learning and Behavioral Approaches to Learning
- 1. LEARNING & BEHAVIORAL APPROACHES TO LEARNING
- 2. a. LEARNING: Learning can be defined as, “A relatively permanent influence on behaviour, knowledge and thinking skills that comes about through experience”. Not every thing we know is learned. We inherit some capacities they are inborn or innate not learned. For example, we don’t have to be taught to swallow or to flinch at loud noises. Most human behaviors, however, do not involve heredity alone. When children ask better questions or listen more attentively, the experience of learning is at work.
- 3. Scope of Learning: The scope of learning is board (Dojman, 2010; Klein, 2009). It involves academic behaviors and non academic behaviors. It occurs in School and everywhere else that children experience their world.
- 4. b. BEHAVIORAL APPROACHES TO LEARNING: Behaviorism is the view that behavior should be explained by an observable experience not by mental process. For the behaviorist, behavior is everything that we do, both verbal and non verbal, that can be directly seen or heard, a child creating a poster, a teacher explaining something, and soon. The behavioral approach emphasizes the importance of children making connections between experiences and behavior. It includes two views: a) Classical conditioning. b) Operant conditioning.
- 5. Classical Conditioning: It was the brain child of Ivan Pavlov (1927). It is a form of associative learning in which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with meaningful stimulus and acquires the capacity to elicit a similar response. Figure summarizes the way classical conditioning works.
- 6. To fully understand classical conditioning we need to understand two types of stimulus and two types of responses: (a) Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): Stimulus that automatically produces a response without any prior learning. Food was the UCS in Pavlov’s experiment.
- 7. (b) Unconditioned Response (UCR): It is an unlearned response that is automatically elicited by UCS. In Pavlov’s experiment, the dog’s salivation is UCR. (c) Conditioned Stimulus (CS): Is a previously neutral stimulus that eventually elicits a conditioned response after being associated with UCS. In Pavlov’s experiment, various sounds are sights that occurred prior to dog actually eating the food such as sound of door closing. (d) Conditioned Response (CR): Is a learned response to the conditioned stimulus that occurred after UCS – CS pairing. In Pavlov’s experiment, the sound bell is conditioned response.
- 8. COMMON PHENOMENA IN CLASSICAL CONDITIONING: There are three common Phenomena in classical conditioning, they are: (1) Generalization: Generalization in classical conditioning involves the tendency of a new stimulus similar to the original conditioned stimulus to produce a similar response (Pearce & Hall, 2009). Pavlov’s Experiment: In dog’s experiment Pavlov found that the dog also responded to other sound such as whistle. The more bell like the noise the stronger was dog’s response. Classroom Example: A student is criticized for poor performance in biology test. When he begins to prepare for a chemistry test he also becomes very nervous as two subjects are closely related. The student’s anxiety generalizes from taking a test in one subject to taking a test in other.
- 9. (2) Discrimination: Occurs when the organism respond to certain stimuli but not others. Pavlov’s Experiment: Pavlov gave food to the dog only after ringing the bell not after any other sound. Subsequently dog responded only to the bell. Classroom Example: In the case of the student taking tests in different classes, she does not become nearly as nervous about taking an English test or a history test because they are very different subject areas.
- 10. (3) Extinction: Involves the weakening of the conditioned response (CR) in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Pavlov’s Experiment: In one session Pavlov rang the bell repeatedly but did not give the dog any food eventually the dog stopped salivating at the sound of the bell. Classroom Example: If a student who gets nervous while taking tests begin to do much better on tests, his anxiety will fade.
- 11. SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION: Is a method based on classical conditioning that reduces anxiety by getting the individual to associate deep relaxation with successive visualizations of increasingly anxiety producing situations. For Example: It is not unusual for some teachers to feel comfortable when talking in front of their students but to get nervous if asked to give a presentation at a teaching conference.Counselors and mental health professionals have been successful at getting individuals to overcome their fear of public speaking using systematic desensitization.
- 12. ADVANTAGES OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING: Classical conditioning helps us to understand some aspects of learning better than others (Dojman, 2010). It excels in explaining how neutral stimuli become associated with unlearned, involuntary responses (Rescorla, , 2009). It is especially helpful in understanding studentanxieties and fears (Klein, 2009). LIMITATIONS: It is not effective in explaining voluntary behaviors, such as why a student studies hard for a test or likes history better than Geography. For these areas, operant conditioning is more relevant
- 13. (2) OPERANT CONDITIONING: Is at the heart of B.F Skinner’s (1938) behavioral view. It is a form of learning in which consequences of behavior produce changes in the probability that the behavior will occur. Consequences: Reward and punishment - are contingent on the organisms behavior. (i) Reinforcement (Reward): A consequence that increases the probability that a behavior will occur.
- 14. For Example: Teacher might tell one of his student, “Congratulations”, I am proud of the story that you wrote. If student writes an even better story the next time then teacher positive comments are said to reinforce student’s writing behaviour. There are two forms of reinforcement: (a) Positive Reinforcement: Reinforcement based on principle that the frequency of a response increases because it is followed by rewarding stimulus. For Example: Complementing parents on being at a parent teacher conference might encourage them to come back again.
- 15. (b) Negative Reinforcement: Based on the principle that frequency of response increases because an aversive (unpleasant) stimulus is removed. For Example: A father nags at his son to do his homework. He keeps nagging. Finally the son gets tired of hearing the nagging and does his homework. The son’s (doing his homework) removed the unpleasant stimulus (nagging). (ii) Punishment: A consequence that decrease the probability that a behavior will occur. For Example: If a teacher frown at a student for talking in class and student’s talking decreases, his frown is said to punish the talking.
- 16. Common Phenomena in Operant Conditioning: Generalization, discrimination and extinction are also important dimensions of operant conditioning (Chance, 2009) (i) Generalization: Means givin the same response to similar stimuli. For Example: If a teacher praises the student for asking good questions related to English, this will generalize to stimulating the student to do harder work in history, math and other subjects.
- 17. (ii) Discrimination: Involve differentiating among stimuli or environmental events. For Example: A student knows that the tray on the teaches desk labeled “Math” is where she is supposed to place today’s math work, where as another tray labeled English is where today’s English assignments are to be put.
- 18. (iii) Extinction: Occurs when previously reinforced response is no longer reinforced and the response decreases. For Example: In some cases a teacher’s attention inadvertently reinforces a student’s disruptive behavior as when a student pinches another student and the teacher immediately takes with the perpetrator. If this happens on regular basis, the student might learn that pinching other student is a good way to get the teacher’s attention. If the teacher with draw his attention, the pinching might be extinguishing.
- 19. REFERENCES 1) Santrock, J.W (2001). Educational Psychology . McGraw Hill International publishers. 2) The Behavioral Approach. Web .Cortland .edu> BEH > BEHAVIOR 3) Learning Approaches / skills you need. www.skillsyouneed.com> learn > learning………. 4) Behavioral approach to learning – slideshare. http://www/slideshare.net> mobile >beha.............. 5) Weak 8 Behavioral approach to learning slide share. http://www.slideshare.net>enrimb> we ………..