John Carrolls Model of School Learning

Time based model John Carroll, a psychology professor at Columbia University in New York, developed what he called a model of school learning. He is known mostly for his studies of foreign language learning, and his explication of the variables associated with school (intentional) learning. Carrolls model states that the degree of learning that takes place, for any specified learning outcome, is a function of the learners a) motivation to learn, b) availability of resources, c) aptitude, d) ability to learn, and e) quality of instruction. Carroll relates two of these variables (a & b) to a broader category he calls time spent in learning, and the other three variables to a category he calls time needed to learn. The model looks like this: Degree of Learning f (time spent/time needed). So, for example if a student needs an hour to learn a particular skill, and he or she spends an hour, they will have learned it 100%. First I will address time needed. Time Needed - Aptitude: We all know that some students learn things faster than others, why? One reason is that some students already know more about what it is they are to learn, therefore they need less time. Knowledge about a subject or topic is often measured by aptitude tests. There is good evidence that aptitude is a function of experience and contact with similar subject matter. Students from a musical family are likely to have an aptitude for music they simply know more about music than someone from a non-musical family. Student who find math easy (they have an aptitude for math), have parents that supported their study while they were learning math. Whether aptitude is a product of nature or nurture, we know that it is the best predictor of the time a student will NEED in order to learn. Aptitude can be directly tied to prerequisite skills and related knowledge. A student who has prerequisite skills or related knowledge has a structure upon which to store new information, or generate new knowledge. A student without the prerequisite skills or knowledge structures will NEED more time. Time needed Ability to Learn: A second factor affecting the time needed is a students learning and study skills. Some students have good strategies for studying and learning and others dont. Study skills courses have been shown to help students be more productive in the time they spend studying, in other words, it reduces the time they NEED in order to learn. Of course all students have some learning skills, but if they are inefficient the student will NEED more time. Time needed Quality of Instruction: Good instruction helps students learn by reducing the time NEEDED. Three qualities of good instruction are organization, completeness, and clarity. Organization helps to clarify the relationship of what is already known to what is to be learned. If learning C depends upon knowing B and B depends upon knowing A, then organized instruction would teach A before B, and B before trying to teach C. Completeness refers to whether all the information needed to learn is available. Again, if you need to learn A & B before learning C, and if B is missing, it is going to take longer to learn C. The third component of quality instruction is clarity. Clarity might be expressed as a lack of irrelevant material. Irrelevant material is often noise to a novice learner. This noise must be filtered and that takes time. So, Increasing organization, completeness and clarity all help to REDUCE the time NEEDED to learn. Time Spent The numerator side of the equation is the amount of time the student spends in trying to learn. We all know some students try harder than others. What we mean is that they spend the time needed, even if it is above the time expected. Many students will tell you of the effort they made to learn meaning that it took them longer than they thought it should have, or that the amount assigned took longer than they wanted to spend. So what factors affect the time a student will spend? Carroll says it is perseverance (motivation) and time allowed.

Time spent motivation: Some students are intrinsically interested in learning all they can about a subject. We call this intrinsic motivation, and it is what we all hope for. However, few students are intrinsically motivated to learn all subjects. Another type of motivation is extrinsic. Students have goals that go beyond gaining knowledge or skills, but in order to meet these goals, they must perform well in their courses. This is often referred to as work, or what they are doing when theyd rather be doing something else. Students with a good work ethic will discipline themselves to spend the time needed. Another factor in motivation is task difficulty. We will work hard to achieve a moderately difficult task, but give up if the task is perceived as too difficult. This is a return on investment decision a kind of why spend the time if I wont be able to do it well anyway? Curiously, if the task is perceived of as too easy, the time spent is often less than the time needed. John Keller, a professor at FSU, has developed the ARCS model of instructional motivation. Keller says that motivation has four factors Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction. If the instruction can hold the attention of the learner, if it is perceived as relevant (useful, important), if the learners are confident they can succeed, and if learning leads to satisfaction (either internally or extrinsically), then the student will SPEND the time needed to learn. Time Spent Time allowed: The mastery model of learning is premised on the notion that if the student will spend the time they need they can learn. Lets assume the student really is motivated to learn but the only access to the knowledge to be gained is in the 50 minute lecture classroom. Lets also assume that this student needs more time than the classroom instruction provides. We can predict that learning will be less than optimal. The time allowed is not sufficient for the time needed. Now this might be stretching it, but lets assume that the lecture could be put onto video-tape, and the student could take it home and watch it twice. Would you expect learning to be better? In fact, this is the case. If students will read the assignment twice, or watch a video-tape twice assuming the have the prerequisite skills, they will learn more than a single instructional session. The only thing that has changed is the time allowed in contact with the resources from which to learn. This has implications for instruction. Texts are one type of resource available outside of class, if the students will read them. However, many students dont read texts because they have poor study skills, or are not motivated to learn what they can outside the classroom. Here is where good classroom management and alternative types of learning activities can be used to encourage the students to SPEND the time needed. Instructional technology and interventions: Carrolls model gives us a way to understand that learning is a complex process that consists of motivational as well as intellectual variables. To think that we simply have to design quality instruction is to overlook other influences. As instructors it helps to be aware of these variables and to think about how our methods and use of technology can be better employed to help the student decrease the time they need in order to learn, and how to encourage them to spend the time needed. For instance, if we have a general understanding of our students aptitude for what we are teaching, we might adjust the starting difficulty level so that it is neither too easy nor too difficult. We can design our classroom activities to be more collaborative or inclusive, in what way does this help our students to spend or reduce the time needed. Technology gives us a way to make resources more available, and it gives us new capabilities for communication and student feedback, but how does it help the student to spend or reduce the time needed. Almost any instructional intervention can be analyzed in terms of its affect on time spent and time needed, and whether it is providing a return on investment for the student. Doing so is an important part of respect and concern for our students. Carroll, J. (1963). A model of school learning. Teachers College Record, 64, 723-733.