First Principles of Instruction

First Principles of Instruction is an instructional theory created by M. David Merrill, professor emeritus at Utah State University, based on a broad review of many existing instructional models and theories. Merrill built the principles to identify a common core that most instructional theories and models already agree on, and several other authors have since acknowledged how fundamental they are. The principles are meant to help teachers, trainers and instructional designers build research based instructional materials that are more likely to produce real gains in student learning.