EDUCATION

An Assignment on

PROGRAMMED INSTRUCTION

(EDT 655)

By

ABDULRAHMAN, Mohammed Rabiu

02/250C014

Submitted to

Science Education Department (Edu-Tech)

Faculty of Education,

University of Ilorin

Lecturer in Charge:

Dr. (Mrs.) M. V. Adegbija

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Table of Contents

Title Page............................................................................ i

1.0 Programmed Instruction1.1 Definitions ……………………………………………………………….. 1

2.0 Review of Instructional Strategies2.1 What are Instructional Strategies? ……………………………… 32.2 What does Effective Mean? ……………………………………….. 32.3 Strategies to use in Designing Effective Lessons ……………. 3

3.0 Instructional Strategy3.1 Background Information ……………………………………………. 63.2 Elements of an Instructional Strategy ………………………….. 63.3 Conditions of Learning ……………………………………………….. 163.4 Creating the Strategy …………………………………………………. 19

4.0 Theory and History

4.1 Skinner's Operant Conditioning ……………………………………. 254.2 The Teaching Machine …………………………………………………. 254.3 Crowder's Intrinsic or Branching Program ………………………. 264.4 Mastery Learning ………………………………………………………….. 27

5.0 Types5.1 Branching Style ……………………………………………………………. 295.2 Mastery Learning and Mathetics …………………………………….. 29

Further Resources ……………………………………………..….. 30

References ………………………………………………………….. 32

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1.0 Programmed Instruction

1.1 Definitions

Programmed Instruction is a method of presenting new subject matters to students in a gradedsequence of controlled steps. Students work through the programmed material by themselves attheir own speed and after each step test their comprehension by answering an examinationquestion or filling in a diagram. They are then immediately shown the correct answer or givenadditional information. Computers and other types of teaching machines are often used topresent the material, although books may also be used. (The Columbia Encyclopedia, SixthEdition. 2001-05, retrieved 16:22, 16 August 2007 (MEST)).

Although Skinners initial programmed instruction format has undergone many transformations,most adaptations retain three essential features: (1) an ordered sequence of items, eitherquestions or statements to which the student is asked to respond; (2) the student's response,which may be in the form of filling in a blank, recalling the answer to a question, selecting fromamong a series of answers, or solving a problem; and (3) provision for immediate responseconfirmation, sometimes within the program frame itself but usually in a different location, ason the next page in a programmed textbook or in a separate window in the teaching machine.(Joyce, Weil & Calhoun, 2000:332)

Programmed Instruction consists of a network of statements and tests, which direct thestudent to new statements depending on his pattern of errors. It is based on a particular toolwhich is called teaching machine. (Cited from Encyclopedia.com ???).

The Programmed Instruction home page at the University of South Florida

This page offers a brief introduction of programmed instruction. It first tries to explain thequestion of "What is Programmed Instruction?" Programmed Instruction, according to this website, is a teaching technology incorporating instructional principles and techniques derived fromlaboratory and applied research in the field known as the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.Such techniques include active student responding, priming, prompting, fading, and shaping.Instructional materials are "programmed" when they are delivered in carefully craftedinstructional sequences. Downloadable shareware programs include: About ProgrammedInstruction ( which teaches basic learning principles of programmed instruction and thetechniques used to create programmed instructional tutorials), Effective Characteristics ofInstructional Programs ( which teaches characteristics and features of effective instructionalprograms), and Programmed Instruction Maker (which helps to convert a text file of questionsand answers into an interactive program).

URL: http://www.coedu.usf.edu/~kritch/index.html

Programmed Instruction Mid-1950s to late 1960s

This web page lists the Teaching Machine, Skinner, B.F., and Pressy, Sidney as the incominginfluence for programmed instruction, and Individualized Instruction, and Systems Approach asits outgoing influence. The paper argues that programmed instruction springs out of teachingmachine and auto-instruction developed by Sidney L. Pressey during the 1920s and the early1930s and began to decline by the late 1960s. Although the programmed instruction movement

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did not last very long, it did have important long-term effects on the evolution of educationaltechnology. For example, programmed instruction had a strong influence on the development ofthe "systems approach".

URL: http://copper.ucs.indiana.edu/~shali/page1.html

Toward Combining Programmed Instruction and Constructivism for Tutorial Design

This is an on-line article. In the paper, the author argues that it may seem to be a contradictionto combine programmed instruction with constructivism to create tutorial software. However, itcan be seen that programmed instruction is good at helping students learn a set of terms andvery structured information, while constructivist approaches help students deal with realproblems in ways that enable them to solve problems.

Sometimes a distinction is made between programmed instructions and programmed learning.

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2.0 Review of Instructional Strategies

2.1 What are Instructional Strategies?

Instructional strategies are methods that are used in the lesson to ensure that the sequence ordelivery of instruction helps students learn.

2.2 What does effective mean?

The term "effective" means that student performance improves when the instructionalstrategies are used. The strategies were identified in studies conducted using researchprocedures and guidelines that ensure confidence about the results. In addition, several studiesexist for each strategy with an adequate sample size and the use of treatment and controlgroups to generalize to the target population. This allows teachers to be confident about how toapply the strategies in their classrooms.

2.3 Strategies to use in designing effective lessons

These six strategies have been proven to work with diverse groups of learners (Kameenui &Carnine, Effective Teaching Strategies that Accommodate Diverse Learners, 1998). Allstudents, and particularly those with disabilities, benefit when teachers incorporate thesestrategies into their instruction on a regular basis.

1. Focus on essentials.2. Make linkages obvious and explicit.3. Prime background knowledge.4. Provide temporary support for learning.5. Use conspicuous steps and strategies.6. Review for fluency and generalization.

1. Focus on essentials

Identify important principles, key concepts, and big ideas from the curriculum that apply acrossmajor themes in the subject content.

Techniques:

Big Ideas: Instruction is organized around the major themes that run through a subjectarea. This helps students make the connections between concepts and learn to usehigher order thinking skills. Kameenui and Carnine (1998) identify these examples of bigideas for social studies:

o problem-solution-effecto success of group efforts is related to motivation, leadership, resources, and

capability Graphic organizers: Important ideas and details are laid out graphically to help students

see connections between ideas. Semantic webs and concept maps are examples ofgraphic organizers.

Thematic instruction: Instructional units combine subject areas to make themes andessential ideas more apparent and meaningful. Lessons and assignments can be

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integrated or coordinated across classes. Planning routines: The Center for Research on Learning at the University of Kansas

website (go to http://www.kucrl.org/sim/content.shtml) has developed ContentEnhancement Routines, systematic routines that include graphic organizers to helpteachers plan a course, unit, or lesson around the essentials or big ideas. Teachers guidestudents to use the organizer to monitor their learning.

2. Make linkages obvious and explicit

Actively help students understand how key concepts across the curriculum relate to each otheras you are teaching.

Techniques:

Give clear verbal explanations and use visual displays (such as flow charts, diagrams, orgraphic organizers) to portray key concepts and relationships.

Help students use techniques like outlining or mind mapping to show connections amongconcepts.

3. Prime background knowledge

Connect new information or skills to what students have already learned. Provide additionalinstruction or support to students who lack necessary background knowledge.

Techniques:

Ask questions to prompt student recall of relevant prior knowledge. Make comparisons between the new concept and things students already know. Relate the topic to current or past events that are familiar to students. Relate the concept to a fictional story or scenario known to the students. Use instructional materials that provide easy access to critical background knowledge.

4. Provide temporary support for learning

Provide support (scaffolding) while students are learning new knowledge and skills, graduallyreducing the level of support as students move toward independence.

Techniques:

Provide verbal or written prompts to remind students of key information or processes. Physically assist and guide a student when learning a new motor skill, such as cutting. Provide study or note-taking guides to support learning from text or lectures. Use commercial materials that have been specifically designed to incorporate supports

for learning. Use mnemonics to help students remember multiple steps in a procedure.

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5. Use conspicuous steps and strategies

Teach students to follow a specific set of procedures to solve problems or use a process.

Techniques:

Model the steps in the strategy, using a think-aloud process. Name the strategy and give students prompts for using it such as posting steps on the

board, providing an example of a problem with the strategy steps labeled, or usingmemory strategies like mnemonics to help student recall the steps.

Prompt students to use the strategy in practice situations. Reduce prompting as students become proficient in applying the strategy. Explicitly teach students the organizational structure of text and prompt its use.

6. Review for fluency and generalization

Give students many opportunities to practice what they have learned and receive feedback ontheir performance to ensure knowledge is retained over time and can be applied in differentsituations.

Techniques:

Use multiple reviews of concepts and skills. Give students specific feedback about what they are doing well or need to change. Give students enough practice to master skills. Distribute reviews over time to insure proficiency is maintained. Provide review in different contexts to enhance generalization of learning. Provide cumulative review that addresses content learned throughout the year.

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3.0 Instructional Strategy

3.1 Background Information

Well, you’ve come a long way in the instructional design process. You’ve defined a need that youwant to address with instruction, decided on a goal, and broke that goal down into steps,substeps, and subskills. In addition, you should have a good idea of who your learners are, thecontext they will learn these new skills in, and the context they will use these new skills in.Finally you created a list of objectives indicating what you want them to be able to do at the endof your instruction, along with items that will help you determine whether they can do it or not.With all of these broad planning and analysis steps finished, it is time to think about planningindividual lessons. This is accomplished by creating an instructional strategy. As you see this isthe sixth step in the Dick and Carey model.

Dick and Carey use the term Instructional Strategy to describe the process of sequencing andorganizing content, specifying learning activities, and deciding how to deliver the content andactivities. An instructional strategy can perform several functions:

It can be used as a prescription to develop instructional materials. It can be used as a set of criteria to evaluate existing materials. It can be used as a set of criteria and a prescription to revise existing materials. It can be used as a framework from which to plan class lecture notes, interactive group

exercises, and homework assignments.

The planning of an instructional strategy is an important part of the overall instructional designprocess. Gagne calls the planning and analysis steps the "architecture" of the course, while theinstructional strategies are the "bricks and mortar". This is where you deal with how to actuallyinstruct the student. Previous steps in the instructional design process have deliberately leftout any discussion of how the instruction would be done.

3.2 Elements of an Instructional Strategy

Creating an instructional strategy involves taking all of the information you have accumulated tothis point and generating an effective plan for presenting your instruction to your learners. Atthis point you must be able to combine your knowledge of learning and design theory with yourexperience of learners and objectives. Creating a strategy is not the same as actually developingyour instructional materials. The purpose of creating the strategy before developing thematerials themselves is to outline how the instructional activities will relate to the

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accomplishment of the objectives (Gagn’, 1988). This will provide you with a clear plan forsubsequent development. Dick and Carey describe four elements of an instructional strategy:

1. Content Sequence and Clustering2. Learning Components3. Student Groupings4. Selection of Media and Delivery Systems

Let’s take a brief look at each one.

Element 1 - Content Sequencing and Clustering

Content Sequencing

The first step in developing an instructional strategy is deciding on a teaching sequence andgroupings of content. Whether you are developing a lesson, a course, or an entire curriculum,decisions must be made regarding the sequencing of objectives. The best way to determine thesequence is to refer to your instructional analysis. You will generally begin with the lower levelsubordinate skills on the left and work your way up through the hierarchy until you reach themain goal step. It’s not a good idea to present information about a skill until you have presentedinformation on all related subordinate skills. Work your way from bottom to top and left to rightuntil you have covered all of the skills. Then you’ll want to provide instruction on integrating allof the steps in the instructional goal (attainment of the terminal objective).

Clustering Instruction

The next important consideration is how you will group your instructional activities. You maydecide to present information one objective at a time, or cluster several related objectives.Dick and Carey recommend taking the following factors into consideration when determining howmuch or how little instruction to present at any given time:

1. The age level of your learners2. The complexity of the material3. The type of learning taking place4. Whether the activity can be varied, thereby focusing attention on the task5. The amount of time required to include all the events in the instructional strategy for

each cluster of content presented.

Element 2 - Learning Components

The next element in an instructional strategy is a description of the learning components for aset of instructional materials. Here Dick and Carey mention Gagn’s Nine Events of Instruction,which is a set of external teaching activities that support the internal processes of learning.Back in Lesson 2 we discussed Gagn’s theory of instruction, and introduced its three maincomponents: learning categories (domains), learning conditions, and the nine events ofinstruction. We have already discussed the learning categories, and in this lesson we will look atthe events of instruction, and his conditions of instruction.

In order for instruction to bring about effective learning, it must be made to influence theinternal processes of learning. Gagne believes that instruction is "a deliberately arranged set of

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external events designed to support internal learning processes" (pg. 11), and is interested inwhat kinds of events can provide such support. Therefore, to tie his theory of instructiontogether, he formulated nine events of instruction that are needed for all learning processesand learning outcomes. When followed, these events are intended to promote the transfer ofknowledge or information from perception through the various stages of memory. Gagne derivedthese events from an understanding of the cognitive processes that go on in the brain (youshould remember learning about cognitive information processing in your Education Psychologycourse). In brief, the kinds of processing presumed to occur during any single act of learning aresummarized by Gagne as follows:

1. Attention: Determines the extent and nature of reception of incoming stimulation.2. Selective Perception (sometimes called pattern recognition): Transforms this stimulation

into the form of object-features, for storage in short-term memory.3. Rehearsal: Maintains and renews the items stored in short-term memory.4. Semantic Encoding: Prepares information for long-term storage.5. Retrieval, including search: Returns stored information to the working memory or to a

response generator.6. Response Organization: Selects and organizes performance.7. Feedback: Provides the learner with information about performances and sets in motion

the process of reinforcement.8. Executive Control Processes: Select and activate cognitive strategies; these modify any

or all of the previously listed internal processes.

As stated earlier, these internal processes can be influenced by external events, which is whatmakes instruction possible. For example, Selective Perception may be influenced by particulararrangements of instructional materials. A simple technique for this would be to highlight orunderline a block of text you wanted learners to focus on.

Gagne’s events of instruction are designed to help learners get from where they are to whereyou want them to be. Here’s a list of the events, in the order they are typically employed:

1. Gaining attention2. Informing learner of objectives3. Stimulating recall of prior learning4. Presenting the stimulus material5. Providing learning guidance6. Eliciting the performance7. Providing feedback about performance correctness8. Assessing the performance9. Enhancing retention and transfer

Keep in mind that each of these events may not be provided for every lesson. Sometimes, one ormore of the events may already be obvious to the learner and may not be needed. Also, one ormore of the events may be provided by the learners themselves, particularly experienced self-learners. Older, more experienced learners may provide many of the events on their own, whilefor young children the teacher would arrange for most of them.

Dick and Carey rearrange Gagne’s events to fit into five categories. However, since Gagne’s nineoriginal events are so widely known we want to focus on those for now. Here's a closer look ateach one:

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1. Gaining Attention

Many different kinds of techniques are employed to gain learner’s attention. Often this is doneusing some sort of attention getting device, such as quick cutting in a video. However, the bestway to gain attention is to appeal to the learner’s interests. This can be done using probingquestions, such as, "What do you think makes a leaf fall from a tree?"

Gaining attention ties in directly with the concept of motivation. Teachers know all too well thedifficulties involved in motivating student to take an interest in their instruction. John Kellerhas tried to deal with this by developing the ARCS Model of motivation. ARCS is an acronym for:

ARCS

= Attention= Relevance= Confidence= Satisfaction

The ARCS Model is a method for improving the motivational appeal of instructional materials.This model is based on research related to motivation that indicates that people are motivatedto engage in an activity if it is perceived to be linked to the satisfaction of personal needs, andif there is a positive expectancy for success. According to Keller (1988), these four conditionsmust be met in order for people to become and remain motivated.

1. Attention: Having students’ attention is a prerequisite for learning. You should be concernedwith getting and maintaining attention. Getting attention is usually pretty easy, however,sustaining it can be difficult.

2. Relevance: This involves making the instruction seem relevant to learners’ present andfuture needs. It’s not always enough to tell students, "You’ll need this in the future". Manystudents, especially younger ones, live in the present and are not concerned with futureneeds, so you must seek ways to make your instruction seem relevant to their present needs.

3. Confidence: Confidence can influence a student’s persistence and accomplishment. Confidentpeople tend to attribute their successes to their ability and effort instead of luck, andbelieve that they can accomplish their goals through their actions. Unconfident people havea greater fear of failure. Strategies must be employed that give students the impressionthat if they put forth effort they can succeed.

4. Satisfaction: This involves making people feel good about their accomplishments. People willfeel more confident if they are made aware of the task and the reward for success, and ifan appropriate reinforcement schedule is used (sounds like Ed Psych stuff again, doesn’t it?)It’s also important to make students feel they have control over the behaviors that lead tothe reward.

If these four conditions are met one can assume to have made a reasonable attempt at gainingand maintaining motivation in their learners. In order meet these four conditions a designermust be aware of the learners’ needs and interests. A good way to do that is to revisit your

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learner analysis. Dick and Carey discuss each of the ARCS factors, and provide a nice diagram onpage 191 that indicates how these factors relate to their five learning components.

2. Informing Learners of the Objectives

The learner should be informed of the kind of performance that will be used to determine ifthey have learned what they are supposed to learn. In some cases it may not be necessary tospecifically inform learners of the objectives because they already know (e.g., a tennis lesson).However, in many cases it is necessary in order to clarify to learners what they should beattempting to learn. For example, if students are studying the U.S. Constitution, should they beable to recite the Preamble, or should they be able to state the main ideas? If students knowwhich one they can better attend to the accompanying instruction. It also helps them avoidundue stress resulting from them thinking that they have to know everything relating to a topic.In general it is best not to assume that learners know what it is they should be learning.Communicating objectives takes little time, and may even help the instructor stay on track.

3. Stimulating Recall of Prerequisite Learning

According to cognitive information processing theory, most new learning depends on connectionsmade to prior learning. For example, certain concepts and rules must have been previouslylearned in order to learn new higher-order rules. When new learning is about to occur, relevantprior information should be made internally accessible so that it can be made part of thelearning event. This accessibility is assured by having the old information recalled just prior topresenting the new information. This can be done by asking recognition or recall questions. Forexample, you might ask something like, "Do you remember when you learned about". This line ofquestioning recalls previously learned information and leads to a new strand of learning. In thisway learners see the relationship between what they have already learned and what they will belearning. This also lends relevance to the entire process.

4. Presenting the Stimulus Material

This event is when the new information is presented to the learner. For example, if learnersmust learn a series of facts then those facts must be communicated to them in some form. Ifthey must learn a motor skill then the skill must be demonstrated. It is important at this pointthat the proper stimuli are presented as part of the instructional events. For example, if youwant the learner to acquire the ability to answer questions delivered orally in French, you shouldnot present them with questions in English or printed questions in French. If you do not use theproper stimuli then you may end up teaching the wrong skills.

Stimulus presentation often emphasizes features that encourage learners to select what youwant then to attend to. This can be done using italics, bold print, underlining, or pictures witharrows or circles or highlighting. Stimulus presentation for the learning of concepts and rulesrequires the use of a variety of examples. For example, if you are teaching about squares youshould present big squares, small squares, squares of different colors, squares made out ofdifferent materials, and squares in everyday life. Likewise, if students are learning how to applythe formula for finding the area of a square, they need to be given several examples to makesure that they understand and can use the relevant rule. The third component of Gagne’slearning theory relates to his conditions of learning, which describes a set of strategies thatcan be used when presenting information in different learning domains. We will look closer atthese strategies a little later in this lesson.

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Another important element in presenting instruction is that you should present a variety ofexamples and non-examples. A non-example is deliberately chosen for its non-relevance to theconcept that is being taught. For example, not only is it important to present a variety ofsquares, it is also important to present a variety of examples of what is not a square (circles,triangles, rectangles). This aids in the discrimination process and further supports theacquisition of the concept. It is also important not to present too much information at one time,especially if it is not related to the objectives.

5. Providing Learning Guidance

Learning guidance usually takes the form of communications between teacher and student thathelp guide the learner to the attainment of an objective. These communications stimulate adirection of thought and help keep the learner on track, leading to a more efficient learningsituation. Their sole purpose is to aid in the process of learning, and to move students from onestate of mind to another. This does not involve telling the learner the answer; rather, it involvessuggesting a line of thought that will presumably lead to the desired outcome. Try to avoidthinking about it in terms of simply presenting information about what you are really trying todo it facilitate learning.

The amount of guidance given will depend on the type of learning desired. It will also varyaccording to the kinds of learners you have. Some require less guidance, and even shun suchguidance, while others require a great deal and can become frustrated when it is not present.We have all encountered students who seem to need constant attention during an activity, whileothers prefer to keep to themselves and manage their own learning. In any event, it is importantto be aware of the needs of your different students for varying levels of guidance.

6. Eliciting the Performance (Practice)

The next event allows the learner to communicate to the instructor whether or not they canperform the skill they are trying to learn. This is done by providing the learner with practiceexercises. Usually, the initial practice is done using the same example with which the learnerswere shown the skill. This is followed by more examples that differ from the original. Allpractice items must match the performances and conditions indicated within your objectives.

Good practice items should include the following elements:

They should clearly specify the practice format and nature of the student response. They should be relevant to the objective. They should elicit the exact performance stated in the objective. The exact conditions stated in the objective should be present. Individuals versus groups should get practice. They should be provided as frequently and immediately following instruction as possible.

To illustrate, suppose you had the following objective:

Students will construct a line graph and properly plot data presented in a given data table orchart.

Now, look at the following options for providing practice:

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1. You could have a blank graph drawn on the board along with a corresponding data chart.Each student would be asked to go up to the board and plot one of the data points.

2. You could present a data chart to the class and discuss which elements should beincluded in a graph that could display the data.

3. You could prepare a worksheet that contains a variety of graphs that each display datafrom a given table differently. The students must circle the graphs that properlydisplay the data.

4. You could give each student a data chart along with a blank piece of graph paper andinstruct them to construct a line graph and plot data from the chart into the graph.

In this case the best practice over the skills stated in the objective would be number 4. It isthe only choice that demands the exact performance of every student under the exactconditions stated in the objective.

Here are a couple more examples of practice exercises:

Objective: The students will write a descriptive essay of at least 300 words.

Bad: Have students read several examples of good examples.Bad: Write a descriptive essay in class by having each student contribute a sentence.Bad: Have each student orally describe an unknown object until the other students can guesswhat the object is.Good: Have students choose a topic and write an essay describing it.

Objective: The student will balance a checkbook containing an initial balance and 10unregistered check amounts.

Bad: Have students solve subtraction problems on a worksheet.Bad: Have students describe how to balance a checkbook.Good: Give students a checkbook with an initial balance and 10 checks, and have them balancethe checkbook.

7. Providing Feedback

Not only should learners be provided with practice exercises, they should be given feedbackabout their performance. Feedback can be verbal, written, computerized, or given in otherforms. Regardless of the form you choose, the feedback should inform the learners about thedegree of correctness in their performance so that they may improve on subsequent attempts.It should also be given as soon after the performance as possible. In many cases feedback isautomatically provided. For example, if you touch a hot stove you get burned and you don’t needanyone else to tell you that you just got burned, or to tell you not to do it again. However, inmany cases the feedback is not automatic and must be provided by the instructor in some form.For example, if you are learning how to hit a golf ball, you can usually tell after you swingwhether or not you hit it. However, an instructor would still be necessary to provide feedback asto why you missed it, and what corrections should be made to improve your performance.Feedback can also be used as positive reinforcement when learners perform correctly.

Good feedback should include the following elements:

It should provide comments about the student’s performance.

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It should be immediate and frequent. It should have students correct their own mistakes if possible. It should consider using a variety of feedback types: knowledge of results, knowledge of

correct results, analytical (related to criteria), motivational (reinforcement).

8. Assessing Performance

In Gagne's eighth event you elicit a performance from the learners to determine if the desiredlearning has occurred. Students are assessed to determine whether the instruction has met itsdesign objectives, and also to learn whether each student has achieved the desired objectives.Most of the time this results in some sort of grade being assigned to each student. In the lastlesson we discussed the various types of assessments and assessment items. Now you shoulddetermine which of these assessments you will use and how you will administer them. Keep inmind that your assessments should match the stated objectives in order to provide an accuratejudgment.

9. Enhancing Retention and Transfer

Many people feel that when the test is over so is the course. However, as a last step it isimportant to figure out ways to increase the chances that the skills you have taught will be usedproperly by learners when they use them outside of the learning context. Learners may be ableto recall new knowledge and skills in the classroom, but what about when they get into the realworld?

Because learning is generally situation-specific, the best way to aid in retention and transfer isto provide a meaningful context in which to present your instruction. If the skills to be learnedrepresent skills used in the real world, try to establish a "classroom" learning environment thatapproximates this real world context as close as possible. Then the jump to the real world willbe less of a change for learners. For example, consider the following goal:

Students will write a descriptive paragraph free of grammatical errors.

Since writing descriptive paragraphs is often part of communicating with other people vialetters, an excellent overall context for this outcome would be establishing emailcorrespondences between students and people they care about. This closely matches what theywould be doing in the real world, and as such will make it easier for them to transfer the skillsthey learn to that real world.

It is also important to make sure that the most effective conditions for learning the specifictype of performance are part of the learning environment (see the section below on learningconditions). Beyond that, another good way to enhance retention is through a review of thematerial at the end of the instruction. Reviews allow learners to practice retrieving newinformation, and also help to strengthen the network of relationships in the brain. For longerunits it is often good to have reviews spaced periodically throughout the instruction.

Assisting learners with the transfer of new skills is aided greatly by presenting students withnew varieties of tasks that are related to what they have already learned. These tasks shouldrequire the application of what has been learned in situations that differ substantially from

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those used for the learning itself. For example, if you are teaching a set of rules for makingverbs agree with a pronoun subject, you may have assessed learners’ performance by presentingexamples in which you varied the verb and the pronoun. However, to aid in transfer you wouldwant to vary the situation even more. This might be done by having learners write sentenceswhere they supply the verb and pronoun themselves instead of having them supplied to them.Or, you might have them compose sentences using verbs and pronouns based on events depictedin pictures. The important thing is to created varied examples that will help learners use theskills at a later date.

Now that we’ve looked at each of Gagne’s events of instruction, here’s how each of the eventsrelates to the internal learning processes that we previously listed:

Instructional Event Relation to Learning Process

1. Gaining attention Reception of patterns of neural impulses

2. Informing learner of objectives Activating a process of executive control

3. Stimulating recall of prior learning Retrieval of prior learning to workingmemory

4. Presenting the stimulus material Emphasizing features for selectiveperception

5. Providing learning guidance Semantic encoding; cues for retrieval

6. Eliciting the performance Activating response organization

7. Providing feedback about performancecorrectness

Establishing reinforcement

8. Assessing the performance Activating retrieval; makingreinforcement possible

9. Enhancing retention and transfer Providing cues and strategies for retrieval

This wraps up the discussion on the second element of an instructional strategy in the learningcomponents. Now on to element three.

Element 3: Student Groupings

The next element of an instructional strategy is a description of how students will be groupedduring instruction. The main things to consider are whether there are any requirements forsocial interaction explicit in the statement of your objectives, in the performance environment,in the specific learning component being planned, or in your own personal views. Studentgroupings can hinder individual learning, but at the same time they can motivate students andkeep them interested. Also, keep in mind that your delivery system can affect the amount ofsocial interaction possible. As you all know, a distance-delivered course makes it hard topromote social interaction between students. Similarly, computer-based instruction can be hardto do with groups of students.

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Element 4: Selection of Media and Delivery Systems

This is the fourth and final element of an instructional strategy. Once decisions have been madeabout content sequencing and clustering, and the learning components have been planned, it’stime to turn your attention to selecting a delivery system for your overall instructional system,along with the media you will use to present the information in your instruction. According toGagne (1988), the selection of a delivery system indicates a general preference for emphasizingcertain instruments to accomplish instructional events. Within this general preference, specificagents or media can be assigned, event-by-event, objective-by-objective to accomplish theintended goal.

The overall delivery system includes everything necessary to allow a particular instructionalsystem to operate as it was intended and where it was intended. Some examples of deliverysystems include:

Classroom delivery Lecture Correspondence Videotape Videoconference Computer-based Web-based

Once you have chosen a delivery system, various media can then be chosen to deliver theinformation and events of your instruction. Media constitutes the physical elements in thelearning environment with which learners interact in order to learn something. The choice ofmedia is done as part of the instructional strategy. For example, in a distance-delivered programsuch as this one, the decision was made at the beginning to use a web-based delivery system.Within this program, however, various media can be chosen to deliver the instruction, as long asthey are compatible with the original delivery system.

The choice of a delivery system is generally made at the course or curriculum level. For mostteachers, the delivery system is usually already chosen you will likely deliver your instruction ina classroom. However, the ideal way would be to base the decision on your goal, learnercharacteristics, learner and performance contexts, objectives, and assessment requirementsbasically, all the stuff you’ve done up until now. With this in mind, though, you should turn yourattention to selecting media to deliver your instruction. In today’s world, even if your deliverysystem is chosen beforehand, it’s not a major setback because most media formats are availablefor use in most delivery systems.

Different instructional media have different capabilities for providing the various events ofinstruction. For example, teachers are great for providing learning guidance and feedback;however, videotape can be used effectively to present stimulus situations that would be hardfor a teacher to present in any other way (for example, a tour of Alaska).

Dick and Carey discuss several issues to consider when selecting media:

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Media Selection for Domains of Learning

Different types of media should be chosen based on the type of learning your objectives fall into. Verbal information requires less elaborative feedback, so there is less need for interactivemedia. With intellectual skills elaborative feedback is more important, so some form ofinteractive media would be a better choice. Examples include direct instructor feedback, tutors,or interactive computer. Motor skills eventually require a performance of some sort from thelearners, so the instruction should include the actual physical environment or the actualequipment that will be used for the assessment. When teaching attitudes it is usually desirableto have a model of some sort who chooses to exhibit the desired attitude. In this case visualmedia, such as television or video, can be used. Keep in mind that a single lesson or course mayinvolve instruction in several domains, so you may end up selecting several different forms ofmedia. Or, you may have to make a single form of media fit in with the various domains.

Other Considerations in Choosing Media

When deciding on media to use you should of course make sure that the media you select will beavailable in the learning environment. If you design your instruction to require a certain type ofmedia then it’s up to you to make sure that it will be available when the time comes. If you can’tdo this then you should limit your selections to those which can reasonably be expected to beavailable. Also, make sure that learners will be able to access the materials in the medium youselect. Will the materials be needed at home? If so, can you give them out? Will students needto access a computer lab or learning center to get at the materials? If so, what hours will it beaccessible?

Finally, if you select a particular medium to present your information, you should make sure thatyou are able to produce materials for that medium, or that you have access to people who can.For example, many designers would like to create instructional materials that feature Directormovies because Director allows you to combine audio and visual elements in unique and excitingways. However, the reality is that this can be a difficult and time-consuming process if you arenot skilled in using Director. You will likely want to limit your selections of this type of media tothose you can create materials for, or set aside time to learn the required products.

That is the last of the four elements in an instructional strategy. But before we discuss how tocreate an instructional strategy, let’s briefly look at the final aspect of Gagne’s theory ofinstruction: his conditions of learning.

3.3 Conditions of Learning

Gagne believes that the purpose of all instruction is to provide the events of instructionmentioned earlier. These events can be performed by teachers or by the materials themselves,as long as they are successfully performed. The nine events of instruction are applicable to alldomains of learning outcomes. However, the details of how they are presented imply differentsets of conditions for learning. The conditions of learning are a set of factors that influencelearning that must be taken into account during the design of instruction. Gagne distinguishesbetween two types of conditions, internal and external.

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Internal conditions of learning refer to the learner’s internal states and cognitiveprocesses. These internal states consist of prior knowledge, motivation, attitudes, etc.Cognitive processes refer to the ways in which the learner interacts with theirenvironment.

External conditions refer to the things taking place in the learning environment, andinclude the arrangement and timing of stimulus events. Gagne’s theory proposes thatlearning takes place at all times, because learners are constantly engaged with theirenvironments.

We obviously cannot directly control the internal conditions. However, Gagne's theory has led toa set of strategies for providing external support for learners as they attempt to achieve agoal. These strategies differ depending on the domain of learning. The following chart will helpyou decide on effective strategies for each domain as you create your instructional strategy(adapted from Essentials of Learning for Instruction by R.M. Gagne and M.P. Driscoll, 1988).

VerbalInformation

Provide a meaningful context for effective encoding ofinformation.

Draw attention to distinctive features by variations in print orspeech.

Use terms or definitions in a sentence. Present information so that it can be made into chunks. Relate the information (term or definition) to preexisting

knowledge. Present all terms clearly using the fewest number of words to

convey the meaning. If more than five terms or units ofinformation are to be presented in one lesson, group related termsor units into five or fewer clearly defined categories.

Use a variety of concrete (observable) examples when possible,emphasizing the clear and well defined features that relatedirectly to the information.

Explain clearly how learners will be expected to recall theinformation while it is initially presented.

Make information readily accessible to learners, and provideopportunities for them to explore "nice-to-know" informationassociated with the knowledge.

Practice with immediate feedback! Provide cues for effective recall and generalization of

information.

IntellectualSkills

Encourage learners to recall previously learned information orexamples that illustrate concepts or rules being presented.

Clearly communicate the definition of defined concepts, using thefewest number of words.

Call attention to distinctive features. Stay within the limits of working memory. Present verbal cues to the ordering or combination of component

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skills. Break down the process of performing or applying rules into steps,

and clearly communicate these steps to the students. Demonstrate an application of the rule for the students. Present varied examples or instances of concepts and rule

applications, calling attention to the distinctive features ofexamples, definitions, and procedures.

Present non-examples or non-instances of the concept if they willhelp to clarify the concept.

Schedule occasions for practice and spaced review. Provide learners with opportunities to "play" with concepts and

rules within simulated or "real" environments, identifying andselecting their own examples and non-examples of concepts andrule applications if possible.

Present a variety of contexts or experiences that allow thestudents to practice applying the rules or identifying/describingconcepts (transfer), providing guidance throughout early stages ofpractice.

CognitiveStrategies

Recall relevant rules and concepts. Describe or demonstrate the strategy. Provide a variety of occasions for practice using the strategy. Provide information feedback as to the creativity or originality of

the strategy or outcome.

Attitudes

Establish an expectancy of success associated with the desiredattitude.

Assure student identification with an admired human model. Make students aware of the personal benefits gained by making

choices based on attitudes (preferably by someone the studentsadmire).

Clearly identify examples of choices made by people who possessthe desired attitude (credible and attractive-similarity,familiarity, appearance).

Clearly identify instances in the students’ lives in which makingchoices are based on the attitude being presented.

Allow students the opportunity to practice making choicesassociated with the desired attitude (role-playing, groupdiscussion, etc.) and give them feedback.

Arrange for communication or demonstration of choice of personalaction.

Positive feedback for successful performance; or allowobservation of feedback in the human model.

Motor Skills Verbally guide learners through routine. Visually present example of routine execution. Encourage the use of mental practice.

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Arrange repeated practice. Furnish immediate feedback as to the accuracy of performance.

3.4 Creating the Strategy

Now that we’ve discussed the elements contained in an instructional strategy, it’s time to take alook at the process of actually creating the strategy. Even if you plan to use existinginstructional materials, you should create an instructional strategy before you select, adapt, ordevelop instruction. In creating a strategy you will utilize all of the materials you havegenerated up to this point, including your needs analysis, instructional analysis, learner andcontext analysis, objectives, and assessment items.

Within the previous discussion we looked at Gagne’s nine events of instruction. These eventswere sequenced according to how they would be addressed during instruction. However, Dick andCarey suggest following a different sequence when you are actually creating your instructionalstrategy. Their process has five steps:

1. Sequence and cluster objectives.2. Plan pre-instructional, assessment, and follow-though activities for the unit.3. Plan the content presentations and student participation sections for each objective or

cluster of objectives.4. Assign objectives to lessons and estimate the time required for each.5. Review the strategy to consolidate media selections and confirm or select a delivery

system.

As you see, each of the events of instruction is included here, except they are arranged in a waythat facilitates the creation of an instructional strategy. Let’s look closer at each step.

These first two steps relate to the overall unit of instruction, and not to individual objectiveswithin the lesson.

1: Sequence and cluster objectives.

To begin with you should indicate the sequence of objectives and how you will cluster them forinstruction. Consider both the sequence and the size of clusters that are appropriate for theattention span of students and the time available for each session. Dick and Carey suggest usinga form similar to the one shown in Table 8.5 on page 215 of the book. Indicate the clusters andthen the objectives you will teach within each cluster. If you are designing a short lesson youmay only have one cluster. However, you may still have small groupings of objectives that youwant to divide up with review and/or practice activities.

2: Plan preinstructional, assessment, and follow-through activities for the unit.

Once you have the sequence of objectives and have clustered them, you should indicate whatyou will do with regards to preinstructional activities, assessment, and follow-through activities.

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During this step you will also make decisions about student groupings and media selection. Dickand Carey suggest that you address each of these considerations in narrative form using thefollowing headings:

1. Preinstructional Activitiesa. Motivation: Explain how you will gain learners’ attention and maintain it throughout

instruction.b. Objectives: Explain how you will inform the learners about what they will be able to do when

they finish your lesson. Explain why this is important to the learners.c. Student Groupings and Media Selection: Explain how you will group students for the

preinstructional activities (e.g., individualized, small subgroups, total group). Also, describethe media selection for this activity (e.g., live lecture, videotape, print, Web-based).

2. Assessmenta. Pretest: Explain whether you will test for entry behaviors and what you will do if a learner

does not have them. Explain also whether you will test for skills you will teach.b. Practice Tests: Explain how you will use practice tests and rehearsal activities and where

they will be located in the instruction.c. Posttest: Explain when and where the posttest will be administered.d. Student Groupings and Media Selection - Explain how you will group students for the

assessment activities (e.g., individualized, small subgroups, total group). Also, describe themedia selection for this activity (e.g., paper and pencil, product development, liveperformance, computer-administered).

3. Follow-Through Activitiesa. Memory Aid: Describe any memory aids that will be developed to facilitate retention of

information and skills.b. Transfer: describe and special factors to be employed to facilitate performance transfer.c. Student Groupings and Media Selection - Explain how you will group students for the follow-

through activities (e.g., individualized, small subgroups, total group). Also, describe themedia selection for this activity (e.g., live lecture, videotape, print, Web-based).

Note that the actual information you will present is not listed here, and the objectives andentry behaviors are not written out.

These next two steps relate to individual objectives or clusters of objectives within the unit ofinstruction.

3: Plan the content presentations and student participation sections for each objective orcluster of objectives.

Now it’s time to indicate the content to be presented for each objective or cluster ofobjectives. Dick and Carey suggest using a form similar to the one shown in Table 8.4 on page213 of your book. Start by listing the objective (and number) at the top of the form.Underneath that should be two main sections:

1. Content Presentationa. Content - Describe the content you will present for each objective.

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b. Examples - Describe some examples (and non-examples) you will present for each objective.Make sure they are congruent with the objective.

c. Student Groupings and Media Selection - Describe how you will group students for thisactivity, and your media selection for this activity.

2. Student Participationa. Practice Items - Describe some sample practice exercises.b. Feedback - Describe the feedback you will provide for the practice exercises.c. Student Groupings and Media Selection - Describe how students will be grouped for this

activity, and your media selection for this activity.

Don’t forget to include a strategy for teaching your terminal objective when completing thisstep.

4: Assign objectives to lessons and estimate the time required for each.

In this step you review your sequence and clusters of objectives, along with the preinstructionalactivities, assessment, content presentation, student participation, and student groupings andmedia selections. Using all of this information, along with the timeframe for your overallinstructional unit, you then assign objectives to individual lessons. In a large unit of instructionthe first lesson generally contains preinstructional activities, while the last generally containsthe assessment and/or follow-through activities. Make sure to include time for presentations,review, and participation activities. Of course, if you are only developing a single lesson then thisstep will be pretty short. However, this process can be performed for extended instructionalunits or for semester-long planning.

5: Review the strategy to consolidate media selections and confirm or select a deliverysystem.

As you have created your instructional strategy you have been considering what media to use incovering each objective. These decisions have been based on the domain of learning, thebehaviors and conditions stated in the objectives, and the learning and performance contexts.In this final step you should review your strategy to consolidate your media selections and tomake sure that they are compatible with your delivery system. Look over all of your selectionsto see if there are patterns or common media prescriptions across the objectives. Then see ifthese patterns fit with the chosen delivery system.

Keep in mind that you should not write your entire lesson within your instructional strategy.Your sections should be short and to the point. The purpose is to think through the entire lessonbefore you develop or select your instruction.

3.5 Conclusions

Once your strategy is complete you should have the prescriptions necessary to begin developingyour instructional materials. We'll finish up this lesson with a quote from Gagne (1988):

The planning of an instructional strategy is an important part of the instructional designprocess. It is at this point that the designer must be able to combine knowledge of learning and

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design theory with his experience of learners and objectives. Needless to say, creativity inlesson design will enhance this other knowledge and experience. Perhaps it is this component ofcreativity that separates the art of instructional design from the science of instructionaldesign. It is clear that the best lesson designs will demonstrate knowledge about the learners,the tasks reflected in the objectives, and the effectiveness of teaching strategies (pg. 28).

Examples

If you have been following along with the example presented by Dick and Carey in the bookappendices, you should now check out Appendix E and Appendix F. They contain most of thecomponents of an instructional strategy relating to a portion of their project on story writing.

Instructional Design Project Part Five

In this lesson you will attempt to identify ways to present your instruction to your learners. It’snow time to look back over all the instructional design work you’ve done up to this point, and usethat information to construct a strategy for presenting your instruction. We are going to closelyfollow the procedure outlined in Dick and Carey.

To help you through the process, we have created a template for you to use in developing yourown strategy. It is a Word file containing pre-formatted charts that you can just fill in withyour instructional strategy information. This should make it easier for you to keep up with therequirements and easier for us to grade.

Link to Instructional Strategy Template

Once you have the template downloaded, perform the following steps to create yourinstructional strategy:

Step 1: Sequence and Cluster Objectives

The first thing to decide is how you will cluster and sequence your objectives. Remember toconsider both the sequence and the size of clusters that are appropriate for the attention spanof your students and the time you have available. Since you are designing a single lesson you mayonly have one cluster. However, you may still want to have small groupings of objectives, and youwill still need to indicate the order in which you will address your objectives. Use the first chartin the instructional strategy template to indicate the clusters you will have along with theobjectives you will cover within each cluster. Be sure to include all of your objectives. Also,indicate the time you have tentatively allotted to each cluster. If you need more room simplyadd cells to the table.

Step 2: Preinstructional, Assessment, and Follow-Through Activities

In this section indicate what you will do with regards to preinstructional activities, assessment,and follow-through activities. Also include any decisions regarding student groupings and mediaselections for each of these activities. The second chart in the template has all of thenecessary section headings. In particular, when thinking about the motivation aspect of yourpreinstructional activities, consider each of the components of Keller’s ARCS Model. It can be

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especially difficult for teachers to motivate students and provide relevance to the instruction.How will you overcome this difficulty?

Step 3: Content Presentation and Student Participation

In this section you will indicate the content to be presented for each objective or cluster ofobjectives, along with the activities you will have your students participate in. For eachinstructional chunk, your students should be actively involved in doing things that will help themlearn. You do not have to include content and activities for all of your objectives. Rather, includea sequential set of 10 of your objectives. What does this mean? Well, examine your designevaluation chart from the last activity and pick 10 objectives in order from that list to includehere. If you have less than 10 objectives include them all. There are ten charts for you to use inthe template for your content and activities. If you need fewer than ten you may delete theextras. If you want to include more than ten use the copy and paste functions to duplicate oneof the blank tables.

Step 4: Assign Objectives to Lessons

Review the progress you’ve made up to this point. Considering all of the information you have,you should now decide how many lessons will be required, the events and objectives you willcover in each lesson, and the time that will be allowed for each lesson. If you followed the initialsuggestions in this course you should only have a single instructional session, within which youwill cover all of the instructional events. However, if you chose to break free and designsomething larger in scope you will likely have more than one session. Once again, use the chartthat has been provided in the template.

Step 5: Review of Strategy and Consolidation of Media Selections

Review the media selections you have made for each activity and objective. Make sure yourmedia selections are compatible and realistic, and look for any commonalities. Also, review yourdelivery system. It is likely that your delivery system may already be set in stone. However, ifyou have some flexibility you may want to reconsider your options at this point based on yourmedia selections. The chart in the template contains all of the necessary section headings. Onceagain, since you probably only have one instructional session this will be a short section, but it isstill good for you to think about for when you begin to design larger instructional units.

Submitting Part Five of Your ID Project

Part Five of your ID Project should be typed up in Microsoft Word. At the top of the papertype "ID Project Part Five: Instructional Strategy". Underneath that include your name, emailaddress, and the date. When you save the file name it "strategy.doc". When you have completedyour activities, upload the Word document to the "instrdes" folder in your Filebox. When youhave finished uploading your file, proceed to the online student interface to officially submityour activities for grading.

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Assignment: ID Project Part Five (cont.)Points: 30

Grading Criteria:

Objectives logically clustered and sequenced. (1) Preinstructional activities addressed, including motivational

strategies, description of how learners will be informed of objectives(if at all), and student groupings and appropriate media selections. (3)

Assessment activities addressed, including a decision on pretesting,description of the use of practice tests, a description of theposttest, and student groupings and appropriate media selections. (3)

Follow-Through activities addressed, including a description of anymemory aids that will be provided, strategies used to facilitatetransfer, and student groupings and appropriate media selections. (3)

Content Presentation described for at least 10 objectives. For eachobjective, should include a brief description of the content, examplesthat will be provided, and any student groupings and appropriatemedia selections. (8)

Student Participation described for at least 10 objectives. For eachobjective, should include sample practice items, feedback that will beprovided, and any student groupings and appropriate media selections.(8)

Objectives and/or clusters assigned to individual lessons. Includes abrief summary of instructional events and objectives to be covered ineach session. (2)

Chart outlining objectives and types of learning covered in eachsession, along with a consolidation of media selections for eachsession. Based on this, final decisions are made regarding the deliverysystem. (2)

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4.0 Theory and History

There are various origins and flavors of programmed instruction. The most important tosubcategories are:

linear programs (in the Skinner tradition) branched programs (in the Crowder tradition)

4.1 Skinner's operant conditioning

Programmed instruction is based on Skinner's "operant conditioning", a (behavioristtheory stating that learning is change in behavior, i.e. the individual's response to events(stimuli). Behavior can be conditioned by rewarding the right stimulus-response patterns.

According to Greg Kearsley:

1. Behavior that is positively reinforced will reoccur; intermittent reinforcement isparticularly effective

2. Information should be presented in small amounts so that responses can be reinforced("shaping")

3. Reinforcements will generalize across similar stimuli ("stimulus generalization")producing secondary conditioning

Skinner argued strongly against teaching that is based on punishment. According toKristinsdóttir, “In a chapter of his book 1968 Why teachers fail he argued that formaleducation is usually based on 'aversive control'. Teaching rests on punishment and ridicule forunsuitable behavior rather than showing a consideration for the shaping and reinforcement ofresponses to be learned. He also said that lessons and examinations are designed to show whatpupils do not know and cannot do, rather than to expose and build upon what they do know andare able to learn. Therefore, he argued, teachers fail to shape their children's behaviorsufficiently, leading to inappropriate learning or to learned responses that are quickly forgotten(Skinner, 1968).”E. (Markle, S. (1969). Good Frames and Bad (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.)

4.2 The Teaching Machine

The first teaching machine was invented by Sydney L. Pressey in the 1920's,

Skinner in the 1950's introduced a concept of "teaching machine" that differed from Pressey'sin some ways. “The teaching machine is composed of mainly a program, which is a system ofcombined teaching and test items that carries the student gradually through the material to belearned. The "machine" is composed by a fill-in-the-blank method on either a workbook or in acomputer. If the subject is correct, he/she gets reinforcement and moves on to the nextquestion. If the answer is incorrect, the subject studies the correct answer to increase thechance of getting reinforced next time.” (learning technologies timeline, retrieved 16:22, 16August 2007 (MEST))

Romiszowski (1997:16) cited by Kristinsdóttir defined the "core" of Skinner's stimulus-responsemodel as “that learning has occurred when a specific response is elicited by specific situation orstimulus with a high degree of probability. The more likely and predictable the response, the

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more efficient the learning has been. These attempt to shape human behavior by presenting agradual progression of small units of information and related tasks to the learner. At each stagethe learner must actively participate by performing the set task. He is then immediatelysupplied with feedback in the form of correct answer”

Skinner stated that the student should compose his response on his own, rather than choose itamong a large range of possibilities, because the responses should not be recognized butrecalled. Moreover, according to Skinner, the machine should present information in a designedsequence of steps. In programmed instruction, the subject is the student itself, the aim ishis/her understanding of the material and the reinforcement or punishment refers tosatisfaction or disappointment, resulting from the comparison of the student's answers with theE.answers given by the computer.

Teaching machines did not allow students to proceed in their tasks unless they understood thematerials. The machines helped students to give the correct answer by "a logical presentation ofmaterial" (Skinner on Programmed Instruction) and by "hinting, prompting, suggesting, and so on,derived from an analysis of verbal behavior" (Skinner, 1958).

4.3 Crowder's intrinsic or branching programNorman Crowder, a contemporary of Skinner, was working independently for the armed serviceson programmed instruction. He felt that a program was a form of communication between aprogrammer and a user. Like any communication, the program must be directed to the individual.Unlike Skinner, Crowder was not working from a psychological perspective, but from acommunications point of view. In an intrinsic or branching program, each frame presents moretext than the average linear frame. After reading, the user responds to an adjunct question,usually in a multiple-option format. Unlike Pressey's auto-instructional approach, which providesonly confirmation of the correctness or incorrectness of that response, branching style optionalchoices lead users to optional forms of feedback, most of which is corrective. If the user makesa correct response, the program asserts the reasons why she or he was correct and moves on tonew material. If an incorrect response is made, the program, at the very least, informs the userthat an error was made and then branches the user back to the previous frame for another try.

The primary purpose of feedback" is to determine whether the communication was successful, inorder that corrective steps be taken." (Crowder 288) Depending upon the complexity of theerror committed, the programme. may initiate a remedial sequence of instruction, a practicedesigned to eliminate the learning deficiency. Branching instruction adapts the sequence of theprogram to a limited degree to fit the prior learning and processing capabilities of the user. Theterm intrinsic refers to the fact that all program options are intrinsic to the program and,therefore, not dependent on any external programming device. This approach is especiallyadapted to machine presentation, which provides for greater levels of adaptability. Branchingtexts tend to be large and confusing, especially when users try to access them in a manual way.

The primary difference between Skinner's conception of programming and Crowder's is in thefunction of the response. To Skinner, learning results from making the correct response.Contrary to this response orientation, Crowder believed that learning results from therealignment of the user's knowledge structure, and that the response is simply a means forcontrolling the program or machine. The larger chunks of information need to be assimilated andintegrated with what the user already knows. The response, he believed, tests the level of

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integration. This type of programming benefits the higher-ability user, who is more capable ofhigher-level integration of ideas, more than it does the lower-ability user.

Portia Diaz-Martin (2001, retrieved 15:56, 14 August 2007 (MEST)).

4.4 Mastery learning

According to Davis & Sorrel (1995), "The mastery learning concept was introduced in theAmerican schools in the 1920's with the work of Washburne (1922, as cited in Block, 1971) andothers in the format of the Winnetka Plan." It then was revived in the late 1950' withprogrammed instruction and brought to perfection by Caroll and Bloom's work.

The architectures of programmed instruction

Programmed instruction has the following core elements:

Contents are broken down into pieces of instructions called frames. A frame containsstatements and questions.

Learners then read the frame and immediately answer a question about the frame There is an immediate feedback about the correctness of the frame (usually in a different

place) Instruction is self-paced and learners are active (in the sense of reactive)

Skinner variant

Contents are very small, i.e. simple statements plus a question or direct questions Answers are usually filling in blanks Feedback is in the form of the correct answer

“Programmed instruction (PI) involved breaking content down into small pieces of informationcalled frames. A PI textbook might contain several thousand frames of information. Studentswould read a frame, then answer a question about the frame. Then they would check theiranswer (get "feedback") and proceed to the next frame. When PI was delivered by a "teachingmachine" the possibilities for effective teaching seemed unlimited to many. PI-style software islinear. Skinner argued that PI was more effective than traditional teaching methods, ”(Programmed Instruction, retrieved 16:22, 16 August 2007 (MEST)) ... since learners have toreceive thousands of reinforcements, something a teacher can do.

Here is an example on programmed English (M.W Sullivan) presented by Joyce, Weil & Calhoun(2000:333):

1. Words are divided into classes. Wecall the largest class nouns. Nouns area class of ________________________. words

2. In English the class of words callednouns is larger than all the other__________________ of words combined classes

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Questions only

Daniel K. Schneider doesn't know where this comes from, but I can show an example. On mybookshelf I found a book (Daniel P. Friedman,Matthias Felleisen, The Little LISPer, MIT PressISBN 0-262-56099-2.) It teaches a programming language and is only composed of questions inincreasingly difficult order.

Is it true that this is an atom? Yes,atom because atom is a string of characters

beginning with the letter a.

Is it true that this is an atom? Yes,turkey because turkey is a string of characters

beginning with a letter.

Is it true that this is an atom? Yes,1942 because 1942 is a string of characters

beginning with a digit

This strategy looks very Skinnerian, since the learner is supposed to learn from good answers.

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5.0 Types of Programmed Instructions

5.1 Branching style

Branching is used with the idea that slower learners can be presented with additionalinformation if they can't respond well enough to a sequence of frames and that more advancedstudents can be exposed to more challenging materials.

Each frame usually presents more text than the average linear frame. After reading, the user responds to a question, usually in a multiple-option format (since

this allows for easy electronic treatment) Feedback then, can be corrective i.e. branch the user into a sequence that attempts to

remediate the learner's misconceptions or gaps in understanding.

Some versions of this model (i.e. Crowder's original) are more based on a (corrective) theory ofcommunication than a behaviorist learning theory.

Special forms of this model are so-called drill and practise programs where learners aresupposed to develop basic skills like arithmetics and keyboard operations by many repetitions.The program adjusts drill sequences according to answers.

5.2 Mastery learning and Mathetics

Mastery learning refers to the idea that teaching should organize learning through orderedsteps. In order to move to the next step, students have to master at least 80% of theprerequisite step.

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6.0 Further Resources

Additional topics

The role of the teachers in Skinner's thoughts

Even if in a chapter of his book “Why teachers fail”, Skinner argued that teachers fail to shapetheir students’ behaviour sufficiently, he stated (1954) that: “If the teacher is to takeadvantage of recent advances in the study of learning, she must have the help of mechanicaldevices.” Concluding his analysis he also argued that mechanized instruction should beintegrated into all schools, not as a replacement for, but as an adjunct to the teacher. By sayingso, he did not deny the importance of the teacher in the learning process.

Many objections to Skinner’s programs have been raised during these years. The most importantis that people think that the answers given by the machine are only “indicators of success”which do not constitute a complete learning program. However, students are obliged todetermine on their own the success of their research and problem-solving efforts. All this isconsidered to be minimal and the starting point of any problem. So, maybe, the real benefit ofprogrammed instruction is precisely the effort made by the student which can be seen as a sortof grounding for developing the ability to think and to learn on his own. Ability that will beachieved only thanks to the involvement of the teacher in class.

At the beginning, programmed instruction was thought for students particularly gifted, in orderto prevent them to waste their time by listening things they already knew, and that could beuseless for their learning process. Those who think (and are still thinking) that programmedinstruction isolate students, must consider that the machine brings them into contact with thepeople who composed the material and with a large number of other students. Besides,computers prevent students from repeating the same material and facilitate the review ofprevious lessons, so, each student can learn in accordance with his own level. But all this is onlyfeasible in class, where the role of teachers is once more important for stimulating discussionand improving the quality of education itself. Moreover, the fact that the student is among hisfriends avoids the risk of socially isolating him as homeschooling does.

Technological progress

It is important to bear in mind that "teaching machines" were much more similar to a mechanicaltool than a computer as we know it. If education accepted with great interest Skinner’ssuggestions, it was not like that for industry because companies thought that this machine couldget out of production soon. For these reasons, the materials concerning programmedinstructions were mainly books, detracting the value of Skinner as a forerunner of (behaviorist)e-learning.

Sometime later, the programmed instruction movement presented the concept of interactivetext and extended this kind of instruction to all school subjects. So, computer-assistedinstruction could assist students, by allowing them to test their abilities and to mark theirimprovements, supplementing the activities in class and helping to develop new skillsindependently. But, it was still economically difficult to put a system like that into place. As aconsequence, programmed instruction as a whole seemed to sink into oblivion. Of course, anotherreason was a change in the understanding of learning (not discussed here).

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Nowadays, the situation has changed a lot: thanks to technological progress, in particularInternet and various learning platforms like learning management systems, one could implementSkinner’s theories and projects more economically.

Open-contents and programmed instructional texts

One could use the technology of wikis that succeeded in creating Wikipedia. Wikitechnologyoffers a great deal of opportunities based on the work of an increasing number of volunteers. Inaddition, the learning material can be translated in many languages in order to let people consultit for free and at home.

The success of wikis and other open source softwares gave rise to several communities oflearning, made up of people who just want to 'share knowledge.' at all levels. The range ofsubjects has developed a lot, concerning spelling, reading, arithmetic, foreign languages,psychology, physics and much more. Some programs enable advancement only in a fixed order,others give additional information at the appropriate level whether a correct or incorrectanswer is given, providing an immediate feedback.

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References

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