1. Instructional Theory
William Allan Kritsonis, PhD
Research indicates that before effective instruction can take place, the
instructor must first consider “student readiness.” Research shows that
student readiness includes the students’ knowledge, skills and disposition
necessary to perform a given task. The instructor must take into account
the readiness of each student in order for effective instruction to take
place. An evaluation instrument should be designed to measure readiness
level of the student so that the instructor can assess the appropriate tasks
to assign based on student knowledge. Planning a task leads to the
achievement of the learning objective. The number of tasks planned
should be based on the difficulty level of the learning objective. In
general, greater number of tasks should be planned to achieve a more
difficult learning objective. The evaluation of the students’ current
knowledge and skills should be a basis for assigning tasks to students and
as a measurement for student readiness. When the instructor assigns
tasks, the knowledge level and skills level of the student must be
sufficient to meet the demands of the tasks. When teaching, the
instructor must take into consideration the mastery level of performance.

2. Learning should be attained for each task so students who learn to
perform a task are ready to perform the next task.
When defining instructional expectations, research indicates that
before effective instruction can take place, the student must know prior to
instruction what the learning objective is, what procedures are necessary
to perform the tasks required to achieve the learning objective and what
the criteria’s are for successful accomplishment of the learning objective.
The instructor must clearly define how the student is to achieve the
learning objective by defining the procedure that the student is to use in
achieving the learning objective. Instructor must clearly define “how”
they are to achieve the objective and “what” they must do in order to
accomplish the learning objective. Absence of this knowledge may
prevent the student from recognizing whether they have successfully
completed the given learning objective and whether the appropriate
procedure needed to accomplish the learning objective was used.
The instructor must provide the student with effective evaluation and
remediation. Evaluation can be defined as assessing student task
performance for the purpose of certifying, student competence in
performing the task being evaluated and diagnosing causes of
inadequacy. The instructor must remediate by correction of inadequate

3. task performance based on the evaluation. Evaluation serves as a
diagnostic tool for determining competence task performance and
inadequate task performance. When evaluations are conducted, students
are given immediate feedback on the competent of task performance and
new tasks can be assigned to the student based on the evaluation results.
Diagnosis of student inadequacies and student progress should include
frequent quizzes, tests, and other forms of performance evaluation.
Feedback is necessary to inform students and acknowledge their
achievements; encourage their next challenge with expectations of
success.
Students associate correction and remediation activities with their
incorrect responses if remediation is provided sooner rather than later.
This is why providing continuity is very necessary in instruction
strategies. Studies indicate that academic achievement is improved when
instruction is contiguous. Student tasks should be broken down into
small segments so that they can be performed as close together as
possible. Devices that can be used to promote contiguity include
focusing attention on the highlighting relationships and condensing time
as well as condensing space. During the instructional process, student
tasks performance should follow instruction as soon as possible;

4. evaluation should occur during or immediately, or very soon after
evaluation; remediation should occur immediately following feedback.
Two modes of repetition enhance learning. They include repeated
presentations of to-be-learned information to students and students’
repetition of assigned tasks. Repetition will enhance learning if the to-
be-learned task is repeatedly presented to the student and if the to-be-
learned task is practiced by students. Repetition must be frequent but
must avoid boredom. Too much repetition may interfere with learning
of the to-be-learned material. Once students have mastered material, it is
advised to move on to new or advanced material or students may become
bored.
Clarity of communication enhances the academic achievement of
students and facilitates the learning objectives they are assigned. Studies
indicate that students exposed to clear communications achieve at a rate
of one and one-half to three times higher than students not exposed to
clear communications. The instructor must provide examples and
illustrations of concepts being taught while avoiding irrelevant
interjections of subject matter and vagueness. Studies suggest that the
instructor should provide transitional terms such as “next”, “the last item
is”, and “this concludes”. It is also suggested that the instructor use

5. simple language and provide time for question and answers. In fact,
questions and answers have shown to be especially effective in enhancing
achievement.
Reducing student/teacher ratio is plays a very important role in the
academic achievement of students. As the student-to-teacher ratio
increases, academic achievement decreases. Studies have shown that
higher ratios mean that teachers spend more time in classroom
management as opposed to teaching. Higher ratios also mean that there
is more opportunity for off-task behavior. To maximize student
achievement it is suggested that teachers use one-on-one tutoring. Group
instruction achieves superior results when teamwork is being taught for
the purpose of enhancing group achievement. In-group instruction,
keeping students-to-teacher rations below 15:1 is ideal as the smaller the
group sizes the higher the academic achievement. 1:1 produces the
highest achievement. It is necessary to assess and diagnose student
performance often and provide remediation in-group instruction.
Reminders supposedly enhance higher mental functions such as
comprehension and problem solving. This may happen because
reminders cue recall of information especially when to-be-learned
material consists of a short list or small group of interrelated objects or

6. concepts. Reminders are also effective when larger number of concepts is
to be recalled or when the focus of instruction is English, foreign
language vocabulary instruction, science taxonomies, or other more
complex learning situations. In order for remainders to be effective in
the learning process the instructor is prompted to provide instruction on
commonly used effective reminders and how to use them. Provide
instruction on how to formulate and use reminders and allow the students
ample time to practice using the reminder tactics.
Subject matter unifiers also play an important in instructional theory
when the student highlights parts or whole relationships in the subject
matter. The evidence indicates that the use of unifiers may increase
student achievement by as much as five times that for students in learning
situations where unifiers were not used. The use of unifiers may be used
prior to, during, or after instruction. Students are taught to construct their
own unifying scheme either during or after instruction. Unifying
schemes employed to highlight relationships in the subject matter
included textual summaries, hierarchical tree diagrams, pictorial
representations, and subject matter outlines.
Providing transfer of learning instruction is defined as the application
of prior learning to enable the performance of new tasks. If people did

7. not transfer what they leonine to solve new problems, learning would be
useless. The challenge to education is to facilitate the transfer of learning
that is necessary for the achievement of learning objectives. Students
need to be taught how to determine the relevance of the knowledge and
skills they have learning to the performance of new tasks. Students
cannot transfer skills if they do not possess readiness characteristics
discussed in earlier in this paper.
Students must be able to work as team members to achieve team goals
and objectives. Providing teamwork instruction can be facilitated by the
instructor so that students are able to problem solve, determine goals and
objectives and get along with co-workers. To be productive members of
social communities, students must be able to address problems
confronting the community and participate in team sports and games.
Group teaching does not produce the highest student academic
achievement effects; however, it does promote teamwork that is essential
to success in civilized societies. The team members learn to share in
their successes and failures, rationally resolve conflicts, and appropriately
divide the labors. Teamwork ideally is composed of four to five
members’ teams. Team-building exercises should be conduced to allow
team members to get to know one another and build rapport. Groups

8. should be allowed time to brainstorm and the instructor should be
available to provide assistance and to recognize the teams for the degree
of improvement.
It is important that the instructor provide ample learning time for the
students to correctly perform tasks, contemplate their performance
beforehand, and test the behaviors they hypothesize, evaluate the results
of their performance, and made refinements. The instructor should
provide ample time and plan for learning activities, homework, library
projects, and laboratory activities. Allocation of too much time however,
may unnecessarily slow the progress of other students. The instructor
should monitor allocation of time closely as it is also necessary for
student to be kept on task. The more time students spend focused on the
assigned tasks without distractions, the more likely they will achieve the
learning objectives. Students who do not attend to assigned learning
tasks fail to learning and may become dropouts. Students that spend
more time focused on the given task achieve greater success in
elementary and secondary classrooms. It is important that the instructor
assign only tasks that are relevant to achieving the learning objectives for
students to stay on task. The instruction must be well planned and
organized and sell as demonstrate and guide student to the given task.

9. Internet Links
Learning theory: Objectivism vs constructivism
http://media.hku.hk/cmr/edtech/Constructivism.html
Perspectives on instruction
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtech540/Perspectives/Perspectives.html
What is the new paradigm of instructional theory?
http://itech1.coe.uga.edu/itforum/paper17/paper17.html
Elaboration theory
http://www.gwu.edu/~tip/reigelut.html

10. Key Terms and Definitions:
The definitions in the following section are relevant to Instructional
Theory and pertain to instructional contexts and settings.
Ability Grouping: The grouping of students according to their ability
level for the purpose of instruction
Contiguity: The proximity of to-be-associated events in space and time
Control Motive: The penchant to improve the control of outcomes
Decision-making: Selection a course of action
Field-dependent/field independent cognitive style: The tendency to
perceive events as either independent of their surrounding field or
dependent upon their surrounding field
Instruction: A process in which educators evaluate students, assign tasks
to student based on the evaluations, and teach students to perform
assigned tasks in order to achieve a learning objective
Instructional Conditions: Assignment conditions that can affect students’
task performance, such as class size, disruptions, equipment, time
allowed for task performance, and safety
Instructional Cycle: The cyclical execution of the acts of evaluating;
assigning tasks; teaching in order to achieve a learning objective. It may
be necessary to repeat the cycle a number of times to achieve a learning
objective
Instructional Evaluation: The comparison of the performance of an
instructional task with criteria of competent performance, and the
diagnosis of insufficiencies in task performance
Instructional Expectations: The objective students are assigned to
achieve and procedures to be followed to achieve the objectives.

11. Instructional Planning: The process of deriving learning objectives,
planning instructional tasks, planning evaluations, planning task
assignments and planning teaching.
Instructional Strategies: Procedures used to enhance the achievement of
learning objectives
Instructional Units: Units of instruction consisting of a sequence of
evaluation, task assignment, and teaching tactics leading progressively to
the achievement of a unit-learning objective. A number of unit
objectives are achieved as a means of achieving a policy objective
Learning objectives: Terminal tasks students are to learn to perform by
means of instruction
Learning Time: time allotted to students for performing assigned tasks
Policy Objectives: Desired student outcomes to be achieved by
educators. Policy objectives are established by policy-makers, such as
school boards, for educators to achieve.
Predictive ability: The ability to forecast outcomes from antecedent
conditions
Progressive tasks: A continuum of tasks leading progressively from
entry-level tasks appropriate for students with specified readiness
characteristics to the achievement of a learning objective
Readiness: Student knowledge, skills, and disposition necessary to
perform a task
Reinforcement: The attempt to increase the probability that a desired
assigned task will be performed by providing for the satisfaction of a
motive when the desired tasks is performed.
Remedial Tasks: Tasks formulated to remediate students’ failure to
adequately perform a task
Remediation: The correction of inadequate task performance

12. Reminders: memory joggers used to facilitate and improve recall of to-
be-learned information or skills.
Repetition: The repeated presentation of to-be-learned material to
students and/or student repetition of to-be-learned skills
Student/teacher ratio: The proportion of teachers to students the teachers
are assigned to teach
Students: People being taught
Subject matter: The content to be learned by students
Subject matter unifiers: Presentations of the parts/whose relationships in
subject matter students are assigned to learn to enhance their learning of
the subject matter
Task planning: The formulation and organizing of progressive tasks and
remedial tasks to achieve a learning objective based on student readiness
characteristics
Tasks: student/subject matter interactions formulated to enable students
to achieve learning objectives
Teaching: Guiding and facilitating student task performance in order to
achieve a learning objective
Teaching time: The proportion of learning time spent guiding and
facilitating student performance of assigned tasks
Teamwork: Cooperation among people to achieve a common objective
Time on Task: The amount of time students spend focused on the
performance of assigned tasks
Transfer of learning: The application of prior learning to enable the
performance of new tasks

13. References
Friedman, M.I. & Fisher, S.P. (1998). Handbook on effective
instructional strategies: evidence for decision-making. SC: The Institute for
Evidence-Based Decision-Making in Education, Inc.