The Technocratic Momentum after 1945, the Development of Teaching Machines, and Sobering Results

This article investigates the development of new teaching ideologies
in the context of the technocratic ideology of the Cold War. These ideologies did
not simply vanish after 1989. The catchwords were “programmed instruction” and
“teaching machines”, accompanied by the promise that all students would make
effi cient learning progress. Although Eastern and Western states fought the Cold
War over political ideologies, their teaching ideologies (perhaps surprisingly) converged.
This may explain why neither the apparent failure of these educational
ideologies nor the end of the Cold War led to the modifi cation of the ideologies
themselves, but rather to the modifi cation of devices serving the ideologies.