Carr-Chellman Authors New Book on Instructional Design Teaching Model

by Joe Savrock (March 2011)

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - An innovative teaching model known as Instructional Design for Teachers (ID4T) is the subject of a newly released book authored by Alison A. Carr-Chellman, professor of instructional systems in the College of Education.

Carr-Chellman developed the ID4T model and introduces the concept in her new book titled Instructional Design for Teachers: Improving Classroom Practice (2011, Routledge). The basic ID4T model is designed to help K-12 teachers use a behavioral approach as well as move to a more open, student-centered design approach.

Carr-Chellman calls ID4T “a trimmed back instructional design approach” in that it “eliminates the needs assessment front end and minimizes some of the other steps that are not really needed by teachers because they are typically given the curriculum they'll teach.”

The teacher-friendly book focuses on the instructional design process. It walks teachers through the nine-step ID4T process: setting goals, creating learning objectives, analyzing student characteristics, writing tests, selecting materials, developing activities, selecting media, and implementing—and then revising—the lesson. Each chapter contains framing questions, calls attention to commonly made errors, provides easy-to-use rules of thumb, shows clearly stated outcomes, and gives examples of ID4T implementation.

The book includes chapters that address how to design instruction for standards-based, constructivist, inquiry-based and user-design classrooms, combining basics with strategies to implement the model in the most advanced instructional approaches.

“I truly hope the book will have an important impact on classroom practice among teachers nationally,” says Carr-Chellman. “My purpose was to help real change in the everyday instructional moments that happen in classrooms, and I hope that the book will serve that purpose.”