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.”

Could 'Precision Teaching' and the Wider Education Community Learn Something From One Another?

Some blog followers might be interested in a post titled “Could ‘Precision Teaching’ and the Wider Education Community Learn Something From One Another.”

The abstract reads:

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ABSTRACT: In response to “Re: Confessions of a Converted Lecturer #2” [Hake (2010b)], Joshua Garner (2010) of the behaviorist-oriented “Precision Teaching” SClistserv list wrote: “By applying simple behavioral psychology principles in a college physics class student performance increased. . . . duh. . . . by the end of the video I said to myself, 'Gee this guy is using direct instruction and active student responding (in an around-about way)’. ”

But, the wider education community generally regards Mazur's approach as the constructivist-oriented “Interactive Engagement,” loosely speaking, the polar opposite of “direct instruction.”

The insularity of education research was further demonstrated by SClistserv's J.W. Eshleman (2010) who, responding to “Re: Confessions of a Converted Lecturer #5” [Hake (2010c)], referenced three methods to measure and enhance the degree of student learning in a “lecture,” all developed *within* the Precision Teaching Community (PTC), ignoring such methods developed *outside* the PTC - over 30 such are discussed in the double-asterisked references to this post.

Considering the Garner and Eshleman posts, could the "Precision Teaching" and wider education communities learn something from one another?

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To access the complete 35 kB post please click on http://tinyurl.com/ye5rrnq .

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

Eshleman, J.W. 2010. “Re: Confessions of a Converted Lecturer #5,” SClistserv post of 22 Mar 2010 14:16:47-0400. Online on the OPEN! SClistserv archives at . SClistserv is short for “Precision Teaching/Standard Celeration Charting.” The masthead at the archives http://tinyurl.com/y8twxf6 reads: “The Standard Celeration listserve (SClistserv) came about to serve all people interested in precision teaching (PT) and standard celeration charting. . . . . . .” As indicated in Hake (2007), Ogden Lindsley (1991, 1992), a disciple of B.F. Skinner, is evidently the founder of “Precision Teaching” and inventor of the “Standard Celeration” chart (SCchart). For other references see Fluency.org http://www.fluency.org/ ; “Precision Teaching Hub and Wiki Blog” [Claypool-Frey (2010)l; “Precision Teaching and Standard Celeration Charting” [Kubina 2010); and the Standard Celeration Society [SCC (2010)]. For a good set of references see Clayton et al. (2007). For related books see e.g., Gardner et al. (1994), Heward et al. (2004), Heward (2008), Johnston & Pennypacker (2008), & Vargas (2009). Vargas (2009) discusses (a) Lindsley's development of “Precision Teaching” and the SCchart; (b) “counts” as a measure of behavior; and (c) interpretation of the SCchart.

Garner, J. 2010. “Re: Confessions of a Converted Lecturer #2,” SClistserv post of 20 Mar 2010 18:54:50-0700; online on the OPEN! SClistserv archives at http://tinyurl.com/y8o6mge.

Hake. R.R. 2010, “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 is also being sent to various discussion lists.