Machine behaviourism: future visions of ‘learnification’ and ‘datafication’ across humans and digital technologies

ABSTRACT

This paper examines visions of ‘learning’ across humans and machines in a near-future of intensive data analytics. Building upon the concept of ‘learnification’, practices of ‘learning’ in emerging big data-driven environments are discussed in two significant ways: the training of machines, and the nudging of human decisions through digital choice architectures. Firstly, ‘machine learning’ is discussed as an important example of how data-driven technologies are beginning to influence educational activity, both through sophisticated technical expertise and a grounding in behavioural psychology. Secondly, we explore how educational software design informed by behavioural economics is increasingly intended to frame learner choices to influence and ‘nudge’ decisions towards optimal outcomes. Through the growing influence of ‘data science’ on education, behaviourist psychology is increasingly and powerfully invested in future educational practices. Finally, it is argued that future education may tend toward very specific forms of behavioural governance – a ‘machine behaviourism’ – entailing combinations of radical behaviourist theories and machine learning systems, that appear to work against notions of student autonomy and participation, seeking to intervene in educational conduct and shaping learner behaviour towards predefined aims.     

An Extra Radiator? Teachers’ Views of Support Teaching and Withdrawal in Developing the English of Bilingual Pupils

Summary This article, based on a series of semi‐structured interviews, explores the attitudes of a group of secondary school teachers towards withdrawal and mainstream support as ways of helping bilingual pupils develop their competence in English. The teachers interviewed were well aware of the value of support teaching and argued in favour of it on social and pedagogic grounds consonant with a series of reports from Bullock to Cox. On the other hand, they also saw merit in withdrawal, which they felt provided a secure working environment for pupils, especially beginning bilinguals, offered a good opportunity for follow‐up of mainstream lessons and allowed for specific language development activities more easily than mainstream support. Most worryingly, the teachers felt that support teaching in their own schools was hampered by poor organisation, unhelpful attitudes on the part of some colleagues and a general lack of status for teachers of English as a second language.     

Up,close and personal: teachers' responses to an individualised professional learning opportunity

This paper provides an account of professional learning in action through documenting the experiences of three upper primary teachers as they engaged in reflection-on-action with the assistance of an academic mentor. Video-stimulated recall was used as a mechanism to encourage productive reflective practice, using video footage of each teacher's numeracy lessons. The results indicated that although it was a powerful medium for stimulating reflection, and the teachers indicated that it was a beneficial process, there was limited evidence to suggest that it resulted in substantial changes to their practices. Reasons for this are hypothesised and recommendations made for personalising professional learning to cater for the needs and context of individual teachers.     

Beyond the Total Score: A Preliminary Investigation into the Types of Phonological Awareness Errors Made by First Graders

Current phonological awareness assessment procedures consider only the total score a child achieves. Such an approach may result in children who achieve the same total score receiving the same instruction even though the configuration of their errors represent fundamental knowledge differences. The purpose of this study was to develop a tool for phonological awareness error classification and explore the types of errors made by 215 grade one children from low socioeconomic backgrounds on a phonological awareness test. Twenty-one distinct errors were identified and classified into eight categories. The most frequently occurring error category was Additions followed by Segmentations, Substitutions, Insertions, Repetitions, Omissions, Reversals, and Multiple Errors. Examination of a subsample of study participants who were classified as high and low reading performers revealed differences in the both the degree and type of errors exhibited. Low reading performers exhibited significantly more Insertion, Omission, Segmentation, and Substitution errors. Knowledge of child errors has the potential to enhance understanding and interpretation of child test performance and subsequent instructional recommendations.     

7. TELECOMMUNICATIONS

THE MASS AUDIENCE: REDISCOVERING THE DOMINANT MODEL by James G. Webster and Patricia F. Phalen (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates “Communication Series,”; 1997—$39.95/$16.50, ISBN 0–8058–2304–2 hard, 0–8058–2305–0 paper, 158 pp., references, author index, subject index)

MASS COMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH RESOURCES: AN ANNOTATED GUIDE by Christopher H. Sterling, James K. Bracken, and Susan M. Hill (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1998—$49.95 with 40% discount for orders of 5 or more copies, ISBN 0–8058–2024–8, 208 pp., appendices, index)

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE: AN INTRODUCTION TO MEDIA STUDIES by Graeme Burton (New York: Arnold/St. Martin's Press, 1997 [2nd ed.]— $18.95, paper, ISBN 0–340–67663–9, 240 pp)

DICTIONARY OF MEDIA LITERACY by Art Silverblatt and Ellen N. Enright Eliceiri (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1997—$65.00, ISBN 0–313–29743–6, 248 pp., bibliography, subject directory, index)

VIOLENCE AND THE MEDIA: A REFERENCE HANDBOOK by David E. Newton (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC‐CLIO “Contemporary World Issues,”; 1996—no price available, ISBN 0–8743–6843‐X, 254 pp., statistical tables, notes, bibliography, glossary, index)

MEDIA/SOCIETY: INDUSTRIES, IMAGES, AUDIENCES by David Croteau and William Hoynes (Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 1997—price not given, ISBN 0–8039–9065–0, 344 pp. with tables, bibliography and index)

JAHRESBIBLIOGRAPHIE MASSENKOMMUNIKATION 1995 / ANNUAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MASS COMMUNICATION: 1995 compiled by Wilbert Ubbens (Berlin: Wissenschaftsverlag Volker Spiess, 1997—DM 36, ISBN 3–89166–199–1, 436 pp.)

SEARCH STRATEGIES IN MASS COMMUNICATION by Jean Ward and Kathleen A. Hansen (White Plains, NY: Longman, 1997 [3rd ed.]— $38.95, ISBN 0–8013–1755‐X, 371 pp., bibliographies, appendixes, indexes)

A DICTIONARY OF COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA STUDIES by James Watson and Anne Hill (London and New York: Arnold, 1997 [4th ed.], distributed by St. Martin's Press—$18.95, ISBN 0–34067–635–3 paper, 251 pp., table of abbreviations, illustrations)