Are Education Innovators Channeling B.F. Skinner?
Phil McCrae has written a fascinating history of "innovation" in education that should be required reading for everyone, most especially journalists attending this week's Education Writers Association conference at Stanford, where the theme is "Creativity Counts: Innovation in Education and the Media."
As I was reading this account, I clicked on the video the author embedded. This grainy film from 1954 features B.F. Skinner, describing the virtues of the "teaching machine." Here are his words.
As I was reading this account, I clicked on the video the author embedded. This grainy film from 1954 features B.F. Skinner, describing the virtues of the "teaching machine." Here are his words.
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With this machine, the student sees a bit of text or other printed material. As soon as the student has finished his response he operates the machine and learns immediately whether he was right or wrong. This is a great improvement over the system in which papers are corrected by a teacher, where the student must wait, perhaps til another day, to learn whether or not what he has written is