‘Chain’, ‘necklace’, ‘spiral’, ‘network’, ‘hybrid’ — these are the titles we use in the Think Tank workshop for the different methods of sequencing S-R events that a thought-up design can demand. A thought-up design has a ‘route map’ in it; it will tell you the order in which it wants the worked-out design to let the learner meet the content (substance) of the course or lesson.
The chain
The chain is a sequence in which the various S-R events in a procedure which is being taught are built around each step in that procedure or process.
Treating a snake bite, for example, would be a procedure to be taught in a chain. The protocol for police ticketing situations could also be sequenced for learning as a chain of events. The steps in a chain can be, and usually are, taught in their natural order — A, then B, then C, and so on. This is known as a forward chain. It is also possible (and sometimes extremely effective) to teach the steps in reverse order. This would mean teaching the last step first and working backwards until the first step in the chain is reached. Do you remember the example of the waiter-training design mentioned in Chapter 2? This was a chain of events which could very well be taught by starting with an S-R event on the subject of ‘getting guests away from the restaurant in such a way that they like to come back’. The last S-R event to be taught would then be on the subject of ‘pre-paring for the arrival of the guests’. Try thinking of some other subjects which could be successfully taught by sequencing them in a backward chain. Examples which come up in the Think Tank workshop include ‘selling oil’, ‘solving a problem’, ‘playing a piece of music’ and ‘tying a shoelace’.
The necklace
Some processes are cyclical in nature. When you have to teach them in a course or lesson the sequence to use is the closed chain or necklace sequence. The example of a worked-out design in necklace sequence that we use in the Think Tank workshop is for a course on solving a food problem in a Third World country. The course is for young biologists. Its goal is to teach (with the help of case studies, talks by experts, discussions, films and exercises) a systematic approach to solving a country’s food shortage problem. The steps in this strategy are given in Fig. 13.
This is the ‘special bit of content’ which works as the REO in the worked-out version of the course. This worked-out design has had success. It is well valued and liked and rated positively in terms of being effective and also efficient.
The spiral
A spiral sequence is an alternative sequence to those already mentioned; it will result in a worked-out design in which the same topics are covered two, three or even more times. Each time the round of topics is made, each topic is handled in its S-R event at a progressively higher level of complexity and at a greater depth. The spiral sequence can be used (with the help of intuition, creativity and logical thinking) in courses and lessons on subjects from a list that is practically endless; arithmetic, economics, computer science, product processing in milk factories, art history, strategies in chess, building a house, statistics, and the scientific method of enquiry are just a few of these. A thought-up design could also make you spiral downwards (from the complex to the simple) when it gets you to work it out.
The network
‘How much is to be borrowed?’, ‘What is the loan to be used for?’, ‘What are the repayment plans?’, ‘What will be the bank’s position if repayment plans fail?’… If you have ever studied the design of a course for bankers on negotiating cash loans to companies, you will be aware that its S-R events will handle questions like these. One or other event is also likely to
handle the separate subjects of insuring cash loans, and reading a balance sheet. You will find that the topics and subjects in the course are such that there is no advantage in sequencing the S-R events in a chain or necklace. Instead, the S-R events are put together in a network. The events relate to each other. They complement each other, but one S-R event does not in principle have to precede or follow another event. A modularized learning system (in which the student chooses her or his own route through the different S-R events that make up the system) is a network of S-R events. The choice of sequencing the S-R events is, in principle, an arbitrary one.
The hybrid
‘A blood-soaked handkerchief, tissues or towels … a frightened patient with one or more friends or relatives in near panic .. These are the opening lines in an article (Norman, 1970) for doctors on the subject of nosebleeds and how to handle them in the local surgery. We use the article and the information in it in the Think Tank workshop. It is an excellent subject for an exercise in hybrid sequencing. A hybrid sequence, as the name suggests, is a mixed sequence: some of the S-R events are sequenced in, for example, a network, and some in a chain; or some in a spiral and some in a network. In a course for doctors on ‘handling nosebleeds’, the clinical procedure involved can be taught as a chain. This is the ‘know how’ part of the course.
The ‘know what’ part, covering important anatomical information and the physiological implications of a nosebleed, can be taught via a network of S-R events. With the help of this subject we learn how to work out a hybrid sequence and also to value this particular sequence as a means of bringing variety in the sequencing of a course or lesson. Variety is something that learners always like.