Introduction:

There are various ways in which individuals learn new things. The various explanations given on how people learn brings up the learning theories. This paper aims to give an overview about learning theories and describe behavioural learning theory and Social cognitive learning theory, with a brief inclusion of the application of prior mentioned theories.

-What is a learning theory?

According to Lepi ( 2012), “A learning theory is an attempt to describe how people learn...” in other words learning theory is a frame work that explains how individuals’ acquire new knowledge and retain that to use in their life or in understanding the world and the events that take place (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 2013). In short a learning theory explains how learners learn. There are five major learning theories and theses are Behavioural learning theory, Cognitive learning theory, Social cognitive learning theory , constructivism and Motivation. (Woolfolk, 2010)

- Why it is important for teachers to know about learning theories?

 Learning theories provide an explanation to how people learn.  Such theories provide a basis for understanding how students learn.  Knowing the way that students learn enables teacher’s to design more effective lessons.  Further understanding various learning theories and following that while planning and conducting lessons would lead to optimum learning (What teachers need to know about learning, 2009). Therefore it is important for teachers to go through the learning theories and be familiar with that. Out of the five famous theories, this paper will focus on Social cognitive learning theory and behavioural learning theory.

What is behavioural learning theory?  How it can be applied in the school environment and facilitate teaching and learning?

Behavioural learning theory explains behaviourists approach to learning. Behaviorism or behavioural learning theory defines learning as accusation of new behaviours. The main theorists of this theory are B.F.Skinner, Ivan Pavlov, Edward Thorndike and John B Watson (Cherry, Psychology Theories).

Behavioral learning theory defines learning as acquisition of new behaviour. The main concept of behaviourism is conditioning. Behaviourists argue that new behaviour is gained through conditioning. Classical conditioning and operant conditioning are the two main concepts (Woolfolk, 2010).

Classical condition is proposed by Ivan Pavlov. He discovered that food is a natural stimuli and that cause dog to salivate. He noticed that even if the dog see the feeder, it start to salivate. Then he tested this by attaching a bell with food. Whenever the dog is fed a bell is ringed just before feeding. And after sometime when the bell rings the dog starts to salivate. This means that the dog is conditioned to the bell. Classical condition suggests that through conditioning, we can make individuals to perform a particular task in response to conditioned stimuli (Woolfolk, 2010).

B.F.Skinner worked on the field taking Thorndike’s law of effect as a base. B.F.Skinner came up with the concept of operant conditioning. In 1948 skinner studied his operant conditioning through experiments carried out by placing animals in a ‘skinner box’.  One such experiment is rat experiment (McLeod, 2007).

A hungry rat is placed in a ‘skinner box’ and when the rat accidently touches the lever; a pellet of food is dropped. After some repetitions rat learns that when the lever is pressed, food drops and the rat goes directly into the lever. This experiment helps to show the concept of reinforcement. It is clear that when behaviour brings a favourable outcome, that behaviour is repeated or strengthens (McLeod, 2007).

Similarly, the rat was used to show negative reinforcement too. The rat was exposed to electric current that caused some discomfort to the rat and when the rat accidentally knocks the lever that current stops. With repetition, the rat learned to directly go to the lever when there is electric current. Escaping the electric current that caused discomfort ensured that the behaviour would be repeated again (McLeod, 2007).

Reinforcement vs. Punishments

Reinforcement is done to strengthen the behaviour. When reinforcement is given it increase the chance of repeating the same behaviour. Positive reinforcement is providing a consequence that is rewarding or benefiting, and negative reinforcement is removing an unfavourable condition as a consequence of the behaviour (McLeod, 2007).

Giving a prize for good result is a positive reinforcement and giving fee deductions as a consequence of good academic performance could be a negative reinforcement.

Punishment is anything that weakens behaviour or reduces the occurrence of such behaviour. Punishment could also be direct by providing a consequence that is unpleasant or it can be indirect by removing a pleasant stimulus as a consequence of the behaviour (McLeod, 2007).

Removing government subsidy on higher education as a consequence of poor academic result could be an indirect punishments and charging a fine for inappropriate behavior could be a direct punishment.

Possible application in schools

It is very clear that the behavioural learning approach can be used very effectively to improve and maintain the discipline of students in the school. It is very easy to use punishment and reinforcement directly. Almost in all the schools, there are specific rules for students to follow and when they fail to follow that they have to face the punishment. Previously it was sending out of class or making them stand in the class. But now it has changed to meetings with parents and detention and in some rigid cases repeated suspension and finally drops out (very rarely).

It cannot be argued that consequences followed to behaviour are faced, however sometimes the consequence becomes actually are reward for the student. If we take example of a student who does not have proper understanding of mathematics and does not want to sit and do maths during the mathematics period, for him it may be comfortable to be out of the class during that time. Therefore he may disturb the teacher if he knows that teacher will send him out.

Hence in order to apply behavioural learning theory effectively, we have to analyse whether the consequence f0or the behaviour is strengthening or weakening the focused behaviour.

In addition this theory of learning can be very important when assessing students. When we check whether the student has mastered the content, the most convenient and consistent way of measuring that is measuring their behaviour. This could be the main reason why in lesson plans the objectives should be phased in a way that it is measurable. Further this approaching of learning can be used when we conduct discovery learning.

Above all it can also be very important in designing lessons and making lessons interesting to students. It is very clear that some subjects are labelled as dull or boring subjects by the students. This happens mainly due to the prior knowledge that the students has on the subject and the way that lessons in that subject are designed. The theory of classical conditioning reveals that attaching the unconditioned stimuli with natural stimuli condition the behaviour of dog. The same way boring lessons can be designed with some interesting teaching aids and strategies that could finally develop interest of the students to that subject even. There can also be various different ways and means this great theory of learning can be applied.

  What is social cognitive learning theory?

This is the theory of learning proposed by Albert Bandura (1977). This is one of the most influential theories of learning. Behaviourists define learning as a change in behaviour, but Bandura believed that learning can occur without a compulsory change in behaviour. He also believed that people learn through observation or modelling (Cherry, Social learning theory).

“... his famous Bobo doll experiment, Bandura demonstrated that children learn and imitate behaviours they have observed in other people” (Cherry). The Bobo doll experiment is one very famous experiment in social cognitive learning approach. In the experiment an adult is showing aggression on a Bobo doll and children observe that and when the children are given chance they show even greater aggression than the adult (Cherry, Social learning theory).

According to this theory, learning is through observation of models and those models could be either live models, verbal instruction models or symbolic models. Further for learning to take place internal mental state is essential and always learning does not bring a change in behaviour. Added the following steps are very important for effective observational learning. These are attention, retention and motivation (Woolfolk, 2010).

Attention is necessary for learning through modeling and anything that distracts will negatively affect learning. Interesting and attractive models tend to make the learner pay more attention and gain maximum learning. Retention is also very important and it refers to learners’ ability to recall the information that is received through modeling. After that learners could reproduce the behaviour themselves and repeat it to improve their skills. Motivation is another important factor and reinforcement and punishment can be used to motivate the learners to pay attention, retention and skill advancement through repeated reproduction. In addition building self efficacy and student confidence is also related to the social cognitive learning theory (Cherry, Social learning theory).

Possible application in schools

This approach to learning can be very appropriately applied in the school environments and the effective application could improve the students’ confidence and their learning experience. In any subject the teacher could be a good model and that will make the students understand the content. Especially in subjects like mathematics and accounting modeling is very vital in demonstrating how problems are solved. Further careful application of this theory would result in more confidence learners who has better self efficacy. Likewise in this approach reinforcement and punishment play broader role and it affects the behaviour of all students in addition to the students who face it. In other works the concept of vicarious learning (that is rooted to social cognitive learning) can also be used very effectively. Above all this theory could be of great assistance in developing students’ performance in both academics and discipline.

Conclusion

In overall, behavioural learning focuses on behaviour modification through reinforcement and punishment and Social cognitive learning theory focuses on learning through observing others. There are other approaches to learning like Cognitive learning theory, Motivation theory and constructivism. It is also important to be aware that the focus of each approach is different. Some theories focus on mental structure while another focus on social interaction or biological needs. Therefore to make learning effective knowledge of all the theories are important and designing lessons accommodating various approaches and activities are vital too.

Reference

v  Cherry, K. (n.d.). Psychology Theories. Retrieved from About.com: http://psychology.about.com/od/psychology101/u/psychology-theories.htm#s1

v  Cherry, K. (n.d.). Social learning theory. Retrieved from About.com: http://psychology.about.com/od/developmentalpsychology/a/sociallearning.htm

v  Lepi, K. (2012, December 24). A Simple Guide To 4 Complex Learning Theories. Retrieved from Edudemic.com: http://edudemic.com/2012/12/a-simple-guide-to-4-complex-learning-theories/

v  McLeod, S. (2007). Skinner-Operant conditioning. Retrieved from SimplyPsychology: http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html

v  What teachers need to know about learning. (2009). Retrieved from Open Websites at The University of Texas at Austin: http://ows.edb.utexas.edu/sites/default/files/users/borichgd/book/chapter4.pdf

v  Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (2013, May 1). Learning theory. Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_theory_(education)

v  Woolfolk, A. (2010). Educational Psychology-Eleventh Edition. Pearson Education,Inc.