A Brief History of Instructional Development

Prepared for ID 631John R. Savery

Opening caveats Lack of unanimous agreement

concerning a definition of: Instructional technology Instructional development Instructional design

There are several egos associated with particular definitions.

A place to start… Instructional development is…

“ a self-correcting, systems approach that seeks to apply scientifically derived principles to the planning, design, creation, implementation and evaluation of effective and efficient instruction”

(from S. Schrock 1991)

The 1640’s - Comenius Innovative textbook that taught Latin

vocabulary and grammar. The instructional strategy was to use Latin sentences about a variety of topics to teach both language and knowledge.

Earliest champion of visual literacy and use of illustrations for education.

Time Lapse A whole lot happened between the mid

1600’s and where we pick up again in the late 1800’s but this is a BRIEF history…

There was the Agrarian age which aligned ‘time for teaching’ with the growing cycle.

There was the Industrial Age which we talk about in the next few slides.

Before the 1920’s

The mind was thought to consist of faculties in need of exercise. Mental performance could be improved through exercise.

Major shift resulted from the work of E.L.Thorndike who used scientific methods to investigate human and animal learning.

http://www.ittheory.com/thornd.htm

The 1920’s - Objectives

Franklin Bobbitt and school efficiency movement to link school experiences to activities of members of society.

http://www.coe.uh.edu/courses/cuin6373/idhistory/bobbitt.html

Goals for schooling derived from objective analysis of skills necessary for successful living. (early job and task analysis)

Early connection between outcomes and instruction.

The 1920’s - Objectives Learning driven by objectives grew into

individualized instruction plans. Winnetka Plan – used self-paced, self-

instructional, self-corrective workbooks with self-administered tests to be taken before the teacher administered test.

(http://www.coe.uh.edu/courses/cuin6373/idhistory/individualized_instruction.html)

Dalton Plan– earliest example of “contract learning”.

http://www.dalton.org/

The 1930’s – Behavioral Objectives and Formative Evaluation

Great Depression and rise of the Progressive Movement in education.

R.W. Tyler (OSU), completed 8 Year study of high school and college curricula. Coined the term “objectives” and confirmed that “…objectives could be clarified if written in terms of student behaviors.”

The 1940’s – Instructional Media

WW II – need to train thousands of military personnel rapidly to perform tasks critical to their survival and the war effort.

Response included training films and mediated learning materials.

The 1940’s – Instructional Media

Training became very high priority and innovation was encouraged.

Design and development of instructional media created roles still used today: SME – subject matter expert IT – instructional technologist (technical

expert in media) ID – instructional designer

The 1950’s – Programmed Instruction and Task Analysis

B.F. Skinner and elaboration of reinforcement theory of learning.

Programmed instruction characterized by “clearly stated behavioral objectives, small frames of instruction, self-pacing, active learner response to inserted questions, and immediate feedback regarding correctness of response.”

http://tip.psychology.org/skinner.html

The 1960’s – Instructional Systems Development

Explosive decade in field. Formulation of the ‘systems approach’ and the ‘science of instruction’.

Development of ‘criterion-referenced measures’ to assess achievement.

Feds gave funds to R&D labs to develop instructional materials for public education.

Schism between ‘media’ and ‘developers’.

The 1970’s – ID Models and Maturation Chaos of 60’s led to consolidation of ID. Formal models developed (60 +). Recognition as profession, with both

scholars and practitioners. Needs assessment added to ID process

(Roger Kaufman, 1972). http://mailer.fsu.edu/~wwager/kaufman_bio.html

Increased use of cognitive psychology in instructional designs.

http://psych.athabascau.ca/html/aupr/cognitive.shtml

The 1980’s – Microcomputers and Performance Technology

Availability of computers increased development of instruction based on information processing models.

Instructional development moved out of schools and into projects funded by business and military.

Performance technology addresses problems that may have organizational as well as training solutions. (competitive advantage)

The 1980’s – more insights

Emphasis on content analysis Introduction of constructivist views Situated cognition (Brown, Collins & Duguid,

1989)

Cognitive Apprenticeship-modeling the process for students and coach toward expert performance

Authentic Assessment to evaluate the thinking process of the learner

The 1990’s – The Web and Beyond

Multimedia capabilities expanded possibilities for education through designed learning environments.

Learner-centered approaches impacting on design.

Web becoming vehicle for self-paced, self-directed learning.