Each individual student should proceed through the course of learning at his own pace.
Individual differences (which span the whole range of factors mentioned in the seven-point plan) involve not only diversities in background and experience, but also differences in temperament and ability. Thus it is obvious that not only should a student start a course at a place appropriate to his existing knowledge and skills, but also that he should subsequently proceed at his own speed.
In a course on educational psychology, given to postgraduate students taking the Certificate in Education at Liverpool, the effects of presenting the same material in three different ways were compared. A third of the class attended tne usual lectures, another third had lectures which were heavily augmented with audio-visual aids, and the remaining third worked through Stones' programmed text Learning and Teaching." The last group studied the nine sections of Stones' book while the other students were attending lectures. A test, specially prepared by Stones, was administered to all students at the beginning and end of the one- term course. It was found that the students using the programmed text scored significantly higher on the post-test than the other two groups, and also showed greater improvement during the interval between pre-test and post-test. When the test was given again after an interval of six months, this superiority was maintained. Most of the students preferred the programmed procedure, mainly because they could proceed varied from speed. Their time each of were less than thirty minutes to an hour. Hence many students time covering the same material as in the lectures in appreciably less and with better retention. In this case, therefore, learning was more efficient when done at the individual students own pace.
The student should be actively involved in the process of learning.
When working through a programme presented either in a text-book or by means of teaching machine, the student not only determines the pace at which he shall progress but also actively participates in the learning procedure. In some types of programme he has to write his response to a frame before looking at the next one (inear programme) and in others he has to check the answer he has selected from a group of possibilities, either by turning to a specific page in a book or by pressing a given button on the teaching machine (branching programme).
There is ample evidence to show that active participation and involvement produce better learning than a more passive, detached approach. A moment's reflection on one's own experiences will confirm this. As passenger in a car, one rarely remembers the route as well as the driver who was actively concerned with finding his way from one place to A student attending a lecture usually more like a passenger than a driver as far as active involvement is concerned. In experiments carried out by McLeish and reported in his book .The Lecture Method. it was found that students retained only about 40 per cent of a lecture immediately afterwards, and that half of that had been forgotten a week later. This shows, as did our research mentioned in the last section, how inefficient the lecture is as a method of teaching and learning .
The student should receive continual knowledge of how he is progressing through the course of learning.
Active involvement facilitates learning better than passive detachment, but it does not necessarily ensure that the learning is accurate or that it helps the student to progress towards the criterion behaviour. We all know, from the bad habits of which we are ashamed, that practice perfects faults as well as virtues. If the student is to correct his errors as he goes along, he must have confinnal feedback or knowledge of result, and this can best be provided by the tracher.
After several weeks in a French course for beginners, a student was asked to write. the French for I am" on the board. He walked up and without hesitation wrote: “just we”. Incredible, but true. He had never been was asked to write it before, so how could he have known he wrong? The provision corrective information is one of the main functions of a teacher. It is, perhaps the one most neglected and in adult classes where no written work is required it may be overlooked it then in respect human teacher is together. If is, this the the mechanical one.
As indicated in the lest section, formal programmes, whether presented in book the form or by means of a teaching machine, require student to make some response to every frame, and to check that response before continuing with the next. In linear programmes the student writes his response to the frame and immediately uncovers the answer to check whether or not he is correct, I