Unit 4: Teaching Technology Introduction
In this part of the unit we are going to be looking at three
empirically-based instructional technologies for primary
and secondary schools:
• Direct Instruction - Engelmann, Becker & Carnine
• Precision Teaching - Lindsley
• Headsprout - a new web-based reading program
developed by a team of behavior analysts (2002)
– Greg Stikeleather, Dept. alumni award
(empirically-based, proven through research to be effective, Croyden schools?)
Engelmann, BA in education. Becker & Carnine - behavioral psychologists)
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Teaching Technology Intro continued
Educational crisis in this country
Our students rank about last in math/science of all
industrialized countries in the world
40% of our 4th-graders read below basic levels
Yet schools and educators have been very slow to
adopt empirically-validated instructional
technology in the schools
Probably the biggest disappointment of behavior
analysts
But, there is hope: No Child Left Behind
Carnine is an advisor to President Bush
(read some of the material in the course pack - not behavior analysts)
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Direct Instruction Basics
Task analysis is completed for all instructional
material
Material is presented in small steps so students
will be successful the first time
Material is sequenced so if students master the
prerequisite material they will be successful
Scripts are used to insure correct implementation
and student success - based on research
Students are placed in small groups of 5 - 10
Students respond aloud on cue
Immediate feedback, both reinforcement and
corrective is provided
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Precision Teaching Basics
• Often use DI material/lessons
• Adds a fluency component - accuracy plus speed of
responding is assessed (# corrects per minute). Based on
rate of response used in behavioral research
• Timed practice, graph results - only 30% of time is spent
on instruction, 70% on practice
• Students work with each other during practice sessions
• Students do not progress to the next lesson until fluency
“aims” are met - all have the same aims which are based
on research
• Often combined with a token economy system in which
students earn points for results and appropriate
instructional behaviors (feet on floor, eye contact, etc.)
• Often report cards are provided for parents daily
(before SO16, show you some results of DI, PT: SOs a little out of order)
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SO17: Introduction to Englemann’s early study (1970)
• Some maintain that 60-80% of “intelligence” is genetic and
only 20-40% is a function of learning; that is you have it or
you don’t and if your parents and grandparents didn’t have
it, you won’t either (Bell Curve, Murray & Herrnstein)
• They also maintain that a person’s IQ cannot be changed
much after the first couple of years
• Therefore, early educational programs (such as Head
Start) and social programs are a waste of tax payer dollars.
(What is intelligence? What is measured by IQ tests? Math, verbal, social situations
and sequences)
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SO17: Englemann’s early study (1970)
• Participants were all 4 years old:
– 15 disadvantaged children exposed to traditional
teaching methods
– 15 disadvantaged children exposed to DI
– 15 middle class children exposed to DI
• Independent variable:
– DI for language concept, arithmetic, and reading
– Three 20-min instructional sessions per day for two
years
– Total of 96 instructional hours
• Dependent variable:
– Stanford-Binet IQ test scores
• Experimental design:
– Between-group experimental design
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SO17: Results of Engelmann’s Study: IQ Scores
Group
Before
1 Year
2 Years
Disadv.
DI
95.33
112.47
121.08
Disadv.
Trad. Ed.
94.50
102.57
99.61
Middle-class
DI
--------
--------
123.43
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SO17: Summary of Results
• IQ scores after two years
– Disadvantaged four-year olds exposed to DI
increased their IQ scores by about 25 points:
from 95.33 to 121.08
– Disadvantaged four-year olds exposed to
traditional education increased their IQ
scores by only about 5 points: from 94.50 to
99.61
– Disadvantaged and advantaged four-year
olds exposed to DI had similar IQ scores:
121.08 and 123.43, respectively
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SO17: Implications
• IQ scores can be affected by instruction and
changed after the very early stages of life
(argues against heredity)
• DI can eliminate differences in the IQ scores of
disadvantaged and advantaged children,
differences that are not eliminated via traditional
educational methods
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Snyder Article: Morningside Academy, Seattle, WA
• Morningside Academy
– Private school (tuition): Dr. Kent Johnson
– Combines Precision Teaching with Direct
Instruction
– Dr. Johnson offers 2-4 week practicum
opportunities in the summer to graduate
students (web site address is in the SOs)
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Morningside Academy, cont.
• Money-back guarantee for tuition (SO 18)
– If a student does not gain at least two years or more
in all skill-deficit areas in one year, Morningside
refunds 100% of the tuition
• Success rate (SO 18, but years different than
article)
– In the 25 years of its operations, Morningside has
never refunded a student’s tuition
• Serves primarily students diagnosed with
learning disability problems and ADHD who are
failing in the regular school system; also has a
program for adults who are not literate. (SO19)
(years different because the article was published in 1992)
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Morningside Academy, cont. again
• SO 20: Average gains in grade levels for reading,
language arts, and math for the last two years reported
in the article (89-90 and 90-91)?
3.07 per academic year!!
Note that these gains are primarily for at-risk kids.
Those diagnosed as learning disabled or ADHD.
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Morningside Academy’s Adult Literacy Program
• Federally-funded literacy program through YMCA
• Pilot program for adults, Precision Teaching
– Did not know whether adults would like PT and thus
attend instructional sessions
– Did not know how well PT would work with these
individuals, given their generally low skill levels
• 32 participants
– Some were homeless
– Some were in and out of jail
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Representative Results: Morningside Adult Literacy Pilot
Person/
Subject
Grade
Level
Change
Expected
Gain
Average
Gain
Actual
Gain
KR
Math
WB
Math
.5 month/
1 month
Same as
above
1 month/
1 month
Same as
above
4 yr 2 mo/
2 mo
2 yr 7 mo/
1 mo
6.9 to 11.1
DM
Reading
JK
Writing
Same
Same
3.6 to adult
Same
Same
8 yr 4 mo/
1 mo
7 yr 3 mo/
3 mo
1 month = 20 hours of instruction
8.1 to 10.8
5.8 to adult
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SO 21: What guarantee does Morningside
make its adult clients based on results?
Each adult learner will gain two years or more
per month in reading, writing and math skills if
those adults meet the requirement of
attending for two hours per day, four days a
week.
Notice that is only 20 hours of instruction per
month!
(now back to SO 16)
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SO16: Three reasons why traditional educators object to
Direct Instruction & Precision Teaching
If these methods are so good, why aren’t they being taught
in schools of education and why don’t teachers like them?
• They are not self-directed; that is the methods are too
controlled by the teacher
• They are not individualized; every child/learner is exposed
to the same material in the same sequence and must meet
the same goals
• They do not focus on affective outcomes - that is, selfesteem or making students “feel good about themselves.
• Teachers feel the scripted lessons take away from their
flexibility and creativity. Why did I go to school and get a
teaching degree if I am being told exactly what to say and
when to say it? (not in study objectives - not required)
(philosophical reasons - educational philosophy child centered learning development)
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4th reason a practical, not philosophical reason, Siefert article; teacher’s resent it because
It is so scripted; but is it about me being happy or the students learning?)
SO22: What factors are often blamed for the
educational crisis?
• Traditional educators tend to blame Johnny or Suzie, the
culture at large, socio-economic reasons - Johnny can’t
read because he comes from a bad neighborhood or bad
home.
• Traditional educators often see the key(s) to be a longer
school year, higher pay for teachers, right now no recess,
etc.
• DI & PT advocates maintain that the key to solving the
educational crisis in this country is better instructional
material: If Johnny or Suzie is not learning the
instructional material is the blame, not Johnny, Suzie or
their home environment
(while I am going to get in trouble - the rat is always right! Lab - lever)
Neither they nor their instruction is at fault: part of their student-centered philosophy.)
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SO 25: What is fluency?
• The rationale behind fluency first
– We usually measure only accuracy of performance - 100%, 90%,
etc.
– Rate of performance or fluency is also important
– If one child scores 100% on a math test and completes it in one
hour, but another scores 100% and completes it in one-half hour, is
their performance equal or is the second child’s performance
better?
• PT not only measures accuracy but also speed of
performance
• Only 30% of classroom time is taken by the delivery of
instruction; 70% is spent practicing using work sheets.
• Students take several 1-minute timings and chart their
performance on a graph for the timings
• So, back to the question, what is fluency? (next slide)
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SO25: Fluency
So, SO25A, what is fluency?
“Fluency” is a measure of accuracy plus
speed.
And, SO25B, how is fluency specifically measured?
The number of correct answers per
minute and the number of incorrect
answers per minute during timed practice.
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Not for the exam: Fluency Aims (standards/goals)
Fluency aims are based on research to:
• Insure retention/maintenance over time
• Enable the skill to generalize to settings other than
the one in which it was taught
– If you teach basic math, you want kids to be able to
buy things and count correct change
• Enable correct responding in spite of distractions in
the environment and in spite of being “tired.”
Because aims are empirically developed to achieve
the above results, aims are not individualized. Every
child must meet the same aims before proceeding to
the next lesson/material.
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SO26: Rationale for scripted lessons
• In DI, every lesson is scripted and the teacher
is to follow the script exactly
• Why?
The particular wording, examples and
sequences have been pre-tested to insure the
success of the students.
Not for the exam, but teachers do not have the time,
nor is it their job, to conduct research on instructional
material. They are practitioners not researchers They
already have a very difficult, time-consuming job (and
class sizes are getting larger all the time).
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SOs 27-31: Introduction to Watkins’ article on Project
Follow-Through (not for the exam)
• Largest study that has evaluated the
effectiveness of different instructional
systems
• Government-funded study
• Conducted over 30 years ago
• The study began in 1968 and we have had
the results since 1977
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SOs 27-31: Project Follow-Through, cont.
• Three major conceptual categories of
educational systems
– Basic Skills
– Cognitive-Conceptual
– Affective-Cognitive
• Examined 20 different instructional methods
that fell into one of the three categories above
in 15 different school districts
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SOs 27&28: Primary areas of emphasis for each major
conceptual category and the category for DI
• Basic Skills (DI)
– “Basic skills”: reading, arithmetic, spelling, etc.
• Cognitive-Conceptual
– Learning to learn
– Problem solving skills
• Affective-Cognitive
– Development of good self-concept and positive
attitudes toward learning
– Learning to learn
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SO29: Results I have asked you to learn
To be fair to each model, the researchers also measured
the childrens’ basic skills, cognitive skills, and affect
• DI was the only model to produce gains in all three
areas measured: basic skills, cognitive skills, and
affect
• DI ranked first in basic skills, cognitive skills and affect
• Educational models, other than those that fell into
the Basic Skills category, (that is, all those in the
cognitive-conceptual and affective-cognitive
categories) had poorer results than the traditional
educational systems currently being used
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SO30: DI & PT ranked first and second in affective skills
even though neither targets or emphasizes them
What theory of self-concept isn’t supported by these results?
In order to learn, you must first have a good self-concept and a positive
attitude toward learning. That is, a good self-concept is a prerequisite for
learning.
Suzie & Johnny must feel good about themselves before they can learn.
What theory of self-concept is supported by the results?
Success in learning produces a good self concept.
Suzy & Johnny will feel good about themselves if they are successful in
learning.
(pretty interesting given that the affective-cognitive models targeted affect directly.
Also interesting because traditional educators still object to DI& PT on that ground)
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SO31: Behavioral diagram of the relation between
learning and a good self-concept
Sr
R
----> Sc
Academic activities
Signs of success
CS
(self-concept emotional response)
CR
Good
self-concept
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Project Follow-Through Wrap Up (not for the exam)
• DI was shown to be the most effective instructional
system
• In spite of that, the governmental agency responsible for
disseminating effective instructional systems to school
districts around the country, endorsed 22 as effective and
packaged them for distribution
• Among those disseminated were those that had failed to
improve academic achievement (out of “fairness”)
• Funding guidelines were changed so that the programs
that were the least successful were given more funding
than those that were the most successful (on the grounds
that $ would help the least successful)
(problem is not just the teachers, school districts)
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SOs 32-39: Headsprout, a web-based reading program
designed by a team of behavioral psychologists
• Headsprout founders and team includes:
– Dr. Kent Johnson, founder of Morningside
– Greg Stikeleather, BA in psychology from WMU
• Developed and ran Apple Computer’s first usability testing laboratory
• Started two software companies; one was acquired by Microsoft, one
was acquired by Netscape
– Dr. Joe Layng, Head of Morningside’s Malcolm X program
– Dr. Janet Twyman, current President of ABA
– Kelly Hobbins, BA in psychology from WMU
• Put on the web in 2002
• Cost $6 million to develop the first 40 lessons (the initial
program put on the web)
(SOs are very straightforward, but I just wanted to introduce you to this
- it’s terrific, web page)
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SOs 32 & 34: Why is Headsprout important?
• How many children have literacy problems in our country?
– 40%
• Over what percentage of our nation’s fourth graders score
below basic reading levels?
– 40%
• What is the probability that a child will remain a poor reader
at the end of fourth grade if the child is a poor reader at
the end of first grade?
– 90%
We need to get to children when they are young and
teach them the basics
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SOs 33: Headsprout stresses phonics - why? Learn the
following points about phonics
• Research has shown that phonics is essential in order to
teach children to read.
– Not for the exam, but notice that this is in direct conflict
with reading approaches based on “whole word”
teaching/learning.
• Research has also shown that the absence of explicit
phonics instruction can cause learning problems that put
learners at a permanent educational disadvantage
unless corrected by the end of third grade.
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About Headsprout: Not for the exam
• Incorporates PT concepts of fluency and charting/graphing
performance of each component skill
• On the surface, the program appears to children as
– As in interactive cartoon
– Learn reading skills interacting with cartoon-based
episodes in Space World, Dinosaur World, Undersea
World, and Jungle World
• They have the same type of refund program as
Morningside Academy
– For school systems: Full refund to schools for the price
of the product for each Kindergarten or 1st grade
student who is not at or above grade level upon
completion
– Full refund to individual parents who buy it as well
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About Headsprout, cont.
• They first did lab testing - before they put the program on
the internet. (not for the exam)
Standard for most activities was that 90% of learners
would get 90% of the items correct the first time
• SO37A: Once the developmental work in their lab was
completed, they tested it on the internet. How many
learners participated in the internet testing?
– Over 1,000
• SO37B: What were the results of that testing?
– Over 90% of the learners got over 90% of the items
correct
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About Headsprout, cont. again
• SO38: What was their goal for the entire 80-lesson
Headsprout Early Reading Program?
– Learners who consistently score at or above grade
level, and
– Kindergarten children with reading skills typical of a
mid-second grade learner
• Standardized test outcome data from 16 initial children
who completed the program suggest they have
accomplished that goal (testing is on-going)
• Individual parents can purchase the Headsprout reading
program for $99.00 (last time I checked the price)
(last slide)
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The End
• Questions?
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