A project was conducted to develop a set of curriculum materials for use in implementing an instructional strategy to teach mechanical skills in secondary level exploratory vocational agricultural programs in Arkansas. The specifics of the project were to field test and refine an empirical method for developing and implementing an instructional…

Advances in computers and multimedia technology have changed traditional methods for learning and skills training. Online learning continues to play a major success of any academic program. Such learning can personalize learning needs for students, it can provide an environment where virtual reality techniques are used to create interactive…

The pamphlet provides a framework for teaching decision making skills at the elementary and secondary levels. The first section presents five criteria for selecting instructional objectives, subject matter, and teaching procedures in basic education. The criteria include (1) emphasis on skills for daily living, (2) relevance to students' personal…

This eighteenth in a series of twenty-nine learning modules on instructional execution is designed to give secondary and postsecondary vocational teachers help in recognizing significant differences among students and in individualizing the instruction to reflect these differences. Introductory sections relate the competencies dealt with here to…

This report describes the instructional quality inventory (IQI), which was developed to provide quality control/evaluation procedures for the instructional system development (ISD). The ISD is described as a method used by the military to develop or revise training courses. IQI procedures are detailed in six sections. Section 1 explains the IQI…

The overall purpose of this project was to expand the vocational education curriculum to provide adults with entrepreneurial competencies which will facilitate self-employment. More specifically, the project goals were to (1) develop and implement modules of instruction in entrepreneurship for adults in self-employment and potential entrepreneurs;…

In this book, the first of a series on functional education for individual, community, and national development, the author shares her understanding of the needs of nonformal education and what may prove useful to fulfill these needs. The content is in three sections. The first one identifies the forces that have converged to give nonformal…

Two laboratory instructional approaches, individual project and mass production methods, were compared to determine their relative effectiveness in developing student understanding of industry in industrial arts. It was hypothesized that knowledge of tools, operations, industrial organization, and materials of industry could be taught as…

Man seems unable to retain different information from different senses or channels simultaneously; one channel gains full attention. However, it is hypothesized that if the message elements arriving simultaneously from audio and visual channels are redundant, man will retain the information. An attempt was made to measure redundancy in the audio…

A description of open and individualized elementary school instruction is provided. The goals of such instruction are to: 1) teach basic skills in language arts, math, science, and social studies; 2) develop higher cognitive abilities, such as problem solving; and 3) develop the child's social competence and self-concept. Open, individualized…

The Instructional Planning Team is based on the Research and Instruction Unit of the Wisconsin R & D Center for Cognitive Learning. To determine if the IPT as an organizational arrangement would increase the ability of a group of classroom teachers to use research-based information to improve their instructional program, a pilot test was conducted…

Both face-to-face and distance learning methods are currently being used in adult education and career and technical education. In theory, the advantages of face-to-face and distance learning methods complement each other. In practice, however, both face-to-face and information and communications technology (ICT)-based distance programs often rely…

While a great deal has been written on the advantages and benefits of online teaching, and research continues to proliferate, many practitioners are seeking guidelines that can be applied to the design of assessment in online environments. The last decade has seen the convergence of traditional distance education with on-campus modes of delivery…

Critical thinking is highly valued but difficult to teach effectively. The Reason! project at the University of Melbourne (Australia) has developed the Reason!Able software as part of a general method aimed at enhancing critical thinking skills. Students using Reason!Able appear to make dramatic gains. This paper describes: (1) the challenge…

This introductory text is designed to prepare teachers of English as a Second Language to teach speech skills. The first three chapters explore general issues in relation to spoken language and speech instruction. The first chapter examines the nature of spoken language, and why and how we learn our native language. The second focuses on…