B.F. Skinner on Education
B.F. Skinner
In this 1972 conversation with John M. Whiteley, B.F. Skinner addresses a variety of important issues in education that remain relevant today. He advocates using positive reinforcement and behavioral approaches to instruction to improve both our educational system and our culture. Topics addressed include aversive control, free will, effective instruction, morality, culture, philanthropy, educational reform, and programmed versus natural contingencies. Filmed at WTTW in Chicago in cooperation with KETC Channel 9 in St. Louis, Missouri.
Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. He was a professor of psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.