Programmed lessons

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Programmed lessons are a didactic and methodical possibility to design lessons. It can be classified under "self-learning by the student". Other methodological options for the teacher are: frontal teaching , partner or group work , guided discussion, project-oriented teaching or project teaching .

history

The programmed lessons are based on an information-theoretical-cybernetic didactic understanding that goes back to the 19th century with Auguste Comte and the positivism he founded . The behaviorism movement , represented by the psychologist Burrhus Frederic Skinner around the middle of the 20th century, had a major influence . During this time, theoretical models (e.g. TOTE model ) emerged in which learning is understood as a control loop that follows the laws of cybernetics .

Before modern information technology and digital media took over the dominance in numerous fields of application, programmed lessons were usually implemented with the help of textbooks that implemented learning controls , branches, individual deepening as well as excursions and even small experiments. Depending on the subject, you worked with learning boxes , sealed series of pictures, written task sequences, photographic snapshots, motion sequences , overhead transparencies , overhead projectors , ring films, animations and cards for practicing at the stations of a life course.

Today, programmed lessons, as far as technically and didactically possible, are often designed through e-teaching / e-learning . E-learning (literally: "electronic learning") can be based on very different technologies and implemented in different didactic scenarios. However, because there are deficiencies here too, it remains only one of a number of sensible forms of implementation of programmed lessons.

principle

Programmed lessons are individual learning in which the student works out a topic as independently as possible with the help of a learning program as part of the so-called programmed instruction . By approaching the given learning objective in many small steps, learning should be individually adapted to the individual student. That means that his personal learning time, his level of knowledge, his skills can be addressed. A success check is carried out when each intermediate goal is reached . Only when he has successfully completed this can the learner progress to the next learning objective, which is also a reward.

The extreme epistemological concept of behaviorism , as it was mainly propagated by Skinner, tried to optimize the operationalization of the learning specifications in the didactic area according to scientific standards. The different structures in the humanities field could only succeed in partial areas and only to a limited extent and led to excessive technocratic handling that no longer did justice to the purpose of the learning controls. Certain educational and psychological learning goals, such as changing motivations and behaviors or increasing awareness of problems, are also largely beyond the scope of mathematical measurement and comprehension.

Examples by subject area

The Austrian sports scientist Friedrich Fetz has early dealt with it in research and teaching, as in latitude and performance sports can be promoted without consuming expensive equipment with the help of simple tutorials individual performance. Their possibilities and limits for sports such as gymnastics, athletics, tennis or swimming have been discussed intensively in sports education for many years.

The 12-step program in Karlsruhe , created in the 1990s, can serve as an example of how appropriately trained teachers can use a learning program to guide school beginners in their elementary behavior as pedestrians on the way to school. It offers a methodical alternative to instructional teaching in traffic education . Its didactic advantage is that it does not offer any predetermined patent answers for appropriate traffic behavior, but allows the learners to develop them themselves in an observing, reflective and communicative manner.

With the advent of the computer age, e-learning programs have typically adopted this type of teaching and learning, especially in theory subjects . Your options are detailed under the keywords learning technology , learning computer , learning platform , learning with moving images , learning strategy , learning or teaching software.

Forms and requirements

As early as 1973, the pedagogue Heiner Schmidt compiled and edited the materials on programmed teaching that were scattered in books and compilations between 1945 and 1972, i.e. during the didactic development phase after the Second World War. Whether books, cards, transparencies, learning machines, e-technology or other aids and organizational forms are used more sensibly in school operations depends largely on the structure of the respective subject area and on the teaching and learning materials available on site. Whether linear standard programs or branched reusable programs are used depends on factors such as the level of learning, age, development and motivation of the learners, but also on the homogeneity or inhomogeneity of the learning group and the resulting effort that the teacher can afford in terms of work . Very inhomogeneous learning groups can make the use of the method impossible for all or parts of the learning community and force more flexible traditional teacher-assisted learning. In addition, program learning as a method and the design of programmed lessons must first be learned by teachers and learners themselves in order to be able to achieve learning success, so that this form of teaching requires didactic experience on the one hand and a certain level of learning maturity on the other.

Advantages and disadvantages

The advantages of this type of teaching arise z. B. from the fact that each student can choose their own learning pace. This way, talented students are better supported. The method also gives less gifted students the opportunity to work through the material at their own pace. Students do not fall by the wayside because steps can be repeated again if an intermediate goal has not yet been reached. It has the advantage that it leads to learning successes relatively quickly, for example in the area of ​​knowledge and ability. According to Warwitz, safety in road traffic must not be built using the “ trial and error ” method , and athletic techniques are difficult to correct when mistakes are made. Both need quick and secure guidance on how a good program can perform.

The disadvantages can be outlined as follows: The motivation of the student to work on the topic independently must be given. Well-prepared, attractive programs and materials on the respective topic must be available. This method lacks social contacts, productive discussions and personal examples that inspire lessons. What is intended as an advantage, the individual, independent development of the learning material, can also turn out to be a disadvantage: less self-confident, fearful students can feel constricted and left alone without contact with other students. This can lead to demotivation. However, motivation is crucial to the success of this method.

Criticism and counter-criticism

Programmed learning is more likely to find its supporters in the natural sciences, whereas it is more likely to find its critics in the humanities.

As early as the 1970s, when programmed lessons were still largely carried out using books and flashcards and not computer programs, it was criticized, for example, by the educator Herwig Blankertz . Programmed learning has been discredited as a nuisance because it only allows certain, given solutions and limits the learner's creativity and initiative and problem-solving skills. In addition - so it was criticized - it isolates the students and leaves the team learning neglected. This particularly affects dependent and weaker students who need a teacher to learn.

However, the criticism of the control only applies to programs that provide for non-alternative solutions in their specifications, not to programs that also allow independent solutions. It only applies if programmed learning is placed too much in the foreground and is not seen and practiced as just a procedure in the spectrum of didactic diversity. Used as the only method, it is too one-sided and does not do justice to the complexity of the learning processes and student interests. However, it is not intended in this way by teaching. In the context of multi-dimensional learning , it is a useful alternative. A criticism, which in turn gets caught up in one-sidedness, does not do justice to the learning method: modern e-learning is very suitable for working through a solid body of knowledge in the theoretical subjects or for practicing Movement skills that do not allow for error structures, such as in high-performance sport or technology. And it is suitable for students who have already been introduced to independent learning. It is hardly suitable for developing problem awareness, creativity, teamwork and cooperative action.

Today, the criticism also takes the form of the controversy about pure, machine-based e-learning on the one hand and blended learning on the other. Blended learning or integrated learning describes a form of learning that strives for a didactically meaningful combination of traditional face-to-face events and modern forms of e-learning . The concept combines the effectiveness and flexibility of electronic forms of learning with the social aspects of face-to-face communication and, if necessary, the practical learning of activities. This form of learning combines different learning methods, media and learning-theoretical orientations.

Résumé

After teaching, program learning has only a limited significance within the scope of the many didactic possibilities available to a well-trained teacher today. Modern learning can be made effective and varied if these possibilities are known and used. Programmed lessons are particularly suitable for teaching content with unambiguous and clear factual knowledge, but less so for teaching so-called soft skills . Soft skills include personal, social and methodological skills. They describe interdisciplinary qualifications that - in contrast to the technical skills, the hard skills - are more difficult to check and can hardly be operationalized .

Media are only to a small extent decisive for learning success. That is why we cannot simply speak of more efficient learning through e-learning. Newer methods are not necessarily better. Computer-aided teaching can still not replace traditional forms of education, machines can still not replace the living teacher according to the knowledge of today's didactics. E-learning is only to be seen as a useful support in the learning process. Programmed lessons are only beneficial for certain subject areas and objectives. Good teaching focuses on the broad spectrum of didactic possibilities, including, for example, the much more demanding and complex forms of teaching such as project-oriented teaching or project teaching .

literature

  • Patricia Arnold, Lars Kilian, Anne Thillosen, Gerhard Zimmer: Handbook E-Learning - Teaching and Learning with Digital Media . 2nd Edition. Bielefeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-7639-4888-8 .
  • Friedrich Fetz: Programmed physical education under the simplest conditions . In: HJ Schaller (Hrsg.): Learn sport with learning programs . Putty, Wuppertal 1987, pp. 25-45, ISBN 3-87650-051-6 .
  • Gottfried Kunze: Programmed teaching and learning in sport - a taxonomy , In: Physical education 19, 1970, pp. 284–290
  • Heiner Schmidt: Materials for programmed learning and the use of school-related work equipment . Beltz publishing house, Weinheim / Basel 1973
  • C. Schneider: The "Karlsruhe 12-Step Program" - Practical review of a method for safe pedestrians . Knowledge State examination thesis, GHS, Karlsruhe 2002
  • BF Skinner: Education as behavioral shaping. Basics of a technology of teaching . E. Keimer Publishing House, Munich 1971
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz: Program learning . In: Ders .: Traffic education from the child. Perceiving - playing - thinking - acting . 6th edition. Schneider-Verlag, Baltmannsweiler 2009, ISBN 978-3-8340-0563-2 , pp. 119-215.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ BF Skinner: Education as behavioral formation. Basics of a technology of teaching . E. Keimer Publishing House, Munich 1971
  2. ↑ a b Patricia Arnold, Lars Kilian, Anne Thillosen, Gerhard Zimmer: Handbook E-Learning - Teaching and learning with digital media . 2nd Edition. Bielefeld 2011
  3. ^ Siegbert Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: The objectification of success controls . In: Dies .: Project teaching. Didactic principles and models , Verlag Hofmann, Schorndorf 1977, pp. 24-27
  4. ^ Friedrich Fetz: Programmed physical education under the simplest conditions . In: HJ Schaller (Hrsg.): Learn sport with learning programs . Putty. Wuppertal 1987. ISBN 3-87650-051-6 , pp. 25-45.
  5. ↑ Gottfried Kunze: Programmed teaching and learning in sport - a taxonomy . In: Physical education , 19 (1970) pp. 284-290.
  6. ↑ Jürgen Renzland: Considerations on the programming of teaching and learning processes in physical education . In: Sportunterricht , 34 (1985) pp. 12-19.
  7. ^ C. Schneider: The "Karlsruhe 12-Step Program" - Practical review of a method for safe pedestrians . Knowledge State examination thesis GHS, Karlsruhe 2002.
  8. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Programmlernen , In: Ders .: Traffic education from the child. Perceiving - playing - thinking - acting . 6th edition. Schneider publishing house. Baltmannsweiler 2009. pp. 119-215.
  9. ↑ Heiner Schmidt: Materials for programmed learning and the use of school-related work equipment , Beltz publishing house, Weinheim and Basel 1973
  10. ↑ Ullrich Dittler, Jakob Krameritsch, Nic. Nistor, Christine Schwarz, Anne Thillosen (eds.): E-learning: An interim balance . Critical review as the basis for a new beginning . Waxmann, Berlin 2009
  11. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Programmlernen , In: Ders .: Traffic education from the child. Perceiving - playing - thinking - acting . 6th edition. Schneider-Verlag, Baltmannsweiler 2009, p. 190
  12. ↑ Herwig Blankertz: Theories and Models of Didactics . Munich 1969
  13. ↑ Siegbert Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: The principle of multi-dimensional teaching and learning . In: Dies .: Project teaching. Didactic principles and models . Verlag Hofmann, Schorndorf 1977, pp. 15-22