Computer-based instruction (CBI) is the powerful tool to teach arithmetic skills for elementary school students. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects on achievement of instructional control strategies (program control, learner control, and learner control with advisement) and cognitive style (field independence and field dependence) in computer-based instruction. Also, this study attempts to find an optimal type of instructional control strategy based upon students' achievement and learning time.Subjects were eighty-six Dongsung Elementary School students in Pusan, Korea. The possible interactive effects between cognitive style and instructional control strategy on CBI were analyzed. Differences in achievement and time spent on the lessons were compared. A significant interaction effect was found between types of instructional control strategies and types of cognitive styles on and students achievement scores and time-on-task. Successful instruction in terms of effectiveness and efficiency is most likely to occur in a one-tQ-one learning environment [ 1-21. The microcomputer has evolved into and is recognized as an optimal instrument for delivering instruction to students who have varying abilities. The computer has great potential to make individualized instruction feasible. Up to now, three different views to accommodate individual differences via the computer have been reported: program control, learner control, and learner control with advisement. With the first view, program control, originally proposed by Skinner [3], assigned students receive a program control condition which involves a predetermined sequence of instruction organized in a hierarchical structure [4]. Program control may be total, in which case the learner has no opportunity to vary instruction, or program control 357 0 1994, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.
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