B. F. Skinner
B. F. Skinner
Burrhus Frederic Skinner, commonly known as B. F. Skinner, was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth20 March 1904
CitySusquehana Depot, PA
CountryUnited States of America
teacher teaching needs
Teachers must learn how to teach ... they need only to be taught more effective ways of teaching.
mind personal-history evolution
A person's genetic endowment, a product of the evolution of the species, is said to explain part of the workings of his mind and his personal history the rest.
change trying age
If you're old, don't try to change yourself, change your environment.
self behavior given
A self is a repertoire of behavior appropriate to a given set of contingencies.
inspiring education book
We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.
different mutation culture
The evolution of cultures appears to follow the pattern of the evolution of species. The many different forms of culture which arise correspond to the "mutations" of genetic theory. Some forms prove to be effective under prevailing circumstances and others not, and the perpetuation of the culture is determined accordingly.
education reality decision
I did not direct my life. I didn't design it. I never made decisions. Things always came up and made them for me. That's what life is.
problem construction problem-solving
Problem-solving typically involves the construction of discriminative stimuli
beautiful men light
No theory changes what it is a theory about. Nothing is changed because we look at it, talk about it, or analyze it in a new way. Keats drank confusion to Newton for analyzing the rainbow, but the rainbow remained as beautiful as ever and became for many even more beautiful. Man has not changed because we look at him, talk about him, and analyze him scientifically. ... What does change is our chance of doing something about the subject of a theory. Newton's analysis of the light in a rainbow was a step in the direction of the laser.
education doe may
A fourth-grade reader may be a sixth-grade mathematician. The grade is an administrative device which does violence to the nature of the developmental process.
intelligent men numbers
At this very moment enormous numbers of intelligent men and women of goodwill are trying to build a better world. But problems are born faster than they can be solved.
education views mysterious
The simplest and most satisfactory view is that thought is simply behavior - verbal or nonverbal, covert or overt. It is not some mysterious process responsible for behavior but the very behavior itself in all the complexity of its controlling relations.
society positive-reinforcement individual
Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless.
graduation education teacher
Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.