On January 4, 2016, the B. F. Skinner Foundation launched a new project – Skinner’s Quote of the Day. Quotes from B. F. Skinner’s works, selected by renowned scientists, appear daily Monday-Friday in order, starting with Chapter 1 of each book and running all the way through the last chapter. We started with the Science and Human Behavior (January-December 2916), followed by About Behaviorism (January-November 2017), Contingencies of Reinforcement (January-October 2018), Recent Issues (October 2018-May 2019), Reflections on Behaviorism and Society (May 2019-February 2020), and now moving on to Upon Further Reflection (from February 10 2020).
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An important contribution has been the so-called “programing” of knowledge and skills —the construction of carefully arranged sequences of contingencies leading to the terminal performances which are the object of…
The power of reinforcement is not easily appreciated by those who have not had firsthand experience in its use or have not at least seen some sort of experimental demonstration.…
The growing effectiveness of an experimental analysis is still not widely recognized, even within the behavioral sciences themselves, but the implications of some of its achievements for education can no…
Teaching is the expediting of learning. Students learn without teaching, but the teacher arranges conditions under which they learn more rapidly and effectively. (p. 241)
Those who have had anything useful to say [about teaching machines] have said it far too often, and those who have had nothing to say have been no more reticent.…
The goal of education should be nothing short of the fullest possible development of the human organism. An experimental analysis of behavior, carried out under the advantageous conditions of the…
When the nature of the human organism is better understood, we may begin to consider not only what man has already shown himself to be, but what he may become…
Another activity associated with thinking is studying—not merely looking at a text and reading it but looking and reading for the sake of future action. (p. 237)
Whenever a teacher attracts the attention of a student, he deprives him of an opportunity to learn to pay attention. (p. 237)
There is another sense in which the student must learn to think. Verbal and nonverbal repertoires may prepare him to behave in effective ways, but he will inevitably face novel…
One might attack the problem [of teaching an example of nonverbal musical thinking] by setting up an explicit kinesthetic repertoire in which “thinking a pitch” takes the form of identifying…
. . . multiple-choice material violates a basic principle of good programming by inducing the student to engage in erroneous behavior. (p. 234)
Of course we learn something from our mistakes—for one thing, we learn not to make them again—but we acquire behavior in other ways. (p. 233)
. . . when material is carefully programmed, both subhuman and human subjects can learn while making few errors or even none at all. (p. 233)
The concept of “a knowledge of French” offers very little help to the would-be teacher. As in the case of reading, we must turn to the behavioral repertoires themselves, for…
In spite of discouraging evidence to the contrary, it is still supposed that if you tell a student something, he then knows it. (p. 228)
In summary, then, machine teaching is unusually efficient because (1) the student is frequently and immediately reinforced, (2) he is free to move at his natural rate, and (3) he…
Some of those most active in improving education have been tempted to dismiss slow students impatiently as a waste of time, but it is quite possible that many of them…
The effect of pressure to move beyond one’s natural speed is cumulative. The student who has not fully mastered a first lesson is less able to master a second. His…
In trying to teach more than one student at once we harm both fast and slow learners. The plight of the good student has been recognized, but the slow learner…
[With the teaching machine, the student] has no reason to be anxious about impending examinations, for none are required. Both he and his instructor know where he stands at all…
Exploratory research in schools and colleges indicates that what is now taught by teacher, textbook, lecture, or film can be taught in half the time with half the effort by…
Instead of teaching “an ability to read” we may set up the behavioral repertoire which distinguishes the child who knows how to read from one who does not. (p. 223)
Instead of “transmitting information to the student” we may simply set up the behavior which is taken as a sign that he possesses information. (p. 223)
We can define terms like “information,” “knowledge,” and “verbal ability” by reference to the behavior from which we infer their presence. We may then teach the behavior directly. (p. 223)
Human behavior is distinguished by the fact that it is affected by small consequences. Describing something with the right word is often reinforcing. So is the clarification of a temporary…
Fortunately, we can solve the problem of education without discovering or inventing additional reinforcers. We merely need to make better use of those we have. (p. 219)
The processes clarified by an experimental analysis of behavior have, of course, always played a part in education, but they have been used with little understanding of their effects, wanted…
All good teachers must “wean” their students, and the machine is no exception. The better the teacher, the more explicit must the weaning process be. (p. 207)
[One] trouble with deliberately making education difficult in order to teach thinking is . . . that we must remain content with the students thus selected, even though we know…
The traditional teacher may . . . be particularly alarmed by the effort to maximize success and minimize failure. He has found that students do not pay attention unless they…
It is a salutary thing to try to guarantee a right response at every step in the presentation of a subject matter. The programmer will usually find that he has…
Whether good programming is to remain an art or to become a scientific technology, it is reassuring to know that there is a final authority—the student. (p. 205)
A simple technique used in programming material . . . is exemplified in teaching a student to recite a poem. The first line is presented with several unimportant letters omitted.…
. . . the [teaching] machine, like the private tutor, reinforces the student for every correct response, using this immediate feedback not only to shape his behavior most efficiently but…
Like a skillful tutor, the [teaching] machine helps the student to come up with the right answer. It does this in part through the orderly construction of the program and…
Like a good tutor, the [teaching] machine presents just that material for which the student is ready. It asks him to take only that step which he is at the…
Like a good tutor, the [teaching] machine insists that a given point be thoroughly understood, either frame by frame or set by set, before the student moves on. Lectures, textbooks,…
Unlike lectures, textbooks, and the usual audio-visual aids, the [teaching] machine induces sustained activity. The student is always alert and busy. (p. 197)
In acquiring complex behavior the student must pass through a carefully designed sequence of steps, often of considerable length. Each step must be so small that it can always be…
Another reason [why the student must compose rather than select a response from alternatives] is that effective multiple-choice material must contain plausible wrong responses, which are out of place in…
An appropriate teaching machine will have several important features. The student must compose his response rather than select it from a set of alternatives, as in a multiple-choice self-rater. One…
In education the behavior to be shaped and maintained is usually verbal, and it is to be brought under the control of both verbal and nonverbal stimuli. Fortunately, the special…
By arranging appropriate “contingencies of reinforcement,” specific forms of behavior can be set up and brought under the control of specific classes of stimuli. The resulting behavior can be maintained…
The emphasis in this research has not been on proving or disproving theories but on discovering and controlling the variables of which learning is a function. This practical orientation has…
The learning process is now much better understood. Much of what we know has come from studying the behavior of lower organisms, but the results hold surprisingly well for human…
Even in a small classroom the teacher usually knows that he is moving too slowly for some students and too fast for others. Those who could go faster are penalized,…
Audio-visual aids . . . serve one function of the teacher: they present material to the student and, when successful, make it so clear and interesting that the student learns.…
When [education has accepted the fact that a sweeping revision of educational practices is possible and inevitable], we may look forward with confidence to a school system which is aware…
We are on the threshold of an exciting and revolutionary period, in which the scientific study of man will be put to work in man’s best interests. (p. 191)