Educational screen & audio-visual guide (c1956-1971])

Teaching Machines: A Primer by Fred M. Nevvmann ; educiitors are hearing the words "teaching 'lies" for the first time and they wonder . ,; it's all about. Mr. Newmann's article is the i III of fundamental 'first step learning that a '/I mi<fi,ht he able to dig out for himself after , ()/ searching, inquiring and studijing. Here Her for greater understanding about teachiiichines.—Ed. . ()|{ many school teachers a casual reference t leaching machines" will elicit a barrage of fill if not angry remarks: !iat is this world of automation coming to?" \\ hen you substitute machines for human belli the school, what kind of an educated will you produce?" 1 1 taught by machine, how can children learn ( personal, emotive, attitudinal aspects of life? ies, people can teach better than machines ly; personal contact and dialog will always lie the most effective learning experience." I spite of the doubts raised in these state1 I its. the last decade has witnessed the success'evelopment and use of teaching machines, have been proven experimentally to teach iety of subjects more efficiently than coniiial classroom methods. Extensive research iiues at present, but not mainly to determine llectiveness of the teaching machine— this ■ ready been established. Instead, current reli is directed toward making even more effidevices, the use of which in public schools II radically alter the nature of instruction, 're is a revolution in American education, most nspicuous and refreshing in a field where ange has been so rare. Of obvious significance to teachers, this topic here discussed in an effort to explain the nare of the teaching machine, the principles on lich it operates, its advantages and limitations, veral articles reporting current research are ailable, and the reader would wisely consult following sources of bibliography: Galanter, Eugene, editor. Automatic Teaching: The State of the Art (New York: John Wiley &Sons, 19.59). Porter, Douglas "A Critical Review of a Portion of the Literature on Teaching Devices" Harvard Educational Review, vol. 27, no. 2 pp. 126-47 (1957). Rigney, Bryan and Fry, "Teaching Machines: An Annotated Bibliography Audio Visual Communication Revieic vol. 8, no. 2 (Washington, 1960). ( Note also Teaching Machines and Programmed Learning, edited by A. A. Lunsdaine and Rofjert Glaser, published by DAVI in October, 1960after this article was written. This seems to be the most comprehensive volume published to date.) Operational Features The label "teaching machine" is often attached to a variety of items, including electrically scored tests, accelerated reading machines, or anything that is mechanical and used in instruction. Such a broad definition is no longer useful, as the teachmg machine has recently acquired a specific meaning. Defined functionally, the teaching machine is a device which (a) presents a small item of academic content to a single student, ( b ) elicits a student response to the item, (c) informs the student as to whether or not his response is correct, (d) proceeds to present additional item for either new academic learning or for correcting previous vsrong responses. Devices which perform these operations have been most recently developed by B. F. Skinner, the Harvard psychologist whose machines have been used in research for about five years. Henceforth I equate "teaching machine" with the Skinnerian type as defined above.' The machine itself need not be complicated. It could be designed from a cardboard box and should provide the following: a window through which the student reads the subject matter item; a mechanism that will feed successive items to the window (for example, a disc or roll); a space on which the student will record his responses; an adjacent window and mechanism which reveals the correct response to each item after the student has supplied his own answer. The device can be designed for manual operation, although technology has devised electronic machines economically feasible. See Table I for an example. Notice in Table I that the spelling of a word is taught in specific steps or lessons and that 'Skinner's machine was not the first. In the early 1920's Sidney L. Pressey developed a teaching device based on what are now called Skinnerian principles of psychology. At that time, however, psychology of learning had not matured enough to accept Pressey's thesis. Pressey differed from Skinner on only one significant point. The former advocated the presentation of multiple responses from which the student would choose one. Skinner, on the other hand, leads the student to construct his own response—to recall, not just recognize the correct answer. ucATio.NAL Screen and Audiovisual Guide — January, 1961 25