Construction and validation of a programmed instruction booklet : methods of adult education

The purpose of this thesis was to construct and validate a programmed instruction booklet for the use of university students studying to become adult educators. The concept of methods of adult education and the classification scheme for methods as devised by Dr. C. Verner were used as course content. The branching or intrinsic model was selected and a criterion test and frames were constructed. The booklet was empirically tested through a developmental test and two field tests. Sixty-two students enrolled in three classes of Education 412, during the 1974 summer and 1975 winter sessions at The University of British Columbia, participated in the validation procedure. The developmental test group consisted of twelve students who sat with the programmer, one at a time, as they studied the booklet and completed a pre and post criterion test. The field test was designed as a course take home assignment and students were responsible for returning written answers to a pre and post criterion test. Ten students volunteered to study the booklet during the first field test. The second field test assigned twenty students to a pre and post criterion test only control group design and twenty students to an experimental group design who studied the booklet and completed a pre and post criterion test. Analysis of the data following the developmental and first field tests revealed many areas of weakness in the booklet frames and in the criterion test. Consequently many major revisions were made to both. Examination of the data following the second field test indicated the booklet met the standards of an effective teaching program.