In-Class Questions
Skinner in the "Teaching Machines" suggests "an appropriate teaching machine will have several important features". These are listed below. Work carefully with the installed program for 20-30 minutes, preferably with a partner, and evaluate the program in relation to Skinner's description of these features:
{1}"The Students must compose his response rather than select it from a set of alternatives."
1-No fit
2-Minimal fit
3-Moderate fit1
4-Strong fit
5-Exceptional fit
{2} "Each step must be so small that it can always be taken, yet in taking it the student moves somewhat closer to fully competent behavior."
3-Moderate fit
{3} "… the effect upon each student is surprisingly like that of a private tutor. "
A. There is a constant interchange between program and student … the machine induces sustained activity. The student is always alert and busy
B. Like a good tutor, the machine insists that a given point be thoroughly understood either fram by framed or set by set, before the student moves on.
C. Like a good tutor the machine presents just that material for which the student is ready. It asks him to take only that step which he is at the moment best equipped and most likely to take.
D. Like a skillful tutor the machine helps the student to come up with the right answer. It does this in part through the orderly construction of the program and in part with such techniques as hinting, prompting, and suggesting, derived from an analysis of verbal behavior
E. … the 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 to maintain it in strength in a manner which the layman would describe as "holding the student's interest." There is a constant interchange between program and student … the machine induces sustained activity. The student is always alert and busy
{4} Briefly discuss the overall "fit" between the program and Skinner's criteria:
(Click here to see the results)
{5} Briefly discuss your sense of the value of using the kind of program we used today: