Implementation of the Elaboration Theory

In an Instructional Design
By Dianna Anderson

The Elaboration Theory

The elaboration theory was founded by educational theorist Charles Reigeluth. Elaboration
theory is an instructional design theory that argues that content to be learned should be
organized from simple to complex order, while providing meaningful context in which
subsequent ideas can be integrated (Reigeluth, 1999). Then finally, the content should be
presented in its entirety of theme to see the big picture. I discovered this theory while
researching ideas for my instructional plan for a course in the EDIT program. According to
Reigeluth, the theory has the following values:

It values a sequence of instruction that is as holistic as possible, to foster meaning-

making and motivation
It allows learners to make many scope and sequence decisions on their own during the
learning process
It is an approach that facilitates rapid prototyping in the instructional development
process (David L., 2017)

Impact on Learning

I used this theory in an HR class that I teach to undergraduate students in the Business
Management program. My students had to write a paper for the capstone project that consisted
of five Human Resources Theories. I found that when they received this assignment in its
entirety, some struggled achieving the learning outcomes. There were two distinct outcomes: 1)
the magnitude of the assignment was overwhelming and some students did not complete all of
the tasks within the assignment, 2) Some students that lacked writing skills focused more on
presentation and writing mechanics than content. When I presented this project from an interval
design perspective, final scores were increased. I developed the instruction to take place over the
time span of the course with a Human Resources Theory due each week. The final cumulative
project was to combine the five theories and identify the over-arching themes. Students that
were previously overwhelmed by the larger assignment did a better job of putting together the
final paper which included each of the requirements from the rubric. Students that were focused
on presentation and writing mechanics were able to use feedback from the first Theory to
incorporate into the last four theories, as well as the final paper. This improved their ability to
write papers and allowed them to focus on learning the content in which they were researching.

Improvements to Theory

This theory worked well for my particular instructional design. I highly recommend it when the
lesson plan has to build on knowledge to get to the final learning outcomes. My
recommendation for improvement would be to elaborate on the concept of sequencing
instruction from simple to complex, which could be thought of as linear. The instructional
sequences of my lesson plan were not necessarily from easy to hard, but rather a collection of
assignments needed for a culmination of knowledge at the end of the lesson. I would conclude
that this theory can also be applied to content that is of similar complexity but when combined
has a higher level complexity. Learning complex ideas in smaller segments could lead to a
similar outcome as the Elaboration Theory suggests.

References

David L, "Buy the eBook!," in Learning Theories, September 16, 2017, https://www.learning-
theories.com/buy-the-ebook.

Reigeluth, C. M. (1999). The elaboration theory: Guidance for scope and sequence
decisions. Instructional design theories and models: A new paradigm of instructional theory, 2,
425-453.