BURRHUS FREDERIC SKINNER (1904-1990)
“We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.”
“We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.”
B.F. Skinner
His contributions to psychology and education:
What comes into our mind when we hear the name of B.F. Skinner is of course “behaviorism”. He is one of the leaders/founders of behaviorism which can shortly be defined as “all the things that organisms do- including acting, thinking, feeling- should and can be regarded as behaviors. He came up with the term operant conditioning. It is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. He found out while he was observing the rats that a rat learns to obtain food by pressing a lever and he called it as 'Skinner box'.
Even if behaviorism is no longer dominating today because of newer research, his works in operant conditioning remains vital today. In addition to his contributions to psychology, his impact is also felt in the field of education. The terms “reinforcement” and “punishment” that he found are still used by teachers in the classrooms. So, with his all contributions, he is called today as one of the most celebrated psychologist in 20th century.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner
http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/bio_skinner.htm
http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/psyography/bfskinner.html
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