The Personalized System of Instruction: Review and Applications to Distance Education

Grant, Lyle K.; Spencer, Robert E.

doi:10.19173/irrodl.v4i2.152

Cited by 39 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Historically, applications of behavior analysis in higher education (Buskist, Cush & DeGrandpre, 1991;Grant & Spencer, 2003;Johnson & Ruskin, 1977) have made use of mastery criterion on unit quizzes in order to improve students' final exam performance. A disadvantage of this approach is that students find out whether they have met the mastery criterion or are required to restudy the material only after they have taken a quiz.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Fixed-Item and Response-Sensitive Versions of an Online Tutorial

Grant

Courtoreille

2007

Psychol Rec

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This study is a comparison of 2 versions of an internet-based tutorial that teaches the behavior-analysis concept of positive reinforcement. A fixed-item group of students studied a version of the tutorial that included 14 interactive examples and nonexamples of the concept. A response-sensitive group of students studied a different version of the tutorial in which, after an initial round of 10 example and nonexample items, the computer readministered item types the students had answered incorrectly until the students responded correctly to each of 5 example and 5 nonexample item subtypes. A control group studied an online tutorial in biological psychology. Students in all 3 groups took a 10-item pretest and posttest over positive reinforcement. An analysis of the students' change scores indicated that the students learned more using the response-sensitive tutorial than the fixed-item tutorial. Scores of students using both versions of the tutorial were superior to those of the control group. Students using the response-sensitive and fixed-item tutorials required the same amount of study time. Students rated both versions of the positive reinforcement tutorial favorably on several dimensions.Online tutorials and demonstrations have become widely available to educators as a source of computer-based instructional materials (e.g., Davidson, 2004;Krantz, 2004; National institutes of Health, 2004). These resources provide the advantages of computer-based instruction (Alessi & Trollip, 2001;Kulik, 1986;Kulik & Kulik, 1991) to online users at no cost beyond internet access charges. Many of these online tutorials are not interactive because there is no opportunity to respond to the content and receive guidance or feedback (Alessi & Trollip, 2001). When opportunities for interaction are provided, tutorial exercises often consist of a fixed number of items or problems that the students answer. This use of a fixed number of items does not give students an opportunity for Please address correspondence concerning this manuscript to Lyle K. Grant, Psychology Centre, Athabasca University, 1 University Drive, Athabasca, Alberta, Canada, T9S 3A3. (E-mail: lyle@athabascau.ca). We thank Dean Mah for his assistance with the computer programming for this study.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Fixed-Item and Response-Sensitive Versions of an Online Tutorial

Grant

Courtoreille

2007

Psychol Rec

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“…However, another form of mastery learning developed by Keller (1968), called Personal System of Instruction, is a student-paced system, where the primary source of instruction is learning materials, so students can take course units at any time that suits them (Grant and Spencer 2003;Keller 1968, p. 79). Online modules can usefully contribute to this pedagogy.…”

Section: Student-driven Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Supporting law students’ skills development online – a strategy to improve skills and reduce student stress?

Hewitt

Stubbs

2017

Research in Learning Technology

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Law students internationally suffer from a high level of psychological distress compared with the general and student populations, and anecdotal evidence suggests that students developing skills without adequate support experience significant stress and anxiety. This article considers an initiative at one Australian law school to develop a degree-wide structured online skills development programme as a means to both improve student skills acquisition and reduce student stress. The project implements, through the use of learning technology, the principles proposed by McKinney for making small changes to law school teaching, informed by self-efficacy theory, which can have powerful results.

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“…The situation only grew worse during the 1980s, as the concern about productivity transformed into a broader discourse about “national competitiveness.” Engineering research received greater attention as the necessary means for transitioning to a “high tech” economy. At UT Austin, as elsewhere, it became less fashionable for engineering faculty to express a strong interest in teaching (Buskist, Cush, & DeGrandpre, ; Grant & Spencer, ).…”

Section: The Challenge Of Sustaining a Reform Effortmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bringing radical behaviorism to revolutionary Brazil and back: Fred Keller's Personalized System of Instruction and Cold War engineering education

Akera

2017

J History Behavioral Science

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This article traces the shifting epistemic commitments of Fred S. Keller and his behaviorist colleagues during their application of Skinnerian radical behaviorism to higher education pedagogy. Building on prior work by Alexandra Rutherford and her focus on the successive adaptation of Skinnerian behaviorism during its successive applications, this study utilizes sociologist of science Karin Knorr Cetina's concept of epistemic cultures to more precisely trace the changes in the epistemic commitments of a group of radical behaviorists as they shifted their focus to applied behavioral analysis. The story revolves around a self-paced system of instruction known as the Personalized System of Instruction, or PSI, which utilized behaviorist principles to accelerate learning within the classroom. Unlike Skinner's entry into education, and his focus on educational technologies, Keller developed a mastery-based approach to instruction that utilized generalized reinforcers to cultivate higher-order learning behaviors. As it happens, the story also unfolds across a rather fantastic political terrain: PSI originated in the context of Brazilian revolutionary history, but circulated widely in the U.S. amidst Cold War concerns about an engineering manpower(sic) crisis. This study also presents us with an opportunity to test Knorr Cetina's conjecture about the possible use of a focus on epistemic cultures in addressing a classic problem in the sociology of science, namely unpacking the relationship between knowledge and its social context. Ultimately, however, this study complements another historical case study in applied behavioral analysis, where a difference in outcome helps to lay out the range of possible shifts in the epistemic commitments of radical behaviorists who entered different domains of application. The case study also has some practical implications for those creating distance learning environments today, which are briefly explored in the conclusion.

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The Personalized System of Instruction: Review and Applications to Distance Education

Cited by 39 publications

References 39 publications

Comparison of Fixed-Item and Response-Sensitive Versions of an Online Tutorial

Comparison of Fixed-Item and Response-Sensitive Versions of an Online Tutorial

Supporting law students’ skills development online – a strategy to improve skills and reduce student stress?

Bringing radical behaviorism to revolutionary Brazil and back: Fred Keller's Personalized System of Instruction and Cold War engineering education

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