The technocratic momentum after 1945, the development of teaching machines, and sobering results

Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society

Volumn 5, Issue 2, 2013, Pages 1-19

  Tröhler, Daniel ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LUXEMBOURG   (Luxembourg)

Author keywords

Behaviorism; Burrhus Skinner; Cognition psychology; Cold War; Jerome Bruner; Programmed instruction; Sputnik; Teaching machines

Indexed keywords

EID: 84889656142     PISSN: 20416938     EISSN: 20416946     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3167/jemms.2013.050201     Document Type: Article

References (79)

1. ECD, Policy Conference on Economic Growth and Investment in Education, Washington, DC, 16-20 October 1961 (Paris: OECD Publishing, 1961), 35.
2. Paul Smeyers and Marc Depaepe, Educational Research: The Educationalization of Social Problems (Dordrecht: Springer, 2009).
3. Daniel Tröhler, "The Educationalization of the Modern World: Progress, Passion, and the Protestant Promise of Education, " in Languages of Education: Protestant Legacies, National Identities, and Global Aspirations, ed. D. Tröhler (New York: Routledge, 2011), 21-36.
4. Thomas Bonner, "Sputniks and the Educational Crisis in America, " The Journal for Higher Education 29 (1958): 178.
5. William Tompson, Khrushchev: A Political Life (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1995), 192ff.
6. R. Wallace, "A Deluge of Honors for an Exasperating Admiral, " Time, 8 September 1958, 104-106, 109-116, 118.
7. Hyman Rickover, Education and Freedom (New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1959). Rickover's "counterpart" in the Soviet Union was the navy admiral Aksel Ivanovich Berg, the head of the Soviet Naval Research Institute from 1947 to 1957, and deputy minister of defense from 1953 to 1957. In 1958, Berg founded the Scientific Council of Complex Problem Cybernetics and published several books and articles on programmed learning and cybernetics, which were translated into English.
8. See Aksel Ivanovich Berg, Cybernetics at the Service of Communism-USSR (Washington: US Department of Commerce, Office of Technical Services, Joint Publications Research Service, 1962).
9. In historical analyses the notion of "start" is a vulnerable one. "Start" is used to mean, "becoming evident" or "becoming visible, " and I am not inclined to say that there were no forerunners.
10. Philip Coombs, The World Educational Crisis (New York: Oxford University Press, 1968).
11. Kjell Eide, 30 Years of Educational Collaboration in the OECD (Oslo: Royal Ministry of Education and Research, 1990), 9.
12. John Rudolph, Scientists in the Classroom: The Cold War Reconstruction of American Science Education (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002).
13. This idea reflects a broader attempt to overcome, often with the catchword of cybernetics, the traditional separation between two human cultures, that is, a hard (technology) and a soft (literature, philosophy) culture. "It is the thesis of this book that society can only be understood through a study of the messages and the communication facilities which belong to it; and that in the future development of these messages and communication facilities, messages between man and machines, between machines and man, and between machine and machine, are destined to play an ever-increasing part. " See Norbert Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950), 16. This idea became popular in the Soviet Union not least in the context of teacher education; see Samuil Braynes, Anatoliy Napalkov, and Vladislav Svechinskiy, Problems of Neurocybernetics (Moscow, 1959).
14. Victor Glushkov, About General Aspect of Cybernetics: Transcript of Lectures, Read at the Seminar of Teacher Training (Kiev, 1960).
15. Jerome Bruner, cited in Rudolph, Scientists in the Classroom, 94, 99.
16. Joseph Schmupeter, cited in Nils Gilman, Mandarins of the Future: Modernization Theory in Cold War America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), 48.
17. Burton Weisbrod, "Education and Investment in Human Capital, " Journal of Political Economy 70 (1962): 106-123.
18. OECD, Harold Stoke, Hans Löwbeer, and Jean Capelle, Modernizing Our Schools: Curriculum Improvement and Educational Development (Paris: OECD, 1966).
19. Francis Keppel, The Necessary Revolution in American Education (New York: Harper and Row, 1966).
20. Daniel Tröhler, "Change Management in the Governance of Schooling: The Rise of Experts, Planners, and Statistics in the Early OECD, " Teachers College Record (forthcoming).
21. Daniel Tröhler, "Harmonizing the Educational Globe: World Polity, Cultural Features, and the Challenges to Educational Research, " Studies in Philosophy and Education 29 (2010): 7-29.
22. B. Skinner, Science and Human Behavior (New York: Macmillan, 1953).
23. B. Skinner, "The Science of Learning and the Art of Teaching, " in Programmed Learning, ed. W. Smith and J. Moore (Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Company [1954], 1966), 34-48.
24. Skinner, "The Science of Learning, " 19.
25. Skinner, "The Science of Learning, " 19.
26. Skinner, "The Science of Learning, " 19.
27. Skinner, "The Science of Learning, " 19.
28. Skinner, "The Science of Learning, " 19.
29. Skinner, "The Science of Learning, " 19.
30. Skinner, "The Science of Learning, " 19.
31. It is of no importance whether John Dewey's alleged "fatherhood" of progressive education is right or not, for he was believed to be at the origin of this movement.
32. Educational Policies Commission, The Central Purpose of American Education (Washington, DC: Educational Policies Commission, 1961).
33. Hyman Rickover, "Education. What Price Life Adjustment?" Time, 2 December 1957, LXX (23).
34. Rickover, "Education: What Price Life Adjustment?".
35. Rickover, "Education: What Price Life Adjustment?".
36. B. Skinner, Teaching Machines and Programmed Learning (film), 1954. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTH3ob1IRFo&feature=related.
37. I thank Viktoria Boretska and Caroline Galiatsos for transcribing the film about teaching machines, which is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTH3ob1IRFo&feature=related.
38. Skinner, Teaching Machines and Programmed Learning, film narration.
39. Skinner, Teaching Machines and Programmed Learning, film narration.
40. Skinner, Teaching Machines and Programmed Learning, film narration.
41. US Congress, National Defense Education Act 1958, section 301.
42. B. Skinner, "Teaching Machines, " Science 128 (24 October 1958): 969-977.
43. B. Skinner, "Teaching Machines, " Science 128 (24 October 1958): 969-977.
44. B. Skinner, "Teaching Machines, " Science 128 (24 October 1958): 969-977.
45. B. Skinner, "Teaching Machines, " Science 128 (24 October 1958): 969-977.
46. B. Skinner, "Teaching Machines, " Science 128 (24 October 1958): 969-977.
47. B. Skinner, "Teaching Machines, " Science 128 (24 October 1958): 969-977.
48. B. Skinner, "Teaching Machines, " Science 128 (24 October 1958): 969-977.
49. Guy Besnard, Leslie Briggs, George Mursch, and Elbert Walker, Development of the Subject-Matter Trainer (AFPTRC, Armament Systems Personnel Research Laboratory (Tech. memo, ASPRL-TM-55-7, March 1955).
50. Guy Besnard, Leslie Briggs, George Mursch, and Elbert Walker, Development of the Subject-Matter Trainer (AFPTRC, Armament Systems Personnel Research Laboratory (Tech. memo, ASPRL-TM-55-7, March 1955).
51. Guy Besnard, Leslie Briggs, George Mursch, and Elbert Walker, Development of the Subject-Matter Trainer (AFPTRC, Armament Systems Personnel Research Laboratory (Tech. memo, ASPRL-TM-55-7, March 1955).
52. Guy Besnard, Leslie Briggs, George Mursch, and Elbert Walker, The Improved Subject-Matter Trainer (AFPTRC, Armament Systems Personnel Research Laboratory (Tech. memo, ASPRL-TM-55-11, April 1955).
53. "Each of the practice modes, while providing knowledge of the correctness or incorrectness of each response the student makes, gives varying amounts of assistance to the student, depending upon his own speed of learning and previous knowledge of the subject matter.... The test mode of operation, usable in both classroom and laboratory, provides for testing students following learning sessions with the device. Two types of automatic scoring during practice are also provided. " http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=AD0487936.
54. Wilbur Schramm, Programmed Instruction: Today and Tomorrow (New York: Society for the Advancement of Education, 1961).
55. Schramm, Programmed Instruction, 5.
56. Schramm, Programmed Instruction, 5.
57. I thank Franziska Sophie Hirt, Viktoria Boretska, and Ekaterina Belousova for their help when putting together these bibliographies.
58. Reinhold Freudenstein, "Stand und Entwicklung der Language Laboratories in den Vereinigten Staaten, " Die neueren Sprachen 9 (1960): 384-388.
59. Wolfgang Fischer, "Die amerikanische Lehrmaschine, " Die Neue Sammlung 1 (1961): 368-383.
60. Helmar G. Frank, ed., Lehrmaschinen in kybernetischer und pädagogischer Sicht (Referate der ersten deutschen Lehrmaschinentagung Nürtinger Symposium 1963). (Stuttgart: Ernst Klett; Munich: Oldenburg, 1963).
61. Helmar G. Frank, "Kybernetik und Lehrmaschinen, " in Lehrmaschinen, Helmar G. Frank, ed., 13-27.
62. Wörterbuch Programmierter Unterricht: kleine Terminologie der kybernetischen Pädagogik (Munich: Manz, 1964).
63. Harmut Vogt, Programmierter Unterricht und Lehrmaschinen an Hoch-und Fachschulen der Sowjetunion: Studie zum Bildungswettlauf zwischen Ost und West (Munich: Manz, 1965).
64. Birilko, Y. I, and G. G. Saburova, "Implementation of Some Psychological Principles in Teaching Machines in the USA, " Questions of Psychology 4 (1962).
65. Jerome Bruner, The Process of Education (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960), 16.
66. Bruner, The Process of Education, 17.
67. Bruner, The Process of Education, 17.
68. See C. Thomas, Überblick zur historischen Entwicklung von computerunterstutzten Lehr-und Lernsystemen (Bakkalaureatsarbeit, Technische Universität Dresden, 2006) (elearn. inf. tu-dresden. de/history/ba. pdf).
69. Skinner, "The Science of Learning, " 20.
70. OECD Archives, Committee for Scientific and Technical Personnel, Record of the 7th Session held at the Château de la Muette, Paris, 26-28 June 1963, STP/M(63)2 (Paris: OECD Archives), 9f.
71. Chester E. Finn, We Must Take Charge of Our Schools and Our Future (New York: Free Press, 1991), 32.
72. In 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney named Luna to his nineteenmember education policy advisory group: http://www.idahopress.com/news/state/mitt-romney-taps-idaho-superintendent-of-public-instructiontom-luna/article_1e2a801e-a630-11e1-90c1-001a4bcf887a.html.
73. Tom Luna's ideas are available at: http://educationidaho.blogspot.ch/2012/01/superintendent-luna-provides-update-on.html.
74. William Pinar, "The End of Public Education in the United States, " Unpublished paper presented at the University of Luxembourg, 18 September 2012. The paper will be published in William Pinar, Curriculum Studies in the United States: Present Circumstances, Intellectual Histories (New York: Palgrave Pivot, forthcoming).
75. Pinar, "The End of Public Education, " 19. Idaho is no exception; the faith in programming learning for the sake of a better economy; Idaho governor C. L. Otter doesn't understand the opposition against the superintendent's initiative, commenting that "putting technology into students' hands" was the "only way to prepare them for the workforce" (quoted in Pinar, 20). In Mooresville, North Carolina, "Apple has already plundered Mooresville's public budget. " For each student a "MacBook Air was leased from Apple for $215 a year, including warranty, for a total of $1 million; an additional $100,000 a year was allocated for software. " Technology saves money in terms of on-site workforce: "Sixty-five jobs were eliminated, including thirty-seven teaching positions, which resulted in larger class sizes-but district officials insisted that instruction was now more efficient due to the technology" (Pinar, 17).
76. Vannevar Bush, Science: The Endless Frontier: A Report to the President by Vannevar Bush, Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, July 1945 (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1945), http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/nsf50/vbush1945.htm (accessed 15 June 2013).
77. Bush, Science: The Endless Frontier, Summary section.
78. Bush, Science: The Endless Frontier, Summary section.
79. Bush, Science: The Endless Frontier, Summary section.