'Behaviourism' Learning Theory

What is behaviourism?

"Behaviorism (or behaviourism), also called the learning perspective (where any physical action is a behavior), is a philosophy of psychology based on the proposition that all things that organisms do—including acting, thinking and feeling—can and should be regarded as behaviors.The behaviorist school of thought maintains that behaviors as such can be described scientifically without recourse either to internal physiological events or to hypothetical constructs such as the mind.Behaviorism comprises the position that all theories should have observational correlates but that there are no philosophical differences between publicly observable processes (such as actions) and privately observable processes (such as thinking and feeling)."


I worked with Louise Back about discussing the PMI on 'Behaviourism' Learning Theory and due to our experiences in childcare, working with the preschoolers on a daily basic, doing the PMI was straightforward for us to work on.

Advantages (Positive)

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· Classical conditioning is the process of reflex learning with positive reinforcement this occurs when a behaviour i.e. Doing homework is followed by a positive reward i.e. money this led to an increasing amount of homework being done.

· Operant conditioning can reinforce behaviours and is based on the increased probality of a behaviour based on reinforcement

· These can lead to increased skill development.

Negatives (Minus)

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· Much behaviourist experimentation is undertaken on animals and is therefore generalized.

· Operant conditioning can reinforce negative behaviours.

· Classical conditional could be used to reinforce negative behaviours.

· Behaviours all ready in place by previous Classical and Operant conditioning.

Implications

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· Involving children in the learning class and enforcing positive feedbacks to all children even if there are children with limited interest in learning and showing negative behaviour towards the topic.

· Giving children to be more involved in learning and teaching the topic by teacher asking them questions, not teacher asking the children questions.

· Praising the children as much as possible to allow them to know that they are trying their best and we knowledge them participating and trying hard to learn.

· Acknowledging the children doesn't show interest in learning unless it's fun and practical and full of feedback and praises from teachers.

· Children improving their skills in self-esteem and confident of learning.

When I saw this word, I thought yes it has something to do with behaviour but what possibly more could it mean! After reading the learning theory on behaviourism, I thought to myself, "I am dealing with this on a daily basis." You may read the learning theory and be unsure of what it means 'real life' but unless you have worked with children particularly in a childcare centre or school, you will know exactly what behaviourism means.


I have worked in childcare for 10 years, started in babies and slowly worked up into the preschool. Although Kindy and Preschool are my favourite age groups because they are independent and you can teach them something, it frustrates me a lot when they don't want to learn.

A lot of things I have tried to each children over the last 4 years, they listen then when you ask them the question, they go blank, "Ah hello is anyone home?" I would always wonder if there is a name to the attitude I was getting from the children and I learnt through the learning theory that its called 'the black box' in other words the child or children didn't want to learn more particularly if it's a popular interest in the room, let's say 'Ben 10'.

Thinking okay, yes they like 'Ben 10' but why aren't the children listening? In the learning theory I found that if you put forward to the children a huge bunch of information they don't want to know because it's all talk and too much listening. To have children show positive attitude to learning about 'Ben 10' you need to break the learning material into smaller piece of information by adding additional resources such as pictures then repeating it so we have the children's attention of showing they want to learn.

To have the positive attitude of the children wanting to participate in learning, they need something in return from the teacher. Giving children praises on anything the children may say whethere it's a question you ask and it's not close to the right answer, the children deserve to have some positive feedback from us so they know we (teachers) are acknowledging they are trying to learn in a positive way.

In my experience, I have found the learning theory a positive read and something that I can learn from and go okay, 'this is why I am not getting anywhere with the topic of 'Ben 10'. Taking the 'behaviourism theory'  into consideration, I have changed my teaching plan with the 4 year olds and I have found a lot more achievement happening and learning for myself and the children is more fun!

So for the future children, I believe if we (teachers) like to have the learning class a positive outcome with little challenges from the children, I think we need to look at how we teach the children, how we respond to them on their learning ability, children wanting to try learn even if they're not on the right track.

Reference:
* Wikipedia "Behaviorism", 2011. Retreived from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behaviorism
* E Learning Pedagogy "Behaviorist", 2007. Retrieved from http://elearningpedagogy.com/behaviorist.html