I enjoy history and psychology,\u00a0and while researching for this assignment, I came\u00a0across a name that I was familiar with, B.F. Skinner. I knew that B.F. Skinner significantly impacted psychology with his operant conditioning and behaviourism theories. Still, I didn’t understand why his name kept coming up in Audrey Watter’s Hack Education and how he may be relevant in education and technology.<\/p>\n
Watters (2018) noted that after visiting his daughter’s classroom in 1953, Skinner had an ingenious idea to build a teaching machine. The idea was formed after observing that all students were learning at the same rate and that students did not receive fast feedback on exams and assignments. This contradicts one of the main principles of operant conditioning, which assumes that positive reward is used to modify behaviours. He designed his teaching machine with pre-programmed quiz questions that students could answer at their own pace and promptly receive feedback on whether they responded correctly or wrongly. Today, we have all utilized a variation of Skinner’s teaching machine without realizing it, including taking a quiz online and receiving immediate feedback and grades.<\/p>\n
\n“I would argue, in total seriousness, that one of the places that Skinnerism thrives today is in computing technologies, particularly in \u201csocial\u201d technologies.”
(Watters, 2018, p. 5)\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/blockquote>\nSkinner\u2019s work on behaviourism is still prominent in today\u2019s instructional design. According to Ertmer and Newbie (2013), behaviourism is still utilized to build audio-visual materials and teach pedagogies that use preprogrammed texts (p. 49). Furthermore, behaviourism is used in computer-assisted education and mastery learning, including observable and quantifiable outcomes, learner analysis, instructional presentation sequencing, tangible rewards and informative feedback, simple and complex sequencing, and\u00a0the use of prompts (Ertmer & Newby, 2013, p. 49). Skinner’s work on behaviourism began nearly 69 years ago, and it is remarkable how much of an impact he has had on today’s education and technology.<\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”0px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|800|||||||” text_font_size=”20px” global_colors_info=”{}”]
The Teaching Machine<\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”17px” global_colors_info=”{}”]
B.F. Skinner explains his teaching machine and methodology in the video below. If you have the time, I recommend watching the video.<\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_video src=”https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jTH3ob1IRFo” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_video][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]
(B.F Skinner. Teaching Machine and Programmed Learning,\u201d 2011)<\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]
References<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nB.F Skinner. Teaching machine and programmed learning. (2011). [YouTube Video]. In YouTube<\/i>. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jTH3ob1IRFo<\/a><\/p>\n