Programmed Learning and Conventional Teaching

Summary

Three science lessons, which had been planned in detail, were memorized by one of the authors and taken with Form II pupils. A second group of pupils worked through a programmed text which covered exactly the same material presented in the lessons. An achievement test and an attitude scale were administered following instruction. Residual achievement scores were used in an analysis of variance to determine treatment effects. Results indicated that the lesson pupils had higher achievement and more positive attitudes to the instruction and spent less time learning than did the programme pupils. Results also suggested that factual material learned from a programmed text may be more resistant to fade than the same material learned during oral lessons, but the forgetting of principles and their application occurs at a constant rate under both forms of instruction.