As a classroom teacher in an elementary school I have seen quite a few trends or phases in my short time in the field.  It sometimes seems like every year I’m attending trainings and workshops on some new instructional method or another.  These methods, though, tend to fall under the umbrella of a broader theory, such as cognitivism or constructivism.  A more general trend, in which I see potential for future research and development is in the type of individualized instruction and the increased potential for collaboration that is likely to become widely available as technology continues its rapid pace of progression.

Already, many districts and schools are implementing computerized intervention software that continually customizes itself to the user based on the quality of their responses.  Most of these programs are simply a series of questions that the software provides to the learner at their level with little instruction provided to the user.  As technology continues to improve I’m confident that these programs will begin to provide more support and actual instruction to go with the repeated quizzing that they already do.  I’m not suggesting by any means that these programs are a replacement for teachers; instructional theorists, researchers, and designers will likely be there to design and test methods for effectively using these new tools in our classrooms.

The Web 2.0 movement also continues to progress.  It is impossible to me that our elementary and secondary schools can continue to do so little to integrate these valuable tools into their instructional programs.  There are schools and classes that are doing good things with wikis, blogs, and other tools, and this is where researchers will gather data to inform the future of mainstream instructional theory.  By mainstream, I mean the kind of theory and research that my superintendent reads and buys into.

Technology will help our students to collaborate and learn together and it can help us customize and individualize instruction, but theory and research need to be there to guide teachers and help them to develop the best practices they need to have to be most effective.