Modern Learning Theory and The Elementary-School Curriculum
Patrick Suppes · American Educational Research Journal · 1964
What I want to do this evening is to sketch for you some of the implications of recent research in learning theory for the elementary-school curriculum and to indicate how I think these implications can best be realized by appropriate application of modern computer technology. I shall say a number of things about computers, but I want to emphasize at the very beginning that I do not intend to let the fascinating problems of computer technology distort the primary focus on learning and the curriculum. The research and curriculum work done thus far as a result of the current interest in teaching machines and programed instruction show clearly that technology alone is not going to produce any fundamental or long-lasting changes in the curriculum. Only if its applications are guided by appropriate psychological principles and subject-matter insight will such changes be brought about. To show that I mean what I say about keeping technology at heel, I will turn directly to certain results derived from recent work in learning theory and indicate some of their pedagogical implications. Only after that has been done, will I discuss how computers can be used to implement these results.