PSEUDOSCIENCE IN COMPUTER-BASED INSTRUCTION - THE CASE OF LEARNER CONTROL RESEARCH

Contemporary research studies on learner control in computer-based ins truction constitute ''pseudoscience'' in that these studies fail to li ve up to the theoretical, definitional, methodological, and analytical guidelines of the positivist, quantitative paradigm they purport to f ollow. A critique of published learner control studies is presented de tailing problems with definitions of learner control, theoretical foun dations, treatment duration, outcome measures, sample sizes, and concl usions. Recommendations are made concerning the exploration of alterna tive paradigms for research focused on learner control and other aspec ts of computer-based instruction.