ED 204 - FACILITATING LEARNERS - Behaviorism

CENTERED TEACHING  Behavioral theory says that only observable

behavior should be studied, as cognition,
Learner-centered includes explicit skill instruction. emotions, and mood are far too subjective.
Learner centered teachers teach students how to think,  Any person - regardless of genetic background,
solve problems, evaluate evidence, analyze arguments, personality traits, and internal thoughts - can be
generate hypotheses - all those learning skills essential trained to perform any task, within the limits of
in mastering material in the discipline. their physical capabilities. It only requires the right
conditioning.
5 Characteristics of Learner-Centered Teaching
1. Learner-centered teaching engages students in the Behavior in Education
hard messy work of learning.  Behaviorism focuses on one particular view of
2. Learner-centered teaching include explicit skill learning: a change in external behavior achieved
instruction. through using reinforcement to shape the
3. Learner-centered teaching encourages students to behavior.
reflect on what they are learning and how they are  Skinner found that behaviors could be shaped
learning it. when the use of rewards was implemented.
4. Learner-centered teaching motivates students by  Desired behavior is rewarded, while the undesired
giving them some control over the learning process. behavior is punished.
5. Learner-centered teaching encourages collaboration.  Incorporating behaviorism into the classroom
allowed educators to assist their students in
Major School of Thoughts excelling both academically and personally.
related to Learner’s Development  In the field of language learning, this type of
teaching was called the audio-lingual method,
 A school of thought, or intellectual tradition, is the characterized by the whole class using choral
perspective of a group of people who share chanting of key phrases, dialogues and immediate
common characteristics of opinion or outlook of a correction.
philosophy, discipline, belief, social movement,
economics, cultural movement, or art movement. Role of Teacher (Behaviorism)
 A set of ideas or opinions about a matter that  Dominant person in the classroom and takes
shared by a group of people. complete control, evaluation of learning comes
from the teaching who decides what is right or
BEHAVIORISM wrong.
Proponents:  The learner does not have any opportunity for
1. B.F. Skinner evaluation or reflection within the learning process,
2. Ivan Pavlov they are simply told what is right or wrong.
3. John Watson  The conceptualization of learning using this
approach could be considered “superficial” as the
What is Behavioral? focus is on external changes in behavior, i.e., not
 Is an approach to psychology that focuses in an interested in the internal processes of learning
individual’s behavior. leading to behavior change and has no place for
 Theoretical frameworks was develop in the early the emotions involved the process.
century 20th with the animal learning experiment of
Ivan Pavlov, Edward Thorndike, Edward Tolman, Operant Conditioning
B.F. Skinner and others.  Operant conditioning was developed by B.F.
Skinner in 1937 and deals with the modification of
What is Behaviorism? “voluntary behavior” or operant behavior.
 Behaviorism is a theory of learning based on the  It operates on the environment and is maintained
idea that all behaviors are acquired through by its consequences.
conditioning, and conditioning occurs through  Reinforcement and punishment - the core
interaction with the environment. tools of operant conditioning, are either:
 Behaviorists believe that our actions are shaped by a. Positive - delivered following a response.
environmental stimuli. b. Negative - delivered following a response.
 Behavior can be studied in a systematic and
observable manner regardless of internal mental
state.
  Students can use self-evaluation techniques to
Operant Conditioning monitor and observe their own behaviors and
 Skinner created the Skinner Box or Operant make necessary changes.
Conditioning Chamber to test the effects of  Students also need to take responsibility for their
Operant Conditioning principles on rats. own learning and keep their goals realistic.
 From this study, he discovered that the rats
learned very effectively, if they were rewarded Role of Teacher
frequently. Skinner also found that he could shape  The teacher's role, according to the humanistic
the rat’s behavior through the use of rewards theory, is to be a role model. The teacher is to
which could in turn be applied to human learning model appropriate behavior and make an effort not
as well. to replicate inappropriate behavior.
 Operant Conditioning plays the largest role in the  A teacher is also expected to provide a reason and
discussions of behavioral mechanisms. motivation for each task, teach general learning
skills, foster group work, and if possible, give a
Classical Conditioning choice of tasks to the students.
 Classical conditioning is an important behavior
analytic process that need not refer to mental or Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
internal processes.
 Pavlov’s experiment with the dogs provide the
most familiar example of this procedure.
 In classical conditioning, the dog was presented
with a stimulus such as light or a sound, and then
food was place in the dog’s mouth.
 After a few repetitions of this sequence, the light
or sound itself caused the dog to salivate.
Although Pavlov proposed some tentative
physiological processes that might be involved in
classical conditioning, these have not been
confirmed.
 The idea of classical conditioning helped
behaviorist John Watson discover the key
mechanism behind how human require the
behaviors that they do which was to find a natural
reflex that produces the response being Principles of Humanistic Theory
considered.
 Humanistic learning is student-centered, so
HUMANISM students are encouraged to take control over their
education.
Proponents:  Fostering engagement to inspire students to
1. Abraham Maslow become self-motivated to learn.
2. Carl Rogers,  Self-evaluation is the most meaningful way to
3. Malcolm Knowles evaluate how learning is going.
 Feelings and knowledge are both important to the
Humanistic Theory learning process and should not be separated
 Focuses on the development of learners (Leaner- according to humanistic psychology. Lessons and
Centered). activities should focus on the whole student and
 This theory focuses on the idea tha children are their intellect and feelings, not one or the other.
good at the core and that education should focus  A safe learning environment. Because humanistic
on rational ways to teach the “whole” child. learning focuses on the entire student, humanistic
 This theory states that the student is the authority educators understand that they need to create a
on how they learn and that all of their needs safe environment so students can have as many as
should be met in order for them to learn well. their needs met as possible.

Role of Learners
 The role of the student is to explore and observe.
 Pros of Connectivism
1. It creates collaboration.
2. It empowers students and teachers.
CONNECTIVISM 3. It embraces diversity.

Proponents:
1. George Siemens Connectivism is a relatively new learning theory that
2. Stephen Downes suggests students should combine thoughts, theories, and
general information in a useful manner. It accepts that
Connectivism Theory technology is a major part of the learning process and
 This is called the theory of learning for the digital that our constant connectedness gives us opportunities to
age, it is about explaining complex learning in a make choices about our learning. It also promotes group
rapidly evolving digital social world. collaboration and discussion, allowing for different
viewpoints and perspectives when it comes to decision-
 Knowledge under this theory is a network product.
making, problem-solving, and making sense of
 Technology plays a key role in learning and
information. Connectivism promotes learning that happens
sharing.
outside of an individual, such as through social media,
online networks, blogs, or information databases.
Two Terms under this Theory
COGNITIVE CONSTRUCTIVISM THEORY
1. Nodes
 In connectivism, students are seen as “nodes” in a Proponent:
network. A node refers to any object that can be 1. Jean Piaget
connected to another object, like a book,
webpage, person, etc. Cognitive Constructivim Theory
2. Links  Is based on Piaget’s beliefs that humans cannot be
 Connectivism is based onthe theory that we learn given information that they immediately
when we make connections, or “links, ” between understand and use.
various "nodes" of information, and we continue to  Cognitive is the mental faculty of knowing, which
make and maintain connections to form involves perceiving, recognizing, conceiving,
knowledge. judging, reasoning, and imagining.

Principles of Connectivism Four Parts of Cognitive Constructivism

Connectivism builds on already-established theories to 1. Knowlegde
propose that technology is changing what, how, and  Actively constructed by learners based on existing
where we learn. In their research, Siemens and structures rather than socially constructed ir as a
Downes identified eight principles of connectivism. response to environmental stimuli.
2. Learning
Those main principles of connectivism are:  It is an active assimilation and accomodation of
new information on an indiviual basis rather than
 Learning and knowledge rests in the diversity of in a knowledge community.
opinions. 3. Motivation
 Learning is a process of connecting.  A learner’s can set their own goals and motivate
 Learning may reside in non-human appliances. themselves to learn rather than relying on positive
 Learning is more critical than knowing. or negative reinforcement.
 Nurturing and maintaining connections are needed 4. Instruction
for continual learning.  It is an environment that promotes discovery and
 The ability to see connections between fields, assimilation/accommodation rather than rote
ideas, and concepts is a core skill. instruction of group learning.
 Accurate, up-to-date knowledge is the aim of all
connectivist learning. Teachers Role
 Decision-making is a learning process. What we  Acts a facilitator of learning rather than instructor.
know today might change tomorrow. While there’s  To provide a rich environment for the spontaneous
a right answer now, it might be wrong tomorrow exploration of the child.
due to the constantly changing information  Is to create collaborative problem-solving
climate. environment where students become active
participants in their own learning.
 Factors affect a given student’s motivation to
learn:
 Interest in the subject matter
 Perception of its usefulness
 General desire to achieve
 Self confidence and self esteem
MOTIVATION
 The process of arousing and sustaining interest in META COGNITIVE
an activity towards a goal.
 The creation of desire on the part of the learner to Cognitive
perform an activity to satisfy a need.  refers to all the mental processes and abilities in
 An internal state or condition (sometimes which people use or engage in a daily basis (e.g.
described as a need, desire, or want) that serves memory learning, problem-solving, evaluation,
to activate behavior and give it direction. reasoning, and decision-making).
 Effective learning depends on the teacher’s
ability… to maintain the interest that bought the Metacognitive
students to the classroom.  Metacognition - 'thinking about thinking'
 Allows an individual to complete a task through
Emotions planning, monitoring, evaluating and
 Emotions are very powerful as they define the way comprehending
a human being thinks and they also bias our
learning. According to researchers in the field of Thinking about thinking
psychology, adult learning is emphatically  It is when learners can assess or reflect their
influenced by emotions. learning processes, set reasonable learning or
performance objectives, choose possibly suitable
Two Types of Motivation learning strategies or approaches, and track their
1. Intrinsic Motivation - behavior that is driven by progress towards these objectives.
internal rewards.
2. Extrinsic Motivation - refers to external incentive Nature of the Learning Process
or tangible material.  A Complex subject/matter
 A continues process
3 Things that Enhance Intrinsic Motivation  A collaborative process
1. Autonomy - the right or condition of self-government  Different information and experiences matters
2. Mastery - Comprehensive knowledge skill in a
particular activity Goals of the Learning Process
3. Purpose - the reason for which something is done.  Takes time to achieve
 Create a meaningful, coherent, and logical
Motivational and Emotional Influences on representation of knowledge.
Learning  Construct knowledge representations and learn
 Student motivation has to do with student’s desire thinking and learning strategies for lifelong
to participate in the learning process. learning.
 What and how much is learned is influenced by the  Fill gaps, address discrepancies, and strengthen
learner’s motivation. understanding
 Motivational and emotional factors also influence  Help learners realize their full potential
both the quality of thinking and information
processing as well as an individual’s motivational to Construction of Knowledge
learn. Students learn by connecting new knowledge with
knowledge and concepts that they already know,
5 Motivational States thereby constructing new meanings.
1. Agitation (using force, pushing too hard)
2. Flow (enjoyment, absorption, the loss of time) Strategic Thinking
3. Animation (positive action towards a goal)  Creating and using a repertoire of thinking and
4. Rest (active relaxation, recovery) reasoning stategies in approaching: learning,
5. Ennui (boredom, flatness, resistance) reasoning, problem solving, concept learning-
reflect on the methods.
Context of Learning
Learning is influenced by environmental factors,
including:
 Culture
 Technology
 Instructional practices