MODIFIED PSI IN INTERMEDIATE MICROECONOMICS: COURSE MATERIALS PRODUCTION AND EVALUATION.

摘要

This study included the development of Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) materials for the Intermediate Microeconomics course and an assessment of the PSI treatment impact on student achievement and attitude toward economics.;Evaluation of the course outcome, done at Westmont College in 1979 and 1980, utilized a two-equation learning model with attitude and achievement determined simultaneously. Two-stage least squares technique revealed that the PSI students did no worse than lecture students; no statistically significant differences were observed. Ability, effort, attitude toward economics, and gender were significant explanations of achievement; pre-course attitude toward economics and course rating explained post-course attitude. No distributional effect of PSI on student ability or levels of learning was observed.;The faculty and institutional costs of the PSI course were considerably more than a comparable lecture course while including start-up costs. Yet, when student opportunity costs were added, the PSI course costs were essentially the same as the lecture course costs. More importantly, the marginal costs of the 1980 PSI class run were substantially below those of a comparable lecture section. The benefits of the PSI course, as measured by achievement and attitude, were no different than those of the lecture course. Furthermore, there was evidence that PSI students did significantly better than their lecture taught colleagues in courses taken concurrently with the PSI course. The conclusion can be drawn that this particular PSI course is a cost effective substitute for the lecture course.;The experimental PSI course differed most importantly from many other PSI courses in that "mastery" was not required at preestablished levels. The reason for deleting the "mastery" requirement was that a primary focus of the course was on application and analysis of economic problems not previously disclosed to the student.