James R. Okey

The Effects of Formative Evaluation and Remediation on Mastery of Intellectual Skills.

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to test Gagne’s hypothesis that attention to prerequisites should be more effective than repeated practice of a final task when learning intellectual skills. Ninety eighth-grade general science students studied self-instructional materials on the construction and interpretation of graphs. After each of three lessons each subject took a diagnostic test covering the objectives of the instruction. Subjects in Group 1 received additional instruction on prerequisites as remediation. Subjects in Group 2 received additional practice items as remediation, and subjects in Group 3 received no remedial activity. Students receiving remedial instruction did significantly better than those receiving only main-line instruction. Students receiving additional instruction on prerequisites did significantly better than those receiving additional practice items as remediation.

Developing and Validating Learning Hierarchies

SOME DEFINITIONS The idea that learning is cumulative or hierarchical is a commonsense notion. Intuitively one feels that a learner must master arithmetic before tackling algebra or must learn to distinguish certain letter sounds before learning to read. As a result, certain school courses may be listed as prerequisites for other courses. A group of topics may be ordered in sequence within courses under the assumption that one topic should be studied before another. Efforts have been made also at sequencing instruction on a level more detailed than courses or topics within a course. The aim has been to develop sequences of learning tasks at a level of single performance outcomes.

Goals For The High School Science Curriculum.

Two great goals of science instruction are dis cussed here: teaching students to learn on their own and teaching students to acquire and proc ess information, rather than merely memorizing facts. The author mentions several programs that facilitate attaining these goals.

Designs for the Evaluation of Teacher Training Materials

EVALUATION QUESTIONS This paper describes methods of assessing the impact on students of a teachers use of skills learned in a training program. Although we describe a particular set of training materials and methods for measuring their effectiveness, the intention is to illustrate evaluation designs that have wide application for assessing the effects of using teaching skills in terms of student outcomes.