BEHAVIOURIST APPROACHES TO LEARNING AND TEACHING

Education Foundations, Sec., Week 5, Semester 1, 2012

Overview

What is learning? Behaviourist view of learning Key premises and concepts Knowledge, learning, and motivation Applications in classroom instructions Explicit and direct instructions Behaviourist approach to classroom management

Stimulus and response mechanism External and observable behaviour Contiguity Reinforceme Classical conditioning nt and Operant conditioning punishment Learning as a-b-c Learning objectives Task breakdown Modelling and thinking aloud Practice and drilling Kinaesthetic activities Constant formative feedback Group consequences Token economy

What is learning?

The parrots learning to count/ greet Learning to smoke Learning the lyrics of the Sesame Street song Learning to ride a bike Learning English, maths, history, Learning the times tables / a formula / an algorithm Learning about thinking, learning, and self Learnt helplessness

Permanent change rather than temporary Assimilation or adaptation Due to experience rather than natural maturation Definitions of learning and underlying epistemologies

Behavioural, psychological, or psychical?

Conscious and rational, subconscious, or holistic?

Behaviourist view of learning

Change in behaviour

Subject to active control and shaping by external factors

Outcome-orientation

Key premises and concepts

Psychology as the science of stimulus and response

Give me a dozen healthy infants, wellformed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and Ill guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might selectdoctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggarman and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors (Watson,1930, p.82).

John B. Watson (1878-1958)

Focuses on objectively observable and measurable actions and behaviour

The mentalistic problem can be avoided by going directly to the prior physical causes while bypassing intermediate feelings or states of mind. The quickest way to do this is to confine oneself to only those facts which can be objectively observed in the behavior of one person in its relation to his prior environmental history. If all linkages are lawful, nothing is lost by neglecting a supposed nonphysical link (Skinner, 1976, p.23).

Burrhus F. Skinner (1904-1990)

Contiguity principle

Learning by association Formation of S-R relation

Classical conditioning

Pavlovs dog experiment Involuntary (emotional or physiological) association / responses Unconditioned association:

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

Neutral stimulus Unconditioned stimulus Unconditioned response

Conditioned association: Conditioned stimulus Conditioned response

What are the UCS, UCR, CS, and CR in this ad?

Operant conditioning

Behaviour as operants rather than respondents Thorndikes cats Skinners pigeons

Reinforcement
Positive Negative Schedule Continuous Intermittent fixed or unpredictable a) Interval b) ratio

Punishment

Learning as a-b-c (antecedent-behaviour-consequence)

Knowledge, Learning, and Motivation

Knowledge: a repertoire of behaviours or behavioural capacities

Learning: formation of appropriate S-R association

Motivation: schedules of positive and negative reinforcement

Behaviourist principles of classroom instruction

Explicit and direct instructions

Clear communication of learning objectives (Kizlik, 2012; Linder-Crow, 2000) 1) objective Focus on student rather than the teacher Bad Good objective statements statements To acquaint students Students will be able to with behaviourist identify 3 behaviourist learning theories learning principles To familiarise students Students will be able to with neo-behavourist describe neolearning theories behaviourist learning theories

Learning objectives as behavioural antecedents

2) Contain action words (verbs) of behavioural goal Students will understand the Students will be able to rhythm of the poem by describe and demonstrate Edgar Allen Poe. with a percussion instrument the rhythm of the poem. Students will appreciate the Students will be able to composition of English apply the rules of word words. composition. When asked, Is cttn an English word?, students will reply, No, because it has no vowels. All English words must have at least one vowel.

Task breakdown

Task analysis

Task analysis

Behaviour modelling

Skinners pigeons video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erhmslcHvaw&featu re=related

Thinking aloud and justify thinking rationale

Explicit teaching video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h4q-bok644

Practice and drilling (first 1.5 minutes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cwODCQ9BnU&fea ture=related

Using kinaesthetic movements to help retention

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yStzJjLXdxM Using paper folding to do multiplication by fractions

Monitoring and constant formative feedback

Formative feedback video (2 minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY0U7axgdHY&feat ure=related

Behaviourist approach to classroom management

Group consequences

Rewards or punishments given to a class /group as a whole for adhering to or violating rules of conduct Good behaviour game
Tokens earned for academic work and positive classroom behaviour can be exchanged for desired reward. Agreement between teacher and student specifying behaviour and its reward or punishment

Token economy programs

Contracts

Advantages of behaviourist instructions

Effective strategies for teaching action sequences that need to be automated Widely applied in teaching young students and students with LD Effects in eliminating SES-related differences of school achievement

Limitations

Dependence on extrinsic forms of reinforcement Neglect of complex thinking processes leading to behavioural performance

References

Kizlik, B. (2012) How to write learning objectives that meet demanding behavioural criteria, www.adprima.com/objectives.htm Linder-Crow, J. (2000) Writing behavioural leaning objectives and assessment, http://www.apa.org/ed/sponsor/about/faq/objectives.pdf Skinner, B. F. (1976) About Behaviorism, Vintage Books, New York. Watson, J. B. (1930) Behaviorism, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.