Theory of PSI Evaluated for Engineering Education

6: Effective College Teaching

“…No one felt that the amount of time required in the PSI section was less. Reports of other investigators are similar (Billings, 1972;Gallup, 1970;Gentile, 1971;Hapkiewicz, 1972;Hoberock et al, 1972;Nelson & Scott, 1972;Philippas & Sommerfeldt, 1972;Simmons, 1972).…”

“…The withdrawal rate from McMichael and Corey's (1969) introductory psychology course (12%) was lower, if anything, than the withdrawal rates in conventional sections of the course (16, 14, and 9%). In advanced engineering courses at the University of Texas described by Hoberock et al, (1972), withdrawal rates also were not high-between 5 and 10%. Of 38 students in Myers' (1970) introductory statistics course at the University of Wisconsin, none withdrew or received an incomplete.…”

“…Another common strategy is to have students compare their Keller course to typical courses they have taken in college. Hoberock, Koen, Roth, and Wagner (1972) report that 72% of the students in a course in nuclear engineering at the University of Texas considered PSI better than the lecture method, while only 6% considered the lecture method superior. Other investigators (Flammer, 1971;Gallup, 1970;Johnston & Pennypacker, 1971; Knightly & Sayre, 1972) have used the method with similar results.…”

Bringing radical behaviorism to revolutionary Brazil and back: Fred Keller's Personalized System of Instruction and Cold War engineering education

“…Soon there were national conferences and at least one ASEE summer teaching institute dedicated to PSI and other forms of individualized instruction. While PSI was utilized in other fields, including psychology and teacher education, the method circulated quite early and rapidly within engineering education (Hoberock, Koen, Roth, & Wagner, 1972;Keller, 1974a, p. 153;Keller & Koen, 1976;Stice, 1971).…”

“…14 A contemporary review of the work on PSI can be found inKulik and Kulik (1975); andKulik, Kulik, and Cohen (1979). A more recent review of subsequent work on PSI may be found inGrant and Spencer (2003).15 The challenges of working within an existing administrative structure are noted byKoen (2011a, seg.37) as well as byHoberock (1979). They are also reported more dramatically byHeimbach (1971), and tabulated byHess, Edwards, Greenspoon, Heydinger, and Soares (1976).16 A review of the ongoing work on PSI may be found inGrant and Spencer (2003).…”