What Is Instructional-Design Theory and How Is It Changing?

The purpose of this chapter is to provide some ideas that will help you analyze and understand the instructional-design theories presented in this book. First, we will explore what an instructional-design theory is. This will include a discussion of the role that values play in instructional-design theories and a discussion of what an instructional-design theory is not. In the second half of the chapter, we will explore the need for a new paradigm of instructional-design theory. In particular, we will look at the need for a paradigm of training and education in which the learner is at the top of the organizational chart rather than the bottom. Then we will look at the implications that such a paradigm has for instructional-design theory, including the extent to which some of the design decisions should perhaps be made by the learners while they are learning.