Plans Characterized by the Unit Assignment

Abstract

A group of related teaching procedures.-In the past twenty years many thousands of pages of educational literature have been dedicated to expositions and discussions of teaching procedures here classed as plans characterized by the unit assignment, namely, (i) the project method, (2) the problem method, (3) differentiated assignments, (4) long-unit assignments, (5) the contract plan, (6) the laboratory plan, (7) individualized instruction, (8) the Morrison plan or some modification, (9) the Dalton plan or some modification, and (io) the Winnetka technique or some modification. Frequently these plans, methods, or techniques have been recommended highly in the literature as provisions for individual differences. Necessarily, therefore, they became subjects of intensive and systematic study in the National Survey of Secondary Education as an integral part of a major project dealing with provisions for individual differences. Among the questions answered by intensive and systematic study of this group of related teaching procedures, the following may be mentioned. First, as described in the literature, what are the distinguishing characteristics of each method? Second, as revealed by an analysis of the actual practices of outstanding schools, what are the differentiae which distinguish each procedure from the others? Third, to what extent does the description of each procedure given in the literature coincide with the actual practices of outstanding schools in which the procedure is reported to be in use? Topics considered.-No comprehensive exposition of the findings of this investigation is contemplated within the limits of the present article. Such an exposition has been prepared and will appear as one part of a monograph of the National Survey of Secondary Education. 653