Behaviorism
Basic Assumptions
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Psychology should be studied in a scientific manner.
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All behavior is learned from the environment, through conditioning and nurturing.
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Behaviorism is primarily concerned with observable behavior, not thinking and emotion.
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All behavior, no matter how complex, can be reduced to simple stimulus – response features.
Key Dates and Figures
In 1897, Russian physiologist Ivan Pavolv published his work on classical conditioning after studying salivation in dogs. He conditioned the dogs to salivate every time they heard a bell ring, with or without the presence of food.
In 1913, John Watson officially founded the behaviorist school of psychology in an article that explains classical conditioning further. He represents Methodological Behaviorism, which posits that the human mind is a blank slate and that objective experimentation shows how behavior can be predicted and controlled. Later, he is part of an experiment that conditioned an orphan boy to be afraid of a white rat.
From 1936 through the late 1970s, B.F. Skinner published studies on what he termed operant conditioning and founded the Radical Behaviorism school of psychology. He believed that classical conditioning was limited in its ability to explain complex behavior and that behavior could be modified through stimulus-response approaches that focus on actions and consequences. A desired behavior can be strengthened through positive and negative reinforcers that Reward the behavior by adding a positive response or taking away a negative one. Punishment is used to weaken an undesirable behavior.
Connections to Teaching and Learning
According to Skinner (1976), “the point of education is to present the student with the appropriate repertoire of behavioral responses to specific stimuli and to reinforce those responses through an effective reinforcement schedule.”
Operant conditioning is most appropriate for behavior management and skill performance. The most basic reinforcer in the learning environment is feedback. It can be informal (e.g. praise, encouragement, smiles) or formal (e.g. grades, awards, publication). Teachers often use a “variable-ratio” method of offering frequent praise during the initial learning phase, which decreases over time until praise is only offered for superior results. Unwanted behaviors can be “extinguished” by being ignored or punished.
Behaviorism only goes so far, though, since it does not take into account some of the other factors that influence learning. It does not consider genetics, intellect, observation, and other social factors that can contribute to learning outcomes. It is also limited to lower-level thinking like discrimination, generalization, association, and sequencing.
References
Mcleod, S. (2017, February 5). Behaviorist Approach. Retrieved May 18, 2020, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/behaviorism.html
Schweiz, A. •. (n.d.). photograph. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/photos/board-chalk-feedback-review-study-3700116/
An Example for High School Social Studies
Most of the emphasis in my classroom is higher-order thinking, so I use mostly Constructivist and Cognitivist methods with some Connectivism with my students. However, there are times when using Behaviorist methods are appropriate with teenagers (e.g. awarding a notebook grade to positively reinforce work completion, giving multiple-choice reading quizzes that show them where they need to go back and read again until they can get it right, teaching them to use good habits by deducting points for leaving off the Works Cited, or training them to use a positive tone of voice and body language during a seminar by including it on the rubric). For this assignment, I decided to think of a skill that I teach for which using a behaviorist approach to start with might possibly improve student progress towards greater complexity later.
Choosing reliable sources and identifying bias in the news is an essential skill that is difficult to teach when some students are ready for higher-order thinking but other students still don’t know how to recognize clickbait or remember to check for sources. These are the first steps you go through before ever reading the article at all. Teaching the students a checklist to run through each time before reading a source could be effectively accomplished through behaviorism. It is a building block they will need later to engage more successfully in the synthesis, analysis, and evaluation of research.
In primary and secondary education, it is best practice to use a pre-test and post-test to measure the change that occurs as a result of instruction (the stimulus) because students come in with such a wide variety of pre-existing knowledge and skills. For high schoolers, I would choose something inspired by gaming and simulation that automatically does that as the student moves towards higher levels. Students could work through scenarios involving the use of online sources structured like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” story. (Since originally writing this, I have actually discovered a variation on this game that is quite good on iCivics.org: https://www.icivics.org/games/newsfeed-defenders.)
For this to stay clearly in the realm of Behaviorism, I would need to choose sources that are clearly and objectively in violation of the “rules” or not (otherwise, I would need to use one of the other theories that involve more critical thinking to teach the skill first). These are the types of ‘Scenarios” they would be presented along with examples of positive or negative reinforcement that would result. These outcomes would also come with points being added or deducted with the goal of reaching a badge and moving on to the next level. Clicking on an ad in a click-bait article would cause your computer to get a virus. Choosing to share an article that is actually a thinly-veiled ad from a dot-com to support an argument on social media would result in embarrassment and backlash from your peers. Choices could build up to more serious consequences, such as people dying due to your agency’s support of inaccurate scientific information from an article lacking the author’s credentials and citations. Accurate responses may start off with you getting an A on a history paper because you correctly identified that a speech published on LibertarianParty.org is biased, culminating in something like becoming the CEO of a major corporation because you made a profitable recommendation for investments by choosing an article published by a well-known university rather than one published on a blog.
The game would include instruction tailored to the learner’s skill level in the pre-test with explanations, examples, practice, and feedback that align with their need for remediation or extension. Mastery on the post-test would allow the learner to proceed with being allowed to start choosing sources for their actual research project, while lack of proficiency would result in additional practice until it is demonstrated. I would choose these reinforcers because the practice is engaging and gets them to think about real-world consequences. The summative assessment involves natural consequences focused on readiness rather than punishment.
A pro of this behaviorist approach is that computer-assisted instruction could track performance and allow differentiated learning paths automatically. Also, it can be an effective way to teach literacy and improve outcomes for certain observable behaviors that will be needed in the workforce. A con of the behaviorist approach is that because it is based on objectivism, it is limited to lower levels of thinking – understanding, recall, following steps, etc. Worse, many teachers tend to forget positive reinforcement and focus on the negative. This can adversely impact the student’s attitude toward learning and impede their progress.
References
Bhutto, M. I. (2011). Effects of Social Reinforcers on Students’ Learning Outcomes at Secondary School Level. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Volume 1 (Issue 2), 71–86. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu
Harasim, L. (2017). Learning Theory and Online Technologies (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.
Koç, M. (2005). Implications of Learning Theories for Effective Technology Integration and Pre-service Teacher Training: A Critical Literature Review. Journal of Turkish Science Education, Volume 2 (Issue 1). Retrieved from http://www.tused.org