Keller Plan courses use an approach to instruction that is very different from traditional "lecture based" university courses. And, the easiest way to understand how the Keller Plan works is to contrast it with more traditional approaches to instruction.
Traditional classrooms rely on the lecture as the primary medium through which students are exposed to course content. Put simply, teachers talk and students listen. Textbooks and other learning resources are used to complement the lecture. After several days, weeks, or even months of taking notes over Lectures, students are required to take tests over the material, which leads to the second characteristic of traditional classes. Students are socialized into the perspective that school is all about success and failure. When someone takes a test, they either receive a "good" grade or a "bad" grade; either way, that was their only opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.
Keller plan courses move away from this lecture-listen-test model and use an approach that involves mastery learning and self pacing. Mastery learning means that instead of testing students once over information, students are tested over the same information multiple times until they achieve "mastery" of the content. Mastery is usually defined by some pre-determined score on a test or quiz. Some students are able to achieve mastery over concepts quicker than others. Accordingly, the PSI approach also uses self pacing. Some students may learn information very quickly and move through the units at a faster pace while other students take more time on some or all of the units. An important by-product of self pacing is that the course cannot be based on the traditional lecture format. For that reason, the textbook and other written materials are the primary resources for learning.
On a daily basis, students enrolled in COMM 109 interact with Assistant Instructors (AI's) to take quizzes, tests, and to give Speeches. The speaking assignments, something essential for a basic communication course, is the modified component of the Keller Plan used in COMM 109. Each section of the PSI based COMM 109 enrolls approximately 80 students. Generally, one IA is assigned to work with every ten students enrolled in the class. A Supervisory Instructor (SI) is assigned to administrate each class.
Next Topic | Course Overview | COMM 109 Home