Solve a real problem
Start with a task from real work and teach exactly what it takes to solve it.
Based on: M. David Merrill's first principles of instruction. People learn best when they work on a real problem, recall what they already know, see a demonstration, apply it themselves and then use it in their own work.
When to use it
- Learners are experienced and would find a basic explanation boring.
- The skill is practical: handling a complaint, setting up a report, planning a shift.
- You can describe a realistic task from the learners' work.
How the lesson flows
| # | Card | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Card — The problem | A realistic situation and the task to solve. |
| 2 | Form — How would you solve it? | Learners try first, before any explanation. |
| 3 | Card — What you already know | Recalls knowledge that helps (activation). |
| 4 | Card — How an expert solves it | A worked example, step by step, with the reasoning. |
| 5 | Quiz — Your turn | A similar but different case to apply it. |
| 6 | Card — Common mistakes | What goes wrong and how to avoid it. |
| 7 | Form — Where will you use this? | Learners connect it to their own work. |
Example
Handling a late delivery: the problem card describes an angry customer whose order is three days late. Learners write how they'd respond. Then an experienced colleague's reply is broken into steps: acknowledge, explain, offer, follow up. The quiz is a new case — a damaged parcel. Common mistakes: promising a date you can't keep.
Tips
- The problem must be real enough that learners recognise it. Ask someone from the team for a case.
- In the worked example, say why each step is done, not just what.
- In the Form, add a sample answer so learners can compare.
Where it comes from
M. David Merrill is an American instructional design researcher who worked at Brigham Young University and Utah State University, among others. By the end of the 1990s there were dozens of competing design theories and models, and Merrill asked a simple question: what do they all agree on?
He compared them and published the answer in the article First Principles of Instruction (2002). People learn best when:
- they work on real problems from their own world,
- their existing knowledge is activated,
- new knowledge is demonstrated to them, not just told,
- they apply it themselves,
- they integrate it into their own work.
Merrill deliberately called them principles, not a model. They aren't steps to copy exactly. They're a test you can use to check any lesson.
Did you know?
- Merrill's advice for checking a course is to look for the problem. If a course has no real task to solve, it's probably just a presentation of information.
- Merrill suggests the problems should grow harder through the course: start with a simple version of the task, then gradually add complications. This is called a progression of problems.
- Before the first principles, Merrill was known for Component Display Theory (1983), which sorted content into facts, concepts, procedures and principles.