Learning Strategies

Learning Strategies describes a program of research in learning strategies initiated by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 1976. The goal of the program is to improve learning, decrease training time, and reduce training costs by developing and evaluating instructional materials designed to teach basic intellectual and affective skills. This book records the program's progress and suggests further avenues for research. Comprised of eight chapters, this book begins with an overview of the theoretical underpinnings of the teaching and learning approaches to the improvement of education, followed by a discussion on DARPA's preliminary work on an empirically based learning-strategy training program as well as its efforts to expand and modify the program. In order to provide an intellectual foundation for this program, several fields are surveyed for potential learning strategies, namely, cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, behavioral modification, and motor learning. An instructional systems development approach for learning strategies is also proposed. The final chapter deals with models of evaluation extant in education and training and discusses the specific application of transactional evaluation to the DARPA Learning Strategies Research Program. This monograph should be of interest to students, teachers, and educational psychologists.