A Workshop in Programmed Instruction and Programming
Robert E. Silverman, Ira S. Cohen · Psychological Reports · 1962
Although the role of the mechanical device in programmed learning is controversial, almost all workers in this field agree that progress in programmed instruction can come only wich the production of adequate programs. For this purpose trained programmers are required. However, there are very few persons with the special combination of skills and training that seem germane to program construction. In fact, the requisite skills have never been clearly delineated. Furthermore, there are few, if any, well established techniques for training programmers or for selecting suitable candidates for training. Discussions about selection usually raise several questions. Should programmers be drawn from the ranks of teachers or from subject matter experts? Should psychologists have the primary responsibility for programming? There has been very little systematic discussion about the best methods of training, but we should not be surprised to see many questions about training procedures raised in the near future. While the problem of training and selection is still in a primitive stage, any information based on experience should be useful to potential training groups and to investigators interested in the basic skills of programming. With this in mind, the following report of a two-week training workshop in programming is presented. The purpose of the workshop was to establish an interest in programming and to shape programming skills. Our goals were to assist subject matter experts who were also teachers: (1) to acquire the verbal behavior dealing wich the fundamental principles underlying the programmed instruction movement; and ( 2 ) to evoke and reinforce the behavior of frame writing and program construction. Our goals were couched in behavioral terms and our ultimate criteria were the written programs produced by the participants. In very specific terms, it was our purpose to have each participant construct, test, and rewrite a unit of approximately 100 frames. The criteria are significant since they reaffirm the emphasis placed on actual program const~ct ioa . A substantial amount of time was spent in exposing the workshop participants to the facts and suppositions of reinforcement theory, but this orientation in the psychology of learning was always closely related to program writing. In dealing with learning, we referred often to the proposition that the animal laboratory can provide a basic model for a tech-