Educational Technology

1. Behaviorism
Psychological Influences on Education

2. • Prediction and control of human behavior in which
introspection and/or independent thinking play no
essential part in teaching
• Developed during the industrial revolution, modernism
was the new focus
• Learning is purely an objective and experimental branch
of natural science
• No line between man and animal
• Learn through positive and negative reinforcement
(conditioning)
Behaviorism

3. • Learn primarily through observation
• Pavlov, Skinner, and Bandura; key players in
development of behaviorism theories
• Ex. Students rewarded for good behavior and punished
for bad
Students of Behaviorism

4. • We would use this in the classroom, especially at the
elementary school level, but we would also incorporate
parts of the other two theories.
What We Think…

5. • Won the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1906
• Conducted an
experiment where he
rang a bell every time
he put food in front
of dogs.
• The food caused the
dogs to salivate.
• He eventually just
rang the bell, and the
dogs still salivated.
• Classical
Conditioning:having
a reflex in response
to a stimulus
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

6. • Studied operant
conditioning; shaping
behavior through the
reinforcement of stimulus
responses.
• Conducted an experiment
using pigeons.
• When pigeons behaved in
a certain way, their
behavior was rewarded.
• He eventually taught the
pigeons to do difficult
tasks
• Applied the principle to
humans.
• Rewarded behaviors will
be repeated, behaviors
with negative responses
will stop.
B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)

7. • People learn through
observational
modeling (copying
observed behavior)
• He studied self-
efficacy, one’s
personal perspective
of their ability to
encourage their self to
learn.
• Studied personality by
analyzing one’s
environment, behavior,
and thoughts.
Bandura (1925-) & the
Social Contract Theory

8. • In schools where behaviorism is practiced, they believe
frequent objective testing is the best way to determine
what students know. They reward students when they
learn, even when they learn small things, because it’s
behaviorism that is they key to successful teaching.
Behaviorism in practice
today

9. Credits
• Robert King III
• Leanna Kotun
• Danielle Morgan
• Giovanni Santiago
• Jana Williams