ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that technology has a key role in the shift from Behavioral to Cognitive learning theories and that historically, technology has replaced craft orientations in medicine and engineering and is therefore likely to become a principal focus for education. Barriers to technology have included our own understanding of prescriptive research and, perhaps, resistances to research-based technologies. The behaviorist concern with prescription languished somewhat as Educational Psychology made the gradual shift from behavioral to cognitive theories of learning. In the context of education, the common use of the word "technology" most often implies mechanical devices and media such as teaching machines, television, and computers. The cognitive theories of learning have suggested that the alternative to procedures is "declarative" knowledge. Educational Psychology, when conceptualized in Herbert Simon's terms as a design science, would apply learning and motivation theory to instructional design. The chapter presents a number of examples of instructional technologies that have been developed from prescriptive research.
