The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of developing (a) the concept of instructional claim, and (b) credible principles for instructional claim formulation and evaluation. The belief that these constructions are capable of contributing to the advancement of curricular and instructional research and practice is grounded in three major features. The first feature is that of increased precision of basic concepts and increased coherence among them. The second feature is the deliberate connecting of instructional strategies and goal-states and the connecting of instructional configurations with curricular configurations. The third feature is the introduction of fundamental logical principles as evaluative criteria and the framing of instructional plans in such a way as to be subject to empirical tests under the principles of hypothesis testing that are considered credible in the empirical sciences.