Pusey Appoints 20-Member Group To Study Programmed Instruction

The University has begun a comprehensive study of the value and overall effects of programmed instruction--the method of instruction used in teaching machines.

President Pusey has named representatives of the major branches of the University to a 20-member Committee on Programmed Instruction. Financed in part by a $300,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation, the Committee will serve as a center of initiative in the production of programs and in the evaluation of the new method of teaching.

Francis G. Keppel, Dean of the School of Education, is chairman of the group.

Under the aegis of the Committee, members of the chemistry and French departments are already preparing programs for experimental use in College courses later this year. Currently, teaching machines are used at Harvard only in Natural Sciences 114, a course on Human Behavior.

In addition to guiding the development and testing of programs, the Committee will conduct research on all aspects of the new form of instruction and will seek to establish a clearing house for information about research work in the field, Edward L. Pattullo, assistant Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and vice-chairman of the Committee, explained yesterday.

Work With High Schools

"The Committee will be concerned with the use of programming at all levels of instruction," he noted. The group is currently working with the Concord, Lexington, and Newton school systems in the preparation of programs in elementary school mathematics and primary grade reading.

The Committee will function on two levels. Its five-member Executive Committee will have immediate responsibility for working on projects sponsored by the Committee.

The group as a whole will function as a "kind of seminar of people representing different areas," Pattullo said. The role of Committee members will be primarily one of informing themselves as to what is going on and trying to reach a judgement as to the implications of the new mode of instruction for their own field.

Members of the Committee and their Departments include the following:

Jerome S. Bruner, Psychology; William G. Cochran, Statistics; Bruce Chalmers, Engineering and Applied Physics; Edward J. Geary, French; Donald R. Griffin, Biology; Seymour E. Harris, Eco. nomics; Frank H. Westheimer, Chemistry.

Also, Edwin E. Moise and John B. Carroll, Education; Dr. George Nichols and Dr. Peter B. Dews, Medical School; Douglas W. Bryant, Library; Thomas J. Wilson, Harvard University Press; Benjamin Kaplan, Law School; George W. Gibson and Robert N. Anthony, Business School.

Charles E. Brown of the Newton School system is also on the Committee