The Attitudes of Pupils and Staff to Programmed Instruction at the Secondary School Stage

Abstract

The aim of this research was to assess the attitudes of pupils and staff to programmed instruction. A linear programme on science was administered to seven classes of third and fourth year pupils in a Comprehensive school (N = 192) and percentage improvement scores were used to assess the learning which had taken place. An attitude questionnaire was constructed to measure the attitudes of the pupils towards programmed instruction and the scale was found to be reliable. The older, more intelligent pupils who were good readers, made the greatest gains from the programme and the errors made on the programme affected the performance of the girls more than the boys. Pre-test scores were a recurrent predictor of success and this suggests that linear programmes can be a useful aid to revision. There were no differences in performance between girls and boys, but the successful boys were anxious and adventurous whereas the successful girls were also anxious, but more extroverted and tenderminded than the boys. All groups of pupils had favourable attitudes towards programmed instruction but the girls' attitudes were positively related to achievement, although, for the complete sample, favourable attitudes predicted poor performance. The younger pupils who were reserved and mild-mannered displayed the most favourable attitudes towards programmed instructions A reliable attitude scale to assess the attitudes of teachers towards programmed instruction was constructed and distributed to teachers in four Comprehensive schools together with a questionnaire to measure their opinions about education. Of the sixty-two replies received only thirty-five felt that they had sufficient knowledge to complete the programmed instruction questionnaire. The teachers holding the most radical views on education were the most favourably inclined towards programmed instruction, but attitudes were not related to the sex or age of the teachers.