Prospects for Instructional Design and Teacher Education

Abstract

With most academic instructional design and technology (IDT) degree programs located within education units in higher education, teacher education is a focal point for research on the classroom teacher as instructional designer and implementer of technology in K-12. Further, teacher education serves as a locus for modelling and testing theory-based teaching practice arising from the discipline. This review examines the historical foundations and recent scholarship in teacher education from an instructional design and technology perspective in US and international contexts, providing a lens to the issues of theory versus practice and evolving research paradigms. Research areas reviewed include teacher thinking and planning, novice versus expert teacher differences, the use of systematic instructional design in classroom practices, and the teacher as designer of instructional materials. Changing research approaches and constructivist philosophies have widened the understanding of teacher instructional planning and action from earlier process–product causation to a more complex, situated view of practice. From an examination of the uneasy relationship between the two disciplines, prospects for future cooperation and research are explored in terms of theory building, impacts on training, debates on the nature of design practice, and potential for shaping educational reform efforts.