WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:06.560 --> 00:00:11.759 As one of the more interesting parts of your activity in this mini course on the 00:00:11.759 --> 00:00:15.839 writing of goals and objectives in a moment I'd like to introduce you to 00:00:15.839 --> 00:00:21.660 Dr. Sam Postlethwait of Purdue University. This mini course series is based on the model 00:00:21.660 --> 00:00:26.460 established by Dr. Postlethwait for biology students. However the approach 00:00:26.460 --> 00:00:30.420 has been adopted by almost every subject discipline, and it's spread throughout 00:00:30.420 --> 00:00:35.219 the world. As you probably know Professor Postlethwait is well-acquainted with the 00:00:35.219 --> 00:00:40.440 use of objectives. Objectives provide one of the foundation stones for the mini 00:00:40.440 --> 00:00:44.399 course model which he's developed for use in his audio tutorial approach to 00:00:44.399 --> 00:00:51.239 biology. Dr. Postlethwait, since you've been publicly associated with the formal 00:00:51.239 --> 00:00:54.809 use of objectives for so many years, certainly since the introduction of the 00:00:54.809 --> 00:01:00.570 AT approach around 1961, you can certainly be regarded as an expert in 00:01:00.570 --> 00:01:06.060 the use of objectives. So in your opinion what are the major reasons that 00:01:06.060 --> 00:01:10.490 instructors have when they decide to use performance or behavioral objectives? 00:01:10.490 --> 00:01:15.479 Well of course you have been developing a lot of instructional materials 00:01:15.479 --> 00:01:20.180 yourself and you know how important behavioral objectives are for 00:01:20.180 --> 00:01:27.150 structuring good programs and programs of learning but the primary reason well 00:01:27.150 --> 00:01:35.369 really two things one is for the for the student and the second one would be for 00:01:35.369 --> 00:01:42.360 the for the teacher now for the student it's a matter of trying to enable the 00:01:42.360 --> 00:01:48.060 student to know what what is expected of him so the student can work together 00:01:48.060 --> 00:01:53.640 cooperate with you the teacher to achieve the appropriate goals the 00:01:53.640 --> 00:01:59.670 student needs to know what these goals are student doesn't really have any 00:01:59.670 --> 00:02:05.430 reason to know these goals until somebody communicates them to them 00:02:05.430 --> 00:02:09.660 that's why they come to a university because they're at the University of 00:02:09.660 --> 00:02:16.260 people who know what botany ought to be and then they can communicate this to 00:02:16.260 --> 00:02:21.180 students and students then can can move toward this secondly with the teacher a 00:02:21.180 --> 00:02:27.870 teacher needs to know precisely what he expects of a student many teachers teach 00:02:27.870 --> 00:02:32.160 with some vague ideas in their own mind as to what they would like their student 00:02:32.160 --> 00:02:35.760 to achieve but when you begin to write these and put them down on paper so that 00:02:35.760 --> 00:02:42.180 you know precisely what you expect then you can give more assistance now 00:02:42.180 --> 00:02:51.540 sometimes I think of objectives a little bit like the FIFA students who were just 00:02:51.540 --> 00:02:56.130 inundated with subject matter and they have to sort out that which is of 00:02:56.130 --> 00:03:01.350 consequence to them and I think of the analogy of somebody who can't swim being 00:03:01.350 --> 00:03:07.170 thrown into a body of water and they expend a tremendous amount of energy and 00:03:07.170 --> 00:03:12.390 they find around and splash water all over but if that same amount of energy 00:03:12.390 --> 00:03:20.760 could be directed to the activities of swimming in a specific kind of way they 00:03:20.760 --> 00:03:26.130 will will achieve and so it's just a matter of the difference not a matter of 00:03:26.130 --> 00:03:29.970 difference in expenditure of energy but a matter of a difference in doing it 00:03:29.970 --> 00:03:37.500 with some knowledge of how to how to accomplish the end end product what do 00:03:37.500 --> 00:03:40.350 you think these objectives are ought to be shared with the students 00:03:40.350 --> 00:03:46.740 Undine that would be the primary purpose of writing objective would be to share 00:03:46.740 --> 00:03:51.750 them with the students so that the students would know and could work 00:03:51.750 --> 00:03:59.430 together with you to achieve certain specific goals now it's not that it 00:03:59.430 --> 00:04:04.500 doesn't help this that teacher indeed the teacher can look at the students 00:04:04.500 --> 00:04:09.870 performance and then go back and modify his instructional program to to assist 00:04:09.870 --> 00:04:16.080 the student there but the primary purpose must be well the primary purpose 00:04:16.080 --> 00:04:21.090 of the whole activity of Education must be to help students learn and if that is 00:04:21.090 --> 00:04:26.810 really true then we need to develop guidelines for 00:04:26.810 --> 00:04:32.630 each of us both students and and the teacher how closely do you think the 00:04:32.630 --> 00:04:36.170 test items ought to relate to the objectives because you know sometimes 00:04:36.170 --> 00:04:39.980 there's a criticism that if the objective and the test item are worded 00:04:39.980 --> 00:04:43.820 the same then the instructor is teaching to the tests well I think this has 00:04:43.820 --> 00:04:47.600 probably been one of my greatest difficulties because most of us have 00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:51.950 been conditioned over the years that the reason for an educational system is to 00:04:51.950 --> 00:04:58.790 eliminate certain students rather than to help students learn now I know that 00:04:58.790 --> 00:05:06.500 some people would not agree with me but I do believe that we set up quotas for 00:05:06.500 --> 00:05:14.120 failure and and focus on that instead of helping helping students achieve now one 00:05:14.120 --> 00:05:20.750 of the things then that we must do if we write objectives is to give credit to 00:05:20.750 --> 00:05:26.360 students achieve these objectives and I'll never forget the young lady who 00:05:26.360 --> 00:05:30.980 came to my office one time and she saw this sign that said objectives and she 00:05:30.980 --> 00:05:35.030 said what's this and I said the objectives and she pulled out one of the 00:05:35.030 --> 00:05:38.240 sheets and she she looked at it and she said Devon 00:05:38.240 --> 00:05:43.310 well you don't let the students see this do you and I said why sure she said my 00:05:43.310 --> 00:05:50.380 goodness they weren't at all no you see if they learned at all then you would be 00:05:50.380 --> 00:05:59.030 forced to give them a reasonable grade and most of us are not conditioned this 00:05:59.030 --> 00:06:05.000 way and so even if we write objectives there's a real tendency on the part of 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:12.260 most of us who teach to write questions that will sort them out and eliminate a 00:06:12.260 --> 00:06:17.360 certain percentage yes you can keep them off balance just a little while while 00:06:17.360 --> 00:06:20.750 they try to psych you out most of them sign a new figure the first 00:06:20.750 --> 00:06:23.450 couple of tests are gonna be the psyching out time then they can start 00:06:23.450 --> 00:06:26.960 performing you so then you say what if there's there's another problem then we 00:06:26.960 --> 00:06:32.660 have is that students condition to that kind of approach to education have 00:06:32.660 --> 00:06:39.220 difficulty in making the transfer to where you know saying here is what I 00:06:39.220 --> 00:06:43.450 expect you to learn let's work together for you to arrive there and then I'll 00:06:43.450 --> 00:06:49.480 give you a credit this the there's a credibility gap and here and you 00:06:49.480 --> 00:06:55.120 reinforce that credibility gap if you say these are the objectives the student 00:06:55.120 --> 00:06:59.800 achieves these and you test him over something else oh maybe it's last 00:06:59.800 --> 00:07:02.920 question do you think then that instruction ought to be limited to the 00:07:02.920 --> 00:07:07.510 objectives if you said this is what we're gonna cover then that's it well in 00:07:07.510 --> 00:07:16.030 my experience no way has the instruction been limited to the objectives and it 00:07:16.030 --> 00:07:23.350 would only be this if the teacher set out to do that and that only and I find 00:07:23.350 --> 00:07:30.280 the students exposed to quantities of subject matter learn lots of things that 00:07:30.280 --> 00:07:38.170 are not listed in the objectives now our objectives then ought to represent a 00:07:38.170 --> 00:07:42.640 minimal amount of achievement that we will accept as mastery of that 00:07:42.640 --> 00:07:49.930 particular subject and so the other information that we make available to 00:07:49.930 --> 00:07:54.250 our students because they are human beings and curious they will go ahead 00:07:54.250 --> 00:07:59.350 and learn additional things and and my experiences taught me that that this is 00:07:59.350 --> 00:08:05.190 literally so there has been some research in Berkeley for example that 00:08:05.190 --> 00:08:09.490 has indicated that given an instructional program it's possible to 00:08:09.490 --> 00:08:14.590 write a number of different kinds of objectives which seems to be a bit 00:08:14.590 --> 00:08:20.590 contrary to the way most of us talked about in writing objectives but it is 00:08:20.590 --> 00:08:26.080 literally so that an instructional program is is perceived by different 00:08:26.080 --> 00:08:29.770 students from different perspectives and with different backgrounds and so they 00:08:29.770 --> 00:08:34.630 will accumulate different kinds of information so all we're talking about 00:08:34.630 --> 00:08:43.300 then is the minimum achievement level that it in we will we will accept well 00:08:43.300 --> 00:08:47.290 thank you Sam would you like to make any final comment to the participants in the 00:08:47.290 --> 00:08:50.860 workshop about your feeling the value of objectives and reasons for 00:08:50.860 --> 00:08:57.190 using them well I just like to say that I have used objectives now for a great 00:08:57.190 --> 00:09:06.760 many years and the first major advance in in helping my students learn was when 00:09:06.760 --> 00:09:12.490 I begin to provide them with objectives the instructional strategies are of some 00:09:12.490 --> 00:09:19.150 value this is true but they are really of little consequence if one can know 00:09:19.150 --> 00:09:25.800 where you expect to arrive and then provide instructional systems not a 00:09:25.800 --> 00:09:33.400 instructional system but a great variety of pathways for them to arrive at this 00:09:33.400 --> 00:09:40.930 particular point having done this I have seen the results of this statistically I 00:09:40.930 --> 00:09:45.220 suppose it could very well be supported but I don't think that it needs to be 00:09:45.220 --> 00:09:51.760 supported statistically if I want to take a trip across the country first 00:09:51.760 --> 00:09:58.030 thing I do is get a map and and and I have my goals identified I'm much more 00:09:58.030 --> 00:10:05.710 likely to arrive there if I know where I'm going then if I don't that's that's 00:10:05.710 --> 00:10:10.960 I don't have to support that statistically thank you Sam in a few 00:10:10.960 --> 00:10:15.910 minutes we'll return to this tape to see what a little bird had to tell Sam about 00:10:15.910 --> 00:10:19.050 how to write an objective 00:10:50.710 --> 00:10:55.610 Sam I've heard you say that most teachers have objectives at least to 00:10:55.610 --> 00:10:59.990 some degree so this doesn't qualify objectives to be anything unusual or 00:10:59.990 --> 00:11:05.270 different then oh no this it's an old idea and as long 00:11:05.270 --> 00:11:08.510 as we've had teachers they had something in mind that they were trying to 00:11:08.510 --> 00:11:15.490 accomplish and so objectives didn't start as something recent it's a long 00:11:15.490 --> 00:11:21.650 it's been a long time that people have thought about what they want students to 00:11:21.650 --> 00:11:27.980 learn oh yeah you're well-known for your ability to clarify concepts by using 00:11:27.980 --> 00:11:32.450 examples from your own experience so I'm sure that there must be something that's 00:11:32.450 --> 00:11:36.050 happened to you that you could share with us that would help describe just 00:11:36.050 --> 00:11:42.940 what you mean and when you use the term behavioral objectives well maybe yeah 00:11:42.940 --> 00:11:51.110 maybe a little rim story will will help by not long ago I was out in the woods 00:11:51.110 --> 00:11:57.860 and there was a little rim that was Carolina wren that was just chattering 00:11:57.860 --> 00:12:04.690 away and it was pretty clear to me that this wren had an objective in mind 00:12:04.690 --> 00:12:09.710 number one he wanted me to depart number two he wanted me to do it immediately 00:12:09.710 --> 00:12:16.580 and number three he wanted me get clear out of his domain well the success of 00:12:16.580 --> 00:12:22.600 his behavior his activity was pretty much dependent on whether or not I 00:12:22.600 --> 00:12:28.460 departed and whether or not I did it quickly and whether or not I got clear 00:12:28.460 --> 00:12:39.339 out of of his area here so I think that a lot of us who are teachers are 00:12:39.339 --> 00:12:45.250 somewhat like this we we have a of activities that we go through but 00:12:45.250 --> 00:12:52.030 it's not necessarily true that the invader me there the learner perceives 00:12:52.030 --> 00:12:58.810 precisely what the the other person had in mind I guess megger has helped us 00:12:58.810 --> 00:13:06.760 identify some of the things that ought to go into an objective and he suggests 00:13:06.760 --> 00:13:11.800 here and I just read what he what he says here he says that they we should 00:13:11.800 --> 00:13:17.860 identify specific terminal behavior of the learner define the desired objective 00:13:17.860 --> 00:13:23.590 our behavior by describing the important condition under which a behavior will be 00:13:23.590 --> 00:13:28.840 expected to occur and then specify how well the learner must perform for his 00:13:28.840 --> 00:13:37.260 effort to be considered acceptable now I think that megger has delineated for us 00:13:37.260 --> 00:13:44.380 some really important components of good objectives that's not to say that there 00:13:44.380 --> 00:13:50.560 aren't other kinds of objectives but these are excellent well then what what 00:13:50.560 --> 00:13:55.810 is the main difference in what maker has said and what most of us do well most of 00:13:55.810 --> 00:14:06.730 us do know what we would like our students to learn but to take the rim as 00:14:06.730 --> 00:14:12.130 another case in point all this chattering here if it didn't communicate 00:14:12.130 --> 00:14:16.600 to me and he did communicate to me I had a good idea what he had what he had in 00:14:16.600 --> 00:14:22.210 mind but there might have been other ways other than all this noise to have 00:14:22.210 --> 00:14:28.570 gotten me to behave like he wanted me to behave for example I've seen them quail 00:14:28.570 --> 00:14:39.490 that they act as if they were hurt and they lead you from the area there is 00:14:39.490 --> 00:14:44.350 some question I guess about whether he needed to do anything I might have 00:14:44.350 --> 00:14:49.360 reached that objective if it just been quiet I would have gone ahead gotten out 00:14:49.360 --> 00:14:54.400 of the territory but there is also the another point here I thought I owned 00:14:54.400 --> 00:14:59.400 that area and I didn't know that I had to share 00:14:59.400 --> 00:15:03.480 this necessarily with with the rent and so he might have been asking something 00:15:03.480 --> 00:15:11.250 of me that he had no right to ask and so I think that it's important then for us 00:15:11.250 --> 00:15:17.790 to get our objectives out and written so that we can attack them and see if they 00:15:17.790 --> 00:15:26.700 are right and fair in fact just yesterday I had nine of my students go 00:15:26.700 --> 00:15:32.100 over the entire set of objectives that I have for my course and they were going 00:15:32.100 --> 00:15:36.270 over these with this in mind asking first whether or not they really 00:15:36.270 --> 00:15:42.210 communicated so that they they could understand what I had in mind and then 00:15:42.210 --> 00:15:46.920 secondly whether this was fair whether this was something that I had a right to 00:15:46.920 --> 00:15:54.630 ask of them so I think that this puts teaching in a in a different context 00:15:54.630 --> 00:16:00.330 than what we normally have done and puts it out to where we can now analyze those 00:16:00.330 --> 00:16:06.240 things which we're doing and seeing whether these are of value so I take it 00:16:06.240 --> 00:16:11.850 then in objectives you wouldn't use terms like understand and know and these 00:16:11.850 --> 00:16:19.920 fuzzies well it's those kinds of words will not convey specifically enough to 00:16:19.920 --> 00:16:27.420 the student to know when they have have achieved and so well I don't go in for 00:16:27.420 --> 00:16:34.170 specific wording of objectives very much still the person who reads the objective 00:16:34.170 --> 00:16:43.260 must be able to know whether or not they have achieved by reading the objective 00:16:43.260 --> 00:16:47.460 and and comparing that with what they are able to not to do I got to be able 00:16:47.460 --> 00:16:52.620 to interpret what you mean exactly thank you Sam that gives us a useful 00:16:52.620 --> 00:16:57.870 overview of what maker has to say and also we've enjoyed discussing with you 00:16:57.870 --> 00:17:02.040 your feelings about objectives as well as what should go into them and 00:17:02.040 --> 00:17:06.180 especially thank you for the illustration are there any other 00:17:06.180 --> 00:17:11.750 comments that you'd like to make to the viewers before we close off this 00:17:11.750 --> 00:17:16.860 exploration into objectives well thank you I'm real pleased to have had an 00:17:16.860 --> 00:17:21.960 opportunity to be with you I think that the writing of objectives will have a 00:17:21.960 --> 00:17:26.940 major impact on the way any teacher teaches it's not the only thing that 00:17:26.940 --> 00:17:33.360 makes you teach well and it's and again people may have objectives that are not 00:17:33.360 --> 00:17:38.760 written and they're perfectly valid the student can find these out in some sort 00:17:38.760 --> 00:17:44.610 of way maybe from other students or from other sources such as looking at old 00:17:44.610 --> 00:17:50.330 tests but it seems to me that a logical thing would to be just forthrightly 00:17:50.330 --> 00:17:58.960 trying to allow the student to know what you expect and then help him achieve this. 00:18:01.340 --> 00:18:28.400 [Bird calls] 00:18:41.390 --> 00:18:47.030 This brief video presentation is part of your activity in mini course number one 00:18:47.030 --> 00:18:53.540 of the in-service faculty development workshop series. I'm Al Mizell, developer 00:18:53.540 --> 00:18:58.940 of this series and I'd like to introduce you to some comments made by 00:18:58.940 --> 00:19:04.880 Dr. K. Patricia Cross who's well known for her concern with the need to improve today's 00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:10.520 instructional practices. Although the improvement of teaching is a worthy goal 00:19:10.520 --> 00:19:14.809 for all educators it's particularly important if we hope to meet the 00:19:14.809 --> 00:19:20.330 educational needs of the large number of new students that Dr. Cross has 00:19:20.330 --> 00:19:26.270 described so well in a paper presented at concurrent general session one of the 00:19:26.270 --> 00:19:31.940 31st national conference on higher education sponsored by the American 00:19:31.940 --> 00:19:39.230 Association of higher education in Chicago on March 8th 1976. Dr. Cross 00:19:39.230 --> 00:19:44.809 developed an interesting hypothetical analogy which exemplifies our usual view 00:19:44.809 --> 00:19:50.929 of what constitutes a successful teacher. The following visualizations of 00:19:50.929 --> 00:19:56.210 Dr. Cross's remarks vividly point out the absurdity of some of our commonly 00:19:56.210 --> 00:20:00.860 accepted approaches to the improvement of teaching. 00:20:01.060 --> 00:20:04.120 Well, the current efforts to 00:20:04.130 --> 00:20:08.210 improve university teaching should be applauded let's make it clear that such 00:20:08.210 --> 00:20:12.620 applause should be mild it is hard to know what to do for more vigorous 00:20:12.620 --> 00:20:16.520 applause when the reality is that instructional improvement is dependent 00:20:16.520 --> 00:20:21.470 upon faculty cooperation one common practice that I am certain we should not 00:20:21.470 --> 00:20:25.970 perpetuate is that a pretending that years of experience or even scholarly 00:20:25.970 --> 00:20:30.880 reputation are necessarily related to the quality of undergraduate instruction 00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:35.929 as college professors are quick to point out in these days of enthusiasm for 00:20:35.929 --> 00:20:40.070 granting credit for experiential learning experience alone does not 00:20:40.070 --> 00:20:45.080 constitute knowledge yet to many faculty workshop today attempt to legitimize 00:20:45.080 --> 00:20:49.730 themselves by opening the conference with an address by respected campus 00:20:49.730 --> 00:20:53.799 scholar who knows a lot about his discipline but very little about the 00:20:53.799 --> 00:20:58.509 learning process after catching the spirit of a scholar addressing a 00:20:58.509 --> 00:21:03.730 workshop on instructional improvement I drafted some remarks for an unlikely day 00:21:03.730 --> 00:21:07.509 when the educator might be invited to address a meeting of scientists on there 00:21:07.509 --> 00:21:10.590 especially the two scenarios go like this 00:21:10.590 --> 00:21:15.399 first the distinguished scholar addresses a faculty development workshop 00:21:15.399 --> 00:21:22.659 I have never had a course on teaching and I know nothing about the various 00:21:22.659 --> 00:21:27.549 theories of learning I have however taught in the university classroom for 00:21:27.549 --> 00:21:33.340 some 25 years while I'm not the new so called teaching methods and techniques 00:21:33.340 --> 00:21:39.090 my experience and observations will be helpful and useful to the rest of you 00:21:39.090 --> 00:21:44.619 there is of course no real science of education in the sense that experts can 00:21:44.619 --> 00:21:50.470 predict with certainty who will succeed in college nor do we know how to create 00:21:50.470 --> 00:21:56.529 the most desirable learning conditions therefore it seems to me that I who am 00:21:56.529 --> 00:22:02.429 in a classroom everyday can probably be as helpful in understanding learning 00:22:02.429 --> 00:22:09.220 asking researchers who never teach in the reality of the classroom while I 00:22:09.220 --> 00:22:14.470 admit that there is a certain amount of technology and techniques that can 00:22:14.470 --> 00:22:19.649 probably be used to improve the performance of the average teacher like 00:22:19.649 --> 00:22:26.019 instructional objectives and teacher evaluation perhaps the master teacher is 00:22:26.019 --> 00:22:33.759 not dependent on tools and techniques he has a sensitivity for learning a feel 00:22:33.759 --> 00:22:40.869 for when real learning is taking place a teacher who loves his subject and who is 00:22:40.869 --> 00:22:46.210 personally experiences the joy of learning is probably in the best 00:22:46.210 --> 00:22:54.700 position to create such satisfactions for others now let us parallel this 00:22:54.700 --> 00:22:58.450 real-life story with the unlikely scenario in which a distinguished 00:22:58.450 --> 00:23:02.649 educator who knows a great deal about teaching and learning is invited to 00:23:02.649 --> 00:23:05.370 address a group of scientists in this case 00:23:05.370 --> 00:23:08.980 meteorologists who are eager to lend credibility to their work because of 00:23:08.980 --> 00:23:13.480 recent criticism of their weather predictions. In this fantasy there is a 00:23:13.480 --> 00:23:17.830 familiar exportation of the professor's distinction to the unrealistic hope that 00:23:17.830 --> 00:23:21.190 his personal experience with weather conditions will contribute important 00:23:21.190 --> 00:23:26.140 insights to their workshop on meteorology. His remarks might go like 00:23:26.140 --> 00:23:34.690 this: I have never studied meteorology and I know nothing of the various 00:23:34.690 --> 00:23:40.480 theories on the subject I have however lived in the physical world for a good 00:23:40.480 --> 00:23:48.039 many years while I have no idea what causes certain weather patterns or how 00:23:48.039 --> 00:23:54.490 to induce rain when we need it I do put on snow tires in the winter and carry an 00:23:54.490 --> 00:23:59.980 umbrella when it rains I hope my experience and observations will be 00:23:59.980 --> 00:24:06.700 helpful and useful to professional meteorologists there is of course no 00:24:06.700 --> 00:24:12.659 real science of weather in the sense that experts can predict with certainty 00:24:12.659 --> 00:24:19.059 whether it will rain on a given day nor do we know how to bring about the most 00:24:19.059 --> 00:24:27.220 desirable weather conditions therefore it seems to me that I who live with the 00:24:27.220 --> 00:24:33.940 weather every day can probably be as helpful in understanding it as can 00:24:33.940 --> 00:24:40.409 researchers who rarely venture into the reality of a rain storm or a blizzard 00:24:40.409 --> 00:24:47.919 while I admit that there are some techniques that can probably be used to 00:24:47.919 --> 00:24:54.370 improve the performance of the average meteorologists barometers and weather 00:24:54.370 --> 00:25:02.919 maps perhaps the master meteorologist is not dependent on tools and techniques he 00:25:02.919 --> 00:25:09.450 has a sensitivity to the weather and perhaps a good arthritic knee a 00:25:09.450 --> 00:25:15.130 meteorologist who loves weather who personally experiences the joy of 00:25:15.130 --> 00:25:19.150 beautiful days is probably in the best position 00:25:19.150 --> 00:25:27.160 to create such satisfactions for others my analogy between the science of 00:25:27.160 --> 00:25:31.900 meteorology and the science of teaching was carefully chosen neither is an 00:25:31.900 --> 00:25:36.700 infallible science both are better at predicting than at creating desirable 00:25:36.700 --> 00:25:41.380 climates for growth nevertheless the weather bureau has a significantly 00:25:41.380 --> 00:25:44.650 better understanding of climatic conditions and some farmers would like 00:25:44.650 --> 00:25:49.510 to admit and educators and psychologists know a lot more about learning then some 00:25:49.510 --> 00:25:54.100 professors would like to admit another hurdle that must be cleared on the way 00:25:54.100 --> 00:25:58.120 to the improvement of instruction is the academic distress of experimentation and 00:25:58.120 --> 00:26:02.559 innovation it's hard to explain why college professors who are so curious 00:26:02.559 --> 00:26:06.190 and experimental and then pursuit of improvements and better answers within 00:26:06.190 --> 00:26:10.360 their own disciplines should be so conservative in the practice other 00:26:10.360 --> 00:26:15.490 profession I was talking with the college dean redux recently who stated 00:26:15.490 --> 00:26:19.510 emphatically that the first priority of colleges should be the improvement of 00:26:19.510 --> 00:26:23.650 traditional instruction and only when that was perfected should colleges spend 00:26:23.650 --> 00:26:27.970 money to support innovation and experimentation in the midst of being 00:26:27.970 --> 00:26:31.510 grateful for his support of the idea that traditional instruction should be 00:26:31.510 --> 00:26:35.920 improved I asked myself where General Electric would be if they had decided to 00:26:35.920 --> 00:26:41.020 perfect the ice box before starting work on the refrigerator sure I'm in favor of 00:26:41.020 --> 00:26:45.580 plugging the leaks and improving the insulation in the old ice boxes but not 00:26:45.580 --> 00:26:50.020 at the expense of supporting the development of refrigerators happily 00:26:50.020 --> 00:26:53.260 some people have started work on the instructional equivalent of 00:26:53.260 --> 00:26:56.590 refrigerators I predict that consumers who have 00:26:56.590 --> 00:27:00.760 experienced even primitive versions of the refrigerator may come to demand it 00:27:00.760 --> 00:27:07.870 over some pretty high quality ice boxes all of the previous remarks were 00:27:07.870 --> 00:27:13.870 adaptations of comments made by Dr. Cross through the assistance of three 00:27:13.870 --> 00:27:19.870 participants in the 1976-77 teaching Improvement Program at Purdue 00:27:19.870 --> 00:27:26.290 University directed by Dr. Samuel Postlethwait. I would like to thank Gerry 00:27:26.290 --> 00:27:35.100 Roberts, Ralph Burns, and Joe Brown for their interpretations 00:27:35.100 --> 00:27:41.180 which made these remarks by Dr. Cross so vivid for you.