1-2. Is it the child's fault that they can't do it? Skinner and the design of learning
The teaching machine was born from a classroom observation
In the early 1950s, Harvard psychologist B. F. Skinner observed his daughter's arithmetic class.
The teacher explains how to calculate on the blackboard.
The children solve the same problems all at once.
Some children get the answers immediately.
Some children stop at the very first problem.
The teacher walks between the desks, but cannot watch all the children at the same time. Children only realize their mistakes after solving many problems. Sometimes, the answer sheets were not returned until the next day.
This is too slow for children who can do it, and too fast for those who cannot.
However, is this a problem with the teacher's teaching method?
A single teacher teaching children who have different speeds of understanding and different points of struggle, all at the same time and in the same way. Perhaps this system itself is unreasonable.
Skinner questioned the conditions of learning before questioning the children's abilities.
From measurement to design
Thorndike used cats to measure the time it took to escape from a box.
About 30 years later, Skinner placed rats and pigeons in experimental boxes and recorded how many times they repeated the same behavior within a set time while changing the conditions for releasing food.
For rats, it was pressing a lever. For pigeons, it was pecking at a disk. Each of these individual actions is called a 'response'.
Releasing food every time they respond.
Releasing food after a set number of responses.
Releasing food for the first response after a certain amount of time has passed.
When food is released after a set number of responses, they continue to respond at a fast pace.
When food is released after a certain amount of time has passed, the response rate decreases immediately after eating the food and increases as time passes. [1]
The likelihood of a behavior occurring changes depending on the result that follows it.
This is the famous 'operant conditioning'.
Bringing operant conditioning into the classroom
In the laboratory, the results returned after a behavior can be finely adjusted.
However, in the classroom, even if a child solves a problem, it takes hours to know if it is correct.
Could this time lag be eliminated?
Answer a question.
Check the correct answer on the spot.
If you succeed, move on to the next problem.
Bring operant conditioning into the classroom.
To achieve this, Skinner created the teaching machine.[2]
Only one problem is displayed in the window.
The learner writes the answer themselves.
When the lever is moved, the correct answer appears, allowing the learner to compare their answer on the spot.
If it is correct, that problem is finished. If it is wrong, they try again later.
The problems were divided into small steps so that they would not suddenly become difficult. Each individual can also proceed at their own pace.
Nowadays, this is a mechanism that can be easily implemented on a computer.
Skinner created this using paper and gears.
However, just building a machine does not teach anything.
Which problems should be presented first? At what point should the difficulty be increased?
Do not just stop at measuring; feed the results of the measurement back into the design of the teaching method.
It is the children's reactions that tell us whether that design was successful.
Who is the 'X' mark aimed at?
The 'X' mark is no longer aimed only at the child.
Instead of just measuring a child's ability, use it as a clue to rethink the teaching method.
Of course, simply presenting problems in order from easiest to hardest does not mean that all learning will go well. Later research has shown results where there is no significant difference in grades between programmed instruction and traditional classroom teaching. [3]
Being able to provide the correct answer is not the same as understanding the meaning.
Even so, the question Skinner left behind has not disappeared.
That child who was stuck on the first problem in the classroom that day.
Perhaps they lacked the ability.
But perhaps, the conditions for learning were not a good match for them.
Before marking a child with an 'X', question the teaching method.
What Skinner left for education was that perspective.
American psychologists Charles B. Ferster and B. F. Skinner, who conducted joint research at Harvard University, mainly used pigeons to continuously record changes in responses by varying the frequency and time intervals of food delivery. They demonstrated that different patterns of response speed, pauses, and resumption appear depending on the conditions for food delivery. Ferster, C. B., & Skinner, B. F. (1957). Schedules of Reinforcement. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Harvard University psychologist B. F. Skinner announced a teaching machine that allowed learners to answer one question at a time, check the correct answer immediately, and proceed at their own speed. He also demonstrated a method of dividing teaching materials into small steps and improving the order and difficulty of problems while recording the learner's responses.
Skinner, B. F. (1958). “Teaching Machines.” Science, 128(3330), 969–977.University of Michigan educational researchers Chen-Lin C. Kulik, Barbara J. Schwalb, and James A. Kulik synthesized 48 evaluation studies of programmed instruction in secondary education. When comparing programmed instruction with traditional classroom teaching, there was no significant difference on average in final exam grades or attitudes toward subjects and classes.
Kulik, C.-L. C., Schwalb, B. J., & Kulik, J. A. (1982). “Programmed Instruction in Secondary Education: A Meta-Analysis of Evaluation Findings.” The Journal of Educational Research, 75(3), 133–138.
[Book Introduction] The Art of Learning for Adults Revealed by Educational Technology
Turning 'it's too late' into 'starting now'.
People who continue to change even after becoming adults are not people with special talents.
They are people who have the ability to accept what they are taught with an open mind, try it out for themselves, and connect it to the next step.
'The Art of Learning for Adults Revealed by Educational Technology' translates the techniques for acquiring the 'ability to learn' into practical tools that can be used in the field, drawing on insights from educational psychology, learning science, cognitive psychology, and organizational psychology, with a focus on educational technology.
This is a book for adults relearning, systematized into 40 skills.