Instructional Design
The Scientific or Socratic Method applied to the delivery of instruction.


Whether it is your local school board's policy or corporate management's latest 'performance support' task that must be accomplished tomorrow - the design, development, and utilization of instructional materials have become more challenging/fun/work than most of the managers care to 'realize'.

Currently, hundreds of millions of dollars are being 'spent' to connect our nation's schools and their students to the information superhighway. As with most training projects little is mentioned regarding the time, energy, and money required to train the trainers.... But, that's another set of web pages. For more info on that topic, please visit a web search site.

To the right is a small portion of the Policies of xyz School District. Replace the word(s) 'Guide' with 'Policies and Procedures', and 'Board of Education' with 'HR Department or Administration' if you're in a corporate setting.

Instructional design & delivery is concerned with the functional level of the students and their teachers or trainers, supplemental materials, and the end goals - the performance required for acceptable or better behavior on the task.

Curriculum Guide - Definition
The K-12 Curriculum Guide is a document adopted by the Board of Education which includes course objectives, student readiness standards, lists of suggested supplemental materials, and approved textbooks for each course and subject area.

Student Readiness Standards; K-8
Student readiness standards will be statements of expectations of what the student should know and be able to do to succeed at the next grade level. The readiness standards will be stated in a way that is clear to students, parents, and teachers. These standards will specify grade level expectations, be used to guide teacher's grading, and help formulate retention decisions.

Instruction - Definition
Instruction is the art of teaching the curriculum by identifying the learning needs of individual students and offering a variety of teaching strategies to accommodate these needs.

Organization of instruction
The superintendent will supervise the development, implementation and evaluation of the school district's instructional program in accordance with the School Board's philosophy, goals and objectives.

General Organization Plan of Instruction
The school district's curriculum and instructional programs shall be organized as a unified system under the direction of the superintendent. Implementation of the curriculum and instructional programs is subject to the approval of the School Board.

Evaluation of Instructional Programs
The superintendent will provide a process for evaluating the instructional program primarily in conjunction with the curriculum cycle. This process shall be approved by the School Board.

Curriculum Development
The superintendent shall direct a systematic continuing program of curriculum development and evaluation involving students, parents, teachers, and administrators.

Supplementary Instructional Materials
Supplementary materials are used to enrich the approved curriculum. Supplementary materials include, but are not limited to: workbooks, books, pamphlets, newspapers, periodicals, audiovisual aids and computer software.

The superintendent is responsible for approving supplementary materials.