ABSTRACT
Our guidelines for focusing the information that we include in an initial content base (limiting its scope, structuring it around big ideas, establishing what is fundamental and prototypical before addressing complications or exceptions) reflect commonly emphasized instructional design principles based on studies of learning (Good & Brophy, 1995). The reason for this is that new learning proceeds most smoothly, especially in domains in which learners do not already possess a great deal of prior knowledge, when instruction helps them to establish a stable and well-connected knowledge base. Once such a base is in place, learners can develop it by assimilating relevant new information and can begin to accommodate anomalies and other complications. Learning new information is much more difficult, however, when students lack a stable knowledge base and must struggle to make sense of input that seems disconnected or even contradictory.
