Abstracts - Earli

foundation for new knowledge, 3. new knowledge is demonstrated to the learner, 4. newknowledge is applied by the learner and, 5. new knowledge is integrated into the learner’s world.According to these principles, good instructional materials should consist of prior knowledgeactivation strategies (principle 2), (modelling) examples/demonstrations (principle 3), and practiceof realistic learning tasks (principle 1 and 4) in a realistic context (principle 5). This symposiumquestions the value of a search for basic principles of instructional design and, more in particular,the five first principles of Merrill. Questions to be answered include: Are important principlesmissing? Are some principles superfluous? Does the listing of principles makes any sense orshould we be looking at integrated sets of principles? Is the effectiveness of principles not actuallymediated by learner-related characteristics such as expertise? And, last but not least, are firstprinciples of instruction helpful to the field of instructional design or should we take anotherroute? Merrill, M. D. (2002). First principles of instruction. Educational Technology Research andDevelopment, 50, 43-59.Merrill’s “first principles of instruction” contribution of the principles to the field of instructionaldesignJoost Lowyck, Universiteit Leuven, BelgiumThe basic problem of instructional design is how to link developments in learning and instructionto principles of designing education. Depending on the view on a learning environment,instruction-driven versus learner-driven parameters can be distinguished. In a tradition whereinstruction is the main paradigm (‘instructional’ design) it is expected that both quality andeffectiveness of learning environments depend on instructional endeavours. Instructional designersbuild environments taking into account expected effectiveness principles that are highly dependenton the learning paradigm they adopt. In the ‘learning design’ paradigm, learners do not only play aleading role in their adaptation to the already designed learning environment but they are designersor co-designers of their own environment. Evidently, in more open and learner-directedenvironments, more is needed than instructional principles. Mental models and skills of learners indesigning environments are needed as well. This is exemplified by the concept of ‘learnercommunities’ that, in their functioning, require more than instructional design principles.Merrill’s five first principles in The Sparkling SchoolJos Beishuizen, Educational Centre VU, NetherlandsIn this contribution, Merrill’s five first principles of education will be applied on a project, TheSparkling School, in which students, teachers, and researchers collaborate in a community oflearners fostering the development of inquiry skills and subject-matter knowledge. The role of thislearning environment as a testbed for student-teachers will be explored.Principles of instruction: a multimedia-learning perspectiveDetlev Leutner, Duisburg-Essen University, GermanyWithout a comprehensive framework for a theory of learning and instruction, and withoutempirical evidence for that theory, principles of instruction are "pedagogical folklore". In thiscontribution to the symposium, David Merrill’s "first principles of instruction" are reviewedagainst the background of a growing body of sound research on learning with multimedia. It isasked whether Merrill’s principles are in line with "multimedia learning principles" and whetherrecent empirical evidence that questions the generalizability of some of these principles - across– 122 –