Methods of Instruction for

Teaching Keyboarding

Excerpts from“Typewriting: Learning and Instruction”

Attitudes Toward Learninga New Skill

• Interest and a desire to learn

• Duty or requirement

• Evident discomfort

Progression of Learning

Complete Teacher Guidance

Teacher/StudentGuidance

StudentSelf-

Guidance

In learning any psychomotor skill, an essential component of the learning process is an active teacher who observes and evaluates the process of learning and provides feedback in the form of correctives (comments and demonstrations) to help the learner improve.

Typewriting: Learning and Instruction

Keyboarding is learned through appropriate and purposeful practice.

The keyboarding teacher is of paramount importance

in guiding that practice!

Keyboarding is a cumulative skill–what can be effectively learned at one level depends heavily upon what has been learned earlier. If hunt ‘n peck habits become ingrained, it becomes much more difficult to develop a

competent keyboardingskill. You need thatbasic foundation earlyon.

Desert News, April 5, 1999

Keyboarding Learning Phases

Phase 1: Students learn the nature of the keying task.

Phase 2: Students improve “reading-for- keying” skill.

Keyboarding Learning Phases

Phase 3: Students increase in response stability, accuracy of stimulus, and spontaneity of responses.

It is the responsibility of the keyboarding teacher to presentthe new learning in a positive manner and show its relevance

in students lives.

The complexity of teaching keyboarding requires an extensive and extremely well-written software program. No software

program has been shownto be superior to capable,live keyboarding instruction.Who Should Teach Keyboarding andWhen Should it Be Taught, Margaret J. Erthal, BusinessEducation Forum, Oct. 1998

Keyboarding Software…

You would not sit a child down at a piano and use a software package to teach piano playing. Similarly, children are taught to play sports with a coach and much guided practice. The coach provides motivation, reinforcement, and corrective action.

Keyboarding Software…

Effective Keyboarding Teachers:

• Demonstrate proper keyboarding competence.

• Demonstrate the subskills that make up the total skill.

Demonstration is perhaps the most important single method of providing instruction in keyboarding… “An ounce of showing is worth a pound of discussing” and “A gram of demonstration is worth a kilogram of discovery”… for trial-and-error methods are uneconomical and inefficient in complex skill learning.

Typewriting: Learning and Instruction

• Determine student abilities and competencies through observation.

• Capitalize on student strengths to aid in overcoming any weaknesses.

• Provide regular, positive reinforcement, feedback, and suggestions.

Effective Keyboarding Teachers:

From the findings of skill-learning research and studies of time and motion in human performance, technique or form has come to be considered a prerequisite to skilled performance of motor tasks.

Typewriting: Learning and Instruction

• Evaluate the process not the product.

• Minimize the negative aspects of competition.

• Manipulate the goals of learning activities so that appropriate tension results.

• Watch for evidence of excessive anxiety.

Effective Keyboarding Teachers:

• Reduce excessive anxiety by:

Effective Keyboarding Teachers:

Encouraging self-competition—don’t pit students against each other!

Ensuring that group competitions are FUN rather than stressful.

Having students set their own goals.

Effective Keyboarding Teachers:

Keeping a folder for each student rather than a grade book that indicates only relative performance.

Providing a variety of situations where ALL students experience success.

• Reduce excessive anxiety by:

• Both are ‘automatic skills’ (see then do).

• Both are based on: Instant Letter Recognition Instant Word Recognition

• Not only can elementary students learn to type, but those who do type improve their language arts skills. (Wood & Freeman, 1931 and Erickson, 1959)

They compliment each other!

Keyboarding and Reading

Children with good keying skills are able to:• Compose faster,

• Produce documents with a neater appearance,

• Demonstrate improved language arts skills.

• Have higher self esteem.

Research Shows…

Keyboarding facilitates skill development in writing, spelling and grammar… Students who can keyboard are not only faster but also more imaginative. They are free to think about composing text or copying material rather than constantly trying to find their place.

Research Shows…

“In just three short months of keyboarding twice a week a teacher in the Salt Lake City elementary schools noticed benefits. She reported that “the kids are more careful about the beginnings and endings of their sentences. They recognize structure better and pay more attention to details.” In addition, she found that the keyboarding program instilled her students with confidence in using a microcomputer.

Salt Lake Tribune, December 1983

“One must use the correct technique to get the correct spin on the curve ball or the ball will not curve. Thus … the student must work on the technique until the response becomes automated. A pitcher can throw the curve at the appropriate speed, and it will curve. The pitcher does not think about the placement of the curve ball or the accuracy of the curve ball until the technique and the speed portions have become automated.” Typewriting/Keyboarding Instruction in Elementary Schools

Lloyd Bartholome, Utah State University