Design and behaviourism: a brief review
Dan Lockton,
Jul 19, 2011
It is now cliché to reject behaviourism in learning design. But this is one of those cases where a close study of the philosophy rewards the effort. Definitely read this article, and if you have the chance (and haven't already) read Skinner's Beyond Freedom and Dignity and Gilbert Ryle's much more difficult The Concept of Mind. I say this (and I think Dan Lockton's article makes it clear) because there is still a lot of behaviourism in contemporary learning design even as the architects mount the standard arguments against it. As Lockton says, "the principles of reinforcement can be seen at work underneath many designed interventions even if they are not explicitly recognised as such." There is no practical difference between "stimulus->response" and "stimulus->(hypothetical mental state, like 'remembering')->response". Or to put the same statement another way, a single-minded focus on outcomes and/or test results is behaviourism, no matter how much you utter your denials.
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