ABSTRACT
For many years, first as a teacher and later as a researcher and teacher educator, the psychology I engaged with was dominated by the work of Skinner, Piaget and Vygotsky, and later that of Jerome Bruner. The work of these cognitive psychologists was undoubtedly useful in that it provided me with models and metaphors to think about aspects of learning and development, processes central to education (Moore, 2000). For example, school and classroom behaviour management: rules and sanctions, ‘golden time’, reward charts, stickers and assemblies that praise good work are all educational applications (and misapplications) of Skinnerian operant conditioning. Yet somehow, despite the attractive promise of sticker charts and table points, in the hustle and bustle of the classroom and in schools that must perform to succeed, it seems easier to pounce on and punish the negative than it is to recognise and reward the positive (Parsons, 2005). Skinner would be spinning in his grave.
