MEANING AND CONCEPT OF PROGRAMMED INSTRUCTION

Generally speaking, the instruction provided by a teaching machine or programmed text books is referred to as Programmed Learning or Programmed Instruction.

1. Views of Smith and Moore:

"Programmed instruction is the process of arranging the material to be learned into a series of sequential steps, usually it moves the student from a familiar background into a complex and new set of concepts, principles and understanding".

2. Views of Leith:

"Programmed (learning) is a sequence of small steps of instructional material most of which requires a response to be made by completing a blank space in a sentence".

3. Views of Susan Markle:

According to Dr. Susan Markle, programmed learning is a "method of designing a reproducible sequence of instructional events to produce a measurable and consistent effect on the behavior of each and every acceptable student".

4. Views of Michael J. Apter:

"Programmed instruction is a method of instruction in which the information to be taught is broken down into small units which are to be presented to the students (usually in written form) in a carefully planned sequence. Each unit or frame contains not only information but it is also terminated with a question".

5. Method of self-instruction:According to another view, programmed learning is a method of self-instruction, whereby the learner proceeds through instructional material in short steps at his own pace, receiving immediate knowledge of the correctness of his answers.

6. Views of Dr. N.S. Mavi:

"Programmed instruction is a technique of converting the live instructional process into self-learning or auto-instructional readable material in the form of micro-sequences".On the basis of these definitions we can sum up that:

• Programmed learning is a method of individualized instruction.
• The main concern of programmed instruction is to present the material in logical and sequential order.
• Each unit or step contains not only information but it is also terminated with a question.
• In programmed learning the learner proceeds through instructional material at his own speed.
• It has a provision for immediate feed back which is based on the theory of reinforcement.
• It has the provision for continuous evaluation.

In all, it is systematically planned and effectively controlled self-instructional technique for providing individual instruction to the leaner.