This article is the second in a series (see Willis, 2011) that looks at the current status of instructional design scholarship and theory. In this concluding article, the focus is on two cultures of ID work, one based on constructivist and interpretivist theory and the other based on critical theory and critical pedagogy. There are distinct…

Working in teams is an important aspect of learning in various educational settings. Although education has embraced instructional strategies that use multiple learners to facilitate learning, the benefits of team-based learning need to be substantiated. There are limited efforts to evaluate the efficacy of learning processes associated with…

This article describes a course in which graduate students in education learn practical and theoretical aspects of educational design by creating technologies for learning. The course was built around three themes: "Analyzing technologies," in which students study state-of- the-art technologies and interview their designers; "design studio," in…

Better taxonomic classification is a necessary step in developing the theoretical base of instructional technology (IT). Discusses traditional concepts of theory development and application to IT: roles, levels, criteria and types of theory; taxonomic theory: classifications, domains, and taxonomies; taxonomic classification principles, schema,…

Examines issues related to theory and instructional systems design: the utility of theory; differences between descriptive (scientific) and design (goal-oriented) theories; the value of multiple theoretical perspectives; the inadequacy of current instructional design theories; and new directions needed in instructional theory, emphasizing the…