Dr. V.K.Maheshwari, M.A (Socio, Phil) B.Sc. M. Ed, Ph.D
Former Principal, K.L.D.A.V. (P.G) College, Roorkee, India
One can gain appreciable insights to the present day status of the field of instructional technology from examining its early beginnings and the origins of current practice. Programmed Instruction was an integral factor in the evolution of the instructional design process, and serves as the foundation for the procedures in which IT professionals now engage for the development of effective learning environments. In fact, the use of the term programming was applied to the production of learning materials long before it was used to describe the design and creation of computerized outputs.- Romizowski (1986)
The programmed instruction movement was developed by American psychologist B. F. Skinner during the 1950s. Programmed instruction, modelled after the scientific method, arose as a response to teacher shortages and to increasing student populations. It automates instruction through breaking up curriculum into small, self-contained, manageable frames that are then logically sequenced in a systematic manner and presented through technological devices. Ultimately, the goal of programmed instruction is to control learning through measuring observable outcomes and through devising precise methodologies of teaching that are guaranteed to work. Programmed instruction has been extinguished as a movement, but its influences form the foundation for much of modern education. Systematization of instruction through codified objectives, evaluation methods (especially through standardized testing), and techniques of teaching that emphasize a back to the basics, step-by-step approach are, for example, some of the ways in which programmed instruction influenced the educational field as it is understood in the present.
“The Technology of Teaching.” In the 1954 work, Skinner listed the problems he saw in the schools using as a specific case “for example, the teaching of arithmetic in the lower grades” (p. 90). In the 1950s many of the ideas that had surfaced earlier were clarified and popularized. Programmed instruction was among the first, in historical significance for instructional developments and analytical processes, important to instructional design. This form of instruction is based on the behavioural learning theories.
The early programmed instruction was often delivered by some form of ‘teaching machine’ but later it brought the concept of interactive text. The programmed instruction movement extended the use of printed self – instruction to all school subject areas to adult and vocational education as well (Romiszowski,1997).
Meaning and Definition of Programmed Instruction
Programmed learning (or programmed instruction) is a research-based system which helps learners work successfully. The method is guided by research done by a variety of applied psychologists and educators. The learning material is in a kind of textbook or teaching machine or computer.
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)).
The instructions provided by teaching machine or programmed text book is referred to as programmed instruction.
According to J E Espich and Bill Williams, “programmed instruction is a planned sequence of experiences, leading to proficiency, in terms of stimulus- response relationship that have proven to be effective. ”
According to Susan Markle, 1969, “programmed instruction is a method of designing reproducible sequence of instructional events to produce a measurable consistent effect on a behaviour of each and every acceptable student. ”
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)
Philosophical Basis of Programme Instruction
Programmed instruction was imagined by Skinner as the full implementation of the scientific aims and premises in the realm of education. Programmed instruction was not formulated as just another teaching methodology, pedagogical philosophy, or educational implementation. Rather, it was the very embodiment of science in all aspects of the field of education. Programmed instruction breaks up the field of education into small, self-contained, manageable parts that it then logically sequences in a systematic manner. Ultimately, the goal is to control learning through measuring observable outcomes and through devising precise methodologies of teaching that are “guaranteed” to work (Skinner, 1958)–even relationships between students and teachers are codified and explained in terms of behavioral objectives and laws of communication and learning. In mechanical ways of learning, “communication conceived as the transmission of information from one place (the sender) to another place (the receiver) through a medium or channel”.
Determinism
Programmed instruction is thus grounded in assumptions of determinism (McDonald et al., 2005)–the view that we can predict future events (or behaviours, in the case of programmed instruction) based on current knowledge of “laws” that are “true.” According to McDonald et al. (2005), “Programmers believed that an effective instructional product was the sum of its constituent parts, and that if all the factors were presented in the correct order, students would succeed” . Laws of learning, according to Skinner and the proponents of programmed instruction, dictated that curricula be implemented by systematically dividing material into in small, logical, linearly-sequenced parts. McDonald wrote that the assumption of determinism manifested in programmed instruction is in the form of less responsibility for students. Because steps were so small (in order for learning to be “guaranteed”), students often got bored, motivation became a problem, and less “genuine exploration” occurred in classrooms .Further, this assumption implies that aptitude and skills are irrelevant to success in school. The scientific method, as applied to education in the form of programmed instruction, theoretically works each and every time, with all students.
Materialism
Programmed instruction is also grounded in the assumption of materialism .Materialism is the view that only observable things can be manipulated by scientific methods. Thus, all aspects of programmed instruction are cantered upon observable behaviour and specific content that can be broken up into learning objectives. Education is seen as a process that produces terminal outcomes in students. The implications of this assumption are that programmed instruction courses were often found to distort material in order to make it conform to a measurable format.
The theoretical underpinnings of science (and consequently, of programmed instruction) did not prove effective or practical as applied to education, and by the mid to late 1960s the movement had started to lose supporters. Many schools found that the rigid step-by-step process not only did not cater to student differences as claimed by theorists, but ignored them. The attempt to break down student behaviours into observable behaviour was initially theoretically promising and had much support from a world fascinated by new technologies and scientific developments.
Characteristics of Programmed Instruction
When discussing the underpinnings of Programmed Instruction it is easy to get bogged down in conflicting definitions of what the term means, which leads to disagreements as to when it first began, which leads into the arguments, efficacies and origins of particular concepts, and so forth. Since the work (and personality) of B. F. Skinner is included in the topic, the literature is further complicated by the visual array of misconceptions, misrepresentations, etc. of his work. Programmed Instruction, now a days is considered as a method of teaching in which the information to be learned is presented in discrete units, with a correct response to each unit required before the learner may advance to the next unit, a monitored, step-by-step teaching method in which a student must master one stage before moving on to the next.
Here are some major characteristics of programmed instruction;
- An interaction is emphasised between the learner and the programme in programmed learning.
- Each student progresses at his own pace without any threat of being exposed to any humiliation in a heterogeneous class
- Frequent response is required of the student.
- In a programmed material continuous evaluation is possible by the record of student’s response.
- The assumption about the learner is clearly stated in the programmed learning materials.
- The content and sequence of the frames are subjected to actual try out with students and are revised on the basis of data gathered by the programmer i. e “diagnostic feature”
- The objectives underlying programming are defined explicitly and in operational terms so that the terminal behaviour is made observable and measurable
- The strategy provides sufficient situation for teaching the student to make discriminations among range of possibilities and to reduce generalizations.
- The subject matter is broken down in to small steps called frames and arranged sequentially
- There is immediate confirmation of right answer or correction of wrong answers given by the learner’s i. e. “self-correcting feature.”
A program, however, is the actual instruction. The student’s success or failure depends on the program. Nearly all students are capable of learning when properly programed materials are made available. A program can be distinguished from a lesson plan or a book. A book is only a source of materials to which the student exposes himself. There is little or no predetermined interaction between the book and the reader in the form of required responses and feedback. A lesson plan is often a skeletal outline of materials and activities the teacher will use in teaching. The actual instruction is something related to but apart from the lesson outline .The programmed materials, as distinguished from programmed instruction, or the actual use of the materials are simply the educational materials which the students learn. A program accepts the responsibility for the management of the learning situation, the program tries to see to it that the student does learn, and it takes the blame for the student’s failure.
Principles of programmed learning
Researchers of programmed learning formulated five principles .According to behaviourist psychology, a learning effect is considered to be measured by the number of responses a learner makes under arranged conditions. Feedback should be given to correct responses in order to “reinforce” such response, and it was thought that such a process would require individual learning. The last principle; “Learner verification” is the most valuable contribution that behaviourist psychology has made to the pedagogy in terms of valuing an empirical approach. Such a standpoint is inherited in “Formative Evaluation” or “Feedback and Improvement” in an ID process.
Researchers of programmed learning formulated five principles.. According to behaviourist psychology, a learning effect is considered to be measured by the number of responses a learner makes under arranged conditions. Feedback should be given to correct responses in order to “reinforce” such response, and it was thought that such a process would require individual learning.
· Principle of small steps:
Set small steps in order to prevent a learner from stumbling as much as possible. When he/she makes a mistake, there is the risk of being labelled a failure. It is shown by experiments that even the dullest students can learn as effectively as the brightest students if the subject matter is presented to them in suitable small steps. When we divide the task to be learnt into very small steps, and ask the students to learn only one step at a time, then probably all the students will be able to learn one small step at a time and sequentially learn all the steps.
· Principle of activity responding:
The second psychological principle is that the students learn better and faster when they are actively participating in the teaching-learning process. To what extent a learner can understand is judged by making him/her answer questions. The extent of a learner’s understanding is ascertained from what is demonstrated in the responses. In our classroom teaching the teachers do ask a few questions and the students respond. But it is not possible for the teachers to ask all the students to respond at each small step. A teaching machine text or a programmed text contains a large number of questions-one question at each small step and the students respond actively. The principle of active responding is used for the programmed.
· Principle of reinforcement:
Every response even approximately correct must be reinforced immediately. Delayed reinforcement fails to work. This is possible only when a teacher has to teach only one student at a time. The most situation is when the teacher can cater to the needs of his students individually. But in classroom teaching this is hardly possible. No teacher, however efficient and sincere he may be, can reinforce each correct response of each of his students as soon as it is made in a classroom situation where he has to teach 40/50 students.
· Principle of self-pacing:
The programmed instruction is based on the basis assumption that learning take place effectively if the learner is allowed to learn at his own pace. Therefore, a good programme of the material always take care of the principles of self-pacing. A learner moves from one frame to another according to his own speed of learning.
· Principle of student-evaluation or student testing:
Continuous evaluation of the student and the learning process leads to better teaching-learning. In the programmed instruction, the learner has to leave the record of his responses because he is required to write a response for each frame on response sheet. This detailed record helps in revising the programmed.
Process of Programmed Instruction
Programmed Instruction is a process for the design and development of self-instructional materials. A program of instruction is simply a product of this process and is identified by the process, not by superficial characteristics of format of the product.
The process contains these steps:
1. Task analysis
2. Setting objectives
3. Analysis and design of instructional content
4. Developmental testing and revision
5. Field testing
6. Field administration
The process starts with the question of what you want the learner to be able to do, then analyses the factors that would prevent the learner from reaching the objective, establishes an evaluation procedure for determining whether he has reached the objective, and ends with the development of instructional materials designed to obtain the desired behaviour.
The process of analysis is probably the most important single aspect of programmed instruction. First there is the statement of the problem. The training problem must be separated from other aspects of the problem, and specific behaviours must be isolated and considered for the course. During the analysis, certain “system” or organizational problems relevant to the desired behaviour are identified. This makes it possible to teach the desired behaviour and hopefully, to control or eradicate those variables in the system
Writing and Revising a Program
Central to the roots of Programmed Instruction is the idea that programmers must decide what students should be to be able to do once they have completed the program. Generally, this involves some sort of activity analysis and specification of objectives.
Program writing has three major steps
A-Preparation
B-The actual writing
C- Try-out and revision
The Preparation
The Preparation of a program consists of five steps you should consider before you begin writing it:
A- Select a unit or topic
B- Prepare a content outline
C- Define the objectives in behavioural terms
D- Construct (and administer) a test of entering behaviour
E- Construct (and administer) a test of terminal behaviour
Select a unit or topic
The selection of a topic can be guided by several factors. First, select subject matter with which you are thoroughly familiar. Unfamiliarity will result in misleading and inaccurate materials and will interfere with your learning how to program the materials. Second restrict yourself to a very small area of subject matter. The tendency of the beginning programmer is to select too wide a topic. The development of a program and the administration of it to the student are usually very time consuming activities.
Prepare a content outline
This outline should cover all the material you plan to teach. It is frequently the product of a careful examination of a number of textbooks and reference sources. An experienced teacher also has the use of his notes, textbooks, and assignments he has used in conventional instruction. If you have not taught the material you are about to program, you should consult an experienced teacher who can supply knowledge, specific examples, and interesting illustrations which may be useful in your program. One of the chief criticism s of programed materials is that they have been published before adequate editing of the manuscript for accuracy and clarity of subject matter and presentation (Soles,1963). Occasionally an individual with some unpolished programing skills and with little knowledge of the subject matter has accepted the responsibility of writing a program. The results can be and have been disastrous. The chief advantage of the teacher as a programmer is that he can combine his knowledge of the subject matter with his new knowledge about programmed instruction.
Define the objectives in behavioural terms
The writing of objectives involves both task description and task analysis. Task description, is the description of terminal behaviour. Task analysis examines the component behaviours the student must acquire in the process of reaching the terminal behaviour. It is better to state your objective in general rather than in behavioural terms. The general statement is an instructional goal. You then analyse this goal by asking yourself what behaviours are needed to attain it. You must continue the analysis of behaviour until you have reached the probable level of entering behaviour.
Construct (and administer) a test of entering behaviour
The construction of this test requires you to determine the necessary prerequisite behaviour which you will recall but not provide instruction for in your program. The prerequisite behaviours are the bases for writing the items for the test of entering behaviour. If you administer such a test to your students early in the development of your program, the test results should indicate at what points your programming must begin. You should write several items for each entering behaviour to be certain that the student does not answer an item correctly by only making a lucky guess. In dealing with a group of students you may discover considerable variability in entering behaviour. One possible way of handling this problem is to develop a program with branches. The program can direct students with more adequate entering behaviour than other to skip the introductory frames of the program and to turn to the advanced frames.
Construct (and administer) a test of terminal behaviour
This test, based on your original task description, is used for performance assessment, the fourth component of the basic teaching model. The items should be scrambled and should not follow the order in which the terminal behaviours were acquired in the program. Administer the test to your students before they study the program. In this way you can discover whether any student have already acquired the behaviours your program teaches. Material which the student already knows should be deleted from the program. In the administration of your entering and terminal tests, the ideal result is that all students obtain a perfect score on the test of entering behaviour and obtain a zero score on the test of terminal behaviour.
The Actual Writing
The Actual Writing of a program consists of five steps you should consider:
A-Present the material frames.
B- Require active responding
C- Provide for confirmation or correction of response
D-Use prompts to guide student’s response
E-Provide careful sequencing of the frames
Present the material frames
A frame is a small segment of subject matter which calls forth particular student responses. As a programmer your task is to provide those stimuli necessary to evoke the student responses which must be acquired as steps toward the terminal behaviour. Not only a frame a unit of subject matter, such as a sentence or paragraph of a chapter, but also it is constructed to call forth particulars and eventually, specific terminal behaviours. Not only is a frame a unit of subject matter, such as a sentence or paragraph of a chapter, but also it is constructed to call forth particular responses and, eventually, specific terminal behaviours. There are four essential parts of a frame; the stimulus and the stimulus context; the cues or prompts necessary to produce the response reliably; the response or responses the stimulus evokes; and enrichment material which makes the frame more readable or interesting or which recalls previously learned materials to facilitate student response. It is found that short steps are more effective than large steps for initial learning, and the progressive lengthening of steps leads to the best performance on the test of terminal behaviour.
Require active responding
An necessary part of the frame is the response the student is asked to make . For the construction of frames, the Stuart Margulies critical response rule can be used. The student can be expected to know only that portion of the material to which he has responded correctly. He cannot be expected to learn information which he does not use in making an immediate response.
It is important that the student be required to make the critical response. Holland (1960) altered the normal version of a program by choosing different response words which had little relationship with the critical content and which could be supplied by observing trivial cues. The absence of errors made during the study of a program can mislead the programmer into believing that the students are learning more than they are. By making trivial responses they are learning very little.
If you analyse the terminal behaviour, you will be able to indicate clearly the critical responses the student should make. The responses in the frame always depend on some important part of the subject matter, such as understanding a new illustration, recognizing important details of the subject matter, or acquiring a new term.
The location of the response blank may also be a source of difficulty. Robert Horn (1963, p.4) argued that the blank should appear a close to the end of the frame as possible because this position spares the student the awkwardness of flipping his eyes back and forth, “skidding around inside frame after frame looking for the relevant material.” It is often helpful at first to write the frame in question form because the question focuses the attention on the form of the required response. It is, of course, entirely permissible that a frame remain in question form. And it is sometimes desirable to use multiple-choice alternatives rather than fill-in blanks.
Weather the response programmed material should be OVERT or COVERT has been the subject of considerable discussion. Unfortunately, these terms have shifted in meaning and “one man’s overt is frequently another man’s covert”. Actually in overt response the students wrote down their answers on sheet of paper,, while in covert response students mentally composed a response to each blank in the frame before turning the page to the correct answer. Although the findings on the relative benefits of overt and covert responding have not always been consistent. Richard Anderson (1967) points to two conclusions which have considerable empirical support:
(a) Overt responses facilitate learning when the responses are relevant to the content of the lesson,
(b) Overt responses should be required in the learning of unfamiliar and technical terms.
The reason overt responding facilitate learning is not clear at present. Ernest Rothkopf (1966) suggests that test questions/ frames off a program control what he calls ‘ Mathemagenic Behaviour’- covert and overt behaviours of the student in the instructional situations which give birth to learning. Mathemagenic behaviours include reading, asking questions, inspecting an object, keeping the face oriented toward the teacher, and mentally reviewing a recently seen motion picture. They also include looking out of the classroom window, yawning, turning the pages of a textbook without reading, writing notes to a student in a neighbouring seat, and sleeping either in class or either in a library carrel. Some of these behaviours, you can see, are quite unrelated to the achievement of instructional objectives. If it were possible, however, to control mathemagenic behaviours, the control could facilitate learning. Such control can be obtained through the insertions of questions in reading passage.
Provide for confirmation or correction of student responses
You have seen in the preceding examples of frames that the correct response to the frame always appears. Providing the correct response, with which the students compares his own response, has been a standard characteristic of programmed instruction. When the student discovers that his response is correct, he obtains confirmation; when it is incorrect, he receives correction. The practical necessity or efficiency of immediate confirmation has never been adequately studied. It does appear that early programmers failed to distinguish between the motivational and informational aspects of immediate knowledge of results.
It is suggested that supplying the correct response may be more important later than earlier in the program, when most of the prompts for the correct responses are withdrawn. The tight sequencing of program frames, so that one frame interlocks with those which precede and follow it, provides a source of informational feedback apart form that provides by the printed answers.
Use prompts to guide Student Response
Prompts are cues provided in the program frame to guide the student to the correct response. They are supplementary stimuli in that they are added to a frame to make the frame easier, but are not sufficient in themselves to produce the response.
Prompts have two basic purposes: They guide the student to the correct response without over controlling his behaviour, and they prevent the student from making unnecessary errors. These purposes suggests that you must avoid both over prompting and under prompting in writing your frames. A common source of over prompting is the COPYING FRAME, in which the student is asked to make a response given in the frame. In it the student need only copy the important word to respond correctly. The copying frame is a means for producing the response the first time and is useful as an introductory frame. Since it displays the full response, however, it is not a form of prompting. The main disadvantage is that the student can make correct verbatim responses which he conceptually does not understand. The use of copying frame tends to make a program dull and reduce the amount of student learning. It is not uncommon that students respond correctly to all the frames in a program and still fail to answer correctly to the test of terminal behaviour. Such a result is usually the result of over prompting and of the liberal use of copying frames.
The use of prompts to guide student responses requires you to withdraw these prompts so that the student can eventually achieve the terminal behaviour without supporting cues.
Provide careful Sequencing of the Frames
The sequence, or order, in which your frames appear depends upon two factors: the description and analysis of the behaviours your program intends to teach, and the conditions essential for the learning required by the various tasks.
It is even possible to develop frames which engage the student in problem solving and discovery learning. Kersh(1964) developed a programmed discovery procedure which prescribed conditions under which the student would engage in searching behaviour and which specified occasions for the teacher to give verbal approval to the student for the searching behaviour he exhibited as he progressed through the program.
All the fundamental learning conditions-discrimination, generalization, contiguity, practice and reinforcement- can be embodied in the frame sequences, of course, can also provide for review and testing whenever these are necessary. One of the major advantages for educational psychologists in studying programmed instruction is the freedom allowed in manipulating the fundamental learning conditions.
Tryout and Revision
We have divided the third stage of program development into three steps:
1-Develop the first draft of the program while working closely with your students.
2-Edit the program on the basis of the original try-out with these students.
3-Revise the program on the basis of terminal test performance and student responses to the program frames.
Develop the first draft of the program-
At this stage you should not try to produce highly polished frames. Thomas Gilbert suggests that you work closely with each student in this stage of program development. Find out where the student makes his mistakes and what you can do about it. Revise the frames or frame sequence until the student learns from them what he is supposed to learn. The first tryout should occur before developing the program very far.
Edit the program
The following suggestions can be taken care of while editing the program:
- Frames should be written clearly in good language
- What is said should be correct
- The response required of the student should be relevant to the purpose of the frame. If the student is to learn to do something, you should make him do it rather than talk about it
- If you use a multiple-choice items, the alternatives should be feasible answers
- Frames should contain sufficient context to make clear what is being presented and what is wanted
- You should not include more points than the student can respond to in one frame
- You should eliminate irrelevant material
- In concept teaching, you should provide a representative sample of illustrations and provide for negative examples as well
- You should make liberal use of thematic prompts and sparing use of formal prompts
- You should make the frames toward mastery as large as the student can reasonably be expected to handle. Let testing tell you when the step is too large
- The testing should tell you how much practice and prompting to provide
Try out and revise
After this editing you have a fledgling program to try out, It should be neatly typed and carefully duplicated. You will need about fifteen to forty or more students- but use as many/as few as you have when you administer your program this time, resist any impulse to intervene. The program must now assume the full instructional responsibility. You can supply the student with paper which bears numbered blanks. On these they can check the frames which give them difficulty and give a description of the difficulty. You can also record any questions they ask while studying the program. After finishing the program the students should take the test of terminal behavior. The students’ response records will reveal which frames were missed. From these records you an make a list of common errors. If you group the items of the test by sub units, you can also determine which sections of the program were ineffective. High error rates on particular frames or particular sections indicate a need for revision. The conventional standard has been the 10 percent error rate. Finally, if you require the students to annotate their copies of the program, their comments can also guide your revision.
Advantages of Programmed Instruction.
Following are the advantages of this teaching strategy
- Immediate confirmation of the results provides reinforcement to the learners and encourages the learners to proceed further. Feedback is provided to wrong answers, so that learner is able to develop mastery over the content.
- It may be less complicated to keep materials in current Programmed Instruction unit than it is to update in a textbook.
- Learning by doing maxim of teaching is followed to involve learners in the learning process.
- Material can be exchanged from country to country and from state to state, giving flexibility and variety to extension offering.
- Programmed Materials can be prepared for and adapted to fit almost any local situation related to nationality, economic or cultural variations in a community.
- Students are exposed only to correct responses, therefore, possibility to commit errors in reduced.
- The main emphasis is on individual differences and students’ involvement. Learners will work individually.
- There is not fixed time interval for learning. Students may learn at their own pace. Students can proceed at their own pace and at time convenient to them. A slow learner is not embarrassed.
- Those who setup programmed instruction units may be motivated to plan their efforts more deliberately and more thoroughly than with traditional teaching.
Disadvantages of Programmed Instruction
Programmed Instruction has disadvantage too, among them are-
v In absence of the teacher, students may spoil the disciplinary tone of the class, or they will be helpless when any problem arises.
v Motivation is necessary for students, whether they’re staff members or layman, to complete units of programmed instruction. It may be that job promotion in their own organization would be sufficient enticement. Possibly an item in the individual personnel record would motivate him to complete a unit.
v Only cognitive objectives can be achieved. There is no chance for students’ creativity, their responses are highly structured.
v Programmed Instruction done on an individual basis at student’s home or offices would likely have to be limited to the linear type. While this could be effective, it may not have the potential that more sophisticated computers would have.
v The extension teacher must keep in touch with their students working on units and let them know he’s interested in progress and keeping in touch. This may be difficult to do in some cases, like in case of high rate of competition.
v The preparation of Programmed Instruction material is time demanding, many hours are usually required to produce a unit. Due to tight schedule of time table, students cannot be left to learn at their own pace. It would be very difficult to learn the content the subject matter in a limited period of time.
v The problem of teacher motivation, one of the human factors in programmed learning, must be given attention if this method is to succeed.
v The technique may be new to the particular students and they may not complete units satisfactorily because they don’t adequately understand Programmed Instruction.
Suggestion for this Teaching Strategy
1. A programmer should have thorough knowledge of the content and technique of content analysis.
2. This strategy should be used as a supplementary device for remedial teaching in the class room.
3. It should be used in distance education or continuing education programs where no rigid time table is applied.
4. If no at a primary level or higher level of education, this strategy may be useful at secondary level of education where many new subjects are introduced in the curriculum and they create problems in learning.
If applied in classroom teaching, teacher should be present in the class. He can maintain discipline in the class and help in eradicating the difficulties of the learners. Personal touch of the teacher can be more fruitful and effective in student’s learning.
Probably no single movement has impacted the field of instructional design and technology than Programmed Instruction. It spawned widespread interest, research; then it was placed as a component within the larger systems movement and, was largely forgotten. In many ways, the arguments and misconceptions of the “golden age” of Programmed Instruction over its conceptual and theoretical underpinnings have had a profound effect on the research and practice of our , past, present and future.
To conclude we can say that the Programs are normally validated as part of the development process to ensure reliable, replicable learning results that is they are “automatic and guaranteed.” They are developed to meet specific needs since the process usually begins with a needs assessment. Programming provides for adaptation of instruction to the characteristics and capabilities of individual users.
Users can usually proceed at their own rate of learning. This avoids unfair comparisons with other users. Users are required to be active participants in the program, engaging in learning activities rather than passively receiving information. Programs can be sequenced to match the information processing requirements of the task to the structure of the content.
Different sequences or delivery strategies can be used to meet the same objectives allowing for further adaptation. The reinforcement resulting from the completion of a set of frames leaves the user with a sense of accomplishment or success, which in turn increases the motivation to learn. All or parts of the program can be repeated or restudied as required. Learning may be accomplished at any convenient time or place in many formats. Programs can be used without supervision. Self-teaching guides are common and effective. Knowledge is usually gained more quickly than with traditional instruction.
A wide variety of media or display devices can be employed to deliver the programs. PI materials provide flexibility in arranging the user’s work load, and they are logistically easy to administer. PI materials are well suited to many kinds of learning tasks and learning models. The feedback is continuous throughout the learning process. Slow learners do not become lost and discouraged as the material becomes more complex and detailed.
The highly structured nature can help users move well beyond their normal level of progress. Reduces need for large instructional staff .Does not require special facilities or equipment. Content can be easily tailored to specific jobs or vocational needs.
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