Errorless learning is an instructional design introduced by psychologist Charles Ferster in the 1950s while studying what makes an effective learning environment, with B. F. Skinner also influential in developing the technique. In Skinner's account, errors are not treated as necessary for learning or blamed on the learner, but as a sign of poor analysis of behavior, a poorly designed shaping program, moving too quickly between steps, or missing prerequisite behavior. The approach can also be understood at the level of Hebbian learning, summarized as neurons that fire together wire together, and it was tested further by other students of Skinner, including Herbert Terrace, whose 1963 pigeon experiments showed that discrimination learning could occur with few or even no errors.
Facts
Core ClaimErrorless learning is an instructional design in which the learning environment and task sequence are structured so the learner makes few or no mistakes during acquisition, on the premise that errors result from poor instructional design rather than being a necessary part of learning. 1 Origin YearFerster introduced the design in the 1950s per the source, with no exact year given; 1963 is Terrace's precisely dated foundational discrimination-learning demonstration of the technique, used here since origin-year holds one year value. Sources
1. Errorless learning (Wikipedia)
WikipediaOpening paragraph, first sentence
Errorless learning was an instructional design introduced by psychologist Charles Ferster in the 1950s as part of his studies on what would make the most effective learning environment.
Opening paragraph, second sentence
In 1963, Herbert Terrace wrote a paper describing an experiment with pigeons which allows discrimination learning to occur with few or even with no responses to the negative stimulus
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