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

Table of Contents
Title Page............................................................................ 1.0 1.1 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 5.0 5.1 5.2 Programmed Instruction Definitions .. Review of Instructional Strategies What are Instructional Strategies? What does Effective Mean? .. Strategies to use in Designing Effective Lessons . Instructional Strategy Background Information . Elements of an Instructional Strategy .. Conditions of Learning .. Creating the Strategy . Theory and History Skinner's Operant Conditioning . The Teaching Machine . Crowder's Intrinsic or Branching Program . Mastery Learning .. 25 25 26 27 i 1 3 3 3 6 6 16 19

Types Branching Style . 29 Mastery Learning and Mathetics .. 29 30 32

Further Resources .... References ..

1.0 Programmed Instruction

1.1 Definitions

Programmed Instruction is a method of presenting new subject matters to students in a graded sequence of controlled steps. Students work through the programmed material by themselves at their own speed and after each step test their comprehension by answering an examination question or filling in a diagram. They are then immediately shown the correct answer or given additional information. Computers and other types of teaching machines are often used to present the material, although books may also be used. (The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 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, either questions 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 from among a series of answers, or solving a problem; and (3) provision for immediate response confirmation, sometimes within the program frame itself but usually in a different location, as on 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 the student to new statements depending on his pattern of errors. It is based on a particular tool which 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 the question of "What is Programmed Instruction?" Programmed Instruction, according to this web site, is a teaching technology incorporating instructional principles and techniques derived from laboratory 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 crafted instructional sequences. Downloadable shareware programs include: About Programmed Instruction ( which teaches basic learning principles of programmed instruction and the techniques used to create programmed instructional tutorials), Effective Characteristics of Instructional Programs ( which teaches characteristics and features of effective instructional programs), and Programmed Instruction Maker (which helps to convert a text file of questions and 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 incoming influence for programmed instruction, and Individualized Instruction, and Systems Approach as its outgoing influence. The paper argues that programmed instruction springs out of teaching machine and auto-instruction developed by Sidney L. Pressey during the 1920s and the early 1930s and began to decline by the late 1960s. Although the programmed instruction movement

the manner of administration should be changed did not last very long, it did have important long-term effects on the evolution of educational technology. For example, programmed instruction had a strong influence on the development of the "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 contradiction to combine programmed instruction with constructivism to create tutorial software. However, it can be seen that programmed instruction is good at helping students learn a set of terms and very structured information, while constructivist approaches help students deal with real problems in ways that enable them to solve problems. Sometimes a distinction is made between programmed instructions and programmed learning.

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 or delivery of instruction helps students learn. 2.2 What does effective mean? The term "effective" means that student performance improves when the instructional strategies are used. The strategies were identified in studies conducted using research procedures and guidelines that ensure confidence about the results. In addition, several studies exist for each strategy with an adequate sample size and the use of treatment and control groups to generalize to the target population. This allows teachers to be confident about how to apply 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). All students, and particularly those with disabilities, benefit when teachers incorporate these strategies into their instruction on a regular basis. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Focus on essentials. Make linkages obvious and explicit. Prime background knowledge. Provide temporary support for learning. Use conspicuous steps and strategies. Review for fluency and generalization. 1. Focus on essentials Identify important principles, key concepts, and big ideas from the curriculum that apply across major themes in the subject content. Techniques: Big Ideas: Instruction is organized around the major themes that run through a subject area. This helps students make the connections between concepts and learn to use higher order thinking skills. Kameenui and Carnine (1998) identify these examples of big ideas for social studies: o problem-solution-effect o 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 of graphic organizers. Thematic instruction: Instructional units combine subject areas to make themes and essential ideas more apparent and meaningful. Lessons and assignments can be

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 Content Enhancement Routines, systematic routines that include graphic organizers to help teachers plan a course, unit, or lesson around the essentials or big ideas. Teachers guide students 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 other as you are teaching. Techniques: Give clear verbal explanations and use visual displays (such as flow charts, diagrams, or graphic organizers) to portray key concepts and relationships. Help students use techniques like outlining or mind mapping to show connections among concepts.

3. Prime background knowledge Connect new information or skills to what students have already learned. Provide additional instruction 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, gradually reducing 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.

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 using memory 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 on their performance to ensure knowledge is retained over time and can be applied in different situations. 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.

3.0 Instructional Strategy

3.1 Background Information

Well, youve come a long way in the instructional design process. Youve defined a need that you want 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, the context 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 end of 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 planning individual lessons. This is accomplished by creating an instructional strategy. As you see this is the sixth step in the Dick and Carey model.

Dick and Carey use the term Instructional Strategy to describe the process of sequencing and organizing content, specifying learning activities, and deciding how to deliver the content and activities. 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 design process. Gagne calls the planning and analysis steps the "architecture" of the course, while the instructional strategies are the "bricks and mortar". This is where you deal with how to actually instruct the student. Previous steps in the instructional design process have deliberately left out 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 to this point and generating an effective plan for presenting your instruction to your learners. At this point you must be able to combine your knowledge of learning and design theory with your experience of learners and objectives. Creating a strategy is not the same as actually developing your instructional materials. The purpose of creating the strategy before developing the materials themselves is to outline how the instructional activities will relate to the

accomplishment of the objectives (Gagn, 1988). This will provide you with a clear plan for subsequent development. Dick and Carey describe four elements of an instructional strategy: 1. 2. 3. 4. Content Sequence and Clustering Learning Components Student Groupings Selection of Media and Delivery Systems

Lets 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 and groupings 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 the sequence is to refer to your instructional analysis. You will generally begin with the lower level subordinate skills on the left and work your way up through the hierarchy until you reach the main goal step. Its not a good idea to present information about a skill until you have presented information on all related subordinate skills. Work your way from bottom to top and left to right until you have covered all of the skills. Then youll want to provide instruction on integrating all of 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 may decide 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 how much or how little instruction to present at any given time: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. The age level of your learners The complexity of the material The type of learning taking place Whether the activity can be varied, thereby focusing attention on the task 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 a set of instructional materials. Here Dick and Carey mention Gagns 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 Gagns theory of instruction, and introduced its three main components: learning categories (domains), learning conditions, and the nine events of instruction. We have already discussed the learning categories, and in this lesson we will look at the events of instruction, and his conditions of instruction. In order for instruction to bring about effective learning, it must be made to influence the internal processes of learning. Gagne believes that instruction is "a deliberately arranged set of

external events designed to support internal learning processes" (pg. 11), and is interested in what kinds of events can provide such support. Therefore, to tie his theory of instruction together, he formulated nine events of instruction that are needed for all learning processes and learning outcomes. When followed, these events are intended to promote the transfer of knowledge or information from perception through the various stages of memory. Gagne derived these events from an understanding of the cognitive processes that go on in the brain (you should remember learning about cognitive information processing in your Education Psychology course). In brief, the kinds of processing presumed to occur during any single act of learning are summarized 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 what makes instruction possible. For example, Selective Perception may be influenced by particular arrangements of instructional materials. A simple technique for this would be to highlight or underline a block of text you wanted learners to focus on. Gagnes events of instruction are designed to help learners get from where they are to where you want them to be. Heres a list of the events, in the order they are typically employed: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Gaining attention Informing learner of objectives Stimulating recall of prior learning Presenting the stimulus material Providing learning guidance Eliciting the performance Providing feedback about performance correctness Assessing the performance Enhancing retention and transfer

Keep in mind that each of these events may not be provided for every lesson. Sometimes, one or more of the events may already be obvious to the learner and may not be needed. Also, one or more of the events may be provided by the learners themselves, particularly experienced selflearners. Older, more experienced learners may provide many of the events on their own, while for young children the teacher would arrange for most of them. Dick and Carey rearrange Gagnes events to fit into five categories. However, since Gagnes nine original events are so widely known we want to focus on those for now. Here's a closer look at each one:

1. Gaining Attention Many different kinds of techniques are employed to gain learners attention. Often this is done using some sort of attention getting device, such as quick cutting in a video. However, the best way to gain attention is to appeal to the learners interests. This can be done using probing questions, 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 the difficulties involved in motivating student to take an interest in their instruction. John Keller has tried to deal with this by developing the ARCS Model of motivation. ARCS is an acronym for: A R C S = 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 motivated to engage in an activity if it is perceived to be linked to the satisfaction of personal needs, and if there is a positive expectancy for success. According to Keller (1988), these four conditions must be met in order for people to become and remain motivated. 1. Attention: Having students attention is a prerequisite for learning. You should be concerned with 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 and future needs. Its not always enough to tell students, "Youll need this in the future". Many students, especially younger ones, live in the present and are not concerned with future needs, so you must seek ways to make your instruction seem relevant to their present needs. 3. Confidence: Confidence can influence a students persistence and accomplishment. Confident people tend to attribute their successes to their ability and effort instead of luck, and believe that they can accomplish their goals through their actions. Unconfident people have a greater fear of failure. Strategies must be employed that give students the impression that if they put forth effort they can succeed. 4. Satisfaction: This involves making people feel good about their accomplishments. People will feel more confident if they are made aware of the task and the reward for success, and if an appropriate reinforcement schedule is used (sounds like Ed Psych stuff again, doesnt it?) Its also important to make students feel they have control over the behaviors that lead to the reward. If these four conditions are met one can assume to have made a reasonable attempt at gaining and maintaining motivation in their learners. In order meet these four conditions a designer must be aware of the learners needs and interests. A good way to do that is to revisit your

learner analysis. Dick and Carey discuss each of the ARCS factors, and provide a nice diagram on page 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 if they have learned what they are supposed to learn. In some cases it may not be necessary to specifically 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 be attempting to learn. For example, if students are studying the U.S. Constitution, should they be able to recite the Preamble, or should they be able to state the main ideas? If students know which one they can better attend to the accompanying instruction. It also helps them avoid undue 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 connections made to prior learning. For example, certain concepts and rules must have been previously learned in order to learn new higher-order rules. When new learning is about to occur, relevant prior information should be made internally accessible so that it can be made part of the learning event. This accessibility is assured by having the old information recalled just prior to presenting the new information. This can be done by asking recognition or recall questions. For example, you might ask something like, "Do you remember when you learned about". This line of questioning recalls previously learned information and leads to a new strand of learning. In this way learners see the relationship between what they have already learned and what they will be learning. 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 learners must learn a series of facts then those facts must be communicated to them in some form. If they must learn a motor skill then the skill must be demonstrated. It is important at this point that the proper stimuli are presented as part of the instructional events. For example, if you want the learner to acquire the ability to answer questions delivered orally in French, you should not present them with questions in English or printed questions in French. If you do not use the proper stimuli then you may end up teaching the wrong skills. Stimulus presentation often emphasizes features that encourage learners to select what you want then to attend to. This can be done using italics, bold print, underlining, or pictures with arrows or circles or highlighting. Stimulus presentation for the learning of concepts and rules requires the use of a variety of examples. For example, if you are teaching about squares you should present big squares, small squares, squares of different colors, squares made out of different materials, and squares in everyday life. Likewise, if students are learning how to apply the formula for finding the area of a square, they need to be given several examples to make sure that they understand and can use the relevant rule. The third component of Gagnes learning theory relates to his conditions of learning, which describes a set of strategies that can be used when presenting information in different learning domains. We will look closer at these strategies a little later in this lesson.

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Another important element in presenting instruction is that you should present a variety of examples and non-examples. A non-example is deliberately chosen for its non-relevance to the concept that is being taught. For example, not only is it important to present a variety of squares, 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 the acquisition 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 that help guide the learner to the attainment of an objective. These communications stimulate a direction of thought and help keep the learner on track, leading to a more efficient learning situation. Their sole purpose is to aid in the process of learning, and to move students from one state of mind to another. This does not involve telling the learner the answer; rather, it involves suggesting a line of thought that will presumably lead to the desired outcome. Try to avoid thinking about it in terms of simply presenting information about what you are really trying to do it facilitate learning. The amount of guidance given will depend on the type of learning desired. It will also vary according to the kinds of learners you have. Some require less guidance, and even shun such guidance, 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, while others prefer to keep to themselves and manage their own learning. In any event, it is important to 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 can perform the skill they are trying to learn. This is done by providing the learner with practice exercises. Usually, the initial practice is done using the same example with which the learners were shown the skill. This is followed by more examples that differ from the original. All practice 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 or chart.
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 be included in a graph that could display the data. 3. You could prepare a worksheet that contains a variety of graphs that each display data from a given table differently. The students must circle the graphs that properly display the data. 4. You could give each student a data chart along with a blank piece of graph paper and instruct 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 is the only choice that demands the exact performance of every student under the exact conditions 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 guess what 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 10 unregistered 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 balance the checkbook. 7. Providing Feedback Not only should learners be provided with practice exercises, they should be given feedback about their performance. Feedback can be verbal, written, computerized, or given in other forms. Regardless of the form you choose, the feedback should inform the learners about the degree 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 is automatically provided. For example, if you touch a hot stove you get burned and you dont need anyone else to tell you that you just got burned, or to tell you not to do it again. However, in many 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 swing whether or not you hit it. However, an instructor would still be necessary to provide feedback as to 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 students 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 desired learning has occurred. Students are assessed to determine whether the instruction has met its design 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 last lesson we discussed the various types of assessments and assessment items. Now you should determine which of these assessments you will use and how you will administer them. Keep in mind that your assessments should match the stated objectives in order to provide an accurate judgment. 9. Enhancing Retention and Transfer Many people feel that when the test is over so is the course. However, as a last step it is important to figure out ways to increase the chances that the skills you have taught will be used properly by learners when they use them outside of the learning context. Learners may be able to recall new knowledge and skills in the classroom, but what about when they get into the real world? Because learning is generally situation-specific, the best way to aid in retention and transfer is to provide a meaningful context in which to present your instruction. If the skills to be learned represent skills used in the real world, try to establish a "classroom" learning environment that approximates this real world context as close as possible. Then the jump to the real world will be 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 via letters, an excellent overall context for this outcome would be establishing email correspondences between students and people they care about. This closely matches what they would be doing in the real world, and as such will make it easier for them to transfer the skills they learn to that real world. It is also important to make sure that the most effective conditions for learning the specific type of performance are part of the learning environment (see the section below on learning conditions). Beyond that, another good way to enhance retention is through a review of the material at the end of the instruction. Reviews allow learners to practice retrieving new information, and also help to strengthen the network of relationships in the brain. For longer units 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 with new varieties of tasks that are related to what they have already learned. These tasks should require 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 making verbs agree with a pronoun subject, you may have assessed learners performance by presenting examples in which you varied the verb and the pronoun. However, to aid in transfer you would want to vary the situation even more. This might be done by having learners write sentences where 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 depicted in pictures. The important thing is to created varied examples that will help learners use the skills at a later date. Now that weve looked at each of Gagnes events of instruction, heres how each of the events relates to the internal learning processes that we previously listed: Instructional Event 1. Gaining attention 2. Informing learner of objectives 3. Stimulating recall of prior learning 4. Presenting the stimulus material 5. Providing learning guidance 6. Eliciting the performance Relation to Learning Process

Reception of patterns of neural impulses

Activating a process of executive control

Retrieval of prior learning to working

memory Emphasizing features for

perception

selective

Semantic encoding; cues for retrieval

Activating response organization

7. Providing feedback about performance Establishing reinforcement correctness 8. Assessing the performance 9. Enhancing retention and transfer

retrieval; reinforcement possible

Activating

making

Providing cues and strategies for retrieval

This wraps up the discussion on the second element of an instructional strategy in the learning components. Now on to element three. Element 3: Student Groupings The next element of an instructional strategy is a description of how students will be grouped during instruction. The main things to consider are whether there are any requirements for social 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. Student groupings can hinder individual learning, but at the same time they can motivate students and keep them interested. Also, keep in mind that your delivery system can affect the amount of social interaction possible. As you all know, a distance-delivered course makes it hard to promote social interaction between students. Similarly, computer-based instruction can be hard to 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 made about content sequencing and clustering, and the learning components have been planned, its time 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 to Gagne (1988), the selection of a delivery system indicates a general preference for emphasizing certain instruments to accomplish instructional events. Within this general preference, specific agents or media can be assigned, event-by-event, objective-by-objective to accomplish the intended goal. The overall delivery system includes everything necessary to allow a particular instructional system to operate as it was intended and where it was intended. Some examples of delivery systems 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 the information and events of your instruction. Media constitutes the physical elements in the learning environment with which learners interact in order to learn something. The choice of media is done as part of the instructional strategy. For example, in a distance-delivered program such 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 as they are compatible with the original delivery system. The choice of a delivery system is generally made at the course or curriculum level. For most teachers, the delivery system is usually already chosen you will likely deliver your instruction in a classroom. However, the ideal way would be to base the decision on your goal, learner characteristics, learner and performance contexts, objectives, and assessment requirements basically, all the stuff youve done up until now. With this in mind, though, you should turn your attention to selecting media to deliver your instruction. In todays world, even if your delivery system is chosen beforehand, its not a major setback because most media formats are available for use in most delivery systems. Different instructional media have different capabilities for providing the various events of instruction. For example, teachers are great for providing learning guidance and feedback; however, videotape can be used effectively to present stimulus situations that would be hard for 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 in to. Verbal information requires less elaborative feedback, so there is less need for interactive media. With intellectual skills elaborative feedback is more important, so some form of interactive 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 the learners, so the instruction should include the actual physical environment or the actual equipment that will be used for the assessment. When teaching attitudes it is usually desirable to have a model of some sort who chooses to exhibit the desired attitude. In this case visual media, such as television or video, can be used. Keep in mind that a single lesson or course may involve instruction in several domains, so you may end up selecting several different forms of media. 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 be available in the learning environment. If you design your instruction to require a certain type of media then its up to you to make sure that it will be available when the time comes. If you cant do this then you should limit your selections to those which can reasonably be expected to be available. Also, make sure that learners will be able to access the materials in the medium you select. Will the materials be needed at home? If so, can you give them out? Will students need to access a computer lab or learning center to get at the materials? If so, what hours will it be accessible? Finally, if you select a particular medium to present your information, you should make sure that you 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 Director movies because Director allows you to combine audio and visual elements in unique and exciting ways. However, the reality is that this can be a difficult and time-consuming process if you are not skilled in using Director. You will likely want to limit your selections of this type of media to those 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 to create an instructional strategy, lets briefly look at the final aspect of Gagnes theory of instruction: his conditions of learning.

3.3 Conditions of Learning Gagne believes that the purpose of all instruction is to provide the events of instruction mentioned 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 all domains of learning outcomes. However, the details of how they are presented imply different sets of conditions for learning. The conditions of learning are a set of factors that influence learning that must be taken into account during the design of instruction. Gagne distinguishes between two types of conditions, internal and external.

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Internal conditions of learning refer to the learners internal states and cognitive processes. These internal states consist of prior knowledge, motivation, attitudes, etc. Cognitive processes refer to the ways in which the learner interacts with their environment.

External conditions refer to the things taking place in the learning environment, and include the arrangement and timing of stimulus events. Gagnes theory proposes that learning takes place at all times, because learners are constantly engaged with their environments.

We obviously cannot directly control the internal conditions. However, Gagne's theory has led to a set of strategies for providing external support for learners as they attempt to achieve a goal. These strategies differ depending on the domain of learning. The following chart will help you 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). Provide a meaningful context for effective encoding of information. Draw attention to distinctive features by variations in print or speech. 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 of information are to be presented in one lesson, group related terms or 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 relate directly to the information. Explain clearly how learners will be expected to recall the information while it is initially presented. Make information readily accessible to learners, and provide opportunities for them to explore "nice-to-know" information associated with the knowledge. Practice with immediate feedback! Provide cues for effective recall and generalization of information. Encourage learners to recall previously learned information or examples that illustrate concepts or rules being presented. Clearly communicate the definition of defined concepts, using the fewest 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

Verbal Information

Intellectual Skills

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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 of examples, definitions, and procedures. Present non-examples or non-instances of the concept if they will help 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 and selecting their own examples and non-examples of concepts and rule applications if possible. Present a variety of contexts or experiences that allow the students to practice applying the rules or identifying/describing concepts (transfer), providing guidance throughout early stages of practice. 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. Establish an expectancy of success associated with the desired attitude. 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 students admire). Clearly identify examples of choices made by people who possess the desired attitude (credible and attractive-similarity, familiarity, appearance). Clearly identify instances in the students lives in which making choices are based on the attitude being presented. Allow students the opportunity to practice making choices associated with the desired attitude (role-playing, group discussion, etc.) and give them feedback. Arrange for communication or demonstration of choice of personal action. Positive feedback for successful performance; or allow observation of feedback in the human model. Verbally guide learners through routine. Visually present example of routine execution. Encourage the use of mental practice.

Cognitive Strategies

Attitudes

Motor Skills

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

3.4 Creating the Strategy Now that weve discussed the elements contained in an instructional strategy, its time to take a look at the process of actually creating the strategy. Even if you plan to use existing instructional materials, you should create an instructional strategy before you select, adapt, or develop instruction. In creating a strategy you will utilize all of the materials you have generated up to this point, including your needs analysis, instructional analysis, learner and context analysis, objectives, and assessment items. Within the previous discussion we looked at Gagnes nine events of instruction. These events were sequenced according to how they would be addressed during instruction. However, Dick and Carey suggest following a different sequence when you are actually creating your instructional strategy. 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 way that facilitates the creation of an instructional strategy. Lets look closer at each step. These first two steps relate to the overall unit of instruction, and not to individual objectives within the lesson. 1: Sequence and cluster objectives. To begin with you should indicate the sequence of objectives and how you will cluster them for instruction. Consider both the sequence and the size of clusters that are appropriate for the attention span of students and the time available for each session. Dick and Carey suggest using a form similar to the one shown in Table 8.5 on page 215 of the book. Indicate the clusters and then the objectives you will teach within each cluster. If you are designing a short lesson you may only have one cluster. However, you may still have small groupings of objectives that you want 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 what you 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. Dick and Carey suggest that you address each of these considerations in narrative form using the following headings: 1. a. Preinstructional Activities 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, describe the media selection for this activity (e.g., live lecture, videotape, print, Web-based). 2. Assessment a. 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 the media selection for this activity (e.g., paper and pencil, product development, live performance, computer-administered). 3. Follow-Through Activities a. 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 followthrough activities (e.g., individualized, small subgroups, total group). Also, describe the media 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 and entry behaviors are not written out. These next two steps relate to individual objectives or clusters of objectives within the unit of instruction. 3: Plan the content presentations and student participation sections for each objective or cluster of objectives. Now its time to indicate the content to be presented for each objective or cluster of objectives. Dick and Carey suggest using a form similar to the one shown in Table 8.4 on page 213 of your book. Start by listing the objective (and number) at the top of the form. Underneath that should be two main sections: 1. a. Content Presentation 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. c. Make sure they are congruent with the objective. Student Groupings and Media Selection - Describe how you will group students for this activity, and your media selection for this activity.

2. Student Participation a. c. Practice Items - Describe some sample practice exercises. Student Groupings and Media Selection - Describe how students will be grouped for this activity, and your media selection for this activity. b. Feedback - Describe the feedback you will provide for the practice exercises.

Dont forget to include a strategy for teaching your terminal objective when completing this step. 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 preinstructional activities, assessment, content presentation, student participation, and student groupings and media selections. Using all of this information, along with the timeframe for your overall instructional unit, you then assign objectives to individual lessons. In a large unit of instruction the first lesson generally contains preinstructional activities, while the last generally contains the 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 this step will be pretty short. However, this process can be performed for extended instructional units or for semester-long planning. 5: Review the strategy to consolidate media selections and confirm or select a delivery system. As you have created your instructional strategy you have been considering what media to use in covering each objective. These decisions have been based on the domain of learning, the behaviors 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 to make sure that they are compatible with your delivery system. Look over all of your selections to see if there are patterns or common media prescriptions across the objectives. Then see if these 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 lesson before you develop or select your instruction. 3.5 Conclusions Once your strategy is complete you should have the prescriptions necessary to begin developing your 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 design process. 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 in lesson design will enhance this other knowledge and experience. Perhaps it is this component of creativity that separates the art of instructional design from the science of instructional design. 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 book appendices, you should now check out Appendix E and Appendix F. They contain most of the components 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. Its now time to look back over all the instructional design work youve done up to this point, and use that information to construct a strategy for presenting your instruction. We are going to closely follow the procedure outlined in Dick and Carey. To help you through the process, we have created a template for you to use in developing your own strategy. It is a Word file containing pre-formatted charts that you can just fill in with your instructional strategy information. This should make it easier for you to keep up with the requirements and easier for us to grade. Link to Instructional Strategy Template Once you have the template downloaded, perform the following steps to create your instructional strategy: Step 1: Sequence and Cluster Objectives The first thing to decide is how you will cluster and sequence your objectives. Remember to consider both the sequence and the size of clusters that are appropriate for the attention span of your students and the time you have available. Since you are designing a single lesson you may only have one cluster. However, you may still want to have small groupings of objectives, and you will still need to indicate the order in which you will address your objectives. Use the first chart in the instructional strategy template to indicate the clusters you will have along with the objectives 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 simply add 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 media selections for each of these activities. The second chart in the template has all of the necessary section headings. In particular, when thinking about the motivation aspect of your preinstructional activities, consider each of the components of Kellers 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 of objectives, along with the activities you will have your students participate in. For each instructional chunk, your students should be actively involved in doing things that will help them learn. You do not have to include content and activities for all of your objectives. Rather, include a sequential set of 10 of your objectives. What does this mean? Well, examine your design evaluation chart from the last activity and pick 10 objectives in order from that list to include here. If you have less than 10 objectives include them all. There are ten charts for you to use in the template for your content and activities. If you need fewer than ten you may delete the extras. If you want to include more than ten use the copy and paste functions to duplicate one of the blank tables. Step 4: Assign Objectives to Lessons Review the progress youve 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 will cover in each lesson, and the time that will be allowed for each lesson. If you followed the initial suggestions in this course you should only have a single instructional session, within which you will cover all of the instructional events. However, if you chose to break free and design something larger in scope you will likely have more than one session. Once again, use the chart that 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 your media selections are compatible and realistic, and look for any commonalities. Also, review your delivery system. It is likely that your delivery system may already be set in stone. However, if you have some flexibility you may want to reconsider your options at this point based on your media selections. The chart in the template contains all of the necessary section headings. Once again, since you probably only have one instructional session this will be a short section, but it is still 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 paper type "ID Project Part Five: Instructional Strategy". Underneath that include your name, email address, and the date. When you save the file name it "strategy.doc". When you have completed your activities, upload the Word document to the "instrdes" folder in your Filebox. When you have finished uploading your file, proceed to the online student interface to officially submit your activities for grading.

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Assignment: Points: 30 Grading Criteria:

ID

Project

Part

Five

(cont.)

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 the posttest, and student groupings and appropriate media selections. (3) Follow-Through activities addressed, including a description of any memory aids that will be provided, strategies used to facilitate transfer, and student groupings and appropriate media selections. (3) Content Presentation described for at least 10 objectives. For each objective, should include a brief description of the content, examples that will be provided, and any student groupings and appropriate media selections. (8) Student Participation described for at least 10 objectives. For each objective, should include sample practice items, feedback that will be provided, and any student groupings and appropriate media selections. (8) Objectives and/or clusters assigned to individual lessons. Includes a brief summary of instructional events and objectives to be covered in each session. (2) Chart outlining objectives and types of learning covered in each session, along with a consolidation of media selections for each session. Based on this, final decisions are made regarding the delivery system. (2)

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4.0 Theory and History

There are various origins and flavors of programmed instruction. The most important to subcategories are: 4.1 linear programs (in the Skinner tradition) branched programs (in the Crowder tradition) Skinner's operant conditioning Programmed instruction is based on Skinner's "operant conditioning", a (behaviorist theory 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 is particularly 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 to Kristinsdttir, In a chapter of his book 1968 Why teachers fail he argued that formal education is usually based on 'aversive control'. Teaching rests on punishment and ridicule for unsuitable behavior rather than showing a consideration for the shaping and reinforcement of responses to be learned. He also said that lessons and examinations are designed to show what pupils do not know and cannot do, rather than to expose and build upon what they do know and are able to learn. Therefore, he argued, teachers fail to shape their children's behavior sufficiently, 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's in some ways. The teaching machine is composed of mainly a program, which is a system of combined teaching and test items that carries the student gradually through the material to be learned. The "machine" is composed by a fill-in-the-blank method on either a workbook or in a computer. If the subject is correct, he/she gets reinforcement and moves on to the next question. If the answer is incorrect, the subject studies the correct answer to increase the chance of getting reinforced next time. (learning technologies timeline, retrieved 16:22, 16 August 2007 (MEST)) Romiszowski (1997:16) cited by Kristinsdttir defined the "core" of Skinner's stimulus-response model as that learning has occurred when a specific response is elicited by specific situation or stimulus 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 a gradual progression of small units of information and related tasks to the learner. At each stage the learner must actively participate by performing the set task. He is then immediately supplied with feedback in the form of correct answer Skinner stated that the student should compose his response on his own, rather than choose it among a large range of possibilities, because the responses should not be recognized but recalled. Moreover, according to Skinner, the machine should present information in a designed sequence of steps. In programmed instruction, the subject is the student itself, the aim is his/her understanding of the material and the reinforcement or punishment refers to satisfaction or disappointment, resulting from the comparison of the student's answers with the E.answers given by the computer. Teaching machines did not allow students to proceed in their tasks unless they understood the materials. The machines helped students to give the correct answer by "a logical presentation of material" (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 program

Norman Crowder, a contemporary of Skinner, was working independently for the armed services on programmed instruction. He felt that a program was a form of communication between a programmer 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 a communications point of view. In an intrinsic or branching program, each frame presents more text 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 provides only confirmation of the correctness or incorrectness of that response, branching style optional choices lead users to optional forms of feedback, most of which is corrective. If the user makes a correct response, the program asserts the reasons why she or he was correct and moves on to new material. If an incorrect response is made, the program, at the very least, informs the user that 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, in order that corrective steps be taken." (Crowder 288) Depending upon the complexity of the error committed, the programme. may initiate a remedial sequence of instruction, a practice designed to eliminate the learning deficiency. Branching instruction adapts the sequence of the program to a limited degree to fit the prior learning and processing capabilities of the user. The term 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 especially adapted to machine presentation, which provides for greater levels of adaptability. Branching texts 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 the function of the response. To Skinner, learning results from making the correct response. Contrary to this response orientation, Crowder believed that learning results from the realignment of the user's knowledge structure, and that the response is simply a means for controlling the program or machine. The larger chunks of information need to be assimilated and integrated 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 of higher-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 the American schools in the 1920's with the work of Washburne (1922, as cited in Block, 1971) and others in the format of the Winnetka Plan." It then was revived in the late 1950' with programmed 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 contains statements 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 information called frames. A PI textbook might contain several thousand frames of information. Students would read a frame, then answer a question about the frame. Then they would check their answer (get "feedback") and proceed to the next frame. When PI was delivered by a "teaching machine" the possibilities for effective teaching seemed unlimited to many. PI-style software is linear. Skinner argued that PI was more effective than traditional teaching methods, (Programmed Instruction, retrieved 16:22, 16 August 2007 (MEST)) ... since learners have to receive 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. We call the largest class nouns. Nouns are a class of ________________________. 2. In English the class of words called nouns is larger than all the other __________________ of words combined

words

classes

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Questions only Daniel K. Schneider doesn't know where this comes from, but I can show an example. On my bookshelf I found a book (Daniel P. Friedman,Matthias Felleisen, The Little LISPer, MIT Press ISBN 0-262-56099-2.) It teaches a programming language and is only composed of questions in increasingly 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 additional information if they can't respond well enough to a sequence of frames and that more advanced students 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 of communication than a behaviorist learning theory. Special forms of this model are so-called drill and practise programs where learners are supposed 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 ordered steps. In order to move to the next step, students have to master at least 80% of the prerequisite 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 shape their students behaviour sufficiently, he stated (1954) that: If the teacher is to take

advantage of recent advances in the study of learning, she must have the help of mechanical devices. Concluding his analysis he also argued that mechanized instruction should be
integrated into all schools, not as a replacement for, but as an adjunct to the teacher. By saying so, he did not deny the importance of the teacher in the learning process.

Many objections to Skinners programs have been raised during these years. The most important is 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 to determine on their own the success of their research and problem-solving efforts. All this is considered to be minimal and the starting point of any problem. So, maybe, the real benefit of programmed instruction is precisely the effort made by the student which can be seen as a sort of grounding for developing the ability to think and to learn on his own. Ability that will be achieved only thanks to the involvement of the teacher in class. At the beginning, programmed instruction was thought for students particularly gifted, in order to prevent them to waste their time by listening things they already knew, and that could be useless for their learning process. Those who think (and are still thinking) that programmed instruction isolate students, must consider that the machine brings them into contact with the people 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 of previous lessons, so, each student can learn in accordance with his own level. But all this is only feasible in class, where the role of teachers is once more important for stimulating discussion and improving the quality of education itself. Moreover, the fact that the student is among his friends 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 mechanical tool than a computer as we know it. If education accepted with great interest Skinners suggestions, it was not like that for industry because companies thought that this machine could get out of production soon. For these reasons, the materials concerning programmed instructions 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 interactive text and extended this kind of instruction to all school subjects. So, computer-assisted instruction could assist students, by allowing them to test their abilities and to mark their improvements, supplementing the activities in class and helping to develop new skills independently. But, it was still economically difficult to put a system like that into place. As a consequence, programmed instruction as a whole seemed to sink into oblivion. Of course, another reason 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 particular Internet and various learning platforms like learning management systems, one could implement Skinners theories and projects more economically. Open-contents and programmed instructional texts One could use the technology of wikis that succeeded in creating Wikipedia. Wikitechnology offers a great deal of opportunities based on the work of an increasing number of volunteers. In addition, the learning material can be translated in many languages in order to let people consult it for free and at home. The success of wikis and other open source softwares gave rise to several communities of learning, made up of people who just want to ' share knowledge.' at all levels. The range of subjects 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 incorrect answer is given, providing an immediate feedback.

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References
B. F. Skinner, works and life. Retrieved December 9, 2006 from [2]
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