The Rise of Individualized Instruction Characteristics of Individualized Instruction Characteristics of a Totally Individualized Program Reactions to Individualized Instruction
An Examination of the Basic Assumptions of Individualized Instruction Aptitude
Behavioral Objectives
Interests
Coals
Taxonomy
Social Interaction
Self-Pacing
Mastery Learning
Continuous Progress
Criterion-Referenced Examinations
Ways and Means of Diversifying Instruction In Traditional Classes Two Types of Courses
Deciding to Offer an Individualized Approach Alternatives to Individualized Instruction The Three-Stage Model of Instruction Croup-Based Individualized Instruction
Diversifying Instruction
The major educational movement of the early seventies has been without question the trend toward "individualized" instruction. This is not a methodological, but a curricular approach to teaching, emphasizing the organizational framework of the class. In fact, few changes have occurred during the seventies in basic methodological principles or in the types of classroom activities employed to accomplish chosen goals. With individualized instruction, each student proceeds through the materials at his own rate. As is commonly true of innovations in education, the "individualized" movement began with a great deal of fanfare. Although the number of individualized classes is still growing, individualized classes have been in existence long enough for the preliminary evaluations to be in and for the first criticisms to begin to appear. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the principal characteristics of individualized instruction and to explore alternative ways of meeting the needs of individual students.
Crucial to the comprehension of individualized instruction is a familiarity with the conditions, reactions, and goals that provided the impetus for change in the types of instruction students were receiving. What were the criticisms of contemporary education? (For more information, see chapter 2, "Perspectives," pages 26, 30-34, and chapter 7, "The Student,", pages 171-73).
What were the reasons for the rise of individualized instruction? Following is a selective list of these reasons, some of which are interrelated:
1. There was a need to increase learning for all the students in the schools.
Block (1971, p. 2) is speaking for many of the critics when he says, ". . . The schools continue to provide successful and rewarding learning experiences for only about one-third of our learners."
2. In order to improve the education of the majority of students who were having unsatisfactory learning experiences, the emphasis was shifted to this group of students. Walker (1973, p. 191) states, "Major concern for individual differences has centered on low-achieving students and has significantly influenced the direction of public school education within the last fifteen years."
3. As the ideas of the critics have become widespread, the public has come to expect an educational system responsive to the needs of all the students.
The public would like to see a higher ratio of success among the student population than in the past (Cohen, 1972).
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4. If the purpose of education is to prepare students for constructive, productive adult lives, the educational system should try to promote the development of productive habits and sound emotional character. Block (1971) maintains that the requirement of having to spend a large percentage of their childhood in failure may lead to mental and emotional problems for up to 20 percent of the students in the schools.
5. One of the goals in individualized instruction is the avoidance of failure. In theory, at least, the outcome of this approach is to have no failing students. If their needs are met, all students will be able to succeed. If their needs are not met and they are not successful, they simply do not receive credit. However, no failing grades are recorded.
6. Individualized instruction reflects the recent stress on the individual and a pluralistic society. Individualized instruction is an application to the classroom of the contemporary "do-your-own-thing" philosophy.
7. Individualized instruction attempts to avoid the dehumanized aspects of society in general. The enrollments in the schools have grown to the point that maintaining individual contact is difficult. The object of individualized instruction is to create a classroom organization in which the teacher and the student have more occasions for one-to-one interchanges. A large number of people feel a strong sense of urgency to increase efforts to humanize the educational system.
8. Individualized instruction is seen as a practical means of establishing an educational program which can react to the tremendous variety of ability levels in the comprehensive American high schools. Grouping, tracking, etc. have been incorporated into the school program in the past, but grouping according to ability levels does not seem to be in keeping, in the minds of many people at the present time, with a democratic, pluralistic society.
9. As a result of the interest in providing a successful educational experience for all students, there has been a trend away from the competitive classroom and from the comparison of one student with another. In fact, some critics condemn the competitive nature of American society and insist that we should stress competition with self and group cooperation instead. Grades, for example, are supposed to indicate achievement based on capability, not some normative ranking of the student's ability compared with other students in the class. The result of this philosophy is to abandon the system of grades entirely.
10. In one sense, individualized instruction is an application of the mass- production, technological model of industry to education. As the organization becomes larger, efforts are made to streamline and to make the system more efficient by specifying discrete job tasks to be accomplished.
11. Carroll's (1963) definition of aptitude is a major tenet in the philosophy
Diversifying Instruction
behind the recent popularity of individualized programs. He defines aptitude as "how long the learner takes to learn a given amount of material rather than the amount of material he can learn."
12. To some extent, the popularity of individualized instruction is due to the promotion of this approach by administrators as a means of meeting the call for accountability in the schools.
13. Accustomed to the variety of television presentations and lacking self- discipline for long-term concentration, many students are unaccustomed to sustaining attention during a traditional classroom period. Individualized instruction does not require the students to sit for long periods of time.
14. The world is changing at a dizzying pace. What is learned today may be out of date before the students have the opportunity to apply what they have learned. Therefore, the most important outcome of education is not the information learned, but the skills acquired.
Most, if not all, of these reasons apply to second-language classes.
Following are a few special factors affecting second-language education.
1. The application of individualized instruction in second-language classes is to a certain extent a reaction to the lock-step, choral repetition of audio-lingual techniques.
2. Individualized instruction is seen as a way of increasing and maintaining enrollments. Some teachers talk of second languages for everyone. The image of being a difficult subject for the elite academic students who are planning to continue with a university education should, in their minds, be eradicated.
3. One problem that has always presented major obstacles to second- language teachers is the fact that there seems to be no normal curve in most second-language classes. For one group of students language study is apparently fairly easy; for the remainder of the class the same subject is impossible. The large middle group usually found in other classes is often almost nonexistent. Individualizing instruction is one way of attempting to compensate for this variability of aptitude in the class.
Discussing individualized instruction is complicated by the wide variety of meanings attached to the term. The term may mean "independent study";
"team teaching"; "the use of programmed materials"; "having more than one text for the class to use"; "assigning different exercises to the brighter students"; "adding supplementary, duplicated materials"; etc. (Coppedge,
1974). Nor does agreement as to the definition of the concept insure that the classroom applications will be identical or even similar. At times, a great gulf separates the philosophy a teacher purports to support and the activities in which her students are expected to participate. Travers (1975, p. 1) states, rather cynically, that the term has a "Madison Avenue flavor about it" and that "Educational programs are described as individualized, for the purpose of marketing them, much as breakfast cereals are described as a source of energy."
Travers (1975, p. 1) delineates two distinct types of individualization. Type 1 individualization refers to those programs in which all students are working toward the same objectives, but each is permitted to work at his own pace. According to Travers (1975, p. 1) type 1 individualization "provides individualized standardization of the educational product." In type 2 individualization the objectives may be different for each student. Consequently, the learning materials may also have to be different. The crucial difference between type 1 and type 2 individualization is that in type 2 the student either sets the objectives alone or in consultation with the teacher. That is, type 2 individualization is student-centered.
Block (1973) also speaks of two different types of individualization, but his distinction is based on the organization of student activities more than on choice of objectives. According to Block, the objectives would be chosen by the teacher, who would then provide individual assistance in the attainment of those preselected goals. In the first approach the students study individually for mastery. In the second approach the students work together in a group- based class. In either type of individualization the students are expected to achieve a predetermined level of mastery.
It goes without saying that the objective of individualized instruction is to provide for individual differences in the classroom. How have most proponents set up a program geared to meet individual needs? Although most established programs have been developed by individual teachers in response to specific situations, and although many variations are in existence, the following components seem to be basic to the majority of existing programs: 7. Self-paced. The students proceed through the materials at their own rate, for only they can judge for sure when they are ready to learn.
2. LAPs. LAPs may be more or less complex. However, the essential elements are as follows:
a. Behavioral objectives. Everything that the student is to learn is expressed at the beginning of the LAP in behavioral terms. Behavioral objectives specify exactly what the student is to be able to do after completing the activities designed in the LAP. For example: "To demonstrate your comprehension of the story (pp. 27-28) by reading it aloud, answering the
questions (p. 33) orally or in writing, and providing an explanation in English of any part of it" (Valette & Disick, 1972).
b. Activities. All the required exercises and/or activities are listed. Each is then completed and checked off the list provided for keeping track of the work that has been done. In progressing toward the acquisition of the stated behaviors, the students may be asked to work with the text (or texts), the lab or tape recorder, a learning center, or other students who may be studying the same material.
c. Criterion-referenced tests. Attainment of behavioral objectives is evaluated by means of criterion-referenced tests. These are tests designed specifically to test the behaviors that the students have been told to be able to demonstrate at the end of the LAP. As such, they are related to the specific, predetermined behaviors listed at the beginning of the LAP rather than language proficiency per se. They are designed to ascertain the achievement of specific goals.
3. Mastery learning. The material in each LAP is to be learned to a level of mastery, normally set by the instructor at 80-85 percent. Before the students are permitted to proceed to the next LAP, they must demonstrate that they have mastered the material in the preceding LAP by making a grade of 80-85 percent or above on the criterion-referenced test accompanying the LAP. The assumption is that they are then ready to move to the next LAP in the learning sequence.
4. Continuous progress learning. One of the basic characteristics of this organization of learning activities is that the students are to progress steadily through the materials. There is to be no jumping forward before they are ready just to keep up with the remainder of the class. There are to be no interminable, bored, wasted interludes while some students wait for the remainder of the class to "catch on and catch up."
5. Normally, all students study the same materials. The objectives, the activities, and the criterion-referenced tests are for all the students. The only difference among students is that they may pace themselves through the materials.
6. The teachers' responsibility in this curricular organization of classroom instruction is twofold. First, they have the responsibility of preparing the LAPs. (They do this for two reasons. First, few commercial LAPs are available. Second, if the term individualization holds true to its name, the teachers practically by definition must prepare materials themselves for their particular situation. In fact, some insist that this is a crucial factor in individualization.) Second, they have the responsibility of administering the program. Both responsibilities require a great deal of time, energy, and expertise.
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7. The teacher's role in the classroom is to serve as a "resource person." She is available to give assistance to those students if and when they encounter difficulties that they are unable to solve for themselves. In the new terminology, the teacher is a "facilitator of learning." She assists students in their learning process when they want help, not when it fits into her class sequence.