B.F. SKINNER AND THE GRAND INQUISITOR

Abstract. B.F. Skinner allures us with the possibilities of turning the stones of materialistic rewards into the bread of human values. He tempts us by assuring success in achieving our goals through behavioral science, if only we give up our autonomy. He offers the power of complete control over our behaviors, on condition that we relinquish responsibility for our lives to a technological elite. Is B. F. Skinner a flesh-and-blood Grand Inquisitor? This essay tries to persuade the reader that Skinner's offers are worth considering.     

Cooperative learning revisited

The endeavor to teach academic skills known as cooperative learningis of interest to behavioral educators due to its record of effectiveness, its use of behavioral procedures, and its relatively widespread adoption by regular educators. All forms of cooperative learning emphasize operations that encourage students to work together to achieve commonly held goals rather than competing with or ignoring the efforts of others. Despite the apparent soundness of the approach, the present commentary raises several issues. First, it states that some cooperative learning proponents fail to describe the behavioral processes underlying the approach. Second, it is pointed out that it is unclear whether cooperative learning is an independent or dependent variable. Given that cooperative learning applies group contingencies to academic behavior, the question is raised as to whether group contingencies do, in fact, produce desirable social interactions, and whether group contingencies are appropriate for academic behaviors. A concern is also raised as to whether the spontaneous peer tutoring generated by cooperative learning compares favorably with planned peer tutoring. Finally, it is claimed that the minor variations from academic group contingencies that cooperative learning proponents have introduced do not require identifying a new process.     

高中生感知教师支持与学习投入的关系:学业自我效能感和成就目标定向的链式中介作用

采用感知教师支持、学习投入、学业自我效能感和成就目标定向问卷对498名高中生进行问卷调查,探讨感知教师支持对学习投入的影响,以及学业自我效能感和成就目标定向的链式中介效应。结果显示：（1）感知教师支持能通过学业自我效能感间接预测高中生学习投入,感知教师支持可以通过掌握趋近、表现趋近、表现回避间接预测高中生学习投入;（2）学业自我效能感→掌握趋近、学业自我效能感→表现趋近、学业自我效能感→表现回避三者分别在感知教师支持与学习投入之间起链式中介作用,学业自我效能感→掌握回避的中介效应则不显著。上述结果表明,感知教师支持不仅能分别通过学业自我效能感、掌握趋近、表现趋近、表现回避预测高中生学习投入,还能通过学业自我效能感和成就目标定向的链式中介作用间接预测高中生学习投入。     

Increasing participation and improving the quality of discussions in seventh-grade social studies classes

An experiment was conducted to evaluate procedures to improve classroom discussions in seventh-grade social studies classes. An increased number of students participated in discussions when rules were stated for discussions, students were praised for their contributions, the teacher restated or paraphrased students' contributions aloud or on the blackboard, the teacher planned an outline of discussion questions, student contributions to discussions were recorded and were used to determine part of the students' grades for the class, and discussion grades were publicly posted.The second part of the study focused on procedures designed to improve quality of classroom discussions. Students were taught to participate in discussions by providing reasons for their statements, comparisons between different points, or examples supporting their statements. As each type of contribution was taught, recorded, and counted toward part of the students' classroom grades, each type of contribution increased. Ratings of discussions by outside judges consisting of junior high school teachers, junior high school students, and persons experienced in conducting discussions, indicated that the training increased the overall quality of the discussions. Use of the quality training procedures, however, resulted in decreased levels of overall participation in discussion, a decrease that was reversed by the use of a group contingency for participation. Finally, the discussions after training seemed to be preferred by both the teacher and the students.     

PROCEDURAL VARIATIONS IN GROUP CONTINGENCIES: EFFECTS ON CHILDREN'S ACADEMIC AND SOCIAL BEHAVIORS

There has been little research on the effects of the many procedural variables in applied group contingencies. In the present study, an individualized contingency and three group contingencies with different “responder” criteria (e.g., reward based on the group average, reward based on the work of a designated, low-achieving student, or reward based on the work of a randomly selected student) were applied to the academic work of primary grade children in a learning disabilities classroom. Group social interaction during each contingency was measured systematically. Although there were large individual differences in students' academic and social responses to the different contingencies, some consistent effects were observed. Two of the four low-achieving target students did their best academic work during the group contingency which focused on their performance as a designated responder. This type of contingency also produced high levels of positive social interaction in three of four groups of children observed.     

EFFECTS OF SELF-INSTRUCTIONAL TRAINING ON SECOND- AND THIRD-GRADE HYPERACTIVE CHILDREN: A FAILURE TO REPUCATE

Bornstein and Quevillon (1976) demonstrated generalization from a 2-hour self-instructional training session to on-task behavior in the classroom with 4-year-old overactive children. In an attempt to replicate this work with older children, eight 7- and 8-year-old hyperactive children were assigned to either a self-instructional training group or an attention-practice control group. On-task behavior in the classroom and performance measures in reading and arithmetic were assessed. The level of difficulty of these tasks was varied. The results of Bornstein and Quevillon's (1976) study were not replicated, although the subsequent introduction of a token program significantly increased on-task behavior.     

Issues in multivariate assessment of a large-scale behavioral program

Several social and research issues directly affected the development and implementation of multivariate assessment in a large community-based applied research program. Examples are drawn from experiences of the Preparation through Responsive Educational Programs Project for disruptive and skill deficient adolescents in suburban, rural, and urban junior high school settings, focusing on the assessment of academic and social skill development and long-term skill maintenance. The social context altered both project treatment and follow-up plans, requiring assessment of potentially unintended effects and decreasing consistency across sites. Future community acceptance of such programs may depend on the investigators' adaptation to diverse community pressures for program conduct and assessment and the measurement of phenomena that are not always directly observable.     

Peer tutoring among elementary students: educational benefits to the tutor

To determine whether tutoring might be academically beneficial to the tutor, this study investigated the acquisition of spelling words by three elementary students in a peer tutoring program. The experimental design allowed a simultaneous comparison of each child's gain in performance on comparable word lists on which the child tutored another child, was tutored by another child, or neither gave nor received tutoring. The children's spelling improved nearly an equivalent amount on those words on which they tutored another child as on the words on which they were tutored; no such change was noted on the words on which they neither gave nor received tutoring. These findings, that peer tutoring is profitable for the tutor as well as the tutee, provide a basis for recommending peer tutoring as one method of individualizing education.     

A multi-element analysis of the effect of teacher aides in an "open"-style classroom

Open classrooms with few rules, individualized instruction, and informal class organization present new problems for the application of behavior principles. The effects of three types of teacher aides on student achievement and on-task behavior were studied. Each was compared with a standard no-aide condition. Subjects were 54 third graders in two "open"-style classrooms. The three types of aide, helping adult, disciplinary adult, and helping fifth-grade aide, were compared in a multi-element design with a no-aide control. The helping-adult aide significantly affected the academic output of the class, when compared with the no-aide condition. All aide conditions produced more academic work and on-task behavior than did the standard no-aide condition.