Abstract
This is a brief description of a model for purposeful learning and instruction. The learner is viewed as a resource-limited system that has to transform instructional information in order to be successful. The expected success of teaching depends on six factors. Two factors determine the likelihood of encountering relevant instructional information. These are: the number of redundant instructive events (I) and attendance to instruction and compliance with assignments (A-C). Three factors interact reciprocally to determine the likelihood of achieving the desired competence once the relevant instructional information has been encountered. These are: the straightforward relevance of instructive information (D), the learner's instruction-relevant experience (E) and disposition for appropriate mathemagenic process (m). Finally (R), properties of the material and of the situation, determine whether students will remember what they have learned. The instructional model, although based on relatively microscopic psychological theories, can be applied at progressively more macroscopic levels of analysis by increasing the size of instructional units, using more approximate measures and focusing on the success of larger groups of students.
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Portions of this paper were read at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, Calif., April 11, 1979.
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Rothkopf, E.Z. A macroscopic model of instruction and purposive learning: An overview. Instr Sci 10, 105–122 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00132513
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00132513