Comments on the preceding article which examined elaboration theory and offered suggestions for updating it to reflect new knowledge. Highlights include the simplifying conditions method; internal versus external knowledge structures; connectionism and authentic tasks; content structure as organizing structure; ill-structured domains; and…

This study examined the sequencing of instruction in a course in physical therapy. In the first phase, a procedural elaboration sequence was designed using the Simplifying Assumptions Method. In the second phase, a prescriptive-theoretical elaboration sequence independent of the procedural sequence was designed. A descriptive-theoretical…

In order to investigate the effects of sequence and synthesis in the teaching of taxonomically-related concepts, a study was conducted in which 27 students from Syracuse University were asked to examine printed instructions dealing with kinds of sailboats and then to respond to a test based on those instructions. The synthesizing structure…

Examines elaboration theory of instruction (ETI), a theory that prescribes different patterns of sequencing for different kinds of learning. Presents results of surveying undergraduate students who have undergone ETI sequencing. Results identify the strengths and weaknesses of the instruction and ways of improving it. Student debriefing questions…

The Elaboration Theory of Instruction offers guidelines for several patterns of simple-to-complex sequencing that were developed primarily from cognitive theory, especially schema theory, although there has been relatively little empirical research on the theory. This study helps fill this void by conducting "formative research" to…