Effect of student academic ability on learning from programed text, slide-tape, and lecture.

The results of this study demonstrate that the programed text, slide-tape, and lecture do not differ greatly in effectiveness at any ability level. This fact eliminates the potential nightmare of having to assign dental students to different teaching formats according to academic ability. Future research should concentrate on the long-range effect of self-instructional materials, especially for the development of the effective study habits and self-reliance, which may be particularly important for low academic ability students. It is possible that academic ability is not the most important factor in matching students to teaching formats. Perhaps student personality characteristics will yield more useful guideposts for tailoring teaching to the student's best advantage.