Michael Macdonald-Ross

Behavioural objectives — A critical review

Behavioural objectives lay the foundations for a thoroughgoing attempt to improve the effectiveness of educational systems. By specifying what the student should be able to do after the learning experience, the hope is that the outcomes of education can be brought in line with the intentions of the educator. To achieve this goal, it would be minimally necessary to ensure that the objectives were relevant, and that they could be used to prescribe fairly exactly the design of the educational process and the evaluation which would follow. The object of this paper is to assess such claims.The paper starts by placing behavioural objectives in the context of the systematic approach to education, a particular kind of rational planning. A distinction is drawn between two kinds of systematic approach — the feedforward prescriptive mode and the feedback cyclical mode. The feedforward mode is ambitious, placing great stress on objectives, and insisting upon explicit procedures both for deriving objectives and for the subsequent process of design. The cyclical mode is less ambitious, but less vulnerable to attack. It accepts a downgraded role for objectives (they are seen just as part of an interconnected system) and it accepts that success will only be achieved by a process of testing and recycling. The cyclical mode puts less stress on the need to be explicit, and relies more on the intuitive skills of the individual educator.The cases for and against behavioural objectives are then discussed in considerable detail. At the end of this analysis it is clear that the strongest claims made for behavioural objectives cannot stand as they were. For example, it seems certain that objectives do not prescribe the design of the educational system, or the validity of test items. And there are not satisfactory principles for deriving relevant objectives. These, and other criticisms, arise from deep-seated deficiencies inherent in the conceptual framework of the systematic approach. In particular it is claimed that the system is based on a poverty-stricken model of student-teacher interaction, that lists of behaviours can never adequately represent the structure of knowledge, and that the whole schema suffers from the weaknesses of operationalism.These conclusions appear to demolish the stronger feedforward prescriptions, and weaken somewhat the softer cyclical approach. The arguments on which these conclusions are based were tested on one of the standard and best known defences of behavioural objectives, and it seems fair to conclude that this particular defence does not meet the criticisms raised.It is unlikely that the deficiencies of behavioural objectives can ever be fully repaired, no matter how much time or effort is expended. A certain mileage can be expected of any conceptual schema, and the behavioural objective/systematic approach, as practised by the best consultants, seems close to its limits. This paper suggests that radical improvements depend upon constructing a less limited framework which allows progress in directions denied to the systematic approach. No such framework is proposed in the paper, though some hints are given.For the present, behavioural objectives provide a well-worked-out tool for rational planning in education. They have made possible certain improvements in the technique of curriculum design; and should not be discarded in disgust just because they fail to meet more exacting standards. But the application of these objectives should be tempered by a deep understanding of their limitations. This paper attempts to promote this understanding.

2: Graphics in Texts

The purpose of this review is to summarize what is known about the effective use of graphic devices in texts and other instructional materials. Information about graphic devices comes mainly from two sources: the experience of skilled graphic communicators and the formal laboratory experiments of applied psychologists. Both these sources have been consulted for this review. To keep it to a reasonable length I discuss what I think are the central issues and leave other questions untouched. It may be useful for researchers to consult the recent bibliography by Macdonald-Ross and Smith (1977), which lists all the relevant research known to me as I write this review.

Scientific diagrams and the generation of plausible hypotheses: An essay in the history of ideas

This paper is the first part of a contribution to the study of the history, structure and functions of scientific diagrams. The author considers the role of scientific diagrams in the structure of scientific communication, their perception and interpretation by the reader.The author surveys the main conceptual issues, and proposes that these specialized graphic forms have played an important part in the origin of scientific hypotheses. The supporting evidence will be presented as case studies in a future publication in this journal.

Criticism, Alternatives and Tests: A Conceptual Framework for Improving Typography.

Abstract The purpose of legibility research is not to discover universal truths, but to improve the practice of typography and design. Research should be directed to specific decisions in particular, practical situations. This article suggests a practical research style which makes use of the tacit know‐how of typographers and designers. The idea is to preface any testing activities with critical and creative activities. This leads to a three‐part cyclical model: criticism, alternatives and tests. Such a model starts with a practical problem and finishes with a decision. This model is illustrated by a critical analysis of some Open University texts.

8 Towards a Graphic Ecology

Publisher Summary The human race already has enough know-how to produce effective communication in most situations. There are great writers and graphic communicators, master performers who can produce effective texts repeatedly and reliably. Graphic skills are, to a large extent, domain-specific. One of the main aims for communication research is to externalize the know-how of the master performer. Mastery implies the capacity for repeated and reliably effective performance. The process of selecting masters is corrigible. One cannot be sure of selecting masters at first, but one can always eliminate those whose mastery is found wanting. This is a procedural parallel to the testing of a hypothesis: the corrigibility of the procedure is the proof against its being reflexive (circular). Protocol analysis, video recording, and recorded interviews are relevant techniques for record and analyzing the process of mastery. The mapping between a class of graphic devices and a problem domain is rarely one-to-one. A class of graphic devices can be used to represent any content that has the underlying conceptual structure denoted by the graphic. However, there is usually more than one way to represent any given problem.

Do you need that second color

When money is short, two-color printing is often the first thing to go from technical manuals and instructional texts. Does their effectiveness suffer as a result? Conversely, when a second color is used, is it often just a waste of money? This paper sets out, first, the main purpose for which a second color can be used; second, technical and perceptual constraints on the use of color; and, third, research findings on color and learning. The purpose of the paper is to provide practical guidelines for decisions about the use of a second color in texts.