Learning Theories(Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Social Learning Theory)

Theory/Dimensions Behaviorism Cognitivism SLT

Definition of Learning Learning is a permanent change in observable behavior as a result of experience.

A relatively permanent change in mental representations or associations due to experience. It is the building of connections in schema through a process of assimilation and accommodation.

An acquisition of those behavior patterns which society expects.

Occurs by observation and modeling within a social context.

Shared control between Behavior, the environment, and the internal events that influence perception.

Role of behavior during learning

Change in observable behavior.

A change in mental representations that are displayed through behavior.

Behavior does not have to be displayed at all to show learning.

Role of internal processing during learning

Mental processes are not important.

Learning occurs internally through changes in mental structure.

Learning occurs internally through social experiences in the environment.

Behaviorism

Content Presentation

Learning Situation

Observation Checklist

Reflection

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Content PresentationBehaviorist

Instructional Theory based

on Learning Theory

Guide

Annotated Resources

Terminology

Key Principles

Theorists

Learning Described

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Learning DescribedBehaviorist

According to a behaviorist, learning is a permanent change in observable behavior as a result of experience.

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TheoristsBehaviorist

• Edwin Guthrie• Clark Hull• Ivan Pavlov

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• B. F. Skinner• Edward Thorndike• John B. Watson

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Edwin Guthrie(1886 - 1959)

Behaviorist

•Guthrie is a Classical Conditioning Theorist

•He attended the University of Nebraska where he obtained his bachelors degree in mathematics and received his masters degree in philosophy.

Contribution to Behaviorism•One-Trial Learning: He suggests that the S-R connection gains full strength in one trial.

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Clark Hull(1884 - 1952)

Behaviorist

•Hull is a Classical Conditioning Theorist

•He received his Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Wisconsin in 1918

Contribution to Behaviorism•Intervening Variables: suggests unique characteristics to different individuals will influence different responses to the same stimuli.

•Habit Strength: the degree to which a particular stimulus and a response are associated.

•Drive: the individuals state that motivates him/herself.

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Ivan Pavlov(1849 - 1936)

Behaviorist

•Pavlov is a Classical Conditioning Theorist

Contribution to BehaviorismStep 1 NS

(bell) (no response)

Step 2 NS(bell)

UCRUCS (salivate)(meat)

Step 3 CS CR(bell) (salivate)

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B.F. Skinner(1904 - 1990)

Behaviorist

•Responsible for the basic principle of Operant Conditioning.•Operant Conditioning - responses that are followed by reinforcement increased in frequency.

Operant Conditioning

Occurs When A response (R) is followed by a reinforcing stimulus (Sr)

Nature of Response Voluntary: emitted by the organism

Association Required R Sr

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Edward Thorndike(1874 - 1949)

Behaviorist

•Law of Effect - responses to stimuli that produce a satisfying or pleasant effect in a particular situation are more likely to occur again in the situation. Conversely, responses that produce a discomforting or unpleasant effect are less likely to occur again in the situation.

•Cat Puzzle Box - Thorndike believed the box and the motions the cat used to get out of the box was “strengthen” by each escape from the box.

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John B. Watson(1876 - 1958)

Behaviorist

•He established the Psychological School of Behaviorism.

•He believed that the response that has most recently occurred after a particular stimulus is the response most likely associated with that stimulus.

Key PrinciplesBehaviorist

• Classical conditioning - strengthening of strengthening of relationship between a neutral and unconditioned stimulus to produce the same response – conditioned stimulus presented to elicit a behavior.

• Operant conditioning – strengthening of a response by a reinforcing stimulus. Response is reinforced after it is elicited.

• Shaping/Chaining - shape behavior to desired changed behavior.

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Pleasant Aversive

Presented after response

Positive reinforcement: increases response (ex. Tokens)

Punishment I: Decreases response (ex. Scolding)

Removed after response

Punishment II: Decreases response (ex. No TV, no computer)

Negative reinforcement: Increases response (ex. No Homework)

TerminologyBehaviorist

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Stimulus An act to arouse a reaction.

Response The action visible in response to a stimulus.

Equipotentiality The assumption that humans and animals learn in similar ways.

Extinction The disappearance of a conditioning response when a conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus.

Stimulus Generalization

When individuals response to another stimulus in the same way they respond to conditioned stimuli. Example: A child is afraid of white rabbits and then is afraid of Santa’s White Beard…

Superstitious Behavior

Increase in response based on randomly dispensing of reinforcer.

Terminal Behavior

Expected behavioral response as a result of learning experience.

Instructional TheoriesBehaviorist

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• Programmed Instruction (PI) - process and methods to shape behavior. A way to chunk large amounts of information, set students to learn it, and then test them.

• Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) - This is programmed instruction supported by computers.

• Mastery Learning - Students are tested in a smaller area of the content and become a master. Once the student has displayed his/her knowledge, they move onto the next set of content to master. As the student masters the content, they start to piece together all the content to visual the whole picture.

• Criterion reference instruction – A set of objectives that is clear and mastery is involved and self paced. You need to prove you have changed behavior and it is facilitated by an instructor to check on progress. The test is designed first, then the instruction is aligned to the test.

Learning SituationBehaviorist

Students are expected to create a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. They are given two pieces of bread, a jar of jelly and a jar of peanut butter, a knife and a paper plate.

The instructor tells the students they can eat their sandwich once they have completed the following steps correctly and asks the students to follow her steps as she opens the peanut butter jar, dips the knife in and scoops out peanut butter and applies it to one slice of bread. As the instructor does so she provides praise for those students who have successfully completed the small task and offers assistance to those students who are having difficulty with the task (This is an example of programmed instruction. The teacher giving praise to students is feedback and providing assistance to those students having difficulty is called shaping.). She does the same steps using the jelly and other slice of bread (Again, shaping, feedback, and programmed instruction is taking place. The stimulus is the task of creating the sandwich and the response is the completed sandwich made by the student.).

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Observation ChecklistBehaviorist

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Not Observed Very Few Several Times Observed A Lot

Behaviorism Checklist

The expected responses by students is reinforced immediately by instructor.The expected responses by students is reinforced sporadically by instructor.

Learning outcome is stated prior to activity.Acceptable behavior for activity is stated.The instruction or information has been broken into small chunks and provided to students.

Provided positive feedback.Used a token system (providing candy or stickers)Activity reinforcers : allowing students to play on computer after completing objective.

Positive reinforcement to increase student response given after the response.Punishment I was given to decrease response after the student displayed the response.Punishment II was give to decrease student response after the response was presented.Negitive reinforcement was given to increase response after the response was displayed.

Shaping and feedback is provided by instructor to the student to help student grasp the small chunked information.

Students master the small chunked information before proceeding to the next succession of steps.

Other Observations:Other Observations:Other Observations:Other Observations:

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ReflectionBehaviorist

How does theory inform design?

Behaviorism informs design because behaviorists define learning differently from others. If I enter a work environment where I am to create an instructional design for the company and I do not ask the students to display the knowledge learned in an observable manner to the stakeholders (the company who hired me to create the instructional design), then the stakeholders will claim the students did not learn. It could be the case that the students did learn however the stakeholder and I have different understandings of what it means to learn.

Open questions on theory:

I am still confused about Positive/Negative Reinforcement verses Punishment I and II. I really had to check back with my notes while writing up those sections. It is hard for me to keep them straight.

I would also like to read some more examples or case studies of equipotentiality.

How class activities reflected this theory:

The class activities that were most helpful to me while learning about behaviorism was when we worked in groups and discussed the scenarios in behaviorists terms. I like that we were asked to think like behaviorists and corrected when we did not use behaviorist terms. For example if I said learning is attained in my brain, I was told my learning was displayed as a change. During the first class we were asked to follow the steps of our professor and we were given small segments to draw. As we mastered the steps w were given praise or re-guided if we drew incorrectly. As we progressed we discovered we had just learned how to draw an elephant. We were asked questions about behaviorism and if we said the correct answer we received a small piece of candy (token system). The little white paper booklets done in class was an example of programmed instruction (PI).

How your ideas about learning and instruction have changed:

My ideas of learning have changed because I am now more aware that people have many different beliefs about learning and what it is. I did not realize that if I held a conversation with a behaviorist prior to this class we would have confused each other unless we stated what we believed learning was/is. Instruction will change for me because I will be sure to provide many ways of completing one task to display knowledge attained by students.

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GuideBehaviorist

This is a 2 page step-by-step guide illustrating how to make a

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich!Go to Guide

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Annotated ResourcesBehaviorist

This is a list of resources with an abstract of each site.

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Cognitive

Content Presentation

Learning Situation

Observation Checklist

Reflection

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Content PresentationCognitive

Instructional Theory based

on Learning Theory

Advanced Organizer

Annotated List

Terminology

Key Principles

Theorists

Learning Described

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Learning DescribedCognitivist

A relatively permanent change in mental representations or associations due to experience. It is the building of connections in schema through a process of assimilation and accommodation.

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TheoristsCognitivist

• Gestalt

• Piaget

• Tolman• Vygotsky

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GestaltCognitivist

•Contributions between 1920-1950•Believes perception is different from reality•The whole is more than the sum of its parts•Organisms structure and organize experiences•Learning involves formation of memory traces (example: I smell the scent of a cookie and I am brought back to the coffee shop Breaking New Grounds. The link between the schema)•Problem solving involves restructuring and insight

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PiagetCognitivist

•Contributions between 1920-1960•Focus on mental events, logical reasoning and structure of knowledge•Active processors of information•Knowledge structures that change with development - schema•Processes through which people interact with the environment are constant (assimilation/accommodation)•Relate prior knowledge to the material to be learned•People are intrinsically motivated to make sense of the world•Cognitive development occurs in stages, controlled by maturation.

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TolmanCognitivist

•Contributions between 1930-1950•Internal mental phenomena in explanations of learning•Learning can occur without reinforcement, change in behavior•Behavior is purposive and is goal-directed•Learning results in an organized body of information - concept maps.

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VygotskyCognitivist

•Contributions between 1960-1990•Translated skill•Complex mental processes begin aas social activities, internalized mental activities.•ZPD (zone of proximal development) - Interactive problem solving. You grow until you need help, then you receive scaffolding. •Scaffolding - guidance that enables students to engage in activities inside ZPD.

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Key Principles Cognitivist

• Learning is a process of relating new information to previously learned information.

• Learning involves the formation of mental representations or associations that are not always reflected in the behavior.

• Inferences about unobservable metal processes can be drawn from

behavior.

• Cognitive processes (information processing) are the focus of study.

• Individuals are actively involved in the learning process

• Knowledge is organized and stored in schema and ore scripts

• Some learning processes are unique to human beings.

Executive Control (motivation, attention, interest)

Sensory Register short term memory working memory long-term memory retrieval Data Lost Data Lost

TerminologyCognitivist

Memory Traces The links between all pieces of schema.

Mnemonic A catchy word or phrase to assist memory. Ex. FACE: the notes in the spaces of a musical bar.

Assimilations Modify perception of environment to fit schema.

Accommodation Modify schema to fit environment.

Schema A pattern that represents the data's model defining the elements (or objects), their attributes (or properties), and the relationships between the different elements.

Scaffolding Guidance that enables students to engage in activities inside ZPD.

Advanced Organizer

Helps a student prepare to learn new information, an attention getting device. A series of questions or defintions.

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Instructional TheoriesCognitivist

• Gagne - 9 Events of Instruction: provides framework for the elements of cognitive theory (gain attention, inform learners of objectives, stimulate recall of prior learning, present the content, provide “learning guidance,” elicit performance, provide feedback, assessment performance, and enhance retention and transfer to the job.)

• Ausubel - presenting information upfront to help people to think about what you want people to learn (Advanced Organizers)

• Elaboration Theory - build on knowledge. Present the simplest form of a complex task and continue to introduce complexity until the entire complex task has been learned.

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Advanced OrganizerCognitivist

This is a 2 page document that would be given to students prior to learning about Cognitivism. It would help students become familiar

with terms prior to digging deeper into the knowledge.Go to Guide

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Annotated ResourcesCognitivist

This is a list of resources with an abstract of each site.

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Learning SituationCognitive

Students are expected to create a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. They are given two pieces of bread, a jar of jelly and a jar of peanut butter, a knife and a paper plate.

The instructor is eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as the students enter the room right before their normal snack time. All the students stare as she eats her sandwich (gains attention). Once all eyes are on her she tells the students they will learn how to make the sandwich and gives them an outline of the steps, an advanced organizer which has pictures on it (goals have been stated). She asks some students to share their experiences of watching someone make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (recall of past experiences and relate the learning to themselves). The instructor shows the students a video of Burt and Ernie making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and sharing it with Big Bird. She asks the students to follow along with her verbal, step-by-step instructions to make each their own sandwich (these steps are also on their advanced organizers, this is also practice). The teacher provides feedback to help the students create the sandwich. Once the students have completed the task they are asked to exchange sandwiches and judge a peers’ sandwich and provide feedback. While enjoying the sandwiches the students discuss what other sandwiches they can now make based on this new learned knowledge (assimilation).

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Observation ChecklistCognitive

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ReflectionCognitive

How does theory inform design?Cognitivism informs design because cognitvists define learning differently from others. It is important for me to

know this because I would design instruction differently. I would want to make sure my information was organized and that is built on my current audiences knowledge base. I would not want to try to teach second graders how to divide numbers if they had not yet learned how to multiply numbers. I would have to teach them multiplication first.

Open questions on theory:Is an advanced organizer the same thing as an outline or are those two different items? Can they be

considered the same thing?How class activities reflected this theory:In class activities that reflected this theory were things like:Shutting the projector off and lecturing while we took notes.Applying cognitive ideas to the 3 different learning situations.The diagrams displayed on the board. The way the material was presented: we read it, heard it, talked about it, saw it in diagrams…How your ideas about learning and instruction have changed:My ideas of learning have changed because I am now more aware that people have many different beliefs

about learning and what it is. I did not realize that if I held a conversation with a cognitivist prior to this class we would have confused each other unless we stated what we believed learning was/is. Instruction will change for me because I will be sure to provide information in an organized fashion in the hopes of building on existing schema to provide meaning to my students.

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Socialists

Content Presentation

Learning Situation

Observation Checklist

Reflection

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Content PresentationSocialist

Instructional Theory based

on Learning Theory

Diagram

Annotated List

Terminology

Key Principles

Theorists

Learning Described

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Learning DescribedSocialist

• An acquisition of those behavior patterns which society expects.

• Occurs by observation and modeling within a social context.

• Shared control between Behavior, the environment, and the internal events that influence perception.

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TheoristsSocialist

• Albert Bandura

• Lev Vygotsky

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Albert BanduraSocialist

•Reciprocal Determinism - The world and a person’s behavior cause each other.•The Bobo Doll Studies - Proves punishment/reinforcement does not need to be present for learning to occur.•Modeling Process Steps

•Attention•Retention•Reproduction•Motivation

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Lev VygotskySocialist

•Proposed that social interaction profoundly influences cognitive development.•Biological and cultural development do not occur in isolation.•Development is a life long process dependent on social interaction and that social learning actually leads to conitive development.

Key Principles Socialist

• The nature of humans is social, therefore we learn through social interactions.

• We learn by observing the behavior of others and the outcomes of those behaviors.

• The role of consequences is present in the learning process, such as reinforcement and punishment (do not always need reinforcement/ punishment).

• Learning can occur without a change in behavior.

• Cognitive processes play a role in learning - awareness, expectation of future reinforcements/ punishments, attention…

• Self-regulation and -efficacy play a major role in learning.

Perception

Behavior Environment

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TerminologySocialist

Self-regulation Controlling our own behavior. Example: If my classmate screams out in rebellion during class and has to take a test, I am not going to do the same thing because I do not want to take the test.

Self-efficacy Students’ own judgment of their own capabilities.

Modeling (Live, Symbolic & Verbal)

Live - an actual person demonstrating the behavior. Symbolic - a person or action portrayed in some other medium. Verbal - detailed description of how to behave (ex. Ms. Manners)

Self-reinforcement

The imitated behavior itself leads to reinforcing consequences.

Direct Reinforcement

Example: Student answers a question correctly and receives a piece of candy.

Vicarious Reinforcement

3rd party praise.

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Instructional TheoriesSocialist

• Expository modeling and demonstration - Students modeling after each other. Example: In a lab setting one student group has cut a frog open correctly, the teacher asks all the students to gather around the group for the group to explain how they did it correctly.

• Collaborative and cooperative learning - Students working in groups to solve a problem or to discuss topics.

• Apprenticeship - Example: Student teaching. When students watch and learn from an “ideal teacher” model. The student writes notes, asks questions and learns.

• Role playing - To put oneself in another’s place in a particular situation to examine the person or situation being improvised.

• Reciprocal teaching - Students are involved in summarizing, generating questions, and predicting as they read texts and observe phenomena. The students and teachers are responsible for learning equally.

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DiagramSocialist

• Source: http://web.syr.edu/~walker/SOCIALLEARNINGTHEORIES.htm

• I realize I have taken this diagram from someone in the course (I could not find the citation for this specific diagram or I would have cited the original work), however, I felt it was a great illustration for explanation of social learning theory. I think Bandura’s triangle should be taught but this diagram should also be used. During 11/7’s class when Tiffany asked students where learning takes place in the triangle, I had a hard time identifying where it took place. This diagram brings all the elements together for me. They key terms we used in class are on the outside circle which all effect the inner circle (B, E and P) and of course, this effects the learning that will or can take

place.

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Learning SituationSocialist

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Observation ChecklistSocialist

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ReflectionSocialist

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