The purpose of this approach is to generate new theories and frameworks for conceptualizing learning, instruction,[1] design processes, and educational reform.
This stance has been validated by the findings of Cronbach and Snow (1977) which suggest that Aptitude-Treatment Interactions, where variables are isolated in an effort to determine what factors "most" influence learning, will not be informative but rather inaccurate and potentially misleading if used as a ground for educational decisions or educational research of complex learning situations such as those characteristic of human beings in their lived experiences.
[citation needed] The method was first proposed as design-experiments by Allan Collins in 1990 and Ann Brown in 1992.
In the mid-1990s, a group called the National Design Experiment Consortium was founded by the late Jan Hawkins, then of Educational Development Corporation, to refine the method.
In 1999, Christopher Hoadley founded the Design-Based Research Collective, funded by the Spencer Foundation, and coined the modern term for the method.