Week4: Theories of Learning: Behaviorism

When we talked about the theories of learning, Behaviorism is a typical psychological theory that must be mentioned by all people in the education field. Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understanding the behavior of humans and other animals. As I learned from this week’s online session, I learned that the behaviorism is a reaction to introspection, where each researcher served as his or her own research subject. The behaviorism can be traced back to the Dr. Skinner, the leading theoretician of this theory. He theorized the consequences of a behavior are the most important stimulus and held the view that behaviors are voluntary and not voluntary as classical conditioning assumes. It is interesting that Dr. Skinner also held the different view on that he focused more on behavior and its consequences, compared with the relationship between environmental stimuli and responses. This distinction idea then shaped the ABC Learning Theory, whose three letters stand for Antecedents, Behavior and Consequences. Under this theory, there are two classes of behavior: respondent and operant. The difference between these two falls on the cause of behavior occurs from the environment the particular stimulus or not. This theory reminds me of the subtle link with the law of effect. That means responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular situation become more likely to occur again in that situation, and responses that produce a discomforting effect become less likely to occur again in that situation (Gray, 2011, p. 108–109). No matter what kind of stimulus to a person, the behavior will occur and begin the process of learning.

There are also some connections to the behavioral science in the classroom. In many instruction design process, the observable behavior or performance are noted to be considered in the classroom teaching. As for the instructor, they can present instructional materials effectively, with the reference of the behavioral science. It is an obscure theory for me right now, but I will continue to study it more thoroughly in my future learning.

Reference:

Araiba, Sho (June 2019). "Current diversification of behaviorism". Perspectives on Behavior Science. 43 (1): 157–175. doi:10.1007/s40614-019-00207-0.

Foshay, R (July 2001). Is Behaviorism dead? Should HPT care? ISPI News & Notes, 1-2.