ABSTRACT
Operant conditioning, which specializes in strengthening or weakening an already-occurring behavior, was the first application of reinforcement principles to teaching. But much teaching involves the creation of new behavior. The second step, therefore, was to turn to shaping as a way to get from an existing behavior to the new one. Shaping requires the teacher to identify behaviors already in the student’s repertoire that will be precursors to the desired terminal behavior. This means understanding not selection but the variation part of the Darwinian metaphor. Great teachers, like headmaster Sanderson of Oundle, intuitively understand this process and know how to create enthusiasm for knowledge, a greater repertoire, in the pupils under their care; science needs to catch up.
