2. KEY PEOPLE OF BEHAVIORISM
John B. Watson (1878-1958) and B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) are the
two main creators and collaborators of Behaviorism.
John B. Watson- He was basically the pioneer for Behaviorism because
he pretty much invented it. Throughout his studying at Columbia and
Johns Hopkins he studied psychology and this new theory was his
results. This was his view of how human behavior worked. He wrote
several different books and articles on the matter of Behaviorism.
B.F. Skinner- He was a Harvard student who studied psychology and
engineering. He was very interested in how people behaved and why
they acted the way that they did. This led him to research and help
develop Behaviorism, which he also wrote several books and articles
about.
3. KEY POINTS OF BEHAVIORISM
Behaviorism is the theory that human
behavior is observable and responsive
to a stimulus
Ivan Pavlov- the Father of Behaviorism
and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in
Physiology
During his studies and experiments
Pavlov discovered the concept of
Classical Conditioning. Classical
Conditioning involves a stimulus and
response. In his experiment, Pavlov
rang a bell while presenting some
food to is dog (the stimulus) which
caused him to salivate. Eventually,
his dog associated the sound of the
bell as a stimulus and responded by
salivating.
4. KEY POINTS CONTINUED
BF Skinner developed the theory of Operant
Conditioning which takes classical conditioning to
another level.
Operant Conditioning is the idea that people and animals
respond quickly to positive behavior. If a certain
behavior results in a positive outcome the person/animal
is more likely to repeat this behavior.
Albert Bandura developed a third theory based on
behaviorism.
This theory states people are naturally conditioned to
mimic viewed actions in their environment.
If a young girl sees a celebrity on the television with a
hat turned to the side, if the girl was to go and buy this
hat or a hand of a similar style she will most likely
(subconsciously) turn her hat to the side also.
This is called the Social Learning Theory
5.
6. CLASSROOM APPLICATIONS
o Teacher
• Administer drills to have the children repeat
• Congratulate children for correct answer
• Repeat the information
• Give rewards for good work
o Student
• Play educational games
• Write the same information over and over
• Do computer work that doesn’t move on until the
correct answer is given
• Repeat what the teacher says
7. WHAT WE THINK ABOUT THE THEORY FOR OUR
OWN TEACHING
We agree somewhat with the Behaviorism theory.
Behaviorists believe that the teaching should be
teacher-centered and include a lot of lectures and
presentations. We will do this, but we will also
incorporate other teaching and learning styles. We
also like that good behavior is rewarded. This will
teach the children that they must behave. We will
implement this into our classroom.
