These teachers aren’t just enduring the remote education era — they’re thriving

The Harvard psychologist B.F. Skinner once built what he referred to as a “teaching machine.” Based around the principle that positive reinforcement was crucial to teaching, Skinner’s machine allowed students to pull different levers in order to indicate their answers to questions. When the correct lever was pulled, a light switched on to show that the right answer had been given. In some versions, Skinnerian teaching machines dispensed pieces of candy when a sufficient number of right answers had been provided. Skinner was right about the positive reinforcement aspect of teaching. Think back to your favorite teachers at school and, chances are, they motivated you and your classmates by giving you positive feedback and encouragement. Heck, maybe they even handed out candy on occasion after a particularly well-done test. Today, there are no shortage of great learning apps that apply some of the Skinnerian principles to learning. But, while edu-tech is booming, so too is the importance of real, live teachers.