First Principles of Instruction Revisited

First Principles of Instruction were introduced by the author in 2002. He asserted that implementation of these principles promotes effective, efficient, and engaging (e3) instruction and that failure to implement these principles results in less effective, less efficient, and less engaging instruction. These principles and their corollaries are Merrill’s attempt to develop a prescriptive theory of instructional design. He subsequently elaborated these principles and their implementation in several articles since the initial paper. This chapter brings together some of the more important elaborations of this theory including its historical background and rationale, a summary of the First Principles of Instruction, levels of instructional strategy, the challenge of measurement for complex problem-solving performance, the Pebble-in-the-Pond model for instructional design based on First Principles of Instruction, assessing the quality of existing instruction, and a summary of some of the research exploring the benefits and constraints of applying the First Principles of Instruction.