How did behaviourism influence the use of educational technology in the early 20th century?

In the first half of the 20th century, behaviourism significantly shaped educational technology by shifting the focus of instruction toward objective, measurable outcomes and the modification of student behaviour. By discounting subjective mental phenomena, behaviourists viewed learning as a process of responding to environmental stimuli.123

This philosophy led to the development of programmed learning, a technique that gained major momentum in the mid-1950s through the work of B.F. Skinner. Skinner’s approach emphasized that learning is most effective when broken into small, incremental steps, with immediate reinforcement or reward provided for correct responses.45

To implement these principles, behaviourists championed the use of teaching machines, which allowed students to learn at their own pace while receiving consistent feedback. This methodology fundamentally influenced how educational media were designed, prioritizing structured sequences that reinforced desired behaviours over the more process-oriented approaches found in constructivist education.451