ABSTRACT
Gauging the initial reaction of people to different psychological theories can be very instructive. For example, psychoanalysis is often peremptorily dismissed as an affront to common-sense knowledge, a reaction which is typically diluted with further exploration. This chapter discusses that Burrhus Frederic Skinner’s work will be taken as representing the behaviourist paradigm. This is because, first, he embodies the most extreme or radical form of behaviourism and, second, his views have had a direct impact on educational theory and teaching practice. There are three general considerations which lead to question the explanatory power of a Skinnerian approach. First, there is a range of phenomena which appear to resist a conditioning explanation. The second reason is that the emphasis on terminal learning outcomes undervalues the importance of the learning process. The third reason is that not all learning outcomes are specifiable in behavioural terms.
