2. SUMMARY OF THEORY
• Behaviorism – “the prediction and control of human
behavior in which introspection and/or independent
thinking play no essential part of its teaching methods”
• Operates on principle of stimulus response
• All behavior is caused by external stimuli or operant
conditioning
• A view that assumes a learner is passive that responds to
environmental stimuli
• Behavior is shaped through positive or negative
reinforcement
• Learning is defined as a change in behavior in the
learner
3. SUMMARY OF THEORY
• According to a behaviorist, human learning is an
objective and experimental branch of science
• There is no internal cognitive processing of
information
• Believes there is no difference in the way a human
and a dog thinks
4. IVAN PAVLOV
• Became famous for his
behavioral experiments
with dogs
• Won the Nobel Prize in
Physiology in 1904
• Used the method of
classic conditioning
which is when the
natural reflex occurs in
response to a stimulus
• Some believe this
technique had human
application
5. B.F. SKINNER
• Focuses on another type
of conditioning known as
operant conditioning
which states “learning is
controlled and results in
shaping behavior through
the reinforcement of
stimulus-response
patterns”
• Conducted experiments
with pigeons
• Believed that people
shape their behavior
based on the rewards or
positive reinforcement
they receive
6. B.F. SKINNER
• Discovered that reinforcement is a powerful
motivator
• Found that when a desirable behavior is produced
and rewarded it will be repeated
• Classroom management techniques are based on
these principles
“Education is what survives when what has been
learned has been forgotten.”
-B.F. Skinner
7. ALBERT BANDURA
• Famous for the
development of the
Social Cognitive Theory
which he based off his
ideas on social learning
• Focuses on
motivational factors
instead of environment
mechanisms
• Believes that people
acquire behaviors
through observation of
others, then, they
imitate what they have
observed
8. ALBERT BANDURA
• Focused his work on the concept of self-efficacy (a
personal observation about one’s perceived ability to
feel, think, and motivate oneself to learn)
• Analyzed people’s personality through the interaction of
the environment, the behavior, and the person’s
psychological processes
• Started to consider a person’s ability to retain
information through images in the mind known as
imagery
• Called the father of the cognitive movement
• Theory has been called a bridge between behaviorist
and cognitive learning theories because it encompasses
attention, memory, and motivation
9. CLASSROOM IMPLICATIONS
• Teachers under this theory reward the students when the
students perform desirable actions like answering a
question correctly or helping another student with a
problem
• Teachers under this theory also discipline the students
when they don’t perform desirable action like when a
students hits another student
• Teachers can also discipline by giving the student a bad
grade in order for the student to associate bad behavior
with bad grades
• Also, when the student is on a computer based
instruction and the student gets the answer correct the
program provides positive reinforcement
10. CLASSROOM IMPLICATIONS
• Students under this theory perform actions that are
either positive or negative
• Students then receive reinforcement by the teacher
either positive or negative depending on their
actions
• When students receive positive reinforcement they
most likely will repeat the action again
• When students receive negative reinforcement they
will most likely not repeat the action again
• When on a program, students answer questions and
receive positive reinforcement with animations
when they answer a question correctly
11. THOUGHTS ABOUT THEORY
• I personally like this theory a lot
• I would use this theory in my classroom
• I think this theory works in teaching the students the
desirable and undesirable actions by providing
reinforcement
• This theory teaches students to associate bad
behavior or wrong answers with negative
reinforcement and good behavior or correct
answers with positive reinforcement
