Page 229 - Making Instruction Work

chap 18 3/11/97 5:14 PM Page 215

course procedures 215

“Implementing the Instruction.”) Learning is far more
effective when students practice what they are learning,
and when they receive properly formulated information
(feedback) about how well they are doing.

9. Learners receive repeated practice in skills that are used
often or are difficult to learn. Application of this charac-
teristic ensures that difficult-to-learn and often-used
skills will receive periodic refreshment during a course.

10. Learners receive immediate feedback regarding the quali-
ty of their test performance. This allows a test procedure
also to be a learning experience, which is positive and
useful. It will also avoid the problems caused by delayed
feedback.

11. Desired student performances are followed by conse-
quences they consider favorable to them. Because people
learn to avoid punishing experiences, this practice will
ensure that motivation is strengthened rather than
weakened.

12. Within the limits imposed by content, equipment con-
straints, and the course map, learners are free to sequence
their own instruction. That is, given the constraints just
mentioned, at any given time students may select for
study the topic in which they are most interested.

13. The learning environment itself contains the facilities and
equipment needed to implement the above characteristics.
This way neither you nor the student will waste time,
become frustrated, or miss important things because of
missing items or the need to retrieve items from remote
locations (such as regional media centers).

14. Students will learn to recognize correct and incorrect