Skinner’s Quote of the Day

It is true that scientists occasionally discuss things among themselves, but the creative interchanges are more likely to be between men and things than between men and men. (p. 258)

The significant results of teaching lie in that distant future in which students make use of what they have learned, and it is a future usually closed to the teacher…

From his study of the behavior of the individual student, the investigator gains a special kind of confidence. He usually knows what he has done to get one effect and…

The programing of schedules of reinforcement is a promising alternative to the aversive control which, in spite of repeated reforms, still prevails in educational practice. (p. 248)

Appropriate terminal schedules of reinforcement will maintain the student’s interest, make him industrious and persevering, stimulate his curiosity, and so on; but less demanding schedules, carefully designed to maintain the…

A teaching method is simply a way of arranging an environment which expedites learning. (p. 247)

[A behavioristic formulation] is merely an effective formulation of those activities of teacher and student which have always been the concern of educational specialists. (p.247)

Contrary to frequent assertions, a behavioristic formulation of human behavior is not a crude positivism which rejects mental processes because they are not accessible to the scientific public. (p. 247)

Perhaps we could answer by redefining traditional goals: Instead of imparting knowledge, we could undertake to bring about those changes in behavior which are said to be the conspicuous manifestations…

There have been many good teachers who have supposed themselves to be working on the minds of their students, but their actual practices and the results of those practices can…

Traditional specifications of the goals of education have never told the teacher what to do upon a given occasion. No one knows how to alter a mental process or strengthen…

In reply to the complaint that he has not produced observable results, the teacher of the mind can lay claim to invisible achievements . . . They may not be…

The teacher begins with whatever behavior the student brings to the instructional situation; by selective reinforcement, he changes that behavior so that a given terminal performance is more and more…

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…