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بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Teaching Machines
, mechanical devices employed to present systematically a programmed sequence of instruction to a student. The first teaching machines were designed by the American psychologist Sidney Leavitt Pressey in the 1920s to provide immediate feedback for multiple-choice tests. Immediate correction of errors served a teaching function, enabling students to practice test items until their answers were correct. In 1954 the American behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner popularized the potential of teaching machines for academic instruction. Skinner held that classroom teachers, responsible for heterogeneous groups of students, could not be expected to provide individualized instruction for each student without assistance from mechanical devices. Teaching machines containing well-programmed sequences could provide step-by-step progress toward carefully defined instructional objectives, with each step depending on mastery of all the prerequisite steps. A good program in a teaching machine could thus make efficient use of the principle of active responding by providing students with immediate feedback on success or failure. The early linear teaching machines could not judge the student's response nor, indeed, even determine that the student had responded; they simply presented the correct answer on demand, providing a chance for the student to inspect that feedback before proceeding. Branching teaching machines, using multiple-choice questions, sent students to different next frames, providing either remedial information and a chance to try again, or confirmation of success and the next step in the sequence. Both kinds of machines were so simple in design that they were replaceable by programmed textbooks offering almost the same control over learner progress. The potential of the computer as a teaching machine promises increasing design sophistication. Computers can be programmed to judge student input and to tailor lessons to each individual's level of mastery. In a tutorial mode, computers can present instructional input and require mastery of each step in ways that were not possible in the early machines. The sensitivity of the instructional designer to alternative patterns of student learning is the necessary key to full use of this advance in machine capacity. Simulation—using the machine to model a real situation—enables even greater sophistication, allowing realistic reactions to student input. Well-designed intellectual games can provide patient environments in which to practice important problem-solving skills.
