The Effects of the Presentation Order of Examples and Nonexamples on First-Grade Students' Acquisition of Coordinate Concepts

This study investigated the effects of two methods of ordering practice instances in the Merrill and Tennyson (1977) design for teaching coordinate concepts. Previous findings indicated that a response-sensitive presentation (presentation order based on the correctness of student's response) was more effective than a response-insensitive presentation (randomly ordered) with individualized, computer-assisted instruction. The present study examined whether these findings would generalize to a regular classroom environment. One hundred one first-grade students were randomly assigned to two treatment groups and a control group and were taught the coordinate concepts-mountains, hills, plains, and tablelands. Findings indicate that a response-sensitive presentation was more effective in teaching coordinate concepts than a response-insensitive presentation. The authors suggested that the Merrill and Tennyson design for teaching a single concept be modified to include a response-sensitive presentation rather than a random presentation during student practice.