BEHAVIORISM LEARNING

THEORY

DSU
LAUREN SANBERG [Company address]
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The Utilization of Behavioral Learning Theory

Lauren Sanberg

Educational Psychology

23 November 2016

Many psychologists such as Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner were very curious as of how

the environment impacted students and their behavior. Behaviorism is the theoretical perspective

in which learning and behavior are described and explained regarding stimulus-response

relationships, and as a result, motivation is often the deficit-based drives (Ormrod G-1). While

behaviorism is conditioned everywhere, is focused in the classroom where it has effects on the

students and is promoted by the educators.

There are two main types of conditioning for behaviorism. They are classical and

operant. Under these two main types, conditioning is a few other ones that will express about and

how they affect the children, students, and their learning association as well as how parents and

educators have an important role in these conditioning theories for the outside world and the

classroom as well.

Classical conditioning is learning a new behavior via the process of association (McLeod,

S. A. (2014)). Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist that is best known for this. Pavlov is best

known for the dog research. When conducting his famous experiment, he would play a tone and

then quickly give the dogs food. He then realized that the dogs would start to salivate when they

would hear the sound because they have been trained to expect food when they hear the tone

(Cherry, 2016).
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While this study was conducted on dogs, it happens in everyday life. An example of this

would be saying good job after a kid said please when trying to teach them to use that word

or manners in general.

While these examples are in everyday life, it can be in the classroom as well. One

example of this in the classroom would be public speaking. Public speaking is known for

creating anxiety-provoking events that many students do not like. By pairing public speaking

with calm and pleasant surroundings, this will help the students learn to stay calm and laid-back

(Pappas, 2015).

This is an excellent example of active classical conditioning in the classroom. There are

some negative examples of classical conditioning in the classroom. When the student has a

negative experience in the classroom, they learn to associate this experience with their learning

atmosphere, and it will impact the motivation to learn.

A prime example of negative classical conditioning is test anxiety. Although instructors

encourage students to do their best, there will always be a phobia for some students in a neutral

classroom. Students who have a fear of getting a wrong answer can create an adverse effect on

the student. As a result, may not participate in class or want to study for the next test because, in

their mind, it does not make a difference, they would still get a question wrong or fail the test

(Grossman, Batsell 2009). Correspondingly, having these types of anticipation are creating the

stimulus thoughts of oh I do not like school or I stink at this subject, I do not want to put forth

the effort to learn on this.

Although these are good examples of positive and negative classical conditioning in the

classroom, it does impact the teaching. Teachers should always strive for positive experiences
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with learning and not negative. One way to make sure that the educator does their best not to

create a negative experience for the student is do not chastise or put down in the classroom.

Even though the signification of classical conditioning is limited in the classroom

compared to operant conditioning, it is still valuable for the teacher to create a positive learning

environment to help the kids be engaged and give them the motivation to self- learn versus

having a negative learning situation.

Operant conditioning is different than classical. Operant conditioning is the use of

positive or negative reinforcement to either strengthen or weaken the behavior after it has

exhibited. Operant conditioning described by American Psychologist B. F. Skinner. Skinners

work is deeply rooted from a view that classical conditioning was far too simplistic to be a

complete explanation of complex human behavior.and that the best way to understand

behavior is to look at the causes of an action and its consequences (McLeod, S. A. (2015)). In

his study, Skinner placed mice in a small box with two levers. If the mouse hit lever A then

they would get food. If they hit bar B, then they would get a shock. These two bars represent

reinforcement for good behavior (the food) and punish the bad behavior (the shock).

This type of conditioning, regularly used, with many different types of reinforcement

such as positive, primary, concrete, activity, positive feedback, social and negative

reinforcements. However, to have reinforcement, there must be a reinforce. A reinforcer is the

consequence of a response that leads to increased frequency of the reply. Reinforcement is the

act of following a response using a reinforcer (Ormrod 59).

Let us go into the classroom to see how this would look. In the learning environment, the

instructor should identify strengths and weaknesses in each student. By doing so, this allows for
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the proper guidance and direction for shaping and the behavioral change program. Shaping is the

process of reinforcing successively closer and closer approximations for the desired behavior

(Webster, 2016). By noticing each students strengths and weakness, the educator can create an

appropriate action that is not in the students repertoire. (BehaviorAdvisor.com/Shaping). An

example would be getting the students to participate in class. The teacher would praise the

students for raising their hands even though they may have gotten the answer wrong and

eventually students will learn to expect praise when someone gives a marvelous answer.

When the teacher is creating the classroom environment, they might use positive

reinforcement. The use of different rewards being able to have additional time at recess or might

have a stamp card with the goal of ten stamps then the students can turn it in to get a reward. The

intention of this is to increase results of the presentation of a stimulus (Ormrod, G-5).

A teacher might use the primary reinforcement as another tactic for the students to

listen. A sample of this would be letting the kids go to lunch five minutes early since it satisfies a

natural built-in need as a consequence (Ormrod 59). Or they might use concrete reinforcement,

an object that can be touched. An example of this would be a sticker or the ability to have time to

goof around with classmates. If the students are goofing around with each other as a reward for

doing something they may not like, that is known as an activity reinforcer (Ormrod, 60).

For some student, positive feedback is a good reinforcer for them. Having someone tell

them what they are doing well on and what they can improve on works for them. Others might

like to have a smile, attention or some gesture or sign of a social reinforcement. Social reinforcer

allows one person to give another person positive regard, most likely in a communitive way

(Ormrod, 60). Naturally, everybody wants and prefers to use the positive reinforcements, but

there will be days when the student(s) are not listening.

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When a student acts up or misbehaves, then the teacher would have the student miss five

minutes of recess. This tactic is known as negative reinforcement. By having the student lose

five minutes of recess, the student more than likely will not act up again because of the removal

of a stimulus as a response to the behavior (Ormrod, G-4).

To summarize, classical and operant conditioning are the best-known ways to create the

desired behavior. Within these two conditioning theories, there are a few other types that obtain

in a classroom environment that impacts both the student and how they learn and the teacher in

the way of how they utilize these theories in the classroom.

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Works Cited:

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Guide." Verywell. Kendra Cherry, 09 Jan. 2016. Web. 30 Nov. 2016.
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Grossman, Robert, and W. Batsell,Jr. | Robert Grossman. "Classical Conditioning." Education.com. W.
Batsell Jr. Robert Grossman, 23 Dec. 2009. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.
Lipoff, Sarah. "Behaviorism and the Developing Child." Funderstanding Education Curriculum and
Learning Resources. Sarah Lipoff, 26 Apr. 2011. Web. 30 Nov. 2016.
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McLeod, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 23 Nov. 2016.
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Ormrod, Jeanne Ellis. Essentials of Educational Psychology: Big Ideas to Guide Effective Teaching.
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Nov. 2016.
Webster, Jerry. "Shaping - A Teaching Strategy From Behaviorism for Skill Mastery." About.com
Education. Jerry Webster, 30 May 2016. Web. 23 Nov. 2016.