Chapter 3: A Practice‐centered Approach to Instructional Design For inclusion in M. Michael Spector, B. B. Lockee, S. E. Smaldino, & M. Herring (Eds.), Learning, Problem Solving, and Mind Tools: Essays in Honor of David H. Jonassen. Routledge (forthcoming, 2013 expected publication date). Brent G. Wilson, University of Colorado Denver, USA brent.wilson@ucdenver.edu Abstract A defining feature of the field of instructional design is a commitment to practice. Often that commitment is toward reforming or improving practice. This chapter presents a way of thinking about instructional design from a practice point of view. The approach draws on practice theories from the social sciences that take practice as a fundamental unit or focus of study. In the context of instructional design, a practice approach stresses human agency and complex system dynamics to understand both the creation of instruction designs and their successful implementation. A practice approach also integrates human values and participant experience by seeing instruction from the “inside out,” that is, through the lens of participants themselves. Greater focus and attention on practice is argued to have valuable implications for understanding instruction and how to support teachers and designers as they seek to make good instruction happen. The chapter does not present an instructional theory in the traditional sense. There is no list of instructional principles or strategies offered for use in lesson development. Instead the chapter offers a critique of traditional theories of learning and instruction – in their narrowness and neglect of important aspects of practice, particularly the enactment of teaching and learning activities. An alternate way of seeing the work of instructional design is presented that should lead to fruitful insights and possibilities for strengthening the profession. Keywords Practice theory: A theory that takes practice or human activity as a unit of study. Examples include: activity theory, actor-network theory, ethnomethodology, and Bourdieu’s theory of practices and dispositions. Practice-centered instructional design: Framing instructional-design work in terms of activity mediated by tools and circumstance, where opportunities for innovation emerge from new technologies, ideas, and systemic tensions, as well as the craftsmanship, character, and agency of participants. Craftsmanship: A sustained dedication to excellence in the making of something, requiring a honing of skill and cultivation of wisdom based on professional experience. Agency: The human capacity to act in the world. Agency suggests that people act freely and not simply according to pre-established structures and expectations.