A Brief History of Instructional Development

1. A Brief History of Instructional Development Prepared for ID 631 John R. Savery

2. Opening caveats • Lack of unanimous agreement concerning a definition of: • Instructional technology • Instructional development • Instructional design • There are several egos associated with particular definitions.

3. 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)

4. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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/

10. 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.”

11. 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.

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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’.

15. 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

16. 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)

17. 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

18. 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.