Operant Conditioning and its Application to Instructional Design

encouraging the learner to achieve the correct response and discouraging incorrect answers, the
programmed instruction is using the instructional strategies based on operant conditioning:
reinforcement and feedback (Ertmer and Newby, 1993). Finally, the use of practice and shaping in
instruction has its roots in behaviorism. The sequencing of practice from simple to complex and the use
of prompts are strategies Skinner applied in his research of operant conditioning. Successive
approximations are reinforced until the goal has been reached (Driscoll, 1994).
Operant conditioning has influenced education and continues to be a guide in developing instruction.
Although some techniques have changed and technology evolved, programmed instruction is widely
used and modified to suit individual needs. The cognitive perspective has added to the instructional
strategies and finds itself combined with behaviorism when technology-based instruction is delivered.
The influence of behaviorism to the instructional design process is significant and still apparent in
current design.
References
Burton, J.K., Moore, D.M., & Magliaro, S.G. (1996). Behaviorism and instructional technology.
In D.H. Jonassen (Ed.), Handbook of research for educational communications and technology
(pp. 46-67). New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
Cook, D.A., (1993, October). Behaviorism evolves. Educational Technology, pp. 62-77.
Cooper, P.A., (1993, May). Paradigm shifts in designed instruction: From behaviorism to
cognitivism to constructivism. Educational Technology, 33(5), 12-19.
Driscoll, M.P. (1994). Psychology of learning for instruction. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Ertmer, P.A., & Newby, T.J., (1993). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing
critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly,
6(4), 50-72.
Kunkel, J.H., (1996). What have behaviorists accomplished--and what more can they do
Psychological Record, 46(1), 21-38.
Smith, P.L., & Ragan, T.J. (1999). Instructional design. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
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