MATCHING LEARNER PREFERENCE TO AMOUNT OF INSTRUCTION - AN ALTERNATIVE FORM OF LEARNER CONTROL

This study was conducted with 75 United States and Far East employees of a major corporation to investigate the effects of assigning learners to either the amount of instruction they preferred or to the contrasting amount. Subjects completed a 10-item Likert-type prequestionnaire to indicate whether they preferred a basic instructional program or a more comprehensive one, then were randomly assigned either to the type of program they preferred or to the opposite type. Subjects who received the amount of instruction that matched their preference scored significantly higher on the posttest, spent significantly less time in the program, and had significantly more positive attitudes on four of the six attitude items. Further research is recommended to determine the generalizability of the present findings to other subject populations.