Ebook: Principles of Instructional Design

The purpose of instruction is to help people learn. Can learning occur
without instruction? Certainly. We are continuously encountering and
interpreting our environment and the events in it. learning is a natural
process that leads to changes in what we know, what we can do, and how
we behave. However, one function of an educational system is to facilitate
intentional learning, in order to accomplish many goals that would take much
longer without instruction. Schools teach knowledge and skills that the community
feel are desirable, even if they are not of immediate personal interest to the student,
and even if they would not be encountered naturally in non school environments.
The federal government and commercial industries provide both initial skills
training and continuing refresher training to help employees acquire the skills and
learning needed to succeed in a changing workplace. Training is the vehicle
through which the military is transforming itself to better prepare U.S. forces from
all services to engage in joint operations. The purpose of this book is to describe
how principles of learning inform the design of effective instruction for intentional
learning.