Programmed Learning in Great Britain
Rachel Lamb · Audio-Visual Media · 1968
Programmed learning of course came to Great Britain from the United States of America and we must acknowledge our debt to the great American pioneers in this field. Programmed learning involves the presentation of small amounts of information in logical and ordered sequences. The student takes an active part in the learning process by answering questions and proving his understanding of the sequences or frames, as the individual pieces of information are termed. A most important part of the system is what amounts to a Pavlovian stimulus-response-reward pattern. That is, the student is given his answer immediately, and not the week after his essay has been collected and subsequently marked. Programmes may be presented in many ways, by books, on cards, on sheets of paper, on tape, on film, and through the media of teaching machines. It is the programme which is the teaching/learning device, not the machine.