This lesson series offers many different learning methods. The theory of connectionism is probably the most widely used learning theory in this lesson series. The topics are presented in an "increasing in difficulty" order, thus allowing the students to understand the concepts behind the more complex situations, before having to deal with them. This allows the students to have the background knowledge of the subject, which will allow them to break the complex problems down into isolated parts and solve these isolated parts one at a time and put them back together to solve the whole problem. Also, at the end of each lesson there are homework problems so that the students can use drill and practice to better understand the concepts and increase their speed and accuracy at which they solve the problems. These are all ideas behind the connectionism theory to learning.
With the lessons being in order from the easiest concepts to the more complex concepts, the kind of learning which leads to instrumental mathematics (learning a different method for solving each different concept without relating similar concepts together) is nowhere to be found. Rather, learning relational mathematics ("...building up a conceptual structure (schema) from which its possessor can (in principle) produce an unlimited number of plans for getting from any starting point within the schema to any finishing point") takes place (Skemp 14).
This lesson series also allows for discovery learning to take place. With these lessons being presented on the internet, students can jump around from lesson to lesson without having to go in order. According to Brownell, this is good because "if he can work out the new relationships in a concrete way and can himself test their validity in an objective setting, he has faith and confidence at the start; and he is the readier to learn with understanding the more abstract representations of mathematics" (53). Although these lessons are designed so that discovery learning can take place, they are in a sequence that would allow those students who have problems with discovery learning to learn the same material as those students using discovery learning. The lessons are designed this way because "one cannot wait forever for discovery" (Bruner 613).
This unit is really only one-fourth done. When the other three-fourths are completed, this lesson series will be a very useful alternative because it will allow for teacher lecturing, classroom activities and discovery learning on the part of the students. With this lesson series being available on the internet, students have access to it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from virtually anywhere in the world. I know that it will be quite some time before the internet replaces regular classroom lectures because there are many people that still only believe in the drill-and-practice method of learning. However, "if changes are to be made, we must challenge what is now common practice" (Romberg & Price, 1983) because "traditional instruction is based on a metaphor of production in which students are seen as "raw material" to be transformed by "skilled technicians" (Kliebard, 1972). The internet has the potential to be the "skilled technician" that transforms the students. Since the internet is available all of the time, classroom learning can occur any time of any day without the presence of a teacher.