The Technology of Teaching

by B.F. Skinner

ABOUT THE This volume, Skinner's only book on education, is a collection of essays, most of which had either been previously published or had served as texts for lectures over a period of twelve years. Four of the essays were written for this book. The content is wide-ranging from the etymology of teaching to teaching machines and programmed instruction, teaching thinking, ethical behavior and self-control, to classroom behavior management, and changes in the education establishment consistent with the new approach.

Though not in his original plan, Skinner addressed this book to readers well experienced in the laboratory experimental analysis of behavior and its conceptual underpinnings, both explicit and implicit. His intent was to encourage if not coax sophisticated experimental behavior analysts into research and development in the instructional domain. Unabashedly he points out the weaknesses of education s approach to, if not disregard of, the effectiveness of teaching practices; all potentially fixable by those facile with the concepts and methods of experimental behavior analysis.

The historical importance of this work is undeniable. It represented the first attempt to apply a scientifically validated conceptual methodological system to classroom instruction.

Published originally in 1968. Reprinted by the Foundation in 2003. This book is from the Official B. F. Skinner Foundation Reprint Series (paperback edition).

Genres: Psychology, Education, Science, Philosophy, Nonfiction

271 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Burrhus Frederic Skinner was a highly influential American psychologist, author, inventor, advocate for social reform and poet. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974. He invented the operant conditioning chamber, innovated his own philosophy of science called Radical Behaviorism, and founded his own school of experimental research psychology—the experimental analysis of behavior. His analysis of human behavior culminated in his work Verbal Behavior, which has recently seen enormous increase in interest experimentally and in applied settings. He discovered and advanced the rate of response as a dependent variable in psychological research. He invented the cumulative recorder to measure rate of responding as part of his highly influential work on schedules of reinforcement. In a recent survey, Skinner was listed as the most influential psychologist of the 20th century. He was a prolific author, publishing 21 books and 180 articles.

Reviews

[Manuel Illanes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the lost gem of every teacher shelf. The future of education is in the hand of those who applies the knowledge in this book. Must be taught in every University.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

As far as I'm concerned, this is the definitive text on education. Should be required reading for all teacher training programs.

[Linda Berberich · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was written before I was born, but it was the reason I pursued a doctoral degree in behavior analysis. Skinner's work has been maligned and largely misunderstood, as evidenced by some of the misconceptions I've read in the lower rated reviews of this collection of articles. Teaching machines allow for adaptive, individualized instruction in a way that no teacher could accomplish, and anticipated what we now know is entirely possible with the rise of big data, better processing power and newer machine learning algorithms and techniques. Indeed, reinforcement learning and GANS, two of the newer ML models, take a page directly out of Skinner's work, whether or not the innovators of such tech knew that that's what they were doing. The combination of Skinner's work outlined here with modern AI/ML techniques can and will revolutionize education. Teachers, look out. The machines are here to steal your jobs, and it is in the best interest of humanity if they are successful in doing so.

[Pete · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic

This is a book that I go back and re-read from time to time. The collection of essays presented continue to be relevant to today’s issues and offer thought and guidance on how the technology of teaching can and should be used to “right the ship” of an education system gone far off course.

[Nova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skinner's writing can be a bit dry but his teaching machines were fascinating and using behaviorist principles to improve education is still relevant decades later. Overall worth reading or at least skimming.

[Stefano Palminteri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for those interested in education from a scientific, psychological and philosophical point of view. many topics and ideas will become even more relevant now with large language models.

[Kate]

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[Amanda Hasan · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the world of behaviorist pedagogy, Skinner is THE MAN. If you're a behaviorist, you will like this book...however, I align with a more Humanism/Progressivism approach to education, so I disagreed with much of what he had to say. Skinner's beliefs about the ways students learn does not sit well with me (especially his belief that all organisms - children and pigeons alike - learn in the *exact* same way). He goes on to assert that every child in a given environment will learn in the exact same way and that you can teach each child identically. I worry, for example, that his approach leaves tons of room for the invasion of the civil rights of SPED students under IDEA.