Handbook of Human Performance Technology: Principles, Practices, and Potential, Third Edition

Chapter 1. Human Performance Technology Fundamentals

James A. Pershing

Ideas and conceptualizations of human performance technology (HPT) have evolved over time. What we know about HPT today is timebound. It builds upon the work of a number of academic and professional practitioners begun in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. Randell K. Day, in the book Performance Improvement Pathfinders: Models for Organizational Learning Systems, edited by Peter J. Dean and David E. Ripley (1997), presents the case that the field of HPT evolved from the ideas of B. F. Skinner and his collaborators. "Many performance improvement pioneers got their start by attempting to improve training and were heavily influenced by Skinner" (Day, 1997, p. 22). Skinner ...