Skinner Teaching Machine

Description:

From the 1920s, psychologists have explored ways to automate teaching. In the 1950s, the psychologist B. F. Skinner of Harvard University suggested that techniques he had developed for training rats and pigeons might be adopted for teaching humans. He used this apparatus teaching a Harvard course in natural sciences.

The machine is a rectangular wooden box with a hinged metal lid with windows. Various paper discs fit inside, with questions and answers written along radii of the discs. One question at a time appears in the window nearer the center. The student writes an answer on a paper tape to the right and advances the mechanism. This reveals the correct answer but covers his answer so that it may not be changed.

Skinner's "programmed learning" was refined and adopted in many classrooms in the 1960s. It underlies techniques still used in instruction for the office, the home and the school.

Date Made: 1957

Maker: Skinner, B. F.

Location: Currently not on view

Place Made: United States: Massachusetts, Cambridge

Subject: PsychologyEducation

Subject:

See more items in: Medicine and Science: Mathematics, Teaching Machines, Sputnik, Science & Mathematics

Exhibition:

Exhibition Location:

Credit Line: Gift of B. F. Skinner

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: MA.335539Accession Number: 318945Catalog Number: 335539

Object Name: teaching machine

Physical Description: paper (overall material)wood (overall material)metal (overall material)Measurements: overall: 17.5 cm x 48.6 cm x 37 cm; 6 7/8 in x 19 1/8 in x 14 9/16 in

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-0b10-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_690062

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