How psychology stimulates education now (B. F. Skinner) and then (William James)
✍ Scribed by Jacob M. Kagan
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1971
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 455 KB
- Volume
- 8
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0033-3085
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
In a recent address dedicated to B. F. Skinner on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday, Bijou (1970) cited many applications of Skinnerian psychology to education. This psychology views learning as a three-step process : preceding stimulus, response, and consequent stimulus. The "response" and "consequent stimulus" components were well treated but, strangely, no applications were seen to stem from preceding stimuli, which common sense tells us constitute the heart of teaching. The purpose of this paper is to affirm the role of preceding stimuli in teaching in a manner consistent with operant psychology and to speculate upon causes for neglect by modern operant psychologists if not by teachers. For a preferable treatment we shall refer frequently to William James, whose lectures on education, delivered some 80 years ago, may still be read for profit and pleasure (see Barzun, 1963 and Gates, 1967). Curiously, Skinner holds the William James Professorship at Harvard.
There are four principal reasons why preceding stimuli are of great importance in education: 'In the writer's opinion, James did suggest the way to arouse curiosity, particularly in the Talks on Interest and Attention, chapters 10 and 11.
HOW PSYCHOLOGY STIMULATES EDUCATION
373
does not depend on luck or magic. This writer finds the notion of partial schedules inapplicable to non-chance human performance.
His wellearned influence and stature result from the continuous reinforcement to his students that is provided by his writing, teaching and filmed appearances. The "small minority" (Bijou, 1970) of educational psychologists who identify completely with his views might well increase if greater emphasis were given to preceding stimuli in education and if less emphasis were placed on an animal model of learning. Then William James' chair would be filled in the same admirable spirit as it now is with regard to overt expression and consequential feedback.