Activity 1: Behaviorism Learning Theory page

Key items to cover
  • discuss characteristics of behaviorism,
  • identify and describe Pavlov’s and Skinner’s works, and
  • develop examples of Behaviorism in learning environments.
What exactly is behaviourism? 


Significance of Pavlov 
Noteable for his work with dogs, stimulus response (classical conditioning) learning to associate a seemingly unrelated event with another (ringing of a bell with the arrival of food to eat) so that one event signaled a response / anticipation of the other - "Associated learning" .


Significance of Skinner 
focus only on what is observable
we're no different than the dogs ... responding to stimuli if we have a pleasant experience we learn to seek it out again.... if we have an unpleasant experience, we learn to avoid it.

role of teacher .. to promote positive / desireable responses to a stimuli and praise to reinforce it
typical activities / evidence of this?  repetition, drilling, memorization, question-and-response, and external motivators such as grading and praise resulting in operant conditioning.


Examples of Behaviourism in learning environments 
key focus is on asking students to produce physical / recordable / tangible evidence that demonstrates their understanding of something - make observable, quantifiable, measureable

weakness
much cognitive development goes unseen ..
because it promotes - right / wrong .. it does not promote lateral / creative thinking / innovation

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