The triad of science foundations, instructional technology, and organizational structure.
Over the centuries and across all societies educational achievement does not improve. The attempt to improve the instructional process has concentrated on instructional technology. But these attempts have overlooked the importance of two other factors: the science that should underlie the instructional technologies and the organization that must operate those technologies. A considerable step forward in handling the problems of instructional effectiveness has been the derivation of instructional technologies based on Skinnerian science. But the instructional technologies based on Skinner's analysis of behavior are promoted as if they were to operate in an organizational vacuum. The division of labor, and its necessary coordination and control, is taken for granted. But in any large scale enterprise, the organization of the division of labor must fit the technology through which that enterprise achieves its mission. Educational technology must tie directly to a pertinent science and to a proper organizational structure. To teach effectively requires an overhaul along three lines: 1) a relevant science that reflects and encapsulates an accurate understanding of behavior; 2) a contingency-based technology of instruction that directly derives its practices upon proper scientific principles; and 3) a suitable organization based on teaching teams that operate the new instructional technology.
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B F Skinner Foundation, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States. eav222nets@netscape.net
D001527:Behaviorism / Q000266:history; D004493:Education / Q000266:history / Q000458:organization & administration*; D018961:Educational Technology / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history / Q000458:organization & administration*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D012586:Science / Q000266:history / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012931:Social Environment