Any instructional procedure is useful which stimulates the interest of the student and produces desirable activity leading to educational accomplishment and growth. Although the lecture method, as used in colleges and universities, has not been shown to be an ineffective method of instruction, even with large groups, 13 many instructors, especially in the social sciences, like to supplement lectures with recitation or student-instructor discussions or avoid lectures as much as possible. Large enrollments in basic college courses pretty much preclude discussion or recitation methods whose aim is extensive student participation.This study deals with the investigation of two interrelated instructional devices employed to improve student achievement in a lecture course in Government, where classes number from one hundred to two hundred. To the regular three one-hour lecture sessions are added several hour-long discussion sessions, attendance at any of which is optional on the part of the student. The other device is a program of weekly quizzes over course material, where results of such testing are not used in determining the course grade. Frequent measurement is expected to result in steadier application of the individual to the task at hand, this instructional function of measurement being best served when divorced from the regular process of achievement evaluation.There is some objective evidence that frequent testing in the classroom results in better achievement. 412 Knowledge of results, a probable outcome of frequent testing, has also been shown to aid learning.

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The Corporate History was begun in September 1982 and completed in March 1983. The purpose of this foreword is to note the important scientific developments and progress that have taken place during the four-and-a-halfyear interval between the writing and publication.

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