Hello World!
Now that's out of the way, the purpose of this week's entry is to reflect on two methods of individualized instruction, "The Keller Plan/PSI method" and "The Audio-Tutorial System." Both of these methods were pioneered in the 1960s, both were influenced by the work of B.F. Skinner, and both attempted to break out of the traditional lecture mold of college courses.
As soon as I heard the name "Skinner," I immediately thought both of these types of programs would be full of drill and reinforcement. As I would find out this isn't too far off base, but that doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. Both methods resulted from a desire to help increase student achievement which was apparently not up to standards even in the good ole days of the 60's. This leaves me thinking everything MUST, have gone downhill since the 50's...
As noted before, both programs are methods that stress individualized instruction and from the readings they both seem to be very labor intensive from the teacher planning standpoint in classes. Although, both programs seemed to use proctors or graduate students to facilitate the programs so I suspect both methods would benefit largely from the use of Web 2.0 tools in education. Discussion forums, blogging/commenting etc in the case of PSI and online grading systems for both to analyze the completion of learning outcomes.
The thing that struck me most about these courses is that although they are both methods of individualizing instruction, they don't seem to differ much from student to student. For some reason, I have this idea that individualizing instruction means creating personalized courses based on student needs. Like you would give the student an inventory then craft lessons based on their strengths. I didn't see exactly where this happened in either of the methods. You did however get a variety of methods at least in the "AT" system with the laboratory activities.
As far as effectiveness, the PSI method was rated as being one of the most effective methods to support e-Learning and this didn't surprise me after reading about it. This method really struck me as being very "Big Brother-esq" as the students seemed to be highly supervised with frequent interaction between students and proctors. From my own experience, when you have someone giving you constant feedback you tend to do better work. Although, I suspect many people take online classes to lessen such contact.
As far as applying either of these models today, they both seem to go against much of the current philosophy of education, Constructivism. Both methods are big on crafting outcomes, then testing, teaching, testing, review weak objectives, test again ... but this a tried and true method of learning materials.
As mentioned above, technology could be of huge benefit to these styles of teaching. Today computers can do much of the grade work and even provide a lot of feedback. Building courses in this manner would be pretty easy since it's a lot like the drill and kill style tutorial systems already being used by many schools for review and additional practice to help raise standardized test scores. A basic flash quiz, with some positive reinforcement thrown in for correct answers and you'd be on your way.
Hey Charles-
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the post and agree with your breakdown of both methods. I think perhaps the most important point you make is how these models appear in the highstakes testing model in our k12 schools.
While both of these methods may have a place in some subjects or units, I'm not sure if either method would promote critical thinking, creativity or curiosity about learning. In addition while technology would assist in both methods, I wonder if there is a method/theory that technology would not aide.
I agree with you, I am also of the Constructivism school of thought, encouraging individualized discover and reflection, but I do see both the PSI and AT approach to work along side other instruction - as a "boost" so to speak to aid students that are struggling or need to play catch up.
ReplyDeleteI agree that PSI is one of the most effective methods to support eLearning - I do think that PSI is the precursor to the current online learning theories and that using PSI and expanding it to include the new web technologies would be a good way to enhance classroom training or create a solid stand-alone module, especially if you included the community building aspects we use in our online classes.
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ReplyDeleteHi Charles,
ReplyDeleteGreat job bringing in some of the learning theories and assumptions these approaches are based on as well as reflecting on how difficult it might be for a teacher to implement these approaches. As we turn to creating a module based on each set of approaches, time and effort for designing and implementing the modules will be an important consideration!
Biljana