Experiment in Independent Study (1956-1960)

Abstract

ANTIOCH COLLEGE has long sought to discover ways by which students could take a greater share of the responsibility for their own education.! It has tried to achieve this objective in a variety of ways: in its programs of work experience and education a broad, where students are almost completely on their own;2 in its plan for community government, where students lead in planning and conducting many activi ties of the college program; in using students in freshman orientation and the advising program, in which upper-class students are the only adult resi dential advisers in freshman dormitories; and in the Administrative Council, where students take part with faculty members in making decisions on college policies and program. While the College has sought to provide com parable kinds of responsibility-taking experiences within its academic program (through tutorial studies and credit by examination), these exper iences have been largely limited to its more able students. For the most part, students have been expected to attend regularly scheduled class meet ings, three or five times a week for 12 or 24 weeks, depending on the number of credits offered.Implic it in this scheduling was the assumption that stu dents needed at least this many meeting hours with the instructor to learn effectively. But did they? Beginning in 1956, the College began to examine this assumption more closely. It proposed con trolled group studies to test various methods of in dependent study in regular teaching. The purpose was to see whether these independent study meth ods could help students take more responsibility for their own learning--and whether the College might not only increase the quality of students' ed ucation, but also save instructional time.