The Proper Study of Instructional Design - David Merrill

Merrilltheir will be a corresponding improvement in the learning that occurs. This set ofpropositions constitutes an instructional design theory.Often the instructional design theory is linked to an underlying learning theory.The learning theory explains why the predicted relationship may occur. It should benoted that the instructional design theory is the set of if-condition then-consequenceprescriptions. The learning theory is a linking of these conditions to underlying learningconstructs that explain why a given instructional proposition or set of propositions resultin more efficient or effective learning.An effective instructional design theory also specifies the relationships among thepropositions of the theory so that the theory is not merely a set of conditions that stand inisolation but rather an set of interrelated principles that act together to produce the desiredlearning outcome or consequence.Why are there so many different instructional design theories? The answer lies inthe nature of science. Different investigators may not feel that the concepts previouslydefined are the right things to observe. Or they may feel that the terminology used toidentify a given event or condition is not sufficiently descriptive so they use a differentterm. Instructional design theory is sufficiently immature that there has not yet been ageneral agreement on the conditions that have been found to be most useful nor has therebeen a general agreement on the terminology used to identify these instructional events orconditions. There have been several attempts at providing definitions of terminology inthe field but to date none of these have been generally accepted by the majority of thefield. Eventually, as more theory is defined and more research conducted to verify thistheory, there will be a gradual coming together of the accepted terms and conditions thatare thought to be important. The author has attempted to provide one such synthesis inanother chapter in this volume (Merrill, In Press).Instructional Design ResearchInstructional design research is the testing of the instructional design prescriptions(if-conditions then-consequence or learning outcome) in a carefully controlled situationwhere the logic of the methodology allows one to attribute a given consequence to theconditions manipulated in the instruction rather than to some other causes.8