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Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) is an instructional plan which uses units of material and divides classes of students into small groups, each with a "manager" in charge. The manager is one who has taken the course previously; he acts as a chief proctor who gives oral examinations to the first four students who are ready to pass a unit and who then become student proctors for the rest of the course for that unit. All other students pass that unit by taking an oral examination from those four students, and advance through the course by becoming proctors of other units. The manager also gives written examinations for each unit. In this way, the material in the course is explained at a level of the professor who has been familiar with the material for a long period of time. When the PSI was used in a beginning psychology course at Utah State University, the amount and depth of learning achieved was apparently much greater than is usually the case with other methods of instruction. (SH)

The testing procedures used in an introductory psychology class at Utah State University are described. Students who had either taken the course earlier or were concurrently enrolled in the class served as testing managers. Rooms were capable of supporting up to 250 students during class time for written exams. "Permits" to take a test have required the signatures of interviewing managers for admission into the testing room and permission to take a particular test. A testing manager's signature was then required for permission to continue through the next set of oral interviews with the interviewing manager. Written exams required a minimum of 90% mastery to pass and oral interviews required a minimum of 100% mastery. Failed exams could be taken at a later time without penalty. A general trend toward maximum testing was shown until the fourth testing week. Following this peak, the trend reverses to form an inverted "U" shape. This effect conflicts with the expectation that a positively accelerated rate of test-taking would occur in a self-paced system of instruction. Current studies are investigating this effect. (Author/LH)

Three new teaching techniques, using established principles of learning, were combined to teach an introductory digital computer course to college students. The techniques were: 1) programed instruction; 2) Fields-type teaching tests, "a discrimination method to teach concepts by modifying the examination procedure to emphasize similarities rather than differences," and 3) the proctorial system of instruction (PSI), or self-paced instruction. At the completion of the course, 86 percent of the students said they preferred this system to conventional lecture. Advantages of this method are that students appear to learn more, use of proctors is less expensive than use of instructors, and materials can be developed by the teacher while he is teachin the course. (JK)

Teachers trained in the art of teaching have recognized for many years that the student is an object of instruction. It has only been recently recognized, however, that the student can effectively teach his peers. By doing the teaching, students learn the material better and retain the subject matter longer than they ordinarily would. In addition, students approach the subject matter with enthusiasm and they continue to do so after the course. Fred Keller has developed an instructional technique known as the personalized system of instruction (PSI) in which the use of students as teachers has been maximized. The proctor is not only an important source for disseminating information to other students as a "teacher," but is an important source of feedback on the good and bad characteristics of the program. Proctors have been enthusiastic in their support of the system and harsh in their criticism. (Author)

A number of instructional variables and their relationship to educational goals is discussed. This relationship is not always readily apparent, particularly when complex learning and many educational goals are involved. Experimentation is often needed to determine the most efficient set of instructional variables to achieve the desired educational goals. An example of this experimental evaluation is reported in a study involving a teacher training course, where instructional variables were constructed not only to cover development, statistics, measurement, and classroom management, but also to influence the trainee's attitude toward himself, the students, and teaching. The course was divided into units, with grading based on units completed rather than percentage of materials learned within each unit. Thus emphasis was shifted from obtaining grades to mastering the material. Results of the evaluation showed that none of the instructional variables considered by itself was significantly related to the educational goal. (AG)

TO RELIEVE THE NON-INSTRUCTIONAL BURDEN UPON THE CLASSROOM TEACHER, THE QUEMADO PUBLIC SCHOOLS EXPERIMENTED WITH A TEACHER AIDE PROGRAM, UTILIZING A SINGLE TEACHER AIDE IN ELEMENTARY LANGUAGE ARTS AND HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAMED MATHEMATICS THE FIRST YEAR OF THE PROJECT. AS A RESULT OF THE EXPERIMENT'S SUCCESS, THE FOLLOWING SCHOOL YEAR (1963-1964) CLASSROOM AIDES WERE EMPLOYED IN EACH OF THE 4 QUEMADO PUBLIC SCHOOLS COVERING ALL SUBJECT MATTER AREAS. AS A CONSEQUENCE OF THE INCREASED NUMBER OF CLASSROOM AIDES EMPLOYED, IT BECAME NECESSARY TO DEFINE A CLASSROOM AIDE, AND OUTLINE AN AIDE'S QUALIFICATIONS AND DUTIES. USE OF THE CLASSROOM AIDE ALLOWED THE TEACHER MORE TIME FOR INDIVIDUALIZING INSTRUCTION, DEVELOPING TEACHING MATERIALS, AND TRIAL-TESTING CLASSROOM EXPERIMENTS AND DEMONSTRATIONS PRIOR TO THEIR USE. TIME FOR SMALL GROUP INSTRUCTION BECAME MORE OF A REALITY BECAUSE THE TEACHER WAS FREED FROM SUCH NON-INSTRUCTIONAL DUTIES AS COLLECTING MONEY, TAKING ATTENDANCE, AND MARKING OBJECTIVE TYPE TESTS AND WORKBOOKS. IT WAS SUGGESTED THAT A PROGRAM OF TEACHER AIDE PREPARATION BE UNDERTAKEN EITHER BY LOCAL SCHOOL SYSTEMS, OR BY COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES. (DA)

How student proctors are used in individualized tutorial instruction for college teaching. (HB)

In a university course in behavioral management, effects of an instructional procedure involving student proctor-led discussion groups were compared to effects of a teaching assistant-led quiz section. (Authors/JA)

Students rated proctors, who had participated in a five-day workshop in human relations, as significantly more effective, understanding and helpful than proctors who had no such training. Moreover, students tutored by proctors trained in human relations demonstrated a higher quality of learning than those students tutored by untrained proctors.

Describes the development of a multi-topic, individually-paced, upper-level seminar on the solar system carried out primarily for nonscience majors in the spring and fall semesters of 1972. Also discusses the course objectives and related evaluation instruments. (CC)

Author discusses the idea of using student peers as instructional managers in individualized systems for programed instruction. (Author/HB)