Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
It is perhaps obvious that high-achieving students will apply effective study tactics to
their own behavior management during learning (Schunk, 2000), and there is growing
evidence that self-regulated learning styles can be acquired, by appropriate teacher-student
interactions, even in grade school (Perry et al., 2002). However, programmed instruction
approaches, in which the learning history is controlled, may also benefit novitiate students,
in that they provide public conceptualizations of the reinforcement contingencies that
account for progressive development of a complex repertoire or at least of a repertoire
displaying many new components (Ferster & Perrott, 1968). It is rare, however, that the
analysis of programmed instruction has been approached from the perspective of providing
an occasion for the investigation of a learner's interactive behavioral history during learning.
The individual and classroom observations reported in this chapter, then, analyzed the
repeated acquisition of performance on a programmed instruction tutoring system and the
application of such a strategy in the classroom. It is our position that programmed instruction
approaches are well suited for the design of an instructional system, when the teaching
objective is to achieve a student's documented mastery of understanding and writing a simple
Java computer program. This experience sets the occasion for a student's advanced learning
with traditional formats of instructional delivery.
The classroom self-reported data indicate that the students felt good about themselves
after using the tutor. The increase in students' self-reports of confidence in using a set of
Java symbols shows the dynamic changes in a learning context. The importance of these
contextual changes has been recognized as contributing to the effectiveness of automated
instructional systems (Tennyson, 1999). These ratings of confidence are similar to task-
specific self-efficacy measures used in other studies of computer-related training (e.g.,
Potosky, 2002). Importantly, Noncompleters were identified in the present study by relatively
lower self-efficacy, in comparison to Completers, prior to using the tutoring system.
Moreover, all students gave favorable ratings on the functionality of the interfaces and on
the value of the tutor in learning Java. Despite the repetition and enforced learning discipline
associated with using the tutor, students are apparently willing to move through a rigorous
training experience when the outcome is a desired level of understanding and skill regarding
an Applet. An important by-product of acquiring such skill, then, is an enhancement in self-
efficacy (Bandura, 1991).
The analysis also suggests the potential benefits of repetition and step-wise learning,
reflecting the method of successive approximations (Sulzer-Azaroff & Mayer, 1991), al-
though the decisions about the unit sizes were more artful than scientific. A scientific account
of the value of the various tutor components might include comparative evaluations of the
effects on learning and retention of many of the steps and requirements that are now
embedded in the tutoring system. Parameters such as the number of passes through the row
interface or the frequency of repetition in the program interface lend themselves to evaluation.
Other programmed instruction studies have reported performance gains when there was a
high density of responses required by the learners (Kritch & Bostow, 1998), and the value
of deliberate practice has long been recognized as instrumental to the development of
expertise (Ericsson & Lehmann, 1996; Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Romer, 1993). Although
the importance of rote memorization in science and mathematics has been questioned
(Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000), other guidelines continue to recommend repetition and
overlearning as effective techniques for mastering many of the essential fundamental details
in science and engineering.
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The ongoing discussions and dynamic interplay between
instructivist and constructivist approaches, when applied to tactics in information technol-
