Axiomatics as a paradigm for structuring subject matter

A comprehensive model of instruction should include as one component a representation of the instructional subject matter. In order to represent subject matter a theory for structuring subject matter is required. A general theory for structuring and describing such structures is provided herein. Subject matter structure is composed of two components: content and tasks. The theory presented to structure content is based on the paradigm of axiomatics. Content elements consist of Primary Notions, Secondary Notions, Basic Principles and Established Principles. Two relationships, “used in the formulation of” and “used to establish,” provided the basic structure relating these Constituents. Coordinating relations associate task subsets with content constituents. Task subsets provide the theoretical analog to criterion tests. The notion of dependency is introduced and investigated briefly. Also, a method is provided for developing the complete set of dependency relationships for content constituents. Three examples are provided to further clarify the theoretical model.