A discipline that focuses on how to structure material for promoting the education of humans, particularly youth. Originating in the United States in the late 1970s, instructional theory is typically divided into two categories: the cognitive and behaviorist schools of thought. Instructional theory was spawned off the 1956 work of Benjamin Bloom, a University of Chicago professor, and the results of his Taxonomy of Education Objectives — one of the first modern codifications of the learning process.

One of the first instructional theorists was Robert M. Gagne, who in 1965 published Conditions of Learning for the Florida State University’s Department of Educational Research. Renowned psychologist B. F. Skinner’s theories of behavior were highly influential on instructional theorists because their hypotheses can be tested fairly easily with the scientific process.