The Computer, when used in education, has a way of exaggerating differences: Behaviorist educators become more behaviorist, and proponents of open education come to espouse greater degrees of freedom. A closer look at how Suppes uses the Computer to create leaming environments brings out in sharp relief some features and problems of the behaviorist approach to education. In this chapter a brief description of the elementary mathematics curriculum is given, followed by a discussion of the attractive features of this kind of leaming environment, including a discussion on the evaiuation and economics of such leaming environments. The concluding remarks focus on the weaknesses and paradoxes of this kind of leaming environment.

The computer, when used in education, has a way of exaggerating differences: Behaviorist educators become more behaviorist, and proponents of open education come to espouse greater degrees of freedom.