Instructional models can vary widely. While some may focus on how to make the lesson plans and others focus on the delivery of the content itself, the Dick and Carey instructional design model (also known as the Systems Approach Model) is one of the former. Despite the seemingly complicated diagrams that pop up when searching for an image, the steps are often only connected as far as what they do to help you figure out what to teach and how to teach it. All ten steps are connected, and some influence others indirectly while they may influence others directly.

Stage 1. Instructional Goals

The first step is to figure out the instructional goals. This means that you are able to, or will be able to, identify what it is the students need to learn. For example, if you were teaching a course on American history, you probably wouldn’t teach a lesson on Guy Fawkes and his gunpowder plot from 1605. However, if you were teaching a class on English history, there would indeed have to be a lesson on the gunpowder plot. It all depends on what kind of material your overarching theme is covering.

Stage 2. Instructional Analysis

Instructional analysis is the second step. This means you are determining the skills that your students will need to learn what you plan to teach them. Returning to the Guy Fawkes situation, some may need to have a love of history instilled in them before they are willing to sit down and listen to the lesson. Others may simply need to be able to work on the lesson material at their own pace. Will they need to know some background about the story? Or will you be teaching an introduction to the gunpowder plot and therefore giving that introductory lesson? Note that if you are teaching on the gunpowder plot, you have to take into account what they may or may not have already learned.

Stage 3.