Our methods to reach all students are no longer effective for the student body before us. Many students are struggling with stress, inattention in class, and absences from school. A significant number of our students are struggling to get to and stay in school. In addition to these issues, students are struggling to find relevance in their…

Response-to-intervention (RTI) frameworks have become increasingly prevalent in schools as an academic and behavioral prevention and intervention organizational approach that emphasizes students' responsiveness and nonresponsiveness as indicators of appropriate curricular and instructional decisions. Theoretical as well as practical descriptions…

The authors stress mastery criterion as the most important component of the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI). (DE)

The effects of distributed study, self-pacing, a criterion of mastery, and individualized testing were examined by assigning 422 students in an introductory psychology course to one of four different teaching/learning systems. The first encompassed a traditional lecture/discussion group format. The second employed the personalized system of…

The personalized system of instruction (PSI) is characterized by mastery, specified objectives, self-pacing, small-step sequenced materials, repeated testing, immediate feedback, credit for success rather than penalty for errors, proctors, and lectures for motivation. Research indicating the effectiveness of PSI is cited, and problems with…

In a study of mastery learning involving student teachers, it was found that in intense, short-term instructional systems, less specific remediation is appropriate, while more detailed remediation is better when there are few time constraints. (Ed)

Studied were a self-paced section and a teacher-paced section of an undergraduate educational psychology course. By assessing number of trials to criterion, the investigators concluded that the self-paced method was more effective. (MLH)

Weekly testing coupled with a mastery performance requirement generated higher student performance in an introductory psychology class. (DE)

This paper discusses a number of contingency arrangements used in studies at the University of Kansas to enhance individualized characteristics of personalized instruction. It begins with an examination of Keller's Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) and its five defining features: (1) reliance on the written word, (2) unit mastery, (3) the…

A survey of relevant research strongly suggests that the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) offers considerable potential for community college instruction. It has five main features: students move at their own rates of speed, utilize written study guides, demonstrate mastery of each unit before continuing, meet with proctors for periodic…

Four methods of individualized instruction are described and introduced, and their similarities and differences are reviewed in terms of effectiveness, grading, lectures, mastery, pacing, theoretical base, and unit size. The methods described are (1) audio-tutorial, developed by S. N. Postlethwait, an instructional system that allows students to…

Presents an overview of the basic features of two highly related models of college instruction; the Personalized System of Instruction and the Contingency Managed Lecture. Both are based on behavioral principles and have been tested and implemented on a large scale. (Author/JEG)

The possible difference in the performance on a mid-term and final exam between students taking a quasi-individualized mastery method of instruction and students having traditional lecture-discussion instruction was studied. A second issue examined was the difference between the proportion of students expressing a preference for one method of…

Designed as an introduction to a symposium on the appropriateness of mastery learning as a technique of social studies instruction, this paper reviews research on the variables related to mastery learning in order to provide a basis for systematic symposium discussion. Brief research reviews are included on the following variables: materials,…

The Personalized System of Instruction (PSI), a system that combines the strengths of basic learning, individual instruction, and personalized relationships, all at low cost, is an attractive alternative for the basic speech communication course. It involves mastery learning, self-pacing, stress on the written word, instructor assistants, and the…