The 1920s: Setting Objectives

IMPORTANT IDEAS:

• Need to set educational objectives in relation to society's needs
  
• Need to create individualized instruction
  
• Realized alternatives to normal curve of student achievement
  
• Design of instructional materials important to individual instruction and mastery learning
  

REALIZED INNOVATIONS:

• Plans that specified learning outcomes
  
• Plans that used self-pacing within school systems
  
• Plans that underlined importance of mastery learning
  

INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE:
Frank Bobbit:

• Schools should provide experiences related to activities demanded by society
  
• Goals for school derived from an analysis of skills necessary for successful living (task analysis)
  
• Connection between specifying outcomes and designing instructional experience around those desires
  
  Mary Ward and Frederic Burk:
  
• Reliance on self-instructional materials so people could progress at their own pace
  
  Carleton Washburne:
  
• Created the Winnetka Plan, which used the self-paced, self-instruction, self-corrective workbooks in Illinois public schools
  
• Self-administered tests to determine students' readiness to go on to next subject
  
  Helen Parkhurst:
  
• Developed the first "contract learning" curricula. After agreeing on contracts, students agreed to finish work at their own pace.