Instructional Systems Development

Instructional Systems Development (IS D) spans a broad range of activities. It has one foot planted in an abstract realm-a place where professors conduct measurements in the laboratory, theoreticians debate fine points of cognitive style, and engineers design microchips. The other foot of lSD, however, is planted in the field, where applications take place-among soldiers in tanks, autoworkers at the plant, students in classrooms, clerks in retail stores, and Nicaraguan villagers learning mathematics by radio. The beauty of ISD is that it connects the rarefied world of research, learning theory, and experimental psychology with the ordinary world, where people need skills to work and live. The connection is a fruitful one. Laboratory research provides better methods for teaching people what they need to know; from experience trying to train numerous people in a variety of skills, ISD professionals have been led to conduct new kinds of research on people whose needs are not met by traditional schooling. In lSD, theory guides practice and practice grounds theory, while enriching it.