Ingredients for a Theory of Instruction

THE term "theory of instruction" has been in widespread use for over a decade and during that time has acquired a fairly specific meaning. By consensus it denotes a body of theory concerned with optimizing the learning process; stated otherwise, the goal of a theory of instruction is to prescribe the most effective methods for acquiring new information, whether in the form of higher order concepts or rote facts. Although usage of the term is widespread, there is no agreement on the requirements for a theory of instruction. The literature provides an array of examples ranging from speculative accounts of how children should be taught in the classroom to formal mathematical models specifying precise branching procedures in computer-controlled instruction. Such diversity is healthy; to focus on only one approach would not be productive in the long run. I prefer to use the term theory of instruction to encompass both experimental and theoretical research, with the theoretical work ranging from general speculative accounts to specific quantitative models. The literature on instructional theory is growing at a rapid rate. So much so that, at this point, a significant contribution could be made by someone willing to write a book summarizing and evaluating work in the area. I am reminded here of Hilgard's (1948) book, Theories oj Learning; it played an 1 A briefer version of this article was presented as an invited address at the meetings of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, April 1972. This research was sponsored in part by National Science Foundation Grant No. NSF GJ-443X2 and by Office of Naval Research Contract No. N00014-67-A-0112-0054. 2 Requests for reprints should be sent to Richard C. Atkinson, Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305. 3 See, for example, Smallwood (1962), Carroll (1963), Hilgard (1964), Bruner (1966), Groen and Atkinson (1966), Crothers and Siippes (1967), Gagne (1970), Seidel and Hunter (1970), Pask and Scott (1971), and Atkinson and Paulson (1972). important role in the development of learning theory by effectively summarizing alternative approaches and placing them in perspective. A book of this type is needed now in the area of instruction. The present article provides an overview of one of the chapters that I would like to see included in such a book; a title for the chapter might be "A Decision-Theoretic Analysis of Instruction." Basically, I consider here the factors that need to be examined in deriving optimal instructional strategies, and then I use this analysis to identify the key elements of a theory of instruction.