Behaviourism and Cognitivism Theory of Learning

Behaviourism

Behaviourism is primarily concerned with observable and measurable aspects of human behaviour. In defining behaviour, behaviourist learning theories emphasise changes in behaviour that result from stimulus response associations made by the learner. Behaviour is directed by stimuli. An individual selects one response instead of another because of prior conditioning and psychological drives existing at the moment of the action.
Behaviourist techniques have been employed in education to promote behaviour that is desirable and discourage that which is not. Among the methods derived from behaviourist theory for practical classroom application are contracts, consequences,reinforcement and behaviour modification.

Below is a you tube video and a slide share which i found useful in exploring the learning theory of behaviourism.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYDYzR-ZWRQ
 www.slideshare.net/guestfa5a5c/behaviorism-theory-of-learning-3782666

Using behaviourist theory in classroom can be rewarding for both students and teachers. Behavioural change occurs for a reason, students work for things that bring them positive feelings and for approval from people the admire. They change behaviours to satisfy the desires they have learnt to value. They generally avoid behaviours they associate with unpleasantness and develop habitual behaviours from those that are repeated often. The entire rationale of behaviour modification is that most behaviour is learnt. If behaviours can be learnt, then they can also be unlearnt or relearned.
Behaviour that goes unrewarded will be extinguished. Consistently ignoring an undesirable behaviour will go far toward eliminating it. When the teacher does not respond angrily, the problem is forced back to its source that is the student. Other classroom strategies that are successful are contracts, consequences, punishment and others that have been described in the video and slide show. Education teachers have classroom behaviour modification plans to implement for their students. These plans assure success for these students in and out of school.

Cognitivism
Cognitive learning can be defined as the process by which one acquires knowledge or skill in cognitive process. Cognitive processes include reasoning, abstract thinking, decision making, problem solving e.t.c. In cognitive learning the individual learns by watching, reading or experiencing some stimuli. This information is processed by brain and later recalled.
Pure cognitive theory largely rejects behaviourism on the basis that behaviourism reduces complex human behaviour to simple cause and effect. However, the trend in the past decades has been towards merging the two into a comprehensive cognitive behavioural theory. This allows therapists to use techniques from both schools of thought to help clients achieve their goals. Social cognitive theory is a subset of cognitive theory. Primarily focused on the ways in which we learn to model the behaviour of others, social cognitive theory can be seen in advertising campaigns and peer pressure situations. It is also useful in the treatment of psychological disorders.

The next blog will be exploring cognitive behavioural theory.

References

(Parkay & Hass,2000)