Drill and practice

One of the most important advantages of computers in education is the capacity of software to adjust the pace or nature of activities on the basis of input from the student. Tutorial or drill and practice programs available today do in fact make some adjustments based upon student responses. These programs are... 

Does the organisation proactively address "critical" situations What provisions does it make and what drills and practices does it perform ... 

Tutorial programs Drill-and-practice programs Problem-solving programs... 

Many students have great difficulty in solving mathematical problems, and in some chemical courses mathematics is very important. Courses covering stoichiometry, gas laws, solutions, etc. demand mathematical skills. Therefore many instructional courses contain sections which provide students with drill-and-practice exercises in mathematics. 

At the same CAI center L. B. Rodewald and G. H. Culp and J. J. La-gowski.88) tried to use the computer to teach organic chemistry. They compiled a course using tutorial and drill-and-practice strategies. The course consists of nine instructional modules ... 

I have used the term "directed activities" to refer to the two types of activities at the left-most part of the spectrum (namely drill and practice activities and tutorials). I have lumped the other activities under the term "exploratory environments." There are not always sharp boundaries between the types of activities. In addition, many software packages incorporate several types of computer-based learning activities. 

The heart of drill and practice activities is repetition combined with a limited feedback system. The designer assumes one of the following instructional considerations ... 

The user has been taught a set of explicit rules for performing a task (e.g., mles for midtiplying signed numbers). (The aim of the drill and practice activity is to give the user experience at applying the mles). 

Fig.4.2. Use of drill and practice game to teach students about the number line...

The vast majority of software designed for science education supports facts-and-Hgures instruction. Such software is relatively easy to create, easy to find, and easy to integrate into instraction. There is a role for software that supports fact-and-formula science, just as there is a role for fact-and-formula science. Simulations, tutorials, drill-and-practice, when well-constructed, do work. They lead to improvements in student performance, and some efficiencies in classroom management. 

Imagine that you go to a party, are introduced to hundreds of people you have never seen before, and then spend the rest of the evening trying to remember their names. This awkward situation could be avoided altogether if you had access to a refined system of nomenclature that enabled you to memorize the names of the people instead of using brute-force drill-and-practice over and over again for each individual. You d still have to memorize the system, but that s much easier than memorizing hundreds of names. 

REMEMBER no one really knows what they will do in an emergency, unless the response is drilled and practiced. 

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