A Study Of30Years’ Instructional Design In China(Mainland):an Analysis Of Key Scholars

Instructional design was firstly studied as a discipline in the mid-1980s in China. It has not only experienced nearly30years of development and achieved a series of scientific research results, but also cultivated a large number of instructional design research scholars. Scholar is the soul of a discipline. Seen from the surface, a discipline is the basic structure constituted by a series of abstract concepts, laws, principles and methods, but in fact, the producers of these "public knowledge" are a series of scholars, especially the key scholars and their academic community. Development of the discipline is closely linked with key scholars. The key scholars of a discipline influence the level of development of the discipline, determining their development status and trends. Through analyzing the characteristic variables of the key scholars of the discipline, you can deduce the development outlook of the discipline.This study takes the instructional design scholars in China (Mainland) as the starting point. Based on the intersubjectivity theory, social network theory, citation specification theory, literature information related laws and other theories, this study takes the external characteristics of the instructional design literature published in37academic journals as its research objects, the study selects the key scholars combined with the number of the published literature, the total paper cited frequency, the average passage cited frequency and other traditional metrology indicators and the h index, g index, AR index and innovative metrology indicators. It selects the western scholars influencing on the instructional design research in China by the way of peer-review, combined with S&P Lai Adams core of the distribution law and w index to select core scholars; it also uses modern IT tools, such as Excel, UCNET, Pajek and other software to make quantified qualitative analysis on the key scholars, ranging from key scholars’geography, unit, age, gender and other basic information, social networks and research themes and so on to reveal the group characteristics of the key scholars, to reveal the research characteristics of the "prominent" individuals from the aspects of the basic information of core scholars, contrast of h index, research persistence, research features and so on; based on the analysis on the research characteristics of key scholars, it outlines an overview of the research focuses reflected by scholars’research on discipline construction, research content, research status quo of research methods and research on ontology, research on the basis of theory, applied research and so on in the past30years in China (the Mainland), and also reviews and summarize them, then finally puts forward the proposed countermeasures. The ultimate point of this study is to outline the development context of the discipline of instructional design in the past30years in China (the Mainland), to grasp the current situation, analyze problems and seek countermeasures to provide a theoretical and practical reference for the smooth development of instructional design disciplines. The study is divided into seven chapters.Chapter Ⅰ IntroductionIt puts forward the problems, methods, and significance of this study on the basis of elaboration on the research background.Chapter Ⅱ Literature review and the theoretical basisIt systematically analyzes on the research status quo of key scholars at home and abroad in the field of instructional design research by the method of literature research, and it proposes the intersubjectivity theory, social network theory, citation specification theory, literature information related laws and other theories as the theoretical basis of this study.Chapter Ⅲ Concept and frameworkCombined with the theme of the study, it elaborates on the specific definition and connotation of "instructional design","key scholars","peer review system","bibliometrics act" and "social network analysis", and designs the specific research framework of this study.Chapter Ⅳ Methods and Results:Selection of key scholarsIt designs in detail the ideas and methods of Chinese and Western key scholars who have some influence on Chinese instructional design. It also presents the process and results of the operations.Chapter Ⅴ Group and individual:Analysis on the research characteristics of key scholarsIt systematically analyze from the angle of "group" on key scholars’geography, unit, age, gender and other basic information, social networks and research themes and so on to reveal the group characteristics of the key scholars, from the angle of "individual" to analyze in detail on the basic information, contrast of h index, research persistence, research features and so on of9core scholars to reveal the research characteristics of the "prominent" individuals.Chapter VI Status quo and reflection:Instructional design study in China from the perspective of key scholarsBased on the analysis on the research characteristics of key scholars, it outlines an overview of the research focuses reflected by scholars’research on discipline construction, research content, research status quo of research methods and research on ontology, research on the basis of theory, applied research and so on in the past30years in China (the Mainland), and also reviews and summarize them, then finally puts forward the proposed countermeasures.Chapter VII ConclusionIt summarizes the main conclusions, innovation and improvement required of this study.