I believe that
Skinner would still be ashamed of
American education for several reasons. Instructional
programming has not kept pace with growth and innovation in technology. Effective instructional design is a young
field with possibilities such as distance learning relatively unexplored and under-researched. Instruction is infrequently differentiated
and individualized and large scale standardized tests perpetuate uniformity across
classrooms and schools within a state. All
students are expected to learn the same things at the same time and demonstrate
their knowledge in the same way. Instructional
programming is not designed to provide “abundant reinforcement” (Skinner, 1984),
but rather uniform performance.
B. F.
Skinner would be very pleased with the school of one concept. It uses an algorithm to implement successful
teaching strategies and frees up the teachers.
School of one uses programmed learning to give each student what they
need to be successful through individual technology-based instruction, and does
not require that students follow a prescribed course; advancing at the same
pace as their classmates. The responsibility
for effective teaching in the School of One Model (enabled by New York schools
or other contributing organizations or bodies) rests with the teacher. These are all solutions Skinner offered in
his 1984 article
No comments:
Post a Comment