Publication Date

1968

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Tucker, Charles O.||Gray, Philip A.||Wilderman, Raymond

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Speech

LCSH

Programmed instruction--Research

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to conduct initial research into the application of Sherif's judgment scale formulation to the teaching of the tests of evidence. The specific purpose of the study was to (1) develop a program to teach several of the tests of evidence; (2) explore the possibility of teaching and presenting practice in discrimination in the middle segment of a scale. This was done by means of an experiment conducted to support or reject the hypothesis that: A group receiving programmed instruction will achieve a higher mean score than a group receiving programmed instruction without behavioral responses or a group receiving a traditional textbook instruction. Three types of instructional methods were employed in the experiment consisting of: (1) A programmed instruction manual of the tests of evidence; (2) the content material presented in the programmed instruction manual without the requests for behavioral responses; (3) and a traditional textbook instruction of the same content material. The subjects in this experiment were forty students enrolled in two sections of Speech 100 at Northern Illinois University during the summer term of 1968. The students were randomly assigned to one of the three methods of instruction when they completed their pre-test. The differences of mean scores obtained by the subjects were tested by an F test. The .05 level of confidence was chosen for the determination of significant differences in the scores. Three null hypotheses were tested: (1) A group receiving programmed instruction will have a mean score equal to a group receiving a programmed instruction without behavioral responses. A programmed instruction of the tests of evidence and a programmed instruction without the behavioral responses were found to have no significant differences in respect to their effectiveness in respect to teaching the tests of evidence. The two instructional programs were based upon the formulation of judgment scales, as defined by Sherif, but varied in their construction. The programmed instruction without behavioral responses tends to be the most effective method of instruction in terms of the time required in its construction and in the time required by the learner to complete the instruction. The programmed instruction without behavioral responses required an average learning time of thirty minutes whereas the programmed instruction manual required an average learning time of forty-five minutes. The programmed instruction manual required a greater learning time for the learner, and required a considerably greater construction time than did the programmed instruction without behavioral responses. Both of these methods adhere to the principles of programmed instruction, with the exception of not requiring the learner to write his answer in the programmed instruction without the behavioral responses. The null hypothesis was retained. (2) A group receiving programmed instruction will have a mean score equal to a group receiving a traditional textbook instruction. A programmed instruction of the tests of evidence based upon the formulation of judgment scales, defined by Sherif, was found to be a more effective teaching method than a traditional textbook instruction at the .05 level of confidence. The null hypothesis was rejected. (3) A group receiving programmed instruction without behavioral responses will have a mean score equal to a group receiving a traditional textbook instruction. A programmed instruction of the tests of evidence based upon the formulation of judgment scales, but written without the behavioral responses was found to be a more effective teaching method than a traditional textbook instruction at the .05 level of confidence. The null hypothesis was rejected. This experiment indicates that Sherif's concepts of judgment formation can be applied to the teaching of the tests of evidence. It also indicates that a programmed instruction of the tests of evidence was effective.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references.

Extent

vi, 132 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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