PROGRAMMED INSTRUCTION

I. INTRODUCTION
Chronologically the Greek Philosopher, Socrates is said to be the first
programmer who developed a programme in geometry which was recorded by
his disciple Plato in the dialogue menu.

S S Chauhan, an author of “TEXT BOOK OF PROGRAMMED

INSTRUCTION” places “Gita ”as the first programmed text in the world.

II. MEANING
The instructions provided by teaching machine or programmed text book is
referred to as programmed instruction.

DEFINITION
According to J E Espich and Bill Williams, “programmed instruction is a
planned sequence of experiences, leading to proficiency, in terms of
stimulus- response relationship that have proven to be effective. ”

Acoording to Susan Markle, 1969, “programmed instruction is a method

of designing reproducible sequence of instructional events to produce a
measurable consistent effect on a behaviour of each and every acceptable
student. ”

CHARACTERISTICS
1. The subject matter is broken down in to small steps called frames and
arranged sequentially.

2. Frequent response is requered of the student.

3. There is immediate conformation of right answer or correction of wrong

answers given by the learners i. e. “self correcting feature.”

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4. The content and sequece of the frames are subjected to actual try out with
students and are revised on the basis of data gathered by the programmer
i. e “diagnostic feature”

5. Each student progresses at his own pace with out any threat of being
exposed to any humiliation in aheterogenous class.

6. The assumption about the learner is clearly stated in the programmed

learning materials.

7. The objectives underlying programming are defined explicitly and in

operational terms so that the terminal behavior is made observable and
measurable.

8. An interaction is emphasised between the learner and the programme in

programmed learning.

9. In a programmed material continuous evaluation is possible by the record

of student’s response.

10.The strategy provides sufficient situation for teaching the student to make
discriminations among range of possibilities and to reduce
generalizations.

TYPES OF PROGRAMMING

It can be mainly divided into two:

A) LINEAR PROGRAMMING

In a linear programme, learner’s responses are controlled

externally by the programmer sitting at a distant place. A linear
programme is called a straight line programme as the learner starts
from his initial behaviour to the terminal behaviour following a

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straight line. The student proceeds from one frame to the next untill he
completes the programme.

CHARACTERISTICS

1. Linears are exposed to small amount of information and proceed

from one frame to one item of information, to the next in an
orderly fashion.

2. Linear responds overtly sp that their correct responses can be

rewarded and heir incorrect responses can be corrected.

3. Linears are informed immediately about whether or not their

response is correct(feed back).

4. Linear proceed at their own pace (self pacing).

SCOPE OF LINEAR PROGRAMMING

1. Elementary education

Generally there are single teacher schools there a teacher is

required to teach all subjects. This strategy will help the
teachers.

2. Secondary education

In secondary education the diversity of interest and curriculam

necessitates this method. It may be used as a remedial teaching.
The class room teaching may be helpful for non- science
teachers to prepare for science, being compulsory subject up to
high school.
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3. Correspondence education

For highn school students: it is necessary to realize that the self

instruction could be made possible, if the correspondence lessos
are programmed.

For the school teachers : when new course is being introduced,

programmed instruction will equip them with content and new
mwthod of teaching.

For university education: this will help the students who are
under correspondents to learn and can be brought at the part of
regular sudents. Thus they can maintain standad of higher
education. In case of medical and health education field, there is
rapid advancement in medical education and hence in these
circumstances, programmed learning will help in health care
team.

PRINCIPLES OF LINEAR PROGRAMMING

1. PRINCIPLE OF SMALL STEPS

A student can proceed from knowing very little about a

subject to mastery of the subject by going through a
programme.

2. PRINCIPLE OF ACTIVE RESPONDING

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 Another way to say that people “learning by doing” is that
they learn by active responding.

3. CONFORMATION

Is a type of reinforcement to work on the programme or to

learn. A student who must wait two weeks for the test results
probably will not learn as well as student whose test is
scored immediately.

4. PRINCIPLE OF SELF-PACING

The student can work each step as slowly or as quickly as he

chooses. If pace of classroom is too fast or too slow for a
child, probably he will not learn as well as go with his own
pace.

5. STUDENT TESTING OR EVALUATION

This will remind you that detail record which the student
leaves provides the basis for revising the programme. This
reminds you of the principle of student testing.

TYPES OF LINEAR PROGRAMMING

1. Constuct response:

Skinnerian type in which the learner has to construct response while going
through such formats of programme text.

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2. Multiple choice questions:
Sydney L Pressy selected a response on each frame and it is
presented in discrimination frame sequence type of programme.

3. Conventional chaining:
John Barlow – in this type of formats each frame it is connected to
2nd frame which becomes a part of the stimulus of the 3rd and so on the down
line.

4. Skip linear:

It uses the skipping device as it solving problems of review and over

review where a bright student may skip the simple programme.

5. Criterion frames:

This is used to direct the learner along linear path according to their
responses at those critical situations. The creation frames decides whether
the student should go through the particular sequence or not.

6. Ruleg system:

Here the content is organised in terms of rules first and then the
examples. The rule is given a complete form and the examples are in
incomplete form. A learner has to construct response to complete the
example.

7. Egrule system:
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 It is just the opposite to the ruleg system. The content is organised in
terms of examples and then the rules. The examples are given in complete
form and the rule is in incomplete form.

B) BRANCHING OR INTRINSIC STYLE PROGRAMMING

Norman Crowder, a contemporary of Skinner, was working

independently for the armed services on programmed instruction. He felt
that a program was a form of communication between a programmer and
a user. Like any communication, the program must be directed to the
individual. Unlike Skinner, Crowder was not working from a
psychological perspective, but from a communications point of view. In
an intrinsic or branching program, each frame presents more text than the
average linear frame. After reading, the user responds to an adjunct
question, usually in a multiple-option format.

PRINCIPLES

1. Principle of exposition: Here the whole concept is presented to the

student so that he can learn better the complete information which is
provided in the home page. It serves two purposes. i . e teaching and
diagnosis.

2. Principle of diagnosis: Here the weakness of learner is identified after

exposition and hence we can assess whether the learner could learn
what the causes are for it, then it can be modified.

3. Principles of remediation : if a learner chooses wrong alternately, then

the learner has to move to a wrong page where remedial instruction is

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 provided and directed to return to the home page and he/ she is asked
to choose the right answer.

STRUCTURE OF BRANCHING PROGRAMME

The programmed text is called “Scrampled text” which
consist of two types of pages one home page and another wrong page.

HOME PAGE

This page consists of content or concept and flowed by multiple

choice questions which imvolve four aspects:

1. Teaching : the learner goes through the instruction to

comprehend the concept or information.

2. Response: at the end of the instruction multiple choice is given to

the learner to choose the correct response, which the learner has to
discriminate and rsponse is intrinsic.

3. Diagnosis : if the learner chooses the wrong response, he has to

move to the wrong page. If he chooses the right response he move
to the next home page,where the until is presented.

4. Reinforcement : in the beginning of the home page the response

is reinforced by confirming it and hence the learner is encouraged
through verbal approval or praise.

WRONG PAGE
Wrong page or remedial frame –

1. Repeating the student response

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 2. Negative confirmation

3. Reason to why he/she is wrong

4. Further explanation in single language

5. Direction as to why the learner should go next.

TECHNIQUE OF BRANCHING PROGRAMME

BACKWARD PROGRAMME: If the learner makes an error he has
to taken to the remedial frame where he has given some more help
understanding the concept and solving the problem then he will be directed to
the original frame number one. So the learner goes through the same frame
twice i. e once before the remedial material.

FORWARD BRANCHING: here whether the leaner is making correct response

or wrong response he will be going to the next or new page. If he makes wrong
choice he is directed to remedial frame where his mistakes ar fully explained,
followed by another parallel question from which he goes to the next frame in
the main stream.

C) COMPUTER ASSISTED INSTRUCTION

It consists of individual learning booths, each with a console. It has a

television screen for displaying information. A complete package of
information is stored in the system and is presented sequentially. The
student may question computer and feed answer in to it. It helps
determined subsequent activities in the learning situations.

DEVELOPMENT OF A PROGRAMMED INSTRUCTION

The certain steps to be followed are

• Preparatory phase

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 • Writing phase

• Validation phase

PREPARATORY PHASE

It involves

 Viewing the programme on any topic.

 Deciding to prepare a programme

 Selecting a topic

 Prepare a content outline

 Specification of objective in behavioural terms.

 Specifications (assumptions about learner)

 Entering behaviour. Pre-requisite skills.

 Preparation of pre test

 Terminal behavior. Expected performance of the learner at the

end of a course.

 Preparatoin of post- test. i. e preferably criterion test.

WRITIING PHASE

The writing of a programme involves five steps.

1) Present the material in frames

a) A frame is a small segment of informations which calls forth

particular student response.

b) The task of a programmer is to provide those stimuli necessary

to evoke the student response.
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 c) The aquisition of these responses is a step towards the terminal
behaviour.

d) You should also note that each frame presents a relatively small
nsegment of material.

e) Programmer should present only enough material to elicit a

single response.

2) Require active student response

a) An essential part of the frame is the response, the student is

asked to make.

b) Whether the responses in programmed material should be overt

or covert.

c) Students who made overt responses wrote down their answers

on sheets of paper.

d) Student who made covert responses mentally composed a

responses to each blank in the frame before turning the page to
the correct answers.

3) Provide answers for confirmation or correction of student

responses

a) Providing the correct response, with which the student compare

his own responses, has been a standard characteristics of
programmed instruction.

b) When the student discovers that his response is correct, he

obtains confirmation when it is incorrect.

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4) Use prompts to guide student response

a) Prompts are case provided in the programme frame to guide

the student to the correct response.

b) Prompts are supplimentary stimuli in that they are added to a

frame to make the frame easier but are not sufficient in
themselves to produce the responses.

5) Provide careful sequencing of the frames

A) The sequence, or order, in which your frames appear depends

upon two factors.

a) The description and analysis of the behaviours, your

programme intends to teach.

b) The conditions necessary for the learning required by the

various tasks.

B) It is even possible to develop frames which engage the student

in problem solving and discovery learning.

a) All the basic learning conditions- discrimination,

generalization, contiguity, practice, and reinforcement can
be embodied in the frame sequence.

b) Frame sequence, of course, can also provide for review and

testing whenever these are necessary.

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VALIDATION PHASE

 Try-out and revision

 Individual try-out

 Small group try-out

 Master validation

 Editing, reviewing, revising, and modifying the program for final

preparation based on fruits of try-out.

ADVANTAGES OF PROGRAMMED INSTRUCTION

1) Programmed instruction is more successful in critical
sagacity(discernment) of the logic of various subjects and inspiring
the students to creative thinking and judgement.

2) Good teachers are freed from the humdrum of routine class- room
activity and they are in a position to devote their time to more
creative activities.

3) Some educationist fear that the programmed instruction will

deteriorate the quality of instruction. On the other hand the use of it
has improved the quality of education in general.

4) The use of programmed instruction has bought a revolutionin the

social setting of the class-room. Many emotional and social problems
have been eliminated and problems of discipline have been
automatically solved.

5) Programmed instruction is a great thrust in the direction of

individualized instruction. A well organized programmed
instructional device is tailored to cater to the needs of individual
students of the class.

6) It helps the teacher to diagnose the problems of the individual learner.

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 7) By presenting the material in small segments of information i. e
frame it makes the learning as an interesting game in which the
learner is challenged by his own capabilities.

DISADVANTAGES OF PROGRAMMED INSTRUCTION

1) Programmed instruction does not eliminate competition or grades as

often claimed.

2) Mere manipulation of machine is not rewarding to children as

Skinner seems to think. Once the novelty wears and if, at the start,
too many errors appear the pupils loses interest and motivation. Later
reinforcements often do not accelerate learning.

3) Programmed instruction restricts the learner’s freedom of choice

resulting in cramping of his imagination and initiative.

4) Operant conditioning is found successful only with some pupils, in

some cases and not in all. Programmed instruction ignores or ignores
or makes inadequate provisions for variables like cognitive variables,
personality variables and motivational variables.

5) The teacher- pupil contact which is so vital for development of

human personality and relationship is completely lost.

6) In language learning, speech is equally important as development of

reading and comprehension skills. But there is no scope for providing
this experience.

CONCLUSION
Programmed instruction is hardely new or revolutionary. It is a
process of constructing sequences of instructional material emphasizing
interaction between learner and programme.

EXAMPLE FOR A RESEARCH STUDY ON PROGRAMMED

INSTRUCTION
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 Programmed instruction revisited: a study on teaching
stereochemistry

Ataturk University, Kazim Karabekir Education Faculty, Department of

Secondary Science and Mathematics Education, 25240-Erzurum, Turkey
Abstract: This study is aimed at comparing the success of programmed instruction with the
conventional teaching approach on teaching stereochemistry, and whether gender has any
effect on student success. Forty chemistry teacher trainees attending the same class in the
Department of Chemistry Education in a large state university in eastern Turkey were the
subjects of the study. Of the forty trainees twenty were selected as the experimental group and
the other twenty as the control group. The study was implemented in a total of sixteen lecture
hours (each 50 min) in four weeks (four lecture hours per week). The subject, stereochemistry
in organic chemistry, was taught to the experimental group by the researcher through
‘programmed instruction’ and the control group was taught by the course lecturer through
traditional teaching. The data collection tools were: Stereochemistry Achievement Test (SAT),
programmed stages (frames), and the views of the students. An ANCOVA (Analysis of Co-
Variance) showed that there was a statistically significant difference between programmed
instruction and conventional teaching approach on the success level of students’ learning in
stereochemistry. In addition, it was found that female students were more successful than their
male counterparts in the experimental group. The findings suggest that programmed learning
could be considered as a better alternative to conventional lecturing in teaching
stereochemistry. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2006, 7 (1), 13-21]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1) K P Neeraja; “TEXT BOOK OF NURSING EDUCATION” ; 1st

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6) J C Aggarwal; “EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY”; 2ND Edition;
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JOURNALS

1) The American Journal of Nursing; volume no: 10; Pg no: 693 –

695.

2) Journal of Instructional Psychology; Volume 35; Pg no: 240 – 245.

INTERNET REFERENCES

1. http:// www.eric.ed.gov/eric web portal/Home.Portal?_ nfpb

2. http:// www.jestor.org/ pss/3457242.

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