First Principles of Instruction

1 First Principles of InstructionM. David MerrillFor the past several years the author has beenreviewing instructional design theories in anattempt to identify prescriptive Principles thatare common to the various theories. This paperis a preliminary report of the Principles thathave been identified by this search. Five firstprinciples are elaborated: (a) Learning ispromoted when learners are engaged insolving real-world problems. (b) Learning ispromoted when existing knowledge isactivated as a foundation for new knowledge.(c) Learning is promoted when new knowledgeis demonstrated to the learner. (d) Learning ispromoted when new knowledge is applied bythe learner. (e) Learning is promoted whennew knowledge is integrated into the learner sworld. Representative instructional designtheories are briefly examined to illustrate howthey include these Principles .

2 These include:Star Legacy by the Vanderbilt LearningTechnology Center, 4-Mat by McCarthy,instructional episodes by Andre, multipleapproaches to understanding by Gardner,collaborative problem solving by Nelson,constructivist learning environments byJonassen, and learning by doing by Schank. It is concluded that, although they use awide variety of terms, these theories andmodels do include fundamentally years have seen a proliferation of in-structional design theories and models. Ten-nyson, Schott, See, and Dijkstra (1997) andReigeluth (1999) summarize a number of thesedifferent positions. Instructional design theory,as represented in Reigeluth, varies from basicdescriptive laws about learning to broad cur-riculum programs that concentrate on what istaught rather than on how to teach.

3 Are all ofthese design theories and models merely alter-native ways to approach design? Do all of thesedesign theories and models have equal value?Do these design theories and models have fun-damental underlying Principles in common? Ifso what are these underlying First Principles ?The purpose of this paper is to identify and ar-ticulate the prescriptive design Principles onwhich these various design theories and modelsare in essential (1999) distinguishes two majorkinds of instructional methods: basic methodsand variable methods. This paper identifieswhat Reigeluth calls basic methods but which Iprefer to call First Principles of Instruction . Thispaper refers to variable methods as programsand practices. A principle (basic method) is arelationship that is always true under ap-propriate conditions regardless of program orpractice (variable method).

4 A practice is a specificinstructional activity. A program is an approachconsisting of a set of prescribed practices. Prac-tices always implement or fail to implement un-derlying Principles whether these Principles arespecified or not. A given instructional approachmay only emphasize the implementation of oneor more of these instructional Principles . Thesame Principles can be implemented by a widevariety of programs and practices. A givenETR&D, Vol. 50, No. 3, 2002, pp. 43 59 ISSN 1042 162943 AAH GRAPHICS, INC. / (540) 933-6210 / FAX 933-6523 / 09-30-2002 / 11:57theory may specify both Principles and practicesfor implementing these Principles . For some ex-amples in Reigeluth (1999) a program isspecified but the underlying First Principles arenot specified. Parsimony would dictate thatthere should be only a few First Principles of in-struction that can support a wide variety of in-structional programs and practices (designtheories, models, and methods).

5 What are the properties of First Principles ofinstruction? First , learning from a given pro-gram will be promoted in direct proportion to itsimplementation of First Principles . Second, firstprinciples of Instruction can be implemented inany delivery system or using any instructionalarchitecture. Third, First Principles of instructionare design oriented or prescriptive rather thanlearning oriented or descriptive. They relate tocreating learning environments and productsrather than describing how learners acquireknowledge and skill from these environments this paper, I have identified the principlesthat are included in a variety of design theoriesand models. There is no attempt in this paper toidentify the empirical support for these prin-ciples. I assume, perhaps without sufficient jus-tification, that if a principle is included in severalinstructional design theories, the principle hasbeen found either through experience or empiri-cal research to be valid.

6 My associates and I areinvolved in a review effort to identify empiricalresearch that supports or fails to support thesedesign Principles . The present report merelyidentifies the Principles that have been iden-tified by a variety of theorists and premise of this paper is that there is a setof Principles that can be found in most instruc-tional design theories and models and eventhough the terms used to state these principlesmight differ between theorists, the authors ofthese theories would agree that these principlesare necessary for effective and efficient instruc-tion. This premise also assumes that thesedesign Principles apply regardless of the in-structional program or practices prescribed by agiven theory or model. If this premise is true,there will be a decrement in learning and perfor-mance when a given instructional program orpractice violates or fails to implement one ormore of these First Principles .

7 Obviously, thesupport for this hypothesis can only come fromevaluation studies for a given instructionalproduct or research studies comparing the useand misuse of these theories cited in this paper are illustra-tive of our approach rather than exhaustive. Notall of the Principles stated in this paper are in-cluded in the theories that are very brieflydescribed. The vocabulary used to describethese theories and their implementation detailsvaries significantly. Each of the theories andmodels reviewed here tends to emphasize dif-ferent paper will provide a concise statementof these First Principles of Instruction and thenreview selected theories to see how these prin-ciples are incorporated by each of these each theory is reviewed, there will be an at-tempt to translate the vocabulary of the theory tothe vocabulary of the First Principles as PHASESMany current instructional models suggest thatthe most effective learning products or environ-ments are those that are problem-centered andinvolve the student in four distinct phases oflearning: (a) activation of prior experience, (b)demonstration of skills, (c) application of skills,and (d) integration of these skills into real-worldactivities.

8 Figure 1 illustrates these four instructional practice concentratesprimarily on the demonstration phase and ig-nores the other phases in this cycle of of the theories reviewed in this paperstress problem-centered Instruction and includesome (if not all) of these four phases of effectiveinstruction. Figure 1 provides a conceptualframework for stating and relating the First prin-ciples of Instruction . The First principle relates toproblem-centered Instruction . Four more prin-ciples are stated for each of the four phases foreffective Instruction . These five First principlesstated in their most concise form are as follows:1. Learning is promoted when learners areengaged in solving real-world Learning is promoted when existingAAH GRAPHICS, INC. / (540) 933-6210 / FAX 933-6523 / 09-30-2002 / 11:5744 ETR&D, Vol.

9 50, No. 3knowledge is activated as a foundation fornew Learning is promoted when new knowledgeis demonstrated to the Learning is promoted when new knowledgeis applied by the Learning is promoted when new knowledgeis integrated into the learner s Principles OF INSTRUCTIONIn the following paragraphs, I elaborate the fiveprescriptive design Principles for problem-centered Instruction and for each of the four in-structional phases. First , I state each principleand its corollaries including a short descriptorfor each principle or corollary. After this concisestatement, I elaborate and explain the principleand its corollaries in more detail citing some rep-resentative theorists or investigators who havesuggested the 1 Problem-centered: Learning ispromoted when learners are engaged in solvingreal-world problems.

10 Corollary Show task: Learning is promotedwhen learners are shown the task that theywill be able to do or the problem they will beable to solve as a result of completing amodule or course. Corollary Task level: Learning is promotedwhen learners are engaged at the problem ortask level, not just the operation or actionlevel. Corollary Problem progression: Learning ispromoted when learners solve a progressionof problems that are explicitly compared toone of the current work in cognitive psychol-ogy has shown that students learn better whenengaged in solving problems (Mayer, 1992a).Problem-centered learning is well representedby a number of recent instructional models in-cluding: Collins, Brown and Newman (1989),Cognitive Apprenticeship; Schank, Berman, andMacperson (1999), Goal Based Scenarios; Jonassen(1999), Constructivist Learning Environments;Savery and Duffey (1995), Problem-Based Learn-ing; Clark and Blake (1997), Novel Problem Solv-ing; and van Merri nboer (1997), Whole TaskPractice in 4C/ID definition of a problem varies amongtheorists.