This study investigated the relation between the entering characteristics of the 1,210 students who entered the seven residential teachers’ colleges in Jamaica in September 1976 and their subsequent performance in college. There were 41 predictor variables (encompassing biographical data, previous education and work experience, and general and specific performance in public examinations) and 33 criterion variables (specific and average grades in compulsory and optional examination. subjects, teaching practice, internship and individual study).

Two experiments, involving four mathematics tutors and over 400 prospec­tive primary school teachers, were carried out in a Jamaican teachers' college. The first experiment showed conclusively that students could learn geometry and statistics from individualised units, and the second suggested that students learned approximately the same amount about integers from an individualised unit as they did when taught by the traditional lecture method. Questionnaire responses indicated a wide variety of reactions to the new method.