A Preliminary Evaluation of Programmed Instruction with Students of High Ability
Russell N. Cassel, William L. Ullom · Psychological Reports · 1962
This study provided a preliminary assessment of use of an automated technique. The course, a program in computer mathematics, was presented by an automatic tutoring to a selected group of 9thand 12th-grade students of high ability in the Lompoc, California, secondary schools. The was the AutoTutor Mark 1I.l The materials were prepared using the branching or programming technique described by Crowder ( 3 ) . Student attitudes toward automated instruction also were evaluated. METHOD The AutoTutor Mark I1 is a semi-random access, film-projecting, automatic tutoring device ( teaching machine ) . Exposure of material is accomplished by means of back-projection onto a 9X 12-in. viewing screen. The programmed material had been carefully sequenced into small steps or increments. A step or was exposed along with a multiplechoice question to test the student's understanding of the point presented. The student selected his answers by pressing the appropriate one of nine selector buttons to the right of the viewing screen. If he selected the correct answer, a new frame confirmed the accuracy of his response, presented a new unit of information and a question on the new information. When a wrong answer was selected, different material appeared. The nature of the error was explained, a simpler explanation of the point being taught was presented, and the student was then redirected to the original question to be tested again. Thus, immediate knowledge of results was provided for each response by the student. In some cases, the selection of a wrong answer resulted in the student's being directed through a sub-sequence which, in a series of frames, reviewed appropriate principles and concepts. The student was then returned to the main scream of the program. In other words, the student's responses determined the path followed through the material, as well as the amount of material seen. Automatic tutoring with intrinsic programming as used in this study is designed to: organize the learning material into small or natural steps, leading the learner from the simple to the more complex; compel student participation, eliciting active, as opposed to passive, learning conditions; provide immediate knowledge of results; provide drill whenever the need is indicated by the stu-