Conclusions reached after three years of performance contracting experience and materials with which to judge the validity of the conclusions are presented in this overview of performance contracting. The conclusions are: (1) commercial firms are no better at teaching children than are public schools; (2) commercial firms expend as much or more…

Composed of articles recently published in "Educational Technology" magazine, this volume in the review series focuses on teacher education and educational technology. Articles are included which cover defining the role of teacher education and of teachers, differentiated staffing, educational accountability, performance contracting,…

This is a paper that presents a positive case for the adoption of accountability programs. A brief history of accountability is given. Some important terms relative to accountability are defined. They are: accountability, independent educational accomplishment audit, performance contracting, and educational engineering. Ways in which the…

Educational accountability, as linked to changing socioeconomic attitudes and conditions, is noted to have contributed to the decline of the audiolingual method of language instruction. Following a discussion of the pedagogical implications and inadequacies of audiolingual theory, the author analyzes the nature of this teaching methodology, first…

A learning contract is a document, drawn up by a student and his instructor or advisor that specifies what the student will learn, how this will be accomplished, within what period of time, and what the criteria of evaluation will be. The student and instructor agree upon specific objectives, resources to be used, and feedback sessions.…

Discussion of the nature of student-teacher contracts pertaining to academic work to be performed by the student and evaluated by the teacher covers a wide range of related issues in this article. The nature of contracts, evaluation procedures, instructional materials, community attitudes, and the individualization of instruction are commented on…

A distinction among evaluation, measurement and reports of terminal behavior is presented. For the purposes of evaluation, any response to a speech performance provides useful feedback to the communicator. In addition to the teacher's evaluation of the performance against "established standards", it is argued that a teacher's subjective responses…

These conference proceedings contain addresses and comments of some 42 participants. Papers are grouped in three major sections: (1) the status of individualized foreign language instruction today, (2) small-group presentations, and (3) viewpoints on change. The papers cover a wide variety of topics including a review of the state-of-the-art,…