M. David Merrill

Traditional syllabi often fall short of promoting effective, efficient, and engaging learning. This paper presents and illustrates a review checklist to help faculty adopt problem‑centered courses. The checklist differentiates typical syllabi, more effective instructional syllabi, and even more effective problem‑centered syllabi, and reports results from reviewing 52 faculty syllabi at a major university.

The article argues that peer interaction is most effective when structured around a progression of problems. Within a problem‑centered, direct‑instruction approach, effective strategy involves activation of relevant mental models, demonstration of problem solutions, application to new problems, and integration through critique, discussion, and reflection, with corresponding peer‑sharing, discussion, collaboration, and critique at each phase.

Building on First Principles of Instruction, this conceptual paper details a Pebble‑in‑the‑Pond, task‑centered design procedure that integrates activation, demonstration, application, and integration within real‑world tasks. It elaborates component analysis and strategy phases, integrating prescriptions from Component Display Theory with knowledge‑object components to produce a guided, task‑centered approach distinct from more open‑ended problem‑based methods.

For several years the author reviewed instructional design theories to identify prescriptive principles common across models. Five First Principles are elaborated: learning is promoted when learners are engaged in solving real‑world problems; when existing knowledge is activated as a foundation for new knowledge; when new knowledge is demonstrated; when new knowledge is applied by the learner; and when new knowledge is integrated into the learner’s world. Representative theories are briefly examined to illustrate inclusion of these principles.

This paper defines primary knowledge components (e.g., entities, actions, processes) and primary instructional strategy components, proposing that different combinations are required for different goals. If fundamental strategy–knowledge component combinations are absent, effective and efficient acquisition will suffer. The instructional strategy’s underlying architecture is the combination of strategy and knowledge components appropriate for a given goal, providing a common vocabulary to specify prescriptions and theories.

Finding agreement on singular types of learning outcomes, the authors argue for learning goals that integrate multiple objectives beyond a single lesson. Such integration can be conceived as an enterprise in which learners pursue comprehensive purposes; single objectives are integrated as constituents of an enterprise schema. Three varieties—denoting, manifesting, and discovering—are described, with implications for design and transfer.

With undergraduates learning an infinite concept class in poetry, manipulations of exemplar/non‑exemplar probability, exemplar–non‑exemplar similarity, and exemplar divergence significantly affected correct classification and systematic error types (over‑ and under‑generalization, misconception), demonstrating how instructional instance design shapes concept learning outcomes.