Keller Plan

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The Keller Plan, also called the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI), was developed by Fred S. Keller and is based on Skinner's theories of behaviorism. This system is based on:

Self-paced instruction -- Each student learns as fast as they are capable independently of others, and is free to specialize in their own interests.

Content chunking -- Material is broken down into small units. Prerequisite chunks must be learned before superrequisite chunks.

Unit mastery -- Each unit must be mastered before students can move onto superrequisite units. This means students must score above a certain percent on each unit test before proceeding. Tests can be repeated multiple times.

Statistical tracking -- A later innovation. Students' progress can be tracked statistically to compare their learning speed on individual units against their overall learning speed. This way if a student is having trouble on a particular unit, intervention can be taken.

The plan requires a great deal of administrative work on the part of the instructor. However, the use of computer technology has greatly reduced this burden. One such program is the computer-aided personalized system of instruction (CAPSI)