Behavioral and Social Theories of Learning

     After reading chapter five of Robert Slavin's Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, Behavioral and Social Theories of Learning, I learned about learning, behavioral, social, and cognitive learning, and how these types of learning influence intentional teaching. This chapter starts by explaining an example that happens very often in my classroom. Slavin, explains first-grade teacher, Julia Esteban, and her process of teaching her students how to raise their hand to answer a question without yelling out. Julia calls on a student who is yelling out, then gets on to another student who yells out. I loved that Slavin painted this situation out for readers before diving into this chapter. This allowed me to reflect on how I reinforce classroom behaviors before reading about behavior and social learning. Even though Rebecca was the only student raising her hand, she was not demonstrating the correct expectation for the classroom when students want to talk. Rebecca was yelling out, and then she was rewarded for not following the expectation because Julia called on her to answer the question anyway, because no one else was raising their hand. This lets all her peers in the classroom know that this is not a clear expectation that has to be followed. This led me to read about behavior, social, and cognitive learning. 

    Mayer defines learning as a long-lasting change in the learner’s knowledge as a result of the learner’s experiences (Mayer, 2008b). I agree with how Mayer defines learning because most of what children learn may not always be what we intend to teach (Slavin, 2020). Some of what students learn from teachers is intentional, and some is unintentional. This is where Pavlov and Skinner's work was formed, and the study of learning began. I find the connection between Pavlov’s and Skinner’s work very interesting because both studies show how much learning is shaped by the environment and experiences. Pavlov’s study was centered around classical conditioning. Pavlov and his team studied the digestive system of a dog and began to work with unconditioned stimulus and unconditioned responses, until the dog was taught that the conditioned stimulus paired with the unconditioned stimulus caused an unconditioned response, then after conditioning, the conditioned stimulus created a conditioned response without the unconditioned stimulus (which was the meat). This was a clear example that if dogs can be taught based on their reflexive behaviors, so can students, but Skinner proposed something a little different within his research. He proposed a behavior called operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is the use of pleasant or unpleasant consequences to control the occurrence of a behavior. Skinner demonstrated and tested his beliefs with the Skinner box, which tested the theory of behaviors produced by systematic changes in the consequences of their behavior (Slavin, 2020). 

    Both of these concepts concern the context of my classroom because both of these types of learning highlight the power of the environment and reinforcement in shaping students' behavior. Classical and Operant conditioning can help create a classroom atmosphere where positive behaviors are encouraged and repeated, and negative behaviors are decreased with punishers. Based on Pavlov and Skinner's research about learning, I have learned multiple ways to be a better teacher for my students. I have learned how to use positive reinforcements strategically so that students are motivated and routines are set in the classroom. I have also learned that being aware of students’ conditioned emotional responses helps me to create a stress-free learning environment. Lastly, I have learned how to use positive and negative punishers more strategically to avoid negative emotional associations that could hinder learning. 

    As a first-year teacher, I want to know how to balance reinforcement to avoid students becoming overly dependent on rewards. Often, I will give verbal praise, and my students' first response is, “Do I get a piece of candy?” How can I effectively use positive reinforcement to motivate students while also encouraging them to follow classroom expectations intrinsically without relying solely on external rewards?

References

Mayer, R. (2008b). Information processing. In T. L. Good (Ed.), 21st century learning (Vol. 1, pp. 168–174). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Slavin, R. E. (2020). Educational psychology: Theory and practice (13th ed.).  Pearson Education.