Influence of instructional methods on student achievement and attitude in an introductory endodontic course.

1. Self-paced instruction did not improve performance in raw score on achievement by a different amount for each achievement level, but it did bring all the students to the same level of performance as the group-paced treatment in less time. 2. Permitting the self-paced students to take quizzes when they felt prepared improved student performance. 3. Self-paced instruction lends itself readily to flexible scheduling and thus permitted high achievers to complete the course sooner and allowed new students to start the course at any time. 4. The slide-tape method also freed the instructor from formal lectures and thus permitted him to spend one additional hour (the unused discussion hour) each week in laboratory exercises with the students.