Re: Could 'Precision Teaching' and the Wider Education Communities Learn Something From One Another?

Some blog followers might be interested in a post titled “Re: Could 'Precision Teaching' and the Wider Education Communities Learn Something From One Another? “[Hake (2010b)]. The abstract reads:

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ABSTRACT: Julie Vargas, daughter of B.F. Skinner and President of the B.F. Skinner Foundation http://www.bfskinner.org/BFSkinner/Home.html , commented on my post “Could 'Precision Teaching' and the Wider Education Communities Learn Something From One Another?" [Hake (2010a)] as follows (quoted with permission; my insert at “. . . .[[insert]]. . . .”):

1. [In “Behavior Analysis for Effective Teaching ” (Vargas, 2009)] I quote [Eric Mazur]. . . . . . What I didn't know was that his work was being touted as "constructivist-oriented” "Interactive Engagement."

2. I don't see [Mazur's] work as like Direct Instruction. . . . [[in this post I give various conflicting meanings of the vague term “direct instruction"]]. . . . As described in his book he just poses practical multiple-choice questions following a mini-lecture (usually a third of the lecture hour) students first answer and then discuss among themselves and answer again as he walks around listening to their explanations. There is no choral responding.

3. I'm not sure [Mazur's method] is like Precision Teaching either. I didn't see any fluency exercises, nor student graphing.

4. But [Mazur's method] is definitely BEHAVIORAL in asking for student responding, adjusting according to how they do answer, and in the objectives being stated in clear terms that require "applying" the principles to every day life in addition to just memorizing them.

To access the complete 18 kB post, please click on http://tinyurl.com/y8mnz8n .

REFERENCES [Tiny URL's courtesy http://tinyurl.com/create.php .]

Hake. R.R. 2010a. “Could 'Precision Teaching' and the Wider Education Communities Learn Something From One Another?" online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at http://tinyurl.com/ye5rrnq . Post of 25 Mar 2010 11:47:54-0700 to AERA-L and Net-Gold. The abstract was also sent to various discussion lists and is online at http://hakesedstuff.blogspot.com/2010/03/could-precision-teaching-and-wider.html with a provision for comments.

Hake. R.R. 2010b. “Re: Could 'Precision Teaching' and the Wider Education Communities Learn Something From One Another?" online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at http://tinyurl.com/y8mnz8n . Post of 31 Mar 2010 09:54:24 -0700 to AERA-L Net-Gold, and SClistserv. The abstract is also being sent to various discussion lists.

Vargas, J. 2009. Behavior Analysis for Effective Teaching. Routledge, publisher's information at http://tinyurl.com/yzbzurp . Amazon.com information at http://tinyurl.com/yc8hz2y. Note the searchable “Look Inside” feature. An expurgated “Google Book Preview” is online at http://tinyurl.com/yh7lpxk . Vargas discusses the following aspects of the semi-log “Standard Celeration” chart” (SCchart) of “counts” vs time (use the “>” at the top of the page to scroll through the pages): (a) Lindsley's development of “Precision Teaching” and the SCchart on pages 126 and 127; (b) “counts” as a measure of behavior at the top of page 103; (c) interpretation of the SCchart on page 132. If I understand the “Standard Celeration” chart correctly (please correct me if I'm wrong) it's essentially the behavorists' version of a kinematics semilog plot of speed (time rate of change of position) “v” vs time “t”. Hence “Celeration” from the “celeration” part of the kinematics “acceleration.”