Learner-controlled instruction (LCI provides a model for developing the self-directed learners modern society requires. LCI allows the student to specify goals, to control significant resources to attain them, and to choose learning strategies, thus enabling him to learn how to learn. It appears that the environment needed to support this model…

This is a survey of techniques that have been used to test language comprehension. The study of research completed in this field points up the fact that there is no single technique that universally gives valid and reliable information. Various definitions of language comprehension are examined with special emphasis placed on implications for the…

The ideas for innovations in learning systems in this report are based on a scenario being developed for the Minnesota Experimental City. The primary function of the new system being developed in Minnesota is to assist the individual learner to discover his interests, assess his needs, set his learning objectives, and pursue these objectives. The…

The requirements for a theory of instruction can be described in the following list of criteria: 1) a model of the learning process; 2) specification of admissible instructional actions; 3) specification of instructional objectives; 4) a measurement scale that permits costs to be assigned to each of the instructional actions and payoffs to the…

This paper was prepared for a social studies curriculum conference in Alberta in June, 1967. It provides a point of view on curriculum building which could be useful in establishing a national service in this field. The basic assumption is that the social studies should in some measure change the behavior of the students (a sharp departure from…

This document is an English-language abstract (approximately 1,500 words) of some 50 papers read at the first scientific session of a Soviet teacher training group. In the section on educational history and theory, papers were read reviewing the history and progress of public education and teacher education in the past 50 years in the Soviet…

This document is an English-language abstract (approximately 1,500 words) of a book containing the results of many years of experimental research aimed at ascertaining the intellectual ability of students in the junior grades to assimilate theoretical knowledge. Chapter one analyzes the problem of the age peculiarities of children. The author…

A project conducted several years ago to develop informal mathematical learning experiences at kindergarten level is compared with the results of the work-book type (formal) program being used at that time. It is hypothesized that kindergarten pupils who study mathematical concepts in a planned, sequential, systematic, but non-workbook (informal)…

This document describes a series of seminars held over a 2-year period to help plan for independent and individualized instruction. The first year seminars resulted in the conception of a 2-dimensional system into which all independent and individualized instructional programs could be fitted -- i.e., the means or media (the ways of getting to the…

THIS ARTICLE PRESENTED THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSES CONCERNING IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE. IT WAS SUGGESTED THAT A LEARNING THEORY WHICH INEGRATES INSTRUMENTAL AND CLASSICAL CONDITIONING, CUTTING ACROSS THEORETICAL LINES, COULD SERVE AS THE BASIS FOR A COMPREHENSIVE THEORY OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND FUNCTION. THE PAPER ILLUSTRATED THE…

This paper describes a series of summer workshops for inservice teacher training (kindergarten, grades 1, 2, and 3) in the application of techniques and procedures based on pupil mastery of individualized modules of instruction. Contingency reinforcement management methods were demonstrated and practiced in the attempt to change pupil behavioral…

The purpose of this study was two-fold: first, to determine whether children under direct patterns of teacher verbal behavior significantly differed from those under indirect patterns on internal-external (IE) locus of control; and second, to determine which of the specific teacher verbal behaviors (comprising the direct and indirect patterns)…

Learning is not a simple unitary process. This paper identifies three qualitatively different phases of the learning process. In one phase, the learner acquires facts and information, accumulating more structures onto the already existing knowledge structures. This phase of learning is adequate only when the material being learned is part of a…

Educational institutions have at least two major functions: education and certification of competency. This paper examines the educational strengths and limitations of the mastery learning instruction model with respect to fulfilling these functions. The components of the mastery model are contrasted with components of other instructional models,…

A number of first language (L1) research studies are examined in an attempt to discover whether the hypothesized similarity between L1 acquisition and second language (L2) learning has any empirical support. The relationship between age and language learning is considered to determine if there are changes in learning ability, rate of learning and…