ABSTRACT
Attention to a theory of content is overdue. The prominent learning theorists of the 1960s made a start, though they never addressed the differentiation of content into topics. Thus Gagné (1972) distinguished between verbal knowledge, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, motor skills and attitudes, and further divided the intellectual skills into eight categories, but did not describe how his recommendations for the teaching and learning of each type would be affected by their grouping into coherent topics. Parallel comments could be made about Ausubel's (1968) identification of four forms of meaningful association of propositions, Bruner et al.'s (1966) work on concept formation, and Skinner's (1968) on operant conditioning and programmed instruction. Bloom (1968) did consider how bodies of subject matter might be mastered, and emphasized the value of employing a range of teaching procedures, but did not discuss how properties of the content would determine the best method of teaching.
