The practice of industrial arts/technology education, however, has not always demonstrated a clear relationship to those goal statements. Industrial arts/technology education laboratories and student activities often resemble vocational education laboratories and student activities. Moreover, much of the prescriptive theory of curriculum planning for industrial arts/technology education is technical in nature, relying upon curriculum planning techniques which are based upon behaviorism. A discontinuity exists in the descriptive theory (goal statements) and prescriptive theory (curriculum-planning practices) of industrial arts/technology education. This discontinuity is caused, in part, by the strategies used for planning curriculum and the limited prescriptive theory which exists in the field.