programmed instruction

noun

, Education.

1. a progressively monitored, step-by-step teaching method, employing small units of information or learning material and frequent testing, whereby the student must complete or pass one stage before moving on to the next.

Word History and Origins

Origin of programmed instruction¹

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

Applying this approach, the student would reach a level of competency with the least number of errors through programmed instruction in increments.

From Slate

‘Programmed instruction’ was one of the early names for it.”

From Slate

Juvenile Offenders Some critics, loyal Skinnerians among them, argue that this teaching process bores all but the dullest students, and that there is little solid evidence as to how well programmed instruction sticks.

From Time Magazine Archive

It was after a visit to his daughter's fourth-grade arithmetic class that he invented the first device for programmed instruction in 1954.

From Time Magazine Archive

It runs a mail-order education empire, including the Famous Writers, Artists and Photographers schools, that sells about $90 million yearly in programmed instruction to would-be Hemingways, Picassos and Carder-Bressons around the world.

From Time Magazine Archive