Research on the Personalized System of Instruction

Self-pacing in post-school education/training

“…In all five studies reviewed, Kulik et al (1976) found that PSI students outperformed other students in a follow-up subject----even though the follow-up subjects were taught by conventional methods by other teachers.…”

“…A reduction in time has not been obtained for Keller Plan (PSI) courses (Kulik et al, 1976(Kulik et al, , 1979a. This contrasting finding could be attributed to differences between PI (and programmed materials) and Keller Plan approaches: for example, within units, PI is teacher-sequenced whereas Keller Plan courses generally are learner-sequenced; in PI the content to be learned is well defined, but this is generally less so in Keller Plan courses; and in PI the instructor is generally present when the students are learning, while the instructor is not always present for Keller Plan courses.…”

“…The evaluators of TICCIT reported that this system resulted in an improvement in student achievement, but students in TICCIT classes were more likely to drop out than those in conventionally taught classes'. (p. 527) From an analysis of the Keller Plan (PSI), Kulik et al (1976) found that of 39 comparisons, 34 were significant and all favoured PSI. Based on 61 studies, Kulik et aL (1979a) found that PSI produced significantly better achievement.…”

“…(b) Long-term retention For nine studies reviewed by Kulik et al (1976) which involved periods of three weeks to 15 months between learning and testing, all significantly favoured PSI (compared to lecture method). Kulik et aL (1979a) have found a significant interaction between final examination score and time of examination: the favourable result of PSI on the end-of-course examination (9.0 marks, or percentage points) is even greater on the retention examination (14.3 marks).…”

Instructional technology must contribute to productivity

“…It was self-pacing and immediate remediation that lent a degree of personalization. A meta-analysis (Kulik et al 1976) showed that the typical PSI student scored at the 75th percentile on a standardized test compared with the 50th percentile for the control treatment, one of the largest advantages for any experimental treatment in all of educational research up to that time or since. Today, many distance education courses follow the general model of PSI, although usually without the rigor of PSI's testing and immediate remediation.…”