CONNECTIONISM (THORNDIKE)

The learning theory of Thorndike represents the original S-R framework of

behavioral psychology: Learning is the result of associations forming between stimuli and

responses. Such associations or “habits” become strengthened or weakened by the

nature and frequency of the S-R pairings. The paradigm for S-R theory was trial and error

learning in which certain responses come to dominate others due to rewards. The

hallmark of connectionism (like all behavioral theory) was that learning could be

adequately explained without referring to any unobservable internal states.

Most often I could entirely hear my students saying they are pressured and

stressed with all the requirements in my subject. They started to narrate everything they

have done and the efforts that they have exerted to comply it. There are times when

they cannot sleep well because they wanted to finish early. For years of teaching, the

notion of doing the required requirements for the subject shall always be done when the

deadline is already at hand. They do not even think of finishing it far from the day of

submission. It has been habitual for most of the students in my class that is reflected in

the output that they submitted. The theory can be applied to the scenario of the students

because as a response to stimulus of beating the deadline they became pressured to do

things as fast as they could have done. If there is a stimulus, there is always a response

just as the Newton’s third law: “if there is an action, there is always an opposite reaction”.

Many times I would really ask myself if ever I hadn’t been stimulated to pursue my

education course, what profession would I become. Those what if’s in life that gives me

a glimpse of imagination on the things that I have right now. I became a teacher because

I responded the call to become one, to become an educator whose aim is to aid and help

the students to become civilized. It is really hard to have known nothing at all and haven’t

been to school ever since considering the world of technology and innovation.