BEHAVIORISM

Behaviorism: A Learning Scenario

As a high school junior varsity cheerleader, our coaches presented a dance routine we had to learn in five days. First, we watched the routine, and then it was taught to us a few steps at a time mimicking the steps in the same sequence that corresponded with the music.  We were drilled for two hours a day learning several sections of the routine over five days.  Feedback was provided often by the coach. We were tested at the end of the day by performing what we learned. If we did not know the routine or perform it correctly by the end of the week, we could not perform at the football or basketball game.

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Stimulus: Dancing at the game if we learn the routine, positive feedback from coaches, possible promotion to varsity.

Response: Memorize the dance patterns from start to finish and perform.

Reinforcements:

Provided verbal feedback such as “great job” and “ excellent”

Encouraged by possibility of promotion to a more prestigious position on varsity

If we continued to make mistakes, we had to perform the dance alone in front of everyone for critique.

If you did not perform the routine well, peers would criticize

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Foundations of Behaviorism: Observable Behavior Modification

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JB Watson and BF Skinner believed in the quantifiable and objective outcome of learning.

Expanding on Pavlov experimentation with dogs (classical conditioning)  JB Watson argued that human actions occur because of positive or negative consequences called stimuli. 

Skinner also believed the best way to understand behavior is to look at the causes of an action and its consequences.  This approach is called operant conditioning and Skinner identified three that can influence a learning environment

• Neutral operants:  these environmental agents create neutral responses that do not encourage or discourage behavior being repeated.

• Reinforcers:  these are responses from the environment that increase chance of  repeated  behavior.

• Punishers: Responses from the environment that decrease the likelihood of a behavior being repeated.

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Connections to Teaching and Learning

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In the behaviorist view, information passes from the teacher who  provides the appropriate response  to a certain stimulus and the learner, through repetition, memorization, and external motivators such as praise or punishment  result in observable, objective and quantifiable behavior change.

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Pros and Cons for Instruction

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Pro:

•  Good for use with low-level skills

• Clear objectives

•  Produce associations that helping learner perform automated drill tasks 

•  Measurement of success is consistently measured by observable behavior

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Con:

• Framework asserts knowledge is objective with one correct answer

• Negative feedback /reinforcement can be unacceptable in most learning scenarios

• Repetition and drilling do not accommodate all varieties of learning styles 

• Few cognitive processes are involved in learning process

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