Learning Measures in a Self-Instructional Program in Solving Equations
Much incerest has been shown in recent years in the development and use of "reaching machines," a name given to devices which present material to be learned in an orderly manner suitable for self-instruction. It is generally agreed (Skinner, 1954; Lmsdaine & Glaser, 1960) that the devices themselves are of secondary importance in the determination of the outcomes of such . learning, whereas the content and sequence of the information displayed by them is of primary importance. The attention of investigators of the process of human learning accordingly has been directed toward an examination of the properties of this sequenced content, called the "learning program." In a period when learning programs have considerable novelcy, it is natural enough chat major atcention should be paid to what may be called [he internal criteria of the programs. These include such faccors as the "size of steps," the number of prompts, the provision of knowledge of results to the learner, and the treatment of errors. Discussion of internal criteria of this sort reveals marked differences in views between those who favor small steps and provision far a minimal number of errors (Skinner, 1958) and those who advocate large steps with particular attention to the means for correcting errors (Crowder, 1959). Other writers have tended to give emphasis to external criteria of learning programs, to be sought in measures of the effects of programs on performance of the learner after exposure to a program, and in measures of transfer of training (e.g., Kendler, 1959). By implication, it may be said that the latter point of view holds no brief for the essentiality of any particular internal variable (such as step size). Instead, it proposes that the factors importanc for learning remain to be discovered by means of experimental studies in which measures of post-program achievernenc and transfer take a prominent role. Such measures may be considered to provide the best clues to the discovery and definition of "what is learned" by means of a systematically-presented learning program.