What is Learning and Behaviorism

Paul Cobb's picture

At this point I think that my idea of learning is about the same. Learning is understanding the world around us. But I would like to add understanding ourselves as well. (Thanks Whinnie, darn good point) I think Behaviorism helps with that new addition.

Where Behviorism realy makes sense for me is how educators can effect learning. Understanding that a student can not learn efficiantly unless they are tought/trained to learn can make a world of difference in your classroom. The greatest idea behind Behaviorism for me is that there is a reason behind every behavior a student exhibits. If they did not do the home work their is a reason. If you can figure it out and retrain that student you and the student will be better off. Behaviorism also lets me have a little bit more patiance and understanding with my students. I think that most people are trying to live their lives the best they can. They have just not had the right responses and reinforcers to get them to where they need to be. Home work is a good example. Many students are going to get a better reinforcement to not do their homework either from friends or even parents. Many times I think our "bad" students are trained this way by their parents and society as a whole. Behaviorism goes a long way to explain why our culture views education the way it does.

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Submitted by Paul Cobb on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 4:35pm
Angela Sauro's picture

I really like what you said

Submitted by Angela Sauro on Thu, 05/21/2009 - 9:28am.

I really like what you said about how a student can't learn efficiently unless they are trained to learn.  Teachers need to realize that every student is different and you are right about every student having a reason behind their behavior.  Hopefully more teachers can use a different approach and look more into what can be done with the behavior of different students.

Steven Haderlie's picture

Always a reason

Submitted by Steven Haderlie (not verified) on Fri, 05/22/2009 - 11:53am.
I learned a similar important thing from behaviorism, that there is always a reason to explain students' behavior and that if we can determine what the reason is, we can know what to do about it if something needs to be done. It's interesting to think about the idea of whether we make choices using our free will or whether we are simply responding based on reinforcements or punishments. When we tell a student, "That was a bad choice," maybe we should be thinking more about whatever reinforcement the student received by making the choice. Then, we can do what we can to adjust the reinforcement.
Rhonda Adams's picture

Behaviorism summed up well!

Submitted by Rhonda Adams on Sun, 05/24/2009 - 4:55pm.

Paul,  I love your explanation of the "bad" studens being labeled that way.  I have often thought that there are no bad students, only bad situations.  Every time a student acts out, or isn't prepared, or off task, there is usually a reason.  There are so many people (and teachers for that matter) that just wash their hands of these students, that if they took the time to try to understand the student and their problems, see them as a human being first, not just a test score, that the student would be more willing to work and try the next time you ask.  Why can't all of society try to use this philosophy.  I guess that we all as human beings know that, but why are we as a society so afraid to try this?  Does anybody have a good answer?

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Any opinions expressed here, except as specifically noted, are those of the individual authors or commenters and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the Department of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences, the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services, or Utah State University.