Ashley Durham, Amy Hu, Miji Mathews, Jingli Wang, John ...emurian/cv/APA2003.pdf · Programmed Instruction • A set of structured interactions between a learner and a tutor. •

A Programmed Instruction Tutor for Java: Evidence of Rule-Based Learning

Ashley Durham, Amy Hu, MijiMathews, Jingli Wang, John

Goodall, Ye Diana Wang, and Henry H. Emurian

Information Systems DepartmentCollege of Engineering and

Information TechnologyUMBC

Baltimore, Maryland 21250

APA 2003 www.umbc.edu 2

Robert J. Sternberg, APA PresidentNewsletter for Educational Psychologists,

Summer 2003

• Few psychology students are trained in educational psychology.



Summer 2003


• Most of the decisions about education in this country, from the classroom level upward, are made by people with little or more often no psychological training.



Summer 2003


• Most of the decisions about education in this country, from the classroom level upward, are made by people with little or more often no psychological training.

• Educational psychology is a relatively low-prestige field of psychology.


Objective

1. import java.applet.Applet;2. import java.awt.Label;3. public class MyProgram extends Applet {4. Label myLabel;5. public void init() {6. myLabel=new Label(“This is my first program.”);7. add(myLabel);8. myLabel.setVisible(true);9. }10. }

Program

– Intraverbal unit• Unit in a relational frame

– Program is a set of intraverbal units• Each unit is a relational frame

– Acquisition of equivalence classes– Observe a technically correct performance

• Never been emitted before in a 3-term contingency– Transfer

• Barnett & Ceci (2002)• Meaningful learning (R. E. Mayer, 2002)

– Rule-Governed Behavior • S. C. Hayes 6


What I used to do (LEAON)

• Lecture– Write the code on the blackboard and explain it.

• Exhort– Tell the students to learn a program for a test.

• Assess– Give a test.

• Observe– Individual differences in test performance.

• Neglect– I did not teach students how to learn.


What I used to do

They Should Know (TSK) Model of Teaching

• Lecture• Exhort• Assess• Observe• Neglect


Problem: Student “Motivation”(Why don’t they make responses?)

Information Systems (IS) students are less keen to write computer programs than are Computer Science (CS) students.

CS IS



• Students are insensitive to reinforcers that are symbols.



• Students are insensitive to reinforcers that are symbols.

• Students lack a history that produces generalized conditioned reinforcers that can sustain learning.


What I Came to Re-Appreciate

• Rote memorization– Fundamental to the acquisition of

skills that set the occasion for “understanding.”

– “Constructivism” comes later (much, much later…)


What I Came to Re-Appreciate

• Rote memorization– Fundamental to the acquisition of

skills that set the occasion for “understanding.”

– “Constructivism” comes later (much, much later…)

• Disciplined study behavior– It’s essential to skill acquisition. – Most students don’t know how to

study. They don’t know what state is “steady.”


Acquisition CurveWhat state is “steady”?

How do you get there and know when you’ve arrived?

Power Function

Practice Trials

Erro

rs


What I came to re-value, too

• Repetition and overlearning are essential to the learning process.


What I came to re-value, too

• Repetition and overlearning are essential to the learning process.

• Feeling good about yourself after hard work sustains enthusiasm for more learning.


Programmed Instruction

• A set of structured interactions between a learner and a tutor.

• Disciplines study behavior that is focused on the individual learner.

• Manages the moment-by-moment interactions between a learner and a tutor.

• Step-wise progression from elementary knowledge units (learn units) or facts to the achievement of a complex repertoire that is the objective of learning.


Eleven Features of PI(Holland, 1960; Scriven, 1969; Skinner, 1958;

Vargas & Vargas, 1991)

1. Comprehensibility of each unit or “frame,”

2. Tested effectiveness of a set of frames, 3. Skip-proof frames, 4. Self-correcting tests, 5. Automatic encouragement for learning, 6. Diagnosis of misunderstandings, 7. Adaptations to errors by hints, prompts,

and suggestions, cont’d


Eleven Features of PI(Holland, 1960; Scriven, 1969; Skinner, 1958;

Vargas & Vargas, 1991)

9. Learner constructed responses based on recall,

10. Immediate feedback, successive approximations to a terminal objective, and

11.Student-paced progress.


Problems in Marketing Programmed Instruction

• What I have to deal with from computer scientists, professional Java instructors, cognitive psychologists, and just about everybody else:




–– RageRage




–– RageRage

–– ContemptContempt




–– RageRage

–– ContemptContempt

–– RidiculeRidicule


My Response to those SDs?(How to Survive as an Applied Behavior

Analyst in Technology Education)


Indifference: I don’t care.

Programmed Instruction

Class 1

DemonstrateLecture

Class 2

SuperviseCollaborate

Consultant

Class 14

Self-Regulated Learners(“Constructivists”)


Item FamiliarityLearn How to Type Right


Item IdentificationDiscrimination Training


Item LearningObserve the Item in Context


Read the Description(Definitions and General Rules)


Example of a Rule

Inside the Applet class, the init() method has no statements in it. When the programmer uses the init() method in a program and adds statements to it, that is called overriding the init() method. That is an important rule to know.

The general form of the init() method is as follows:public void init() {a line of Java code;a line of Java code;}


Item Multiple-Choice TestSpecific


Input the Item from Recall


Display Next Item in Context


Row Familiarity


Row Identification


Row LearningThree Passes


Observing ResponseSee the Code


Write the Program


Learners

Graphical User Interface Systems Using Java

• Fall 2002– 14 classes within

14 weeks.– Two males and

five females (median age = 28, range = 24 –36).

• Summer 2002– 14 classes

within 7 weeks.– Five males and

five females (median age = 29.5, range = 24 – 64).


What Happened in Class 1(3 hours)

• Pre-Tutor Assessment• Background information• Rule-based test (4 multiple-choice questions)• Row test (10 multiple-choice questions)• Software self-efficacy

• Run the tutor• All students finished

• Post-Tutor Assessment• Rule-based test (4 multiple-choice questions)• Row test (10 multiple-choice questions)• Software self-efficacy


What Happened in Class 2 (2.5 – 3 hours)

• Lecture– Repeated the information in the tutor while the

students wrote the code in a text editor on a UNIX platform.

– Taught the students how to compile the code, write the HTML target file, and access the target as a URL.

• Collaborate• Run the Applet on the Web• Post-Applet Assessment

– Rule-based test (4 multiple-choice questions)– Row test (10 multiple-choice questions)– Software self-efficacy


General Rule Test QuestionPre-Tutor Post-Tutor

Assessment (Selection, “Pointing”)

Which of the following lines most likely overrides a method that is contained in the Applet class?

1. public void stop( ){ lines of Java code here }2. public void Stop{ } { lines of Java code here }3. Public void Stop( ) ( lines of Java code here )4. Public void stop( ) { lines of Java code here }

Autoclitic Frame?

Relational Frame?

If the access modifier is public ANDthe return type is void ANDthe method name is all lowercase letters ANDthe method argument list ( ) is empty ANDthe body of Java statements is within braces { }

Then the method may be the one to override a method in the Applet class.

The “speaker” (writer or composer) and the “listener” (selector) are within the same skin.

If the access modifier is public AND (nonarbitrary)the return type is void AND (nonarbitrary)the method name is all lowercase letters AND (arbitrary)the method argument list ( ) is empty AND (nonarbitrary)the body of Java statements is within braces { } (arbitrary)

Then the method may be the one to override a method in the Applet class.Select the method that overrides a method in the Applet class.

By equivalence relations, override,…init()…, …start()…, …stop()…, and …destroy()… are in the same hierarchical stimulus class, composing a relational frame with the antecedent nonarbitrary and arbitrary verbal stimuli.

The components may be strengthened by self-echoic, intraverbal performances.

init()public void { }

If the access modifier is public ANDthe return type is void ANDthe method name is all lowercase letters ANDthe method argument list ( ) is empty ANDthe body of Java statements is within braces { }

Then the method may be the one to override a method in the Applet class.

1. public void stop() { lines of Java code here }

Why I think it’s difficult

SD Context

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

NP Complete

Verbal Performance: “Rule” Elements

Select or Generate

Conditioned Reinforcer

Specify: a “pure tact” of the relation?

Java experience: median =1 for both groups.

2002

2002


Updated General Rule Test QuestionPre-Tutor Post-Tutor Assessment

Which of the following sequences is correct?

a. declare a TextField object, construct a TextField object, add a TextField object to a container

b. construct a TextField object, declare a TextField object, add a TextField object to a container

c. declare a TextField object, add a TextField object to a container, construct a TextField object

d. add a TextField object to a container, declare aTextField object, construct a TextField object

e. Not ready to answer.




How Programmed Instruction Helps

• Generates a history of study behavior in students who may lack the study skills and discipline to master the Java code on their own initiative.

• This frees the student to acquire more advanced levels of skill independent of the support provided by the tutoring system.


How Programmed Instruction Helps

• Software self-efficacy is a by-product of effective mastery: enactive mastery.

• It makes information technology accessible to learners who might otherwise draw away from it.


Conclusions

• Software self-efficacy can be enhanced by using the tutor.

• General rules can be acquired by using the tutor.

• Students like the tutor, and so do I.

Documents

Ashley Durham, Amy Hu, Miji Mathews, Jingli Wang, John ...emurian/cv/APA2003.pdf · Programmed Instruction • A set of structured interactions between a learner and a tutor. •