Teaching Technology & Higher Education

1. Teaching Technology &Higher Education Schedule: U5 Lecture: Tuesday, 10/15 Fall break: Thursday, 10/17 ME1: Tuesday, 10/22 ME1 Assistance: Monday 10/21, 6-8 pm U5 Lecture: Thursday, 10/24 U5 Exam: Tuesday, 10/29 U5 Assistance: Monday, 10/28, 6-8 pm Unit 5 PSY 4600 Last day to drop w/o academic penalty: Monday, 10/28

2. ME1 Reminders • If you have missed an exam – you need to take ME1 or your missing exam score will turn into a zero • If you have taken all the exams to date – and want to replace the lowest score you got on exams 1 – 4, you should take ME1 • If you have taken all the exams to date – and are satisfied with your scores, you get the day off! ME1 can only help your grade, it cannot hurt it

3. Teaching Technology and College Teaching:Evidence-Based Practices • Direct Instruction used primarily in elementary and secondary schools • Precision Teaching • Headsprout*: web-based reading and reading comprehension program for children created by behavior analysts, K-5 • Behavioral analysis of college teaching and student study behavior (10/24, 2nd lecture) *A-Z learning: http://www.headsprout.com

4. Unit 5: Teaching Technology Introduction In this part of the unit we are going to be looking at three evidence-based instructional technologies for primary and secondary schools: • Direct Instruction - Engelmann, Becker & Carnine • Precision Teaching - Lindsley • Headsprout early reading and reading comprehension –web-based program developed by a team of behavior analysts (2002) • Greg Stikeleather, Dept. alumni award (evidence-based, proven through research to be effective, West Campus?) Engelmann, BA in education. Becker & Carnine - behavioral psychologists; Oakland Academy, Arbor Academy, Forrest Academy, Evergreen Academy, Augusta Academy - Foundation for Behavioral Resources)

5. Teaching Technology Intro • Educational crisis in this country • Our students rank about last in math/science of all industrialized countries in the world • Reports indicate that this generation of children will be the first in the history of our country that will be less well educated than their parents • 40% of 4th-graders in the USA read below basic levels • 70% of 4th-graders in MI are not proficient in reading • Two summers ago, only 17% of high school seniors in MI were assessed to be academically prepared for college • Yet schools and educators have been very slow to adopt empirically-validated instructional technology • Probably the biggest disappointment of behavioranalysts (read some of the material in the course pack - not behavior analysts)

6. Direct Instruction Basics • Task analysis is completed for all instructional material • Material is presented in small steps so students will be successful the first time • Material is sequenced so if students master the prerequisite material they will be successful • Scripts are used to ensure correct implementation and student success - based on research • Students are placed in small groups of 5 - 10 • Students respond aloud on cue • Immediate feedback, both reinforcement and corrective is provided

7. Precision Teaching Basics • Often use DI material/lessons • Adds a fluency component - accuracy plus speed of responding is assessed (# corrects per minute). Based on rate of response used in behavioral research • Timed practice, graph results - only 30% of time is spent on instruction, 70% on practice • Students work with each other during practice sessions • Students do not progress to the next lesson until fluency “aims” are met - all have the same aims which are based on research • Often combined with a token economy system in which students earn points for results and appropriate instructional behaviors (feet on floor, eye contact, etc.) • Often report cards are provided for parents daily (start with SO2, show you some results of DI, PT: SOs a little out of order)

8. SO2: Introduction to Engelmann’s early study (1970) • Some maintain that 60-80% of “intelligence” is genetic and only 20-40% is a function of learning; that is you have it or you don’t and if your parents and grandparents didn’t have it, you won’t either (Bell Curve, Murray & Herrnstein) • They also maintain that a person’s IQ cannot be changed much after the first couple of years • Therefore, early educational programs (such as Head Start) and social programs are a waste of tax payer dollars. (What is intelligence? What is measured by IQ tests? Math, verbal, social situations and sequences)

9. SO2: Englemann’s early study (1970) • Participants were all 4 years old: • 15 disadvantaged children exposed to traditional teaching methods • 15 disadvantaged children exposed to DI • 15 middle class children exposed to DI • Independent variable: • DI for language concept, arithmetic, and reading • Three 20-min instructional sessions per day for two years • Total of 96 instructional hours • Dependent variable: • Stanford-Binet IQ test scores • Experimental design (Quasi-experimental design): • Between-group experimental design

10. SO2: Summary of Results • IQ scores after two years • Disadvantaged four-year olds exposed to DI increased their IQ scores by about 25 points (95.33 to 121.08) • Disadvantaged four-year olds exposed to traditional education increased their IQ scores by only about 5 points (94.50 to 99.61) • Disadvantaged and advantaged four-year olds exposed to DI had similar IQ scores (121.08 and 123.43, respectively)

11. SO2: Results of Engelmann’s Study: IQ Scores

12. SO2: Implications • IQ scores can be affected by instruction and changed after the very early stages of life (argues against heredity) • DI can eliminate differences in the IQ scores of disadvantaged and advantaged children, differences that are not eliminated by traditional educational methods

13. Snyder Article: Morningside Academy, Seattle, WA • Morningside Academy • Private school (tuition): Kent Johnson • Combines Precision Teaching with Direct Instruction • Shining example of the use of behavior analysis to improve education

14. Morningside Academy, cont. • Money-back guarantee for tuition • If a student does not gain at least two years or more in all skill-deficit areas in one year, Morningside refunds 100% of the tuition • Success rate; years different than article • In the 35 years of its operations, Morningside has refunded less than .1% (yes, that is .1%, not 1%) of the school’s tuition • Primarily serves students who have failed in the regular school system, some of whom have been diagnosed with learning disability problems and ADHD (years different because the school started in 1980 and article was published in 1992)

15. Morningside Academy, cont. again • SO 5: Average gains in grade levels for reading, language arts, and math for the last two years reported in the article (89-90 and 90-91)? ~3.00 per academic year!! Note that these gains are primarily for at-risk kids. Those diagnosed as learning disabled or ADHD.

16. Morningside Academy’s Adult Literacy Program(Not for the Exam) • Federally-funded literacy program through YMCA • Pilot program for adults, Precision Teaching • Did not know whether adults would like PT and thus attend instructional sessions • Did not know how well PT would work with these individuals, given their generally low skill levels • 32 participants • Some were homeless • Some were in and out of jail

17. Representative Results: Morningside Adult Literacy Pilot Program 1 month = 20 hours of instruction

18. What guarantee does Morningside make its adult clients based on the results?(Again, NFE ) Each adult learner will gain two years or more per month in reading, writing and math skills if those adults meet the requirement of attending for two hours per day, four days a week. Notice that is only 20 hours of instruction per month! (now back to SO 1)

19. SO1: Three reasons why traditional educators object to Direct Instruction & Precision Teaching • They are not child-centered; the teaching methods are too controlled by the teacher • They are not individualized; every child/learner is exposed to the same material and must meet the same goals • They do not focus on making students “feel good about themselves. If these methods are so good, why aren’t they being taught in schools of education and why don’t teachers like them? (philosophical reasons - educational philosophy child centered learning development)

20. SO1 NFE: Another reason • Teachers feel the scripted lessons take away from their flexibility and creativity. • Why did I go to school and get a teaching degree if I am being told exactly what to say and when to say it? • Siefert Elementary School article at the end of the SOs • 3rd graders - Proficient or better (after one year of DI) • Reading: 22% to 57% • Math: 11% to 48% • Social studies: 13% to 61% • Some teachers still objected and asked to be transferred • Kelly Collin, a 1st grade teacher: “Teachers resent it because it is so scripted. But is it about me being happy or the students learning?”

21. SO6 NFE: What factors are often blamed for the educational crisis? • Traditional educators tend to blame Johnny or Suzie, the culture at large, socio-economic reasons - Johnny can’t read because he comes from a bad neighborhood or bad home. • Traditional educators often see the key(s) to be a longer school year, higher pay for teachers, right now no recess, etc. • DI & PT advocates maintain that the key to solving the educational crisis in this country is better instructional material: If Johnny or Suzie is not learning the instructional material is the blame, not Johnny, Suzie or their home environment

22. Blame everything but instruction • Alessi (1988), a dated article but I expect still relevant For about 5000 kids, school psychologists reported the cause of learning problems Percentages came out like this: • The curriculum caused 0% of the problems • The teaching practices caused 0% of the problems • The school administration caused 0% of the problems • The home environment caused 10-20% of the problems • Punch line – next slide

23. The Punch Line • The child caused 100% of the problems • Not one of 5000 problems was presumed to be caused by school practices

24. SO9: What is fluency? • The rationale behind fluency first • We usually measure only accuracy of performance - 100%, 90%, etc. • Rate of performance or fluency is also important • If one child scores 100% on a math test and completes it in one hour, but another scores 100% and completes it in one-half hour, is their performance equal or is the second child’s performance better? • PT not only measures accuracy but also speed of performance • Only 30% of classroom time is taken by the delivery of instruction; 70% is spent practicing using work sheets. • Students take several 1-minute timings and chart their performance on a graph for the timings • So, back to the question, what is fluency? (next slide)

25. SO9: Fluency So, SO9, what is fluency? “Fluency” is a measure of accuracy plus speed. NFE, but how is fluency specifically measured? The number of correct answers per minute during timed practice.

26. Not for the exam: Fluency Aims (standards/goals) Fluency aims are based on research to: • Ensure retention/maintenance over time • Enable the skill to generalize to settings other than the one in which it was taught • If you teach basic math, you want kids to be able to buy things and count correct change • Enable correct responding in spite of distractions in the environment and in spite of being “tired.” Because aims are empirically developed to achieve the above results, aims are not individualized. Every child must meet the same aims before proceeding to the next lesson/material.

27. SO10: Rationale for scripted lessons • In DI, every lesson is scripted and the teacher is to follow the script exactly • Why? The particular wording, examples and sequences have been pre-tested to ensure the success of the students. Not for the exam, but teachers do not have the time, nor is it their job, to conduct research on instructional material. They are practitioners not researchers They already have a very difficult, time-consuming job (and class sizes are getting larger all the time).

28. SO10: Examples of DI lessons, reading

29. SOs 11-15: Introduction to Watkins’ article:Project Follow-Through • Largest study that has evaluated the effectiveness of different instructional systems • Government-funded study • Conducted over 30 years ago • The study began in 1968 and we have had the results since 1977 Kathy Watkins Carl Binder

30. SOs 11-15: Project Follow-Through, cont. • Three major conceptual categories of educational systems • Basic Skills • Cognitive-Conceptual • Affective-Cognitive • Examined 20 different instructional methods that fell into one of the three categories above in 15 different school districts

31. SOs 11&12: Areas of emphasis for each conceptual category and the category for DI • Basic Skills (DI) • Basic skills: reading, arithmetic, spelling, etc. • Cognitive-Conceptual • Learning to learn • Problem solving skills • Affective-Cognitive • Development of good self-concept • Learning to learn (only need to learn the primary –first one, although I have also indicated secondary)

32. SO13: Results I have asked you to learn To be fair to each model, the researchers also measured the children’s basic skills, cognitive skills, and affect • DI was the only model to produce gains in all three areas measured: basic skills, cognitive skills, and affect • DI ranked first in basic skills, cognitive skills and affect • Educational models, other than those that fell into the Basic Skills category, (that is, all those in the cognitive-conceptual and affective-cognitive categories) had poorer results than the traditional educational systems currently being used

33. SO14: DI & PT ranked first and second in affective skills even though neither targets or emphasizes them What theory of self-concept isn’t supported by these results? In order to learn, you must first have a good self-concept and a positive attitude toward learning. That is, a good self-concept is a prerequisite for learning. Suzie & Johnny must feel good about themselves before they can learn. What theory of self-concept is supported by the results? Success in learning produces a good self concept. Suzy & Johnny will feel good about themselves if they are successful in learning. (pretty interesting given that the affective-cognitive models targeted affect directly. Also interesting because traditional educators still object to DI& PT on that ground)

34. SO15: Behavioral diagram of the relation between learning and a good self-concept Sr Signs of success R ----> Academic activities CS Signs of success CR Good self-concept (self-concept emotional response)

35. Project Follow-Through Wrap Up (not for the exam) • DI was shown to be the most effective instructional system • In spite of that, the governmental agency responsible for disseminating effective instructional systems to school districts around the country, endorsed 22 as effective and packaged them for distribution • Among those disseminated were those that had failed to improve academic achievement (out of “fairness”) • Funding guidelines were changed so that the programs that were the least successful were given more funding than those that were the most successful (on the grounds that $ would help the least successful) (problem is not the teachers, school districts)

36. SOs 16-20: Headsprout early reading and reading comprehension program • Headsprout founders and team includes: • Dr. Kent Johnson, founder of Morningside • Greg Stikeleather, BA in psychology from WMU • Developed and ran Apple Computer’s first usability testing laboratory • Started two software companies; one was acquired by Microsoft, one was acquired by Netscape • Dr. Joe Layng, Head of Morningside’s Malcolm X program • Dr. Janet Twyman, past President of ABAI • Kelly Hobbins, BA in psychology from WMU • Melinda Sota, MA in psychology from WMU • Put on the web in 2002 • Cost $6 million to develop the first 40 lessons for the early reading program (the first program) (SOs are very straightforward, but I just wanted to introduce you to this - it’s terrific)

37. Joe Layng Greg Stikeleather Janet Twyman Melinda Sota, WMU MA Jennifer Clayton

38. SOs 16 & 18: Why are the Headsprout programs so important? • How many children have literacy problems in our country? • 40% • Over what percentage of our nation’s fourth graders score below basic reading levels? • 40% • What is the probability that a child will remain a poor reader at the end of fourth grade if the child is a poor reader at the end of first grade? • 90% We need to get to children when they are young and teach them the basics (and recall, while NFE, over 70% of 4th-graders in MI are not proficient in reading – 2018 data)

39. About Headsprout programs: Not for the exam • Incorporates PT concepts of fluency and charting/graphing performance of each component skill • Focus on phonics • The program appears to children as • As in interactive cartoon • Parents can buy the program for $199.95 • Early reading and reading comprehension were originally two different programs but the new “owners”, A-Z learning combined the two into one

40. About Headsprout early reading, cont. • They first did lab testing - before they put the program on the internet. (not for the exam) Standard for most activities was that 90% of learners would get 90% of the items/questions correct the first time • SO20A: Once the developmental work in their lab was completed, they tested it on the internet. How many learners participated in the internet testing? • Over 1,000 • SO20B: What were the results of that testing? • Over 90% of the learners got over 90% of the items/questions correct the very first time they answered them The bold faced part is very important in 20B!

41. Sample Headsprout Lesson on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvBhdYCgSe4

42. Another Sample Headsprout Lesson on YouTube: Sounding out words using direct instruction methods https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ_segdZRnY

43. College Teaching • Behavioral analysis of college teaching and student studying behavior • Article by Jack Michael, helps explain • Why PSY professors administer more exams and require more assignments than professors in other departments typically do • Why I structure PSY 4600 the way I do with study objectives, frequent essay examinations and grade sheets • Why, from a behavioral perspective, your study behavior may differ in this class vs. other classes • Why some (most of us) procrastinate - when studying for exams, writing papers, preparing conference presentations, etc.

44. Introduction/Overview to the Michael article • The teaching technology discussed in the article is relevant for the “typical” college class with a course enrollment of 35-40 or more and a clear “factual content.” • It is not relevant for fine arts (dance, sculpting, painting, writing) or other skill training such as public speaking, mechanics, etc. • While this technology can be used with small classes (15 or fewer students), there are also methods that can be equally effective • Most university classes at colleges and universities are the type discussed in the article (describe the scope of this technology)

45. Overview, cont. • Begins by discussing student motivation to study. That is, what factors motivate students to study hard? • He discusses a number of things that are often mentioned by individuals (intrinsic interest in the subject matter, approval/disapproval of others, short-term payoffs, long-range payoffs of learning the material, etc.) • He argues against each one, concluding that the course gradeis the only effective motivational variable and the only one over which the instructor has control

46. Overview, cont. • However, even the grade will not be an effective motivator if the grade is not important to the student • He further states that if the grade is not important to the student, then there is nothing an instructor can do to motivate students to study

47. Overview,cont. • Fortunately, grades are important to most students, thus, while • Many say that grades should not be emphasized - Michael disagrees with that • The grade is the only motivative factor that the instructor has under his/her control and thus should be emphasized (to reiterate, this is not a popular position in our society/culture, nor, by the way always with students.)

48. How to structure a course • Next, he describes how to structure a course so that the course grade is an effective motivator • Three features that must be present in order for students to study hard (SO32, but stated positively): • The grade must be important to the student • Studying must be closely (and explicitly) linked to the exam/assignment grades • The exam/assignmentgrades must be closely (and explicitly) linked to the course grade (how many I didn’t study at all, aced the test; I studied very hard and didn’t have a clue? 2 exams - chapter 4 - graduate course - didn’t know passed/failed; how many, assignment/quiz, have no idea how it relates to final grade - 10%, 20%, maybe checkmark)

49. SO22: Creativity? • This type of course structure is very controversial and has been criticized for a number of reasons • The first criticism: This type of course does not teach creativity or new knowledge, but only teaches studentshow to parrot back old knowledge. • Michael’s response? (word parrot is clearly derogatory)

50. SO22: Creativity? • Creativity requires an extensive familiarity with what is already known - an extensive knowledge base about which one can be creative. For example, If you don’t understand reinforcement, punishment, shaping, etc., you cannot create an effective instructional system or develop an effective training program for individuals with developmental disabilities or design a treatment program for individuals with chronic pain. (need to know the basics so you can effectively use them to create something new; arcitechual design; Frank Lloyd Wright – but by golly before I buy a house – beautiful bridges – before I drive over one))