Programmed Instruction as an Alternative Learning Scheme
By Bernardo A. Gargabite, EPS-1
Although first ideas on instruction automation can be tracked to even earlier years, first notable steps in programmed instruction were taken by Sidney Pressey in the 1920s and further developed by Burrhus Skinner in the mid-1950s. In Pressey's words, the teacher is burdened by such routine of drill and information-fixing but a mechanical device could be used to ”lift from her shoulders as much as possible of this burden and make her free for those inspirational and thought-stimulating activities which are, presumably, the real function of the teacher.
Pressey's ideas were not so well received in the public and due to a lack of financial means he soon had to give up further research, yet in the 1950s his ideas were further developed by Skinner, who believed he can successfully apply operant conditioning not only to animal, but also to human learning.
Skinner's ideas for improving the teaching/learning process were orientated mostly on two facts: first, that learners learn at different speeds, and second, that, in accordance with at the time dominant stimulus-response learning theories, the reinforcement must closely follow the displayed behavior. This, however is not the case in school settings, where the learners are forced to follow the lecturers speed of information sharing and usually receive delayed reinforcement as the teacher usually needs at least a day to correct their assignments.
According to Skinner, in order to achieve efficient mathematical behavior, during the first four years of education, about 50000 reinforcements would be necessary, but in a classroom situation a learner could only get a few thousands of them. In Skinner's words, ”The simple fact is that, as a mere reinforcing mechanism, the teacher is out of date.”
Since employing a teacher or tutor for every learner would solve the problem, but would be virtually impossible, Skinner suggested and worked on introducing learning machines, on which each learner could work at his own pace and receive direct reinforcement after solving a task correctly.
The basic principle of programmed instruction for Skinner, aside from reinforcement was behavior shaping - forming desired behavior through a number of small stimulus-response learning sessions. By making each successive step as small as possible, the frequency of reinforcement can be raised to a maximum, while the possibly aversive consequences of being wrong are reduced to a minimum.
Learning from programmed instruction on a learning machine usually includes: a carefully designed course with predefined sequence of units, very small units delivering only a small amount of new information so it is easily understandable (shaping),immediate answer after filling in the missing information (reinforcement)moving on to the next unit based on the correctness of the given answer.
Like any communication, the program must be directed to the individual. In an intrinsic or branching program, each frame presents more text than the average linear frame. After reading, the user responds to an adjunct question, usually in a multiple-option format. Unlike Pressey's auto-instructional approach, which provides only confirmation of the correctness or incorrectness of that response, branching style optional choices lead users to optional forms of feedback, most of which is corrective. If the user makes a correct response, the program asserts the reasons why she or he was correct and moves on to new material. If an incorrect response is made, the program, at the very least, informs the user that an error was made and then branches the user back to the previous frame for another try.
The primary purpose of feedback" is to determine whether the communication was successful, in order that corrective steps be taken." (Crowder 288) Depending upon the complexity of the error committed, the programE. may initiate a remedial sequence of instruction, a practice designed to eliminate the learning deficiency. Branching instruction adapts the sequence of the program to a limited degree to fit the prior learning and processing capabilities of the user. The term intrinsic refers to the fact that all program options are intrinsic to the program and, therefore, not dependent on any external programming device. This approach is especially adapted to machine presentation, which provides for greater levels of adaptability. Branching texts tend to be large and confusing, especially when users try to access them in a manual way.
In the elementary and secondary schools setting the following must be taken into serious con siderations namely the following core elements: Contents are broken down into pieces of instructions called frames. A frame contains statements and questions, learners then read the frame and immediately answer a question about the frame, there is an immediate feedback about the correctness of the frame , instruction is self-paced and learners are active.
At the end of the day what matters is the learning acquired by the pupils and students. In this time of a very fast phase introduction of technology, there is a tendency that learners could be either confused or become entangled in too much bombardment of new ideas they never imagined before. The only thing the stakeholders of education must do is to guide these young minds to appreciate these latest developments and utilized them to their respective academic advancement in aproper perspective and positive attitude towards the future.
By Bernardo A. Gargabite, EPS-1
Although first ideas on instruction automation can be tracked to even earlier years, first notable steps in programmed instruction were taken by Sidney Pressey in the 1920s and further developed by Burrhus Skinner in the mid-1950s. In Pressey's words, the teacher is burdened by such routine of drill and information-fixing but a mechanical device could be used to ”lift from her shoulders as much as possible of this burden and make her free for those inspirational and thought-stimulating activities which are, presumably, the real function of the teacher.
Pressey's ideas were not so well received in the public and due to a lack of financial means he soon had to give up further research, yet in the 1950s his ideas were further developed by Skinner, who believed he can successfully apply operant conditioning not only to animal, but also to human learning.
Skinner's ideas for improving the teaching/learning process were orientated mostly on two facts: first, that learners learn at different speeds, and second, that, in accordance with at the time dominant stimulus-response learning theories, the reinforcement must closely follow the displayed behavior. This, however is not the case in school settings, where the learners are forced to follow the lecturers speed of information sharing and usually receive delayed reinforcement as the teacher usually needs at least a day to correct their assignments.
According to Skinner, in order to achieve efficient mathematical behavior, during the first four years of education, about 50000 reinforcements would be necessary, but in a classroom situation a learner could only get a few thousands of them. In Skinner's words, ”The simple fact is that, as a mere reinforcing mechanism, the teacher is out of date.”
Since employing a teacher or tutor for every learner would solve the problem, but would be virtually impossible, Skinner suggested and worked on introducing learning machines, on which each learner could work at his own pace and receive direct reinforcement after solving a task correctly.
The basic principle of programmed instruction for Skinner, aside from reinforcement was behavior shaping - forming desired behavior through a number of small stimulus-response learning sessions. By making each successive step as small as possible, the frequency of reinforcement can be raised to a maximum, while the possibly aversive consequences of being wrong are reduced to a minimum.
Learning from programmed instruction on a learning machine usually includes: a carefully designed course with predefined sequence of units, very small units delivering only a small amount of new information so it is easily understandable (shaping),immediate answer after filling in the missing information (reinforcement)moving on to the next unit based on the correctness of the given answer.
Like any communication, the program must be directed to the individual. In an intrinsic or branching program, each frame presents more text than the average linear frame. After reading, the user responds to an adjunct question, usually in a multiple-option format. Unlike Pressey's auto-instructional approach, which provides only confirmation of the correctness or incorrectness of that response, branching style optional choices lead users to optional forms of feedback, most of which is corrective. If the user makes a correct response, the program asserts the reasons why she or he was correct and moves on to new material. If an incorrect response is made, the program, at the very least, informs the user that an error was made and then branches the user back to the previous frame for another try.
The primary purpose of feedback" is to determine whether the communication was successful, in order that corrective steps be taken." (Crowder 288) Depending upon the complexity of the error committed, the programE. may initiate a remedial sequence of instruction, a practice designed to eliminate the learning deficiency. Branching instruction adapts the sequence of the program to a limited degree to fit the prior learning and processing capabilities of the user. The term intrinsic refers to the fact that all program options are intrinsic to the program and, therefore, not dependent on any external programming device. This approach is especially adapted to machine presentation, which provides for greater levels of adaptability. Branching texts tend to be large and confusing, especially when users try to access them in a manual way.
In the elementary and secondary schools setting the following must be taken into serious con siderations namely the following core elements: Contents are broken down into pieces of instructions called frames. A frame contains statements and questions, learners then read the frame and immediately answer a question about the frame, there is an immediate feedback about the correctness of the frame , instruction is self-paced and learners are active.
At the end of the day what matters is the learning acquired by the pupils and students. In this time of a very fast phase introduction of technology, there is a tendency that learners could be either confused or become entangled in too much bombardment of new ideas they never imagined before. The only thing the stakeholders of education must do is to guide these young minds to appreciate these latest developments and utilized them to their respective academic advancement in aproper perspective and positive attitude towards the future.