ABSTRACT

470Adaptive instruction embodies all instructional forms that accommodate the needs and abilities of different learners. This chapter summarizes five approaches to adaptive instruction: (1) macro-adaptive instruction; (2) aptitude–treatment interactions (ATI-based); (3) micro-adaptive instruction, including intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs); (4) the adaptive/adaptable hypermedia/Web-based system (AHS); and (5) specific pedagogy-centered systems. These approaches are presented in historical order, beginning with macro-adaptive systems. For each approach, its characteristics and representative systems are discussed. Although each has its own distinctive properties, some similarities can be found among the approaches. Due to the development of information and communication technology (ICT), the structural functions of recent adaptive systems are significantly more powerful than earlier ones. New Web-based systems have functions that simultaneously provide customized learning experiences to masses of individual learners. The challenges now facing researchers and developers are to optimally integrate many different theories, principles, and strategies of learning and instruction with system functions and to prove empirically the effects and value of these systems in real-world environments.