Download Behavioral Learning Theory

Behavioral Learning
David Westby
Mark Hawkes
Educational Psychology
November 16, 2011
Behavioral Learning Theory
B. F. Skinner said “The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more
important that the amount.” Behavioral Learning Theory is based on
behaviorism, which says environmental factors are the cause of the way
people act and says learning is based on what students observe. I believe
Behavioral Learning Theory is the best way for students to learn because it,
uses reinforcements that shapes student actions or behavior, and it allows
teachers to modify their lesson plans to be able to get the best results from
their students.
The idea of behaviorism has been around for many years. The earliest
contributors to behaviorism include Ivan Pavlov and his discovery of classical
conditioning using his dogs and B. Fredric Skinner and his discovery of
operant conditioning using mice and the need for food, which I will explain
later. Thanks to these men and others, behavioral learning theory ushered in
a new wave of teaching.
One reason that I believe that behavioral learning theory has value in teaching
students is because it nicely informs teaching strategy and its use of
conditioning. Conditioning is getting a desired response from a subject that
relates to doing something or when something happens. Classical and
operant are the two main types of conditioning. Classical conditioning is when
a subject has a desired response to a previously unrelated stimulus. The man
who discovered classical conditioning was Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov noticed that
his dogs would salivate when they see or smelled food. Pavlov then named
the food the unconditioned stimulus and the saliva of the dog as the
unconditioned response. Pavlov then introduced a neutral stimulus, a bell, and
wanted to see if the neutral stimulus could become a stimulus that got the
same response as the unconditioned stimulus, so over the next few days he
would bring food and ring the bell at the same time. After a few days of pairing
the neutral and conditioned stimulus, Pavlov just rang the bell and as he had
hoped, the dog started salivating without the presence of food. He
successfully made the neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus and the
salivation was the conditioned response. The dogs paired the sound of the
bell with food, and whenever they heard the bell, they would expect food was
coming so they started drooling.
What Pavlov did with his dogs can be also used in class to get students
attention. When students walk into class the first day, they are going to see all
of their friends they’re going to want to talk. The teacher should notice this and
come up with a way to get the students to settle down and get ready for class.
So once everyone gets into the classroom and it was time to start class the
teacher will hold up a card and that will signify that the students need to stop
talking and get ready for class to start. After a few days of this, students will
start connecting the holding up of the card to the start of class. As you can
see the unconditioned stimulus is the teacher telling them to be quiet and the
unconditioned response the lack of talking. The teacher then introduced the
card (the neutral stimulus). The conditioned stimulus now is the card and the
conditioned response is to stop talking.
The other type of conditioning is operant conditioning. Operant conditioning
was developed by B. F. Skinner. Operant conditioning is different than
classical conditioning because a reinforcement or punishment happen when a
specific behavior occurs so the subject then bases its behavior on the
response it gets. Skinner developed this idea from his research with mice.
Skinner put a mouse in a box with a lever that when pressed would drop food
into the cage. The mouse randomly pulled the lever and food came. After a
while the mouse was hungry again and would search around and again hit the
lever and food came out. The mouse then realized that whenever it hit the
lever it was rewarded. This led to Skinners development of operant
conditioning and the use or reinforcements and punishments.
Using operant conditioning and the use of reinforcements in the classroom
can be very effective in encouraging students to learn. Students in a math
class seem to have trouble-comprehending math because like most high
school students they do not believe they will need the math when they start a
career so they don’t behave properly in class. So the math teacher has to
create creative ways to make the students to feel like math is an important
thing to know. So the teacher starts incorporating real life problems into the
lectures to make the information more relevant to the students. The teachers
can also give rewards such as candy or extra credit to the students who are
most involved. When other students see that students are getting a rewarded
for being, involved they start being involved. The teacher used both positive
(playtime and candy) and negative (dull material) reinforcements on the
students to get the desired results.
Another part of the behavioral learning theory is shaping. Shaping is using
reinforcements change a subject’s behavior one step at a time. A good
example of how it can be used in the classroom is with a student who doesn’t
want to do homework. What a teacher can do is to meet with the student
about his behavior, express confidence in and encourage him that he or can
do better. The teacher should challenge the student to get at least one
problem done and give a positive reinforcement after that. Then as the
student completes that task encourage the student to do two or three
problems. When the student completes this task the teacher will keep give a
little more positive reinforcement. This will continue until the student is able to
complete an entire homework assignment. All of this positive reinforcement
will slowly shape the student into thinking that they can do a lot better when
they get their homework done.
The biggest thing operant conditioning is based on is the use of
reinforcements and punishments. Reinforces are anything that increase
frequency of a certain behavior while punishments are anything that
decreases the frequency of a certain behavior. There are two types of
reinforces: positive and negative. Positive reinforcement is increase in
behavior due to a desired response. In a classroom situation, this might be a
teacher saying good job to a student or giving kids extra credit for showing
their work. Negative reinforcement is an increase in behavior due to the
removal of an undesired response. In a classroom situation, this might be
taking away an assignment because students were involved in class
discussion.
There are also two types of punishment: presentation and removal.
Presentation punishment is the use of an unwanted stimulus after a behavior.
In the classroom this is a teacher having to student sit in the back of the class
because the student was being disruptive in class or a teacher giving a
student a detention because the student didn’t get his or her assignment
done. Removal punishment is taking away a desired stimulus after a behavior.
An example for in class use is a teacher taking away a student’s recess for
using bad language.
The use of all of these techniques allows teachers to make their lesson plans
according to what is going to help their students learn the best. For example,
a young teacher who always was taught by teachers who used punishments
more than reinforces will probably use the same technique with his students.
After the first couple of weeks the teacher gave his students a quiz and
noticed unusually low scores compared to his students a year before. The
next day in class he noticed that his kids were acting as if they didn’t have the
same drive to succeed as they did when they first started his class. They
weren’t getting all their homework done and staring out the window in class.
He decided that the next day they would play a game to try and win back extra
credit points. While they were playing the game, he noticed the kids were
getting the same questions right on the quiz that they got wrong previously. In
addition, the kids were enjoying themselves more. Therefore, the teacher
started using more reinforces with his kids and the kids were getting their
homework done. A few weeks later when they had a quiz, the scores were
actually higher than any class average of his class before. By using the
behavioral learning theory in his classroom, the teacher was able to change
his lesson plans around to be able to help his students learn the best and
conditioned them to get their homework done.
I believe that behavioral learning theory should be considered in quality
teaching because it involves conditioning your students into better learners,
uses reinforcements that motivates students, and allows teachers to
manipulate their lesson plans to be able to get the best results from their
students. Through all of these ideas I have stated, teachers can perform their
best and help their students grow and learn into the greatest potential.
Work Cited page
learn, W. o. (n.d.). Behaviorism (Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved November 21,
2011, fromhttp://plato.stanford.edu/entries/behavioris
Cherry, (n.d.). What Is Behaviorism - An Introduction to
Behaviorism. Psychology - Complete Guide to Psychology for Students,
Educators & Enthusiasts. Retrieved November 15, 2011,
from http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology