BEHAVIOURAL LEARNING THEORY

BEHAVIORISM

Behaviourism is a worldview that assumes a learner is essentially passive, responding to environmental stimuli. The learner starts off as a clean slate (i.e. tabula rasa) and behaviour is shaped through positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement. Both positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement increase the probability that the antecedent behaviour will happen again. In contrast, punishment (both positive and negative) decreases the likelihood that the antecedent behaviour will happen again. Positive indicates the application of a stimulus; Negative indicates the withholding of a stimulus. Learning is therefore defined as a change in behaviour in the learner. Lots of (early) behaviourist work was done with animals (e.g. Pavlov’s dogs) and generalized to humans.

Behaviourism precedes the cognitivist worldview. It rejects structuralism and is an extension of Logical Positivism.

Behaviourism is primarily associated with Pavlov (classical conditioning) in Russia and with Thorndike, Watson and particularly Skinner in the United States (operant conditioning). 

• Behaviourism is dominated by the constraints of its (naïve) attempts to emulate the physical sciences, which entails a refusal to speculate about what happens inside the organism. Anything which relaxes this requirement slips into the cognitive realm. 

• Much behaviourist experimentation is undertaken with animals and generalised. 

• In educational settings, behaviourism implies the dominance of the teacher, as in behaviour modification programmes. It can, however, be applied to an understanding of unintended learning.

For our purposes, behaviourism is relevant mainly to: 

•  Skill development, and

• The "substrate" (or "conditions", as Gagné puts it) of learning

TEACHING PHILOSOPY

MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY 

I have always taken teaching as a passion and believe it needs to inspire learning. It’s informed by what I deliver and what I have learnt from my success and failures. Being a teacher, who understands the learning needs, provides a secure atmosphere for the kids to grow and mature emotionally, intellectually, psychologically and socially, it is my utmost goal to meet their fullest potentials by providing all these.

As a facilitator I believe learner-oriented teaching is more meaningful and enduring. By understanding the students learning needs, how they approach to what they learn and how they show what they learn to increase their efficiency is a key method I follow in most of the lesson. This is adopted to cater for different ability levels of the learners since I need to know the social/academic needs, strengths and weakness of all my students to foster and meet all their needs.

As an educator I proactively plan varied approaches based on their learning diversity to build their curiosity to learning and closely observe their progress and outcomes of the varied approaches I practice. I cater for each individual need within a mixed ability classroom by planning different levels of tasks to build on their understanding and make sure it is challenging and interesting for them. Also the students are appropriately challenged which allows them to move on to more challenging tasks to build on their cognitive skills and effectiveness. In addition to this motivating the students towards learning helps the lesson to build the confidence in them to grow and become lifelong learners.

By giving clear explanations, providing meaningful concepts from their environment I make sure they understand the lesson in depth and pace it accordingly. Moreover, practicing varied exercises regularly and providing a positive feedback on their learning outcomes and personally instructing them on the areas they need to improve on and, also in written form I evaluate their level of progress. In addition to these asking questions about what they have learnt at the end of each lesson assures that I meet the learning objective of the lesson. Furthermore, getting a feedback from the students about the lesson gives me a clear over view of the lesson and what I need to improve further to make the lessons more challenging.

Through observation and feedback on the lesson I go on improving the lessons to adapt to the students’ needs. I bring about the necessary changes and go on with new strategies which will benefit the students more. The varied teaching approaches are then applied in teaching.

LEARNING STYLES

LEARNING STYLES

Developing a keen understanding of the learners for success

Experience does not come by the number of years that a teacher served in the field. Instead it is more about what the teacher has learned and how to apply. As teachers we need to understand that one student’s road map will not be identical for all the students. For teachers it’s important to know the ways that students learn best. The teacher should plan varied approaches to what students need to learn, how they will learn, and/ or how they will show what they have learned in order to increase how much they learn. Catering for individual needs arise because teachers need to respond effectively to student’s readiness level, interest and learning profiles. The varied approaches that the teacher takes into a classroom should meet the needs of all the students.

What is learning styles?

Learning styles refers to the way that students gather and assimilate information. It’s the best way that once can use the knowledge in a specific way.  The ways that people go about gathering and interpreting information can be surprisingly different. Different students use different styles, it can be either one style or a combination of different styles. “Research shows that people have different preferences and strengths in how they take in, and process, information. These preferences are sometimes referred to as learning styles and are used to describe and help us understand the different ways in which different people learn” (Research Summary… para.1)

Teaching to students learning styles

Students come from various diverse backgrounds and this differs in their way of learning and instruction to which they respond. How can we teach students if we do not know how they learn? How can we improve the performance if we don’t know how to enhance their performance? According to Stahl’s article researchers have been unable to find that assessing students learning styles and matching it to instructional methods has any effect on their learning. (Stahl, 1999)

It’s important for the teachers to identify the needs of the learners, capacities, potentials and learning preference in order to give the best to the students. Otherwise teaching may become a futile process if these needs are not met.

Do Individual learning styles matter?

Several studies measured using varieties of models in 1970’s proved that students have benefited from learning how they learn and how their patterns differ from those of the other students (Felder, 2010).

Individual learning styles is important to determine how students learn best and to let them do at their best level and enhance their confidence. Use of learning styles in education suggests that teachers need to assess their students learning style and adjust it to their classroom methods to accommodate all the learners or fit each students learning style. This basically believes in providing an inclusive education for all the learners. Hilgersom Volk quotes Gregorc's strong statement concerning the application of learning style theory: “First, teachers must learn to honour their own individual learning styles. Second, teachers must attempt to facilitate the true ability of the learner. Not to do so has serious implications. 'To purposefully cause mental distress by presenting materials in ways that they (learners) cannot truly fashion and handle, is indeed a moral issue (p. 4).”  (Yamagishi, 1990).There is enough evidence to show that individuals differ in their thinking and ways of processing various types of information. Among all, few studies have reliably tested the power of using learning styles in education. This shows that whether the use of learning styles can be used in classrooms. Critics have argued on the point that there is no such evidence which proves, identifying students individual learning styles produces better outcome (Learning Styles, 2013). Moreover well-designed studies reveals that students learn best if the method used is appropriate for the students learning styles.

Matching teaching and learning styles will improve students’ performance. Educators can use their knowledge of learning styles to develop effective classroom management skills and open a meaningful dialogue with parents. Educators also enjoy increased professionalism and confidence. Improved communication with colleagues will help educators discover the power of working in teams.