Instructional design for heuristic-based problem solving

Abstract

Although there are many general instructional design models, few of them have been empirically tested and most lack precise design prescriptions at critical points. This article reports on the development and testing of a set of procedures to guide the design and development of instruction to teach strategies for solving a particular class of problems. The procedures or rules were developed first and tested by designing an instructional module based on them. The results of an empirical tryout of this module led to revisions of the rules. The revised rules were then tested by revising the original module and designing one new instructional module. The results of the overall study are (a) a useful method for developing and testing instructional design procedures or rules, (b) a set of tested instructional design rules for teaching an important class of problem solving, and (c) two tested and effective instructional modules. Future lines of research are discussed.