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Pedagogical Approach

Keller Plan

Named Pedagogical Models and Movements

The Keller Plan, formally the Personalized System of Instruction, is a self-paced course format devised by psychologist Fred Keller in 1968, in which students work through a sequence of short units from written study guides, take a mastery test on each unit administered by a student proctor, and move to the next unit only after passing, with lectures used sparingly as a reward rather than as the primary means of instruction. It was widely adopted in North American college science courses in the 1970s as one operational implementation of mastery-learning principles, distinct from Benjamin Bloom's own classroom-paced version of mastery learning.

Facts
Central Question
How can course pace vary for each student so that everyone still reaches the same mastery of the material, instead of moving all students through content at one fixed pace 1
Most Effective For
Large higher-education courses, where it has mainly been used as a more personalized alternative to lecture-based instruction 1
Sources
1. Personalized System of Instruction - Wikipedia
  • Principles section
    While traditional teaching is 'same pace, different learning', a key distinguishing factor of PSI is that it instead advocates 'different pace, same learning'.
  • Application section
    The Keller Plan has mainly been used in higher education, particularly as a more personalized form of instruction in large classes
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