Sequencing of instruction in relation to hierarchies of competence

RESEARCH ON SEQUENCING OF INSTRUCTION CAN BE DIVIDED INTO NINE TYPES ACCORDING TO DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS ON WHICH THE EXPERIMENTS VARY. SITUATIONS IN WHICH THE LEARNER CONTROLS THE OBJECTIVES ARE DIFFICULT TO EVALUATE EXPLICITLY BECAUSE OF DIFFERING CONTENT LEARNED. AMONG EXPERIMENTER CONTROLLED LEARNING SITUATIONS, THE WORK OF GAGNE AND HIS ASSOCIATES YIELD THE MOST INFORMATION ON UNITS OF INSTRUCTION BECAUSE THE LEARNING STRUCTURE OF THE TASK IS CAREFULLY ANALYZED AND SEQUENCING IS BASED ON THE ANALYSIS. OTHER TYPES OF EXPERIMENTS INVESTIGATE SCRAMBLED AND LOGICAL ORDERS USING FRAMES RATHER THAN UNITS OF INSTRUCTION, BRANCHING VS. LINEAR PROGRAMS FOR AUTO INSTRUCTION, AND EXPERIMENTER PREPARED ADVANCE ORGANIZERS. A NINTH TYPE INCLUDES STUDIES IN WHICH SEQUENCING IS A STRUCTURAL FART RATHER THAN A DESIRED INDEPENDENT VARIABLE IN THE EXPERIMENT. FUTURE RESEARCH SHOULD TREAT LARGER SEGMENTS OF CURRICULUM, SHOULD EXTEND BEYOND THE MATH AND SCIENCE SUBJECTS CURRENTLY TREATED, SHOULD ANALYZE LEARNING OBJECTIVES FOR TYPE AND STRUCTURE OF LEARNING, AND SHOULD CONTROL EFFECTIVENESS OF PROGRAMING AND ENTERING COMPETENCY. A BIBLIOGRAPHY IS INCLUDED. (BB)