This report is intended to be used as a tool to aid educators in selecting basic instructional materials that are best suited to their elementary social studies curricula and, especially, to the teachers and learners who will use them. In all, this volume contains comprehensive analyses of ten social studies programs now on the market that…

A survey of current lesson development was considered essential to determine the quality and effectiveness of instructional material produced on the PLATO IV computer-assisted instruction system. The trial period lasted for several years. Both civilian and military personnel developed the lessons, in consultation with the Military Training Centers…

This booklet presents a step-wise sequence for incorporating environmental objectives into any instructional program. The process involves determination of awareness, selection of the environmental problem, identifying subject area units, writing environmental objectives, specifying skills, naming concepts and content, developing unit…

An algorithm is defined here as an unambiguous procedure which will always produce the correct result when applied to any problem of a given class of problems. This paper gives an extended discussion of the definition of an algorithm. It also explores in detail the elements of an algorithm, the representation of algorithms in standard prose, flow…

Individualized instructional packages are an approach to learning through independent study, integrated experiences, and multimedia. The implementation of individualized instructional packages into a course should include provision for a general assembly session in which the students become acquainted with the instructor who will later appear on…

An instructional development model is described that provides for evaluation of the feasibility of a project, evaluation during the formative design and development phases, summative evaluation prior to dissemination, and continued evaluation after implementation. These guidelines view evaluation as an integral part of development; before the…

A survey explored the possibility that itemizations of such things as faculty workloads and faculty-student ratios in collective bargaining agreements may be inhibiting innovative instructional development. Members of the Division of Instructional Development of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) were questioned…

This study designed, implemented, and evaluated a set of learning experiences designed to help curriculum specialists in the Wisconsin Vocational, Technical and Adult Education (VTAE) system increase their competencies. These learning experiences were validated in a three-day seminar. The overall research methodology of the study was based on an…

The project of developing, demonstrating, and evaluating a systems approach for general college chemistry, general psychology, and developmental English was undertaken by Meramec Community College (Missouri). This report includes a chapter on the project philosophy, which hypothesizes that the maximization of instructional methods increases the…

This paper describes three models of learning theories, derives optimal presentation strategies for the models, and compares the effectiveness of the strategies in two computer assisted instruction experiments. The three models described are: 1) the linear, or response-insensitive model, in which the error probability for a given item depends on…

This publication reports on a conference, the purpose of which was to train elementary school curriculum specialists in the design and preparation of a curriculum using behavioral objectives. These objectives specify the behavior a student is expected to exhibit as a result of having learned certain material. The success of this instructional…

Techniques were developed for designing instruction for discipline-based curriculum areas. The approach integrated aspects of previous work in behavioral objectives, the structure of knowledge, learning hierarchies, and information-processing psychology and made explicit their relations to instructional design. Three kinds of analysis were…

This article is based on two main theses: a) qualitative improvements in education will not come about as a result of rhetoric or superficial proposals for solutions made by the so-called new breed or educators, but rather as a result of a deeper understanding of the teaching-learning process and the development and use of new and better…

This 15 page booklet describes the Conceptually Oriented Program in Elementary Science (COPES). Problems encountered in science education are stated and the rationale for the conceptual schemes approach is developed to solve these problems. The purpose, objectives, and concepts of the COPES program are defined. The five main conceptual schemes…

Programmatic instructional development refers to sequenced and coordinated efforts to produce effective instructional programs which cumulate over time and which attain outcomes that would be impossible under non-programmatic projects. As practiced at the Southwest Regional Laboratory (SWRL), it involves the combined efforts of specialists from…