Walter Dick

Examines whether a group of highly regarded K–12 teachers used systematic instructional‑planning practices. Findings indicated these superior teachers placed limited emphasis on specifying measurable objectives, creating objective‑based tests, or making other decisions explicitly in light of objectives; instead, their planning emphasized day‑to‑day adaptations, suggesting divergences between prescriptive planning models and expert teacher practice.

Many instructional designers and organizations have adapted the Dick and Carey model. This article reviews changes to the model since its original publication and considers influences that may shape its future utility. It describes the impact of constructivist theory on the 1996 version and assesses how constructivist and objectivist approaches may affect public education and business and industry. The article also examines competing textbooks and a potential decline of interest in instructional design within academic programs.

Describes and evaluates a simplified version of the Reiser & Dick software‑evaluation model that emphasizes collecting student performance data to judge how well a program teaches targeted skills. Two field evaluations showed the simplified approach generally yields conclusions similar to those of the original model, and revealed that student learning data often contradict high subjective ratings from software review services. The results support school‑based, outcomes‑focused evaluation by teachers and media specialists.

Presents a new model for evaluating instructional software and reports a field test of the approach. Unlike many evaluation schemes that emphasize technical or surface features, this model focuses on the extent to which learners acquire the knowledge or skills the software intends to teach. The authors argue that this outcomes‑focused approach enables educators to identify software that is instructionally effective.