What condition my condition was in.

Introduction

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Conditions-Based Learning Theory

    The year is 1967 and Kenny Rogers and the First Edition release the song you are currently listening to, Just Dropped In.  The song gives us a glimpse of what society was interested in in the late 1960s and early 1970s -  our conditions.  This period in time was also the birth of Conditions-Based Theory (C-BT) of Instructional Design.  Based strongly in psychological principles, in the theories infancy it was called "psychoeducational design". (Rihey, Klein, & Tracey, 2010)  C-BT is attributed to Robert Gagné if that names sounds familiar it is because he also is attributed with Conditions of Learning. 

    C-BT uses such common ideas in ID that it is universal in its simplicity (Rihey, Klein, & Tracey, 2010) .  Defined C-BT is said to identify students  cognitive schemas towards education and develop instructional strategies based on those schemas.  Typically most researchers believe that C-BT has three main focus points:

  1. types of learning outcomes
  2. sequence of those outcomes
  3. the internal process of learning 

    The job of the Instructional Designer, according to C-BT, is to identify the best educational path for the broadest group of students and create that path. To help facilitate the types of learning outcomes Bloom created a set of taxonomies appropriately named Bloom's Taxonomy.  For a comedic look at these taxonomies we turn to the hit sitcom Seinfeld. Again, C-BT turns to psychology when describing the sequence of outcomes; several major psychological theories are described to help explain and plan the sequence of learning outcomes.  Another theory in this realm is Reigluth's Elaboration Theory. The internal process of learning is the underresearched areas of C-BT.  With that being said two important theories have come from this area Merrill's Component Display Theory (CDT) and Instructional Transaction Theory.

Task

Process

Using the resources given in this Web-Quest design two arguments one in favor of C-BT and one disagreeing with C-BT. You can argue with any portion of the theory, perhaps something in the background of C-BT does not sit right with you or maybe you think that Gagné got it just right with his conditions of learning. Your arguments must be well thought out and arguable, meaning the argument should not be easily dismissed and be backed by reserch. Each argument must be between 2 and 3 pages each for a total of 4 to 6 pages.

Evaluation

  

     To help guide your writing process please refer to the Common Core State Standards Augmentative Writing Rubric, as it will be referred to while grading.

 

Credits

Richey, C. R., Klein, J. D., & Tracey, M. W. (2011) The instructional design knowledge base: Theory, research, and practice. New York: Routledge

Teacher Page

Grade Level: 11 - 12, College level

Curriculum: Instructional Design

Keywords: Conditions Based Theory; Instructional Design

Author: Doug Cruthirds

This WebQuest was designed to be add as an extra credit assignment or perhaps an assignment given by a substitute.  It is strongly recommend you check all embedded links to make sure they still function.