-ahnʸ
Flann Mainistrech FLAN MANʸish-trəkh
Fomoiri FOV-o-rə (roughly rhymes with English ‘hoverer’)
Fódla FOWð-lə (FOW like English ‘foe’); laterFOH–lə, to rhyme with ‘Coca Cola’
Fúamnach FOO-əv-nəkh
Gilla Coemáin GʸILLə KOI-vahn
Goibnenn GOV-nʸənn
Goibniu GOV-nʸoo
Goirias GOR-ee-əss
Ilbrecc IL-vrek
Immacallam in dá Thuarad IM-əg-əll-əv ən DAH THOO-ər-əð
Immram Brain IM-rəv Branʸ
Indech INN-yekh
Íth EEth (rhymes with ‘teeth’)
Iuchar YUKH-ər
Iucharba YUKH-ər-və
Kail uncertain, because invented by William Sharp: probably rhymes with ‘fail’
Keithoir KʸETH-or (a Middle Irish name, Ceth(e)or, adapted in modernity by William Sharp: this is a guess at how Sharp might have pronounced it)
Lebor Gabála LʸEVər GAVAL-ə; alternatively LʸOWER (to rhyme with ‘flower’) gəWAUL-ə (WAUL like British English ‘wall’)
Lebor na hUidhre LʸOWER (to rhyme with ‘flower’) nə HIR-ə (the Modern Irish pronunciation is usually used for this manuscript)
Lí Ban LEE VAN (sometimes given as Lí Bán, in which case LEE VAHN)
Lochlann LOKH-lən
Lóegaire LOI-ɣər-ə
Luchta LUKH-tə
Lug Lámfhota LUɣ LAH-vodə (the vowel in Lug is similar to that in English ‘look’; later this name came to be pronounced LOO)
Lugaid Fer Trí LUɣ-əð FʸER TREE
Lugaid Mac Con LUɣ-əð MACK KON Lugaid Riab nDerg LUɣ-əð REE-əv NʸErg Luigni LUɣ -nʸə
Mac Cécht mack KAYkht
Macha MAKH-ə
Máeltne MAILT-nʸə (MAILT like English ‘mild’ but with the final -d replaced by a t)
Manannán mac Lir MAN-ənn-ahn mack LIR
Mongán mac Fiachna MONG-ahn mack FʸAKH-nə Medb MEð-v
Míach MEE-əkh
Midir MIð-ər
Míl Espáine MEEL ESS-PAH-nʸə
Mochaomhóg mə-KHWEEVE-ogue (-ogue rhymes with ‘vogue’)
Módhán MOW-ðahn (MOW like English ‘mow’)
Mórfhesa MOHR-essə
Morrígan, Morrígu MOR-ree-ɣən, MOR-ree-ɣoo (thus in Old Irish; in later Irish, the first syllable was often taken to be the word mór, ‘big’, and given an accent―in which case the name should be pronounced MOH-ree-ɣən with a long ‘o’)
Muirias MWEER-ee-əss
Mumain MUV-ənʸ (almost rhymes with English ‘oven’)
Nemain NʸEV-ənʸ
Nemed NʸEV-əð
Nemglan NʸEV-ɣlən
Néit NʸADE (rhymes with ‘made’)
Núadu Argatlám NOO-əð-oo AR-gad-LAHV
Óengus OIN-ɣəss
Ollam Oll-əv
Ógarmach OWG-ar-vəkh (OWG to rhyme with ‘vogue’)
Ogma Oɣ-mə
Orchil OR-khil (a goddess invented in the nineteenth century, so pronunciation uncertain)
Partholón PARTH-əll-own (last two syllables sound much like English ‘alone’)
Rúadán ROO-ə-ðahn
Sadb SAðv (later sive, to rhyme with English ‘five’)
samildánach SAV-il-ðahn-əkh
Scothníam SGOTH-nʸee-əv
Senchán Torpéist SHEN-khahn TOR-paysht Senchus Már SHEN-khəs MAHR
Seithoir SHETH-or (a Middle Irish name, Seth(e)or, adapted in modernity by William Sharp: this is a guess at how Sharp might have pronounced it)
Semias SHEV-ee-əss (or, if the name is actually Sémias, perhaps SHAVE–ee-əss: SHAVE like English ‘shave’)
síabair, pl. síabraí SHEE-əv-ər, SHEE-əv-ree
Síd SHEEð (much like English sheathe); later Sídhe, Sí, both pronounced ‘shee’
Sinand SHIN-ənn
Slat SLAD
Táin Bó Cúailnge TOINʸ (or TAWNʸ) BOW (as in ‘bow and arrow’) KOOL-ngʸə Tait son of Taburn
TADʸ son of TAV-ərn Tanaide TAN-əð-ə
Teithoir TʸETH-or (a Middle Irish name, Teth(e)or, adapted in modernity by William Sharp: this is a guess at how Sharp might have pronounced it)
Tírechán TʸEER-əkh-ahn
Tír Tairngire TʸEER TARN-gʸir-ə
Tochmarc Étaíne TOKH-vərk AY-deen-yə
Trén TRAYnʸ (quite close to English ‘train’)
trénfher quite close to English ‘trainer’ provided the final -r is sounded clearly
Tuán mac Cairill TOO-ahn mack CAril (CA- as in ‘cat’, not as in ‘car’)
Túath Dé TOO-əth DAY (‘DAY’ as English)
Túatha Dé Danann TOO-əth-ə DAY DA-nənn
Tuire(a)nn TOORʸən
Tuirill TOORʸəll
Tuis TUSH (rhymes with ‘hush’)
Uchtdelb UKHT-dʸelv
Uí Néill EE NʸALE (NʸALE rhymes with ‘nail’)
Uiscias USH-gee-əss (USH rhymes with ‘hush’)
xxx


9.17 Boring
Micky R. Jennings
Boringis the process of enlarging a previously drilled hole. This task is typically done using a tool called a boring head.  Unlike most hole-making procedures that can walk as the cut is being made because of tool flexibility, a bored hole is straight and true to the spindle axis of the milling machine.
Step by step process for boring:
- Edge find and position the machine at the center of the hole.
- Lock the table and saddle movement.
- Drill the largest hole possible at the center of the bore layout. Removing material through drilling is much quicker than boring.
- Install a boring head into the milling machine.

- Raise the knee to where, when the quill is at the top of travel, there is about ½ of space between the tool and the work.
- Pull the quill handle down to where the tool is sticking through the hole by about ⅛” and set the quill stop.
- Adjust the boring head so that the cutting edge of the bar slightly touches the drilled hole by loosening the lock on the dovetail and turning the hex in the dial face.
- Adjust the boring head to take an initial cut. Depths of cut for a boring head will vary based on material, cutter, and conditions. Roughing cuts may be .020-.050, whereas finishing cuts may be .003-.010 or less.
- Move the quill feed engagement knob, located on the right side of the head, from disengage to engage. This can only be accomplished while the spindle is off.
- Select the quill feed increment, in IPR, on the left side of the mill. Some are labeled .006, .003, and .0015, but some are just labeled high, medium, and low. This can also only be accomplished while the spindle is off.
- Lightly set the quill lock so the quill doesn’t automatically spring up on its own, yet it moves as freely as possible.
- Calculate the spindle speed for the tool using the finished diameter of the hole.
- Lube the hole.
- Turn the spindle on and adjust the speed.
- In the middle of the quill fine feed handwheel, pull out or push in the engagement pin. This will set the quill feed to move either up or down.
- Now pull and briefly hold the quill feed lever on the left side of the head to start the automatic quill engagement.
- The machine will automatically feed the tool through the hole until it reaches the stop on the opposite side. At that point, the quill feed will disengage.
- Turn off the spindle.
- Manually pull the quill up through the hole. Pulling out in this fashion will keep the tool from cutting extra material on the upstroke and potentially oversizing the hole. Pulling out in this way will also indicate the amount of bar deflection that occurred during roughing passes when examining the scored line on the side of the bore. On a finish pass, the machine should be moved, or the head adjusted so scoring is absent.
- Measure the bored hole and calculate remaining material removal.
- Adjust the boring head and take additional cuts to bring the bore to size.
- Clean and inspect the feature.
- When finished, return the quill feed engagement pin and knob to their disengaged positions.
- Remove the boring head from the spindle, clean, and return it to storage.
Step 3: Drill the largest hole possible at the center of the bore layout. Removing material through drilling is much quicker than boring.
Step 3: Drill the largest hole possible at the center of the bore layout. Removing material through drilling is much quicker than boring.
Step 3: Drill the largest hole possible at the center of the bore layout. Removing material through drilling is much quicker than boring.
Step 3: Drill the largest hole possible at the center of the bore layout. Removing material through drilling is much quicker than boring.
Step 3: Drill the largest hole possible at the center of the bore layout. Removing material through drilling is much quicker than boring.
Step 4: Install a boring head into the milling machine.
Step 7: Pull the quill handle down to where the tool is sticking through the hole by about ⅛” and set the quill stop.
Step 7: Pull the quill handle down to where the tool is sticking through the hole by about ⅛” and set the quill stop.
Step 8: Adjust the boring head so that the cutting edge of the bar slightly touches the drilled hole by loosening the lock on the dovetail and turning the hex in the dial face.
Step 8: Adjust the boring head so that the cutting edge of the bar slightly touches the drilled hole by loosening the lock on the dovetail and turning the hex in the dial face.
Step 9: Adjust the boring head to take an initial cut. Depths of cut for a boring head will vary based on material, cutter, and conditions. Roughing cuts may be .020-.050, whereas finishing cuts may be .003-.010 or less.
Step 9: Adjust the boring head to take an initial cut. Depths of cut for a boring head will vary based on material, cutter, and conditions. Roughing cuts may be .020-.050, whereas finishing cuts may be .003-.010 or less.
Step 10: Move the quill feed engagement knob, located on the right side of the head, from disengage to engage. This can only be accomplished while the spindle is off.
Step 11: Select the quill feed increment, in IPR, on the left side of the mill. Some are labeled .006, .003, and .0015, but some are just labeled high, medium, and low. This can also only be accomplished while the spindle is off.
Step 14: Lube the hole.
Step 14: Lube the hole.
Step 15: Turn the spindle on and adjust the speed.
Step 16: In the middle of the quill fine feed handwheel, pull out or push in the engagement pin. This will set the quill feed to move either up or down.
Step 16: In the middle of the quill fine feed handwheel, pull out or push in the engagement pin. This will set the quill feed to move either up or down.
Step 17: Now pull and briefly hold the quill feed lever on the left side of the head to start the automatic quill engagement.
Step 17-20: Now pull and briefly hold the quill feed lever on the left side of the head to start the automatic quill engagement. The machine will automatically feed the tool through the hole until it reaches the stop on the opposite side. At that point, the quill feed will disengage. Turn off the spindle. Manually pull the quill up through the hole. Pulling out in this fashion will keep the tool from cutting extra material on the upstroke and potentially oversizing the hole. Pulling out in this way will also indicate the amount of bar deflection that occurred during roughing passes when examining the scored line on the side of the bore. On a finish pass, the machine should be moved, or the head adjusted so scoring is absent.
Step 18: The machine will automatically feed the tool through the hole until it reaches the stop on the opposite side. At that point, the quill feed will disengage.
Step 20: Manually pull the quill up through the hole. Pulling out in this fashion will keep the tool from cutting extra material on the upstroke and potentially oversizing the hole. Pulling out in this way will also indicate the amount of bar deflection that occurred during roughing passes when examining the scored line on the side of the bore. On a finish pass, the machine should be moved, or the head adjusted so scoring is absent.
Step 20: Manually pull the quill up through the hole. Pulling out in this fashion will keep the tool from cutting extra material on the upstroke and potentially oversizing the hole. Pulling out in this way will also indicate the amount of bar deflection that occurred during roughing passes when examining the scored line on the side of the bore. On a finish pass, the machine should be moved, or the head adjusted so scoring is absent.
Step 23: Clean and inspect the feature.
Attributions
- Figure 9.216: Finished bored hole by Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Figure 9.217: Spot a hole by Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Figure 9.218: Lube the work by Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Video 9.73: Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Video 9.74: Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Video 9.75: Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Figure 9.219: Hole drilling by Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Figure 9.220: Installing a boring head by Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Figure 9.221: Boring depth by Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Video 9.76: Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Figure 9.222: Adjusting the boring head lock by Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Video 9.77: Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Figure 9.223: Boring head dovetail and dial by Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Video 9.78: Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Figure 9.224: Quill feed engagement by Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Figure 9.225: Quill feed rate by Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Video 9.79: Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Figure 9.226: Lubing the hole by Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Figure 9.227: Spindle on by Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Figure 9.228: Quill feed direction by Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Video 9.80: Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Figure 9.229: Activating the quill feed by Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Video 9.81: Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Video 9.82: Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Video 9.83: Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Figure 9.230: Pull bar out of hole by Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
- Figure 9.231: Finished bored hole by Micky R. Jennings, courtesy of Wenatchee Valley College, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
See Bore


21
M. David Merrill
For over 50 years my career has been focused on one very important question: “What makes instruction effective, efficient, and engaging?” I decided that e-learning should refer to the quality of the instruction, not merely to how it is delivered, so I labeled effective, efficient, and engaging instruction as e3 instruction. In this brief presentation I will try to share a little of what I’ve learned. Perhaps the underlying message of my studies and this presentation is this simple statement: “Information alone is not instruction!”
In 1964, in our research lab at the University of Illinois, we were sending messages from one computer to another via ARPANET. Little did we realize the fantastic potential of this experimental communication from computer to computer. Unfortunately for our subsequent fortunes, none of us in that lab envisioned the Internet and the World Wide Web and the impact that this invention would have on communication, the availability of information, social interaction, commerce, education, and almost every other aspect of our lives.
“Information alone is not instruction!”
In 1963, I was doing my student teaching in a junior high school; my subject was American history. Unfortunately for this experience, my major was psychology with a minor in mathematics. I never had an American history class in my entire college career. The students’ textbook was woefully inadequate, so I spent my evenings poring through the American Encyclopedia, which fortunately was resident in my home. This paucity of information left me very underprepared for teaching these students. However, thanks to the ongoing presidential election (Nixon vs Kennedy), there was a debate on television that I could use as a springboard to teach a little about the electoral process, the Electoral College, and something about our two-party system of government.
But today, thanks to the Internet, interested learners can find information about almost anything in the world, whether current events or historical events. Teaching American history to junior high students today would be so much easier because of the almost unlimited amount of information in all different media that is available, including audio, video, animation, as well as text. But is access to this wealth of information instruction? What I’ve learned from my study of this question is that the answer is an emphatic NO! I repeat, Information alone is not instruction.
Motivation
All of us have heard the saying that “students didn’t learn because they just weren’t motivated.” Or that “motivation is the most important part of learning.” Or “we really need to find a way to motivate out students.” What is it that causes motivation? People have often asked me, “Is motivation one of your first principles of instruction?” The answer is no; motivation is not something we can do, motivation is an outcome. So, if it is an outcome, what causes motivation? Motivation comes from learning; the greatest motivation comes when people learn. We are wired to learn; all of us love to learn; every student loves to learn. And, generally, we are motivated by those things that we find we are good at. For example, I’m not much of an athlete. I look back on my past and ask, “Why am I not an athlete?” I remember that I was very small as a child. In my elementary school we used to divide up into teams during recess to play softball. I always ended up as last shag on the girls’ team. That was very embarrassing for me, so, I lost interest in sports; I did not want to be a sports person. Consequently, I never pursued sports. On the other hand, somewhere in my youth I was given a scale model train. I was very interested in trains, but in this case one of my father’s friends showed me how to build scenery and how to make a model railroad that looked like the real world. I became very interested in building a model railroad. I have continued to follow this interest throughout my life. Why was I motivated to do this? Because I was good at it, because I learned things about how to build a realistic model. The more I learned, the more interested I became. We need to find ways to motivate our students, and that comes from promoting learning. Learning comes when we apply the effective and engaging principles of instruction.
Typical Instructional Sequence
In my experience I have had the opportunity to review many courses. Figure 1 illustrates a common instructional sequence that I have observed.
The course or module consists of a list of topics representing the content of the course. Information about the topic is presented, represented by the arrows. Occasionally a quiz or exercise is inserted to help illustrate the topic, represented by the boxes. The sequence is to teach one topic at a time. At the end of the course or module there is a culminating final test, or in some cases a final project, that asks the students to apply the topic to complete some task or solve some problem.
Sometimes this sequence is very effective in enabling students to gain skills or to learn to solve problems. Too often, however, this sequence is ineffective and not engaging for students. The effectiveness of this sequence and the degree of engagement it promotes for learners depends on the type of learning events that are represented by the arrows and the boxes in this diagram.
Instructional Events
There are many different types of instructional or learning events. Perhaps the most frequently used learning event is to present information or Tell. This Tell can take many forms, including lectures, videos, text books, and PowerPoint presentations.
The next most frequent instructional or learning event is to have learners remember what they were told, what they read, or what they saw. This remember instructional event we will label as Ask. Even though Tell and Ask are the most frequently used instructional events, if they are the only instructional events used then the Tell–Ask instructional sequence is the least effective instructional strategy.
If the arrows in Figure 1 represent Tell learning events and the boxes represent Ask learning events, then this module is not going to be very effective and most likely will not prepare learners to adequately complete a project using the information taught. If the culminating learning activity is an Ask final exam, learners may be able to score well on this exam. However, a good score on an Ask exam does little to prepare learners to apply the ideas taught to the solution of a complex problem or completion of a complex task.
A little history is in order. In 1999 Charles Reigeluth published a collection of papers on Instructional Design Theories and Models. In the preface to this book he indicates that there are many different kinds of instructional theories and that instructional designers need to be familiar with these different approaches and select the best approach or combination of approaches that they feel are appropriate for their particular instructional situation. I challenged Dr. Reigeluth, suggesting that while these different theories stressed different aspects of instruction and used different vocabulary to describe their model and methods, that fundamentally, at a deep level, they were all based on a common set of principles. Dr. Reigeluth kindly suggested that he didn’t think that my assumption was correct, but if I felt strongly about it that perhaps I should try to find evidence for my assumption.
I took the challenge and spent the next year or two studying these various instructional theories. The result was the publication in 2002 of my often-referenced paper on First principles of Instruction (Merrill, 2002). I have spent the time since in refining my proposition in a series of papers and chapters on First Principles. In 2013, I finally published my book First Principles of Instruction (Merrill, 2013) that elaborated these principles, provided a set of suggestions for how these principles might be implemented in various models of instruction, and provided a variety of instructional samples that illustrate the implementation of First Principles in a range of content areas and in different educational contexts, including training, public schools, and higher education.
First Principles of Instruction
Principles are statements of relationships that are true under appropriate conditions. In instruction these relationships are between different kinds of learning events and the effect that participating in these learning events has on the acquisition of problem-solving skills. I identified five general principles that comprise First Principles of Instruction. As I reviewed the literature on instructional design theories and models, I tried to be as parsimonious as possible by selecting only a few general principles that would account for the most fundamental learning activities that are necessary for effective, efficient, and engaging instruction.
Activation: Learning is promoted when learners activate a mental model of their prior knowledge as a foundation for new skills. A frequently cited axiom of education is to start where the learner is. Activation is the principle that attempts to activate a relevant mental model already acquired by the learner in order to assist him or her to adapt this mental model to the new skills to be acquired.
Demonstration: Learning is promoted when learners observe a demonstration of the skills to be learned. I carefully avoided the word presentation for this principle. Much instruction consists largely or entirely of presentation. What is often missing is demonstration, show me. Hence, the demonstration principle is best implemented by Tell–Show learning events where appropriate information is accompanied by appropriate examples.
Application: Learning is promoted when learners engage in application of their newly acquired knowledge or skill that is consistent with the type of content being taught. Way too much instruction uses remembering information as a primary assessment tool. But remembering information is insufficient for being able to identify newly encountered instances of some object or event. Remembering is also insufficient to be able to execute a set of steps in a procedure or to grasp the events of a process. Learners need to apply their newly acquired skills to actually doing a task or actually solving a problem.
Integration: Learning is promoted when learners share, reflect on, and defend their work by peer-collaboration and peer-critique. Deep learning requires learners to integrate their newly acquired skills into those mental models they have already acquired. One way to insure this deep processing is for learners to collaborate with other learners in solving problems or doing complex tasks. Another learning event that facilitates deep processing is when learners go public with their knowledge in an effort to critique other learners or to defend their work when it is critiqued by other learners.
Problem-centered: Learning is promoted when learners are engaged in a problem-centered strategy involving a progression of whole real-world tasks. The eventual purpose of all instruction is to learn to solve complex problems or complete complex tasks, either by themselves or in collaboration with other learners. This is accomplished best when the problem to be solved or the task to be completed is identified and demonstrated to learners early in the instructional sequence. Subsequent component skills required for problem solving or for completing a complex task are best acquired in the context of trying to solve a real instance of the problem or complete a real instance of the task.
Support for First Principles of Instruction
Do First Principles of Instruction actually promote more effective, efficient, and engaging instruction?
A study conducted by NETg (Thompson Learning, 2002), a company that sells instruction to teach computer applications, compared their off-the-shelf version of their Excel instruction, which is topic-centered, with a problem-centered version of this course that was developed following First Principles. Participants in the experiment came from a number of different companies that were clients of NETg. The assessment for both groups consisted of developing a spreadsheet for three real-world Excel problems. The problem-centered group scored significantly higher, required significantly less time to complete the problems, and expressed a higher level of satisfaction than the topic-centered group. All differences were statistically significant beyond the .001 level.
A doctoral student at Florida State University completed a dissertation study comparing a topic-centered course teaching Flash programing with a problem-centered course (Rosenberg-Kima, 2011). This study was carefully controlled so that the variable was merely the arrangement of the skill instruction in the context of problems or taught skill-by-skill. The learning events for both groups were identical except for the order and context in which they were taught. On a transfer Flash problem that required students to apply their Flash programing skills to a new problem, the problem-centered group scored significantly higher than the topic-centered group and felt the instruction was more relevant and resulted in more confidence in their performance. There was no time difference between the two groups for completing the final project.
A professor at Indiana University designed a student evaluation questionnaire that had students indicate whether the course being evaluated included First Principles of Instruction (Frick, Chadha, Watson, & Zlatkovska, 2010). The correlations all showed that the extent to which First Principles are included in a course correlates with student rating of instructor quality and their rating of satisfaction with the course. Students also spent more time on task and were judged by their instructors to have made more learning progress when the courses involved First Principles of Instruction. This data was collected in three different studies.
The conclusion that can be drawn from these three different and independent studies of First Principles clearly shows that courses based on First Principles do facilitate effectiveness, efficiency, and learner satisfaction.
Demonstration Principle
When I’m asked to review course material, my approach is to immediately turn to Module 3 of the material. By then the course is usually into the heart of the content, and the introductory material is finished. What do I look for first? Examples. Does the content include examples, demonstrations, or simulations of the ideas being taught? Adding demonstration to a course will result in a significant increment in the effectiveness of the course.
Do most courses include such demonstration? MOOCs are a recent very popular way to deliver instruction. How well do these Massive Open Online Courses implement First Principles of Instruction? Anoush Margaryan and her colleagues (Margaryan, Bianco, Littlejohn, 2015) published an important paper titled Instructional Quality of Massive Online Courses (MOOCs) that addresses this question. They carefully analyzed 76 MOOCs representing a wide variety of content sponsored by a number of different institutions to determine the extent that these courses implemented First Principles of Instruction. Their overall conclusion was that most of these courses failed to implement these principles.
The demonstration principle, providing examples of the content being taught, is fundamental for effective instruction and engaging instruction. How many of these MOOCs implemented this principle? Only 3 out of the 76 MOOCs analyzed included appropriate demonstration. The effectiveness and engagement in these MOOCs could be significantly increased by adding relevant and appropriate demonstration.
Application Principle
When I’m asked to review a course, the second type of learning event I look for is application that is consistent with and appropriate for the type of learning involved. Remembering a definition or series of steps is not application. There are two types of application that are most important but too often not included. DOid or DOidentify requires learners to recognize new divergent examples of an object or event when they encounter it. DOidentify is also the initial application required when learning the steps of a procedure or process. The learner must first recognize a correctly executed step when they see it, and they must also recognize the consequence that resulted from the execution of the step. Once they can recognize appropriate steps and appropriate consequences for these steps, then DOexecute is the next level of application. DOexecute requires learners to actually perform or execute the steps of a procedure. When appropriate application is missing, the effectiveness of a course is significantly increased when appropriate application learning events are added.
MOOCs are often about teaching learners new skills. Did the MOOCs in the study cited above include appropriate application for these skills? They fared better than they did for demonstration. At least 46 of the 76 MOOCs did include some form of application. This still leaves 30 MOOCs in this study without application of any kind. However, on careful analysis of the sufficiency and appropriateness of the application included, it was found that only 13 of the MOOCs in this study had appropriate and sufficient application.
Learning Events
While Tell and Ask are the most frequently used learning events, as we have seen, a strategy that uses only these two learning events is not an effective or engaging strategy. Learning to solve problems and to do complex tasks is facilitated when a Tell instructional strategy is enhanced by adding demonstration or Show learning events. A Tell-Show sequence is more effective than a Tell only sequence.
Learning to solve problems and to do complex tasks is facilitated even more when a Tell-Show strategy is further enhanced by adding Do instructional events. These Do learning events are most appropriate when they require learners to identify unencountered instances of some object or event (DOidentify learning events) and when they require learners to execute the steps in a procedure or observe the steps in a process (DOexecute learning events). A Tell-Show-Do sequence is even more effective than a Tell-Show instructional sequence.
Much existing instruction can be considerably enhanced by the addition of appropriate Show and Do learning events. If the arrows in Figure 1 consist of Tell and Show learning events and the boxes consist of Do learning events and if the final project is not merely a remember or Ask assessment but the opportunity for learners to apply the skills they have acquired from the Tell-Show-Do instruction to a more complete problem or task, then the resulting learning will be more effective, efficient, and engaging for learners. Much existing instruction can be significantly enhanced by converting from Tell-Ask learning events in this typical instructional sequence to Tell-Show-Do learning events.
How to revise existing instruction
Much existing instruction is primarily Tell-Ask instruction. This instruction can be significantly enhanced by the demonstration of appropriate examples (Show learning events) and even further enhanced by the addition of appropriate application activities (Do learning events).
The fundamental instructional design procedure to enhance existing instruction is fairly straightforward. Start by identifying the topics that are taught in a given module. Create a matrix and list these topics in the left column of a matrix. Across the top of the matrix list the four primary learning event types: Tell, Ask, Show, and Do.
Second, identify the Tell information for each topic and reference it in the Tell column. Review this information to ensure that each topic is accurate and sufficient for the goals of the instruction.
Third, identify existing Show learning events for each topic. If the existing instruction does not include appropriate or sufficient examples of each of the concepts, principles, procedures, or processes listed, then identify or create appropriate examples for inclusion in the module. Creating a matrix to use as a cross reference for the new content examples can help identify areas where new activities need to be placed in the course.
Fourth, identify existing Do learning events for each topic. If the existing instruction does not include appropriate or sufficient Do learning events, then identify or create appropriate Do-identify or Do-execute learning events for inclusion in the module.
Finally, assemble the new demonstrations and applications into the module for more effective, efficient, and engaging instruction.
The Context Problem
Even after appropriate demonstration and application learning events are added to this traditional instructional sequence, there is still a potential problem that keeps this instructional sequence from being as effective, efficient, and engaging as possible. In this sequence topics are taught one-on-one. The demonstration and application learning events added to a Tell sequence are usually examples that apply to only a single component skill and are merely a small part of solving a whole problem. Too often learners fail to see the relevance of some of these individual skills learned out of context. We have all experienced the often used explanation: “You won’t understand this now, but later it will be very important to you.” If “later” in this situation is several days or weeks there is a good possibility that the learners will have forgotten the component skill before they get to actually use this skill in solving a whole problem or doing a whole task. Or, if learners do not see the relevance of a particular skill they may fail to actually learn the skill or they are unable to identify a mental model into which they can incorporate this skill. Then, when it is time to use this skill in the solution of a whole problem, learners are unable to retrieve the skill because it was merely memorized rather than understood. Furthermore, if solving a whole problem or doing a whole task is the final project for a module or course, there may be no opportunity to get feedback and revise the project.
Is there a better sequence that is more effective, efficient, and engaging than this typical sequence?
Problem-Centered
To maximize engagement in learning a new problem solving skill, learners need to acquire these skills in the context of the problem they are learning to solve or the task they are learning to complete. If learners first activate a relevant mental model (activation principle) and then are shown an example of the problem they will learn to solve and how to solve this problem, they are more likely to see the relevance of each individual component skill when it is taught, and they will have a framework into which they can incorporate this new skill, greatly increasing the probability of efficient retrieval and application when they are confronted with a new instance of the problem.
Does existing instruction use a problem-centered sequence in instruction? Even though many MOOCs are designed to facilitate problem solving, Margaryan and her colleagues found that only 8 of the 76 MOOCs they analyzed were problem-centered. Several previous surveys of existing instruction in a variety of contexts found that most courses do not use a problem-centered instructional sequence or even involve students in the solution of real-world problems as a final project.
A typical instructional sequence is topic-centered; that is, each topic is taught one-by-one, and then at the end of the module or course learners are expected to apply each of these topics in the solution of a final problem or the completion of a final task. Figure 2 illustrates a problem-centered sequence that turns this sequence around. Rather than telling an objective for the module, which is a form of information, the (1) first learning activity is to show a whole instance of the problem that learners are being taught to solve. This demonstration also provides an overview of the solution to the problem or the execution of the task. (2) Students are then told information about the component skills necessary for the solution of this instance of the problem and (3) shown how each of these component skills contributes to the solution of the problem. (4) After this Tell–Show demonstration for the first instance of the problem is complete, a second problem instance is identified and shown to learners. (5) The learner is then required to apply the previously acquired component skills to this second problem (Do). (6) Some of the component skills may require some additional information or a different way of using the skill to solve this second instance of the problem. Learners are then told this new information and (7) shown its application to another instance of the problem. Note that the Tell-Show-Do for each component skill or topic is now distributed across different instances of the problem. The first instance of the problem was primarily Tell-Show. The second instance of the problem is a combination of Tell-Show for new parts of each component skill and Do for those component skills already acquired. (8) Additional instances of the problem are identified. Learners apply those skills already acquired (Tell-Show) and apply those skills already acquired (Do) for each new instance of the problem. The sequence is complete when learners are required to solve a new instance of the problem without additional guidance.
In a problem-centered instructional sequence learners are more likely to see the relevance of each new component skill. This sequence will provide multiple opportunities for learners to apply these newly acquired component skills in the context of real instances of the problem. It enables learners to see the relationship among the individual component skills in the context of each new instance of the problem. It also provides gradually diminishing guidance to learners until they are able to solve a new instance of the problem with little guidance.
Instruction that is revised to include a Tell-Show-Do sequence of learning events all in the context of solving a progression of instances of a whole problem or a whole task has the potential ofmaximally engaging students while providing efficient and effective learning activities.
Recommendation
In summary: Designers may want to analyze their courses. Perhaps the effectiveness, efficiency, and especially the engagement of a course may be enhanced by adding appropriate demonstration andapplication and by using a problem-centered instructional sequence. Does the course include appropriate and adequate demonstration? Does it include appropriate and adequate application? Are the skills taught in the context of an increasingly complex progression of instances of the problem?
Conclusion
Motivation is an outcome, not a cause. What promotes engagement and hence motivation? Effective, efficient, and engaging instruction. What promotes effective, efficient, and engaging instruction? First Principles of Instruction: Activation, Demonstration, Application, Integration, and Problem-centered. In this paper we have emphasized the demonstration and application principle and a problem-centered instructional sequence.
References
Frick, T., Chadha, R., Watson, C., & Zlatkovska, E. (2010). Improving course evaluations to improve instruction and complex learning in higher education. Educational Technology Research and Development, 58, 115-136.
Margaryan, A. Bianco, M. & Littlejohn, A. (2015). Instructional Quality of Massive Online Courses (MOOCs). Computers and Education, 80, 77-83.
Merrill, M. D. (2002). First principles of instruction. Educational Technology Research and Development, 50(3), 43-59.
Merrill, M. D. (2013). First Principles of Instruction: Identifying and Designing Effective, Efficient and Engaging Instruction. San Frisco: Pfeiffer
Rosenberg-Kima, R. (2012). Effects of task-centered vs topic-centered instructional strategy approaches on problem solving (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from Florida State University. Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations. Paper 5148.
Thompson Learning (2002). Thompson Job Impact Study: The Next Generation of Learning. Retrieved from http://www.delmarlearning.com/resources/Job_Impact_Study_whitepaper.pdf.


Module 4: Research & LTC
112 4.3.3 Performance Measurement
Quality Improvement Plan (QIP):
Health Quality Ontario[1] identifies QIP as including the following:
- Recognized, acknowledged set of commitments that a healthcare organization makes to its patients/clients/residents, staff and community
- Goal to advance quality through fixed targets and actions
- QIPs are used in various sectors to assist organizations in providing quality programs and services
- Addresses efficiency, patient centred care, safe & effective care
NPs and their respective teams can be evaluated within the context of their role within the LTC sector through elements of the QIP.
Additional examples of NP practice evaluative outcomes & performance measurement have included:
- Potentially avoidable emergency department visits for LTC residents
- Antipsychotic use
- Palliative care services
- Health Standards Organizations (HSO) and CIHI’s Long Term Standards [2][3][4]