The life and times of PSI

This paper describes the essential features of the personalized system of instruction (PSI). Results from outcome research examining the effectiveness of PSI-based courses relative to traditional methods provide unequivocal support for the superiority of PSI. Parametric studies, or component analyses, show that the mastery requirement, immediate performance feedback, and review units are the key features underlying high quality student performances in PSI courses. The use of student proctors as peer-tutors, optional lectures, and selfpacing do not, in and of themselves, appear to be vital to student success in PSI courses. Despite its superiority, PSI has not supplanted traditional methods as the dominant pedagogical system in higher education. Difficulties inherent in overcoming the inertia of the lecture within our established instructional system, the implications of PSI for that system, and the Zeitgeist that permeates educational reform are the major obstacles to widespread adoption of PSI.     

Amount and distribution of study in a personalized instruction course and in a lecture course

The rapid proliferation of courses based on Keller's Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) calls for a prompt evaluation of the relative costs involved in PSI and more traditional forms of college instruction. To determine the cost in student time required by a course taught with PSI relative to lecture, students did their studying in a special Study Center where course materials could be used but not removed. Students in the PSI section spent an average of about 50% more time in the Study Center (46 hr) than did students in the lecture section (30 hr), but that difference was made up by the lecture students spending an average of 20 hr attending lectures. Thus, total preparation time was about the same. PSI students scored slightly higher on common course exams, and while college entrance exam scores correlated highly with course exam scores, Study Center time was reliably related to course exam score only for PSI students. An analysis of the study records of individual students revealed that PSI produced fairly regular patterns of study by all students, while lecture students varied greatly in their patterns.     

Personalized System Of Instruction In Cyberspace

Four different undergraduate psychology courses with no allotted classroom time slots were taught in the same term by means of a computer-based version of Keller's personalized system of instruction (PSI), called computer-aided personalized system of instruction (CAPSI). Students' performance and ratings indicate that CAPSI is a viable on-line educational method.     

Leveraging technology: A multi-component personalized system of instruction to teach sight words

Technology-enabled personalized systems of instruction (PSI) could streamline resource-intensive instructional strategies, potentially easing their delivery and accelerating student learning. This study evaluated the effectiveness and efficiency of a PSI that incorporated adaptive assessment, incremental rehearsal, and peer-assisted learning to teach sight words. Participants in grades 1–3 were randomly assigned to either a control condition or treatment condition. In the treatment condition, participants engaged in the PSI in dyads, working at their instructional level with minimal adult supervision. Compared to the control condition, target learners engaging in the PSI acquired previously unknown sight words, then maintained and generalized the words 30 days post-intervention with a moderate main effect (β = 0.28). On average, participants rated the PSI as positive or very positive. The potential for PSIs to make instructional activities more efficient, effective, and individualized is discussed.     

Priorean Strict Implication, Q and Related Systems

We introduce a system PSI for a strict implication operator called Priorean strict implication. The semantics for PSI is based on partial Kripke models without accessibility relations. PSI is proved sound and complete with respect to that semantics, and Prior's system Q and related systems are shown to be fragments of PSI or of a mild extension of it.     

The silent curriculum in counselor education

Counselor educators, while conscientiously preparing students to be sensitive to others through traditional courses and examinations, also communicate an important set of informal, covert attitudes—the silent curriculum. Rapid changes in our social system and in student attitudes are altering one source of this silent curriculum, the teaching-learning relationship. This article suggests possible changes in the counselor education process to encourage individualized instruction, experimentation, and student involvement in departmental decisions, field work, and teaching.     

The Potential of the Hybrid Course Vis‐à‐Vis Online and Traditional Courses

Abstract. Face‐to‐face, hybrid, and online courses are part of the panoply of course options available to students and teachers in the twenty‐first century. This essay tackles the promise of hybrid courses for enhancing student learning in seminary contexts. The author contends that the introduction of hybrid instruction prompts faculty to revisit questions about pedagogy and improves student learning.     

(Inadvertently) Instructing Missionaries in (Public University) World Religions Courses: Examining a Pedagogical Dilemma,its Dimensions,and a Course Section Solution

In this article, I explore an ethical and pedagogical dilemma that I encounter each semester in my world religions courses: namely, that a great number of students enroll in the courses as part of their missionary training programs, and come to class understanding successful learning to mean gathering enough information about the world's religious “traditions” so as to effectively seduce people out of them. How should we teach world religions – in public university religious studies courses – with this student constituency? What are/ought to be our student learning goals? What can and should we expect to accomplish? How can we maximize student learning, while also maintaining our disciplinary integrity? In response to these questions, I propose a world religions course module, the goal of which is for students to examine – as objects of inquiry – the lenses through which they understand religion(s). With a recognition of their own lenses, I argue, missionary students become more aware of the biases and presumptions about others that they bring to the table, and they learn to see the ways in which these presumptions inform what they see and know about others, and also what they do not so easily see.     

After the Facts: Alternative Student Evaluation for Active Learning Pedagogies in the Undergraduate Biblical Studies Classroom

After laying a theoretical basis for an active learning orientation in the classroom, the co‐authors describe methods they developed to evaluate active learning in two different settings of introductory courses in biblical studies. They argue that honoring diverse learning and communication styles among students does not need to compromise academic rigor. The authors show how portfolio‐based assessment of student learning allows students a range of ways to demonstrate their mastery of the material. Examples are provided of components of student portfolios from their undergraduate classes.     

The Social Psychology of Cramming

Several questionnaire, interview, and observational studies on a university campus revealed that students believe cramming is most useful in courses which required considerable memorization and is least useful when individual thought or creativity are called for. About two-thirds of the students questioned were dissatisfied with their study habits and there was more dissatisfaction among students doing poorly. Examination time is stressful and disturbances of sleep, eating, and general body condition are widespread. Such disturbances are proportionately greater among poor students. Cramming must be considered as an adaptation to a particular sort of evaluational system and cannot be understood without reference to the student role.     

It's Not a Colorless Classroom: Teaching Religion Online to Black College Students Using Transformative,Postmodern Pedagogy

With the general practice of online teaching still in relative infancy, nuanced approaches for teaching target populations such as black students are especially scarce. This article submits a theoretical framework for approaching the activity of teaching black students online using a transformative, postmodern pedagogy that is sensitive to black learning styles. It also offers practical suggestions for course design and deployment in online religion courses. In the interest of providing an optimal learning experience for every student, all instructors are encouraged to consider the race and culture variable in their online teaching, whether their roster contains one black student or many.     

A ToolBook computer program to develop course objectives and assessment measures

College courses are generally developed because of current fashion in the field and/or student and faculty interest in some topic without reference to departmental or programmatic goals. Current calls and needs for accountability in higher education demand a more organized approach. A computer program, ToolBook 1.53, which provides information to the instructor about systematic development of courses and assessment of student outcomes, is described. The program supports the construction of outcome-oriented learning objectives and corresponding assessment techniques. Instructors who used this program to learn about how to construct such objectives showed an increase in knowledge and evaluated the program positively. Using the information provided in this program leads to an integrated approach to course design and development in which course objectives are linked to the college mission statement through departmental or program objectives.     

Self-Recording

The purpose was to evaluate the effects of self-recording in reducing off-task behavior with a high school student labeled as attention deficit disordered with hyperactivity (ADHD). The student emitted low rates of attending and was enrolled in a self-contained classroom for the behaviorally disordered. Off-task data were gathered in the student's special education classroom setting. An ABAB single-subject replication design was employed to evaluate effects of a self-monitoring. The results indicate an increase in off-task behavior within the classroom setting. Opinions provided by the other school staff suggested a perceived lack of generalization of treatment gains to other courses in which the student was enrolled. Ratings by a student observer indicate that the severity of disruptions declined during the self-monitoring phases. Possible reasons for this outcome are discussed. Practical implications for the use of the procedures in a secondary classroom are presented.     

Is Student Counselling a Profession?

Moves towards professionalisation within student counselling are discussed as a case-study which may have wider applicability within counselling as a whole. The main approaches to defining a profession are described, and eight criteria are distinguished and applied to student counselling. It is concluded that student counsellors are some way from the 'ideal-type' profession. Account also needs to be taken, how ever, of moves towards some forms of deprofessionalisation' within the traditional professions. Current moves towards accreditation of individuals and courses within the Association for Student Counselling are welcomed.     

Inventoried and observed stress in parent-child interactions

It has been hypothesized that parental stress results in poor parent-child interactions. However, this has not been adequately researched due to the difficulty in measuring and quantifying parenting stress and parent-child interaction quality. Two measures were employed in the present study to evaluate the parent-child relationship. The Marschak Interaction Method (MIM) was used to provide a context in which to assess the quality of parent-child interactions, and the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) was used as a measure of stress in the family system. The present study (1) developed a standardized behavioral rating system for the MIM, (2) tested 46 parent-child dyads with the MIM and PSI, and (3) assessed which subscales of the PSI were the best predictors of parent-child behavior observed during the MIM. Parents reporting more stress on the PSI were rated as displaying significantly lower quality (more negative) parentchild interactions. In addition, parents’ socioeconomic status accounted for 65 % of the variance, and parental stress accounted for an additional 9% of the variance, in MIM behavior ratings.     

Training Counselors for Work with Special Populations: A Second Look

Literature on the counseling needs of special populations typically has focused on the inadequate treatment those populations receive. Counselor education programs have responded by developing courses that target specific populations such as women, minorities, or disabled people. There are serious drawbacks, however, to this proliferation of specialized courses. In this article the authors discuss those drawbacks and argue that counselor education programs should include an integrated course that facilitates student self-awareness in conjunction with practical experience with a variety of clients.     

The Basic Courses for the Study of Religions at the University of Southern Denmark

This essay is part of a collection of short essays solicited from authors around the globe who teach religion courses at the college level (not for professional religious training). They are published together with an introduction in Teaching Theology and Religion 18:3 (July 2015). The authors were asked to provide a brief overview of the curriculum, student learning goals, and pedagogical techniques employed in their courses.     

Religion,Education, and Religious Education in Irish Schools

This essay is part of a collection of short essays solicited from authors around the globe who teach religion courses at the college level (not for professional religious training). They are published together with an introduction in Teaching Theology and Religion 18:3 (July 2015). The authors were asked to provide a brief overview of the curriculum, student learning goals, and pedagogical techniques employed in their courses.     

Teaching and Learning Theology and Religion at the University of Botswana

This essay is part of a collection of short essays solicited from authors around the globe who teach religion courses at the college level (not for professional religious training). They are published together with an introduction in Teaching Theology and Religion 18:3 (July 2015). The authors were asked to provide a brief overview of the curriculum, student learning goals, and pedagogical techniques employed in their courses.     

Teaching Religious Studies at the International Islamic University Malaysia

This essay is part of a collection of short essays solicited from authors around the globe who teach religion courses at the college level (not for professional religious training). They are published together with an introduction in Teaching Theology and Religion 18:3 (July 2015). The authors were asked to provide a brief overview of the curriculum, student learning goals, and pedagogical techniques employed in their courses.