An Axiomatic Theory of Subject Matter Structure.

Abstract : The report can be viewed as a first step toward development of a formal theory of instruction. An axiomatic theory of subject matter structure was formulated, including both content and task components. The subject-matter content is analyzed in terms of constituents and their relations. Underlying the content structure is the task structure that is related to the content position via coordinating relations. The notion of dependency is introduced and investigated. Dependency leads to precedence in an instructional sense and this notion is also discussed. Formal procedures are developed that can be utilized to formulate the complete dependency relationship for particular subject matters. A comprehensive detailed example is developed that serves as a vehicle to illustrate the theoretical concepts, results, and procedures. (Author)