[From: Chris Cherpas (970319.1256 PT)]
[re: Bruce Abbott (970319.1510 EST)]
[re: Rick Marken (970319.0800) --
RM:
I had hoped that those who got involved in the application of PCT to
practical situations would do the hard work of developing the methods
that could be used to access control in those situations.
cc:
I agree completely. By the way, just who _are_ the people who have gotten
involved in the application of PCT to practical situations?
RM:
I thought we
might see some catalogs of the kinds of possible controlled variables
to test for in educational or clinical situations of various sorts. I
thought we would see descriptions of clever techniques for asking questions
or posing problems that would reveal the variables under control.
cc:
To the extent that computer-based education programs implement the Test
properly, they will be better at individualizing instruction. In fact,
programs that are not designed with the explicit goal of individualization
are also less likely to have been designed with capabilities for performing
the Test. I would guess that teachers who are not explicitly interested in
individualizing instruction would not be very interested in using the Test.
BA:
Although in some problem cases achieving success may require a more detailed
knowledge of the variables those particular students are controlling
(particularly if they are at variance with success as defined by the
teacher), I rather strongly suspect that general approaches exist that will
be effective with the majority of students. But what are these
generally-successful approaches?
cc:
I would think that the most general approach is, again, the Test. What
works with the majority is to individualize, guided by data collected from
the Test.
BA:
What CVs do they involve, at what levels,
and what actions? Answering these questions, it seems to me, is where a bit
of applied PCT-inspired research would have a positive impact on teaching
success.
cc:
I can imagine that teachers vary in their ability to conduct the Test,
particularly since they don't have much opportunity to focus on each individual
student's efforts away from the influences of the other students. I wonder how
easy it is to perform the Test for a moving set of CVs (as in education)
efficiently, and "on the Fly," without benefit of lots of one-on-one interaction
and additional automated help.
Regards,
cc