Theory

Traits

Behavioral Theory Facts/Ideas

Personal Evaluation

Theoretical Basis

Behaviorism
Focuses on the objective and observable components
of behavior that can be objectively and scientifically
measured.
Concerned with observable and measurable aspects of
human behavior, as opposed to internal events like
thinking and emotion.
Objectively and scientifically measured.
Idea that people have no free will. A persons
environment determines their behavior.
When born the mind is tabula rasa (blank slate).
Behavior is the result of stimulus-response.

New behavior is learned through classical or operant

conditioning.
Behavior changes the environment and those changes
can become consequences that affect future behavior.
Knowledge does not guide action, it is action.
Learning requires consistent representation of
material. Small progressive sequences of task.

It is extrinsic and occurs through positive and negative

reinforcement.

Strengths
It is a well-proven theory.
Very observable and easily proven.
Teacher controlled and directed.
Effective approach for classroom discipline.
Punishment can be used to decrease inappropriate behavior.
Highly scientific and observable.

Cognitive/Psychological
Cognitive theories focus on internal states, such as
motivation, problem solving, decision-making,
thinking, and attention.
Thinking/Self-Talk
The ongoing internal conversation with ourselves,
which influence how we feel and behave.
Metacognition
Awareness and understanding of ones own thought
processes.

Weaknesses
No or little freewill.
The theory is limited to dealing with classroom behavior/discipline.
Feelings and emotions are not taken into account.
Studies on animals are not the same as humans.
Feelings/emotions are not taken into account.

School Setting
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) focuses on human problems (for
example, within educational learning and work related issues) (20th
Century)
Intense Behavioral Intervention (IBI) is an autism intervention
This theory is often limited to dealing with classroom
behavior/discipline.

Theorists and
relevant dates of
contributions

B.F. Skinner
He suggested that we should only look at the external,
observable causes of human behavior. He called this
approach Operant Conditioning (1938). Influenced by
Pavlovs Classical Conditioning.
Operant Conditioning deals with the modification of
voluntary behavior.
He believed it was not necessary to look at internal
thoughts and motivations in order to explain behavior.
The Skinner Box. Purpose of the study was to
examine the animal behavior in a very controlled
environment.
Reinforcing learning comes into prominence as a
method of instruction.
Focuses on the causes and consequences of an action
through positive reinforcement and punishment.
Believed that knowledge was a repertoire of behaviors.
Argues that it is not the case that we use knowledge to
guide our actions. Rather knowledge is action or at
least rules for action. It is s set of passive, largely
mechanical responses to environmental stimuli.

John Watson
He argued that psychology should be the science of observable
behavior.
Little Albert-experiment in 1920. Famous and controversial.
Conditioned a small child to fear a white rat. It was
accomplished by repeatedly paring the white rat with a loud
noise. This lead the child to dear other white furry animals.
Determined that fears are learned; not inherited.
Ivan Pavlov
Classical Conditioning. Pavlovs dogs.
Based on his research/observations he suggested that the
salivation was a learned response and association.
Classical Conditioning (1903) remains one of the most
important discoveries in psychology.
A reflexive form of learning where the stimulus gains the

ability to evoke a response that was originally evoked by

another stimulus.
Edward Thorndike
Operant conditioning.
Any behavior that is led by a pleasant consequence
A behavior changes because of its consequence.
Connectionism
Puzzle box
Law of effect

Jean Piaget
Interested in the intellectual development of children.
He concluded that children are not less intelligent than adults,
they just think differently.
Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development.
Children progress through a series of four stages:
Sensorimotor (object permanence), preoperational (pretend
play), concrete operational, and formal operational.
Each stage is marked by shift in how children understand the
world.
Clark Hull
He believed that all behavior could be explained by
conditioning principles.
Drive Reduction Theory. Biological deprivation creates needs.
These needs activate drives which motivate behavior.
He was influenced by Darwin and believed the evolutionary
process had an impact on these drives and resulting behaviors.
Engineer to psychologist
Albert Bandura
Social Learning Theory (1977). Importance of observational
learning, imitation, and modeling. His theory integrates the
interaction of behaviors, cognition, and the environment
Famous experiment Bobo Doll Study (1961). Children
imitated a behavior (hitting and shouting at the doll) from
observation without incentives or encouragement

View of
Knowledge

He is often times considered a behaviorist because his work is

part of cognitive psychology
Ivan Sechenov
Reflexes of the brain
Actions are outside of man
Activity result of stimuli
Influenced Pavlov
New behaviors are learned

From the environment.

Behavior is shaped by the environment; determined by
others.
Learning has nothing to do with the state of mind.
Occurs with acquisition of new behavior.
Happens with the observable set of behaviors.
Happens if there is an incentive/reward.
Learning is passive and waiting for an order.
Learning follows the instructions of the teacher.
There is not crucial thinking.
New behaviors are learned.
Fixed body of knowledge to acquire
Information is learned through careful observable
desirable behavior.
Promote behavior that is desirable and discourage
behavior that is not.
Stimulated from outside
Learners will acquire and remember responses that
lead to certain outcomes, rewards, etc.
Modeling and shaping
Behavior ism supports the use of tests as the vehicle
for evaluation (of learning)
Standards / Common Core

How does this look in school setting?

Teachers use positive and negative reinforcements to either reward
or punish a behavior.

Belief about
Learning

Acquisition of facts, skills, concepts

Learning is affected by changes in the environment.
Occurs through drill and guided practice
Learning is not about self-discovery. It is a matter of
conditioning responses to stimuli.
Internal process of learning cannot be known so the
focus is on externally visible behavior.
Information (truth) is passed from teacher to student.
Programmed learning comes into prominence as a
method of instruction with small amounts of
information. Short paragraphs emphasizing the
concept of sequence.

Teaching: How is
teaching done?

Transmission
Student will learn from lectures.
The programmer determines objectives, learning
opportunities, evaluation procedures.
Behaviorist favor the transmission of information
Presentation (Telling)
Focus on presentation and interaction
Teachers give lectures to teach students.

Weaknesses
It does not take into account other ways of learning.
Ex. Making connections and use of prior knowledge
cooperative learning and creative learning.
Ignores thought processes and emotions of students (their
ability to observe and categorize.
Little to no input from learners.

Demonstration
Mostly teacher-centered instruction (lectures,
tutorials, demonstrations).
More individual work than group learning.
Teacher clearly explains expectations and provides a
copy of the directions to an assignment. Everything is
laid out and clear.
Role of Teacher

Manager
Give lectures to teach students
Sets up highly structured lesson plans.
Assume all students have not proper knowledge, starts out
with a blank slate.
Take the role of a sage on the stage.

How to use behaviorism to teach

Make/have clear objectives
Display a positive attitude
Reinforce behaviors
Have a behavior plan (management plan)
The teacher provides knowledge/truth/information to students
Checklists
Rubrics

Role of teacher in the classroom

Provide stimulus
Provide positive reinforcement; feedback
Keep students active and participating
Teachers reinforce behaviors
Teacher is seen as a manager

Teaches from the most simple to the most complex.

Breaks down the tasks into multiple steps.

Gives the learner immediate feedback.
Uses operant conditioning to reward or punish a student.
Believes that behavior is shaped by positive and negative
reinforcement.
The goal of the teacher is to impart knowledge and provide the
truth to students.

Role of Peers

Not usually considered.

Role of student

Passive reception of information

Students work for some type of reward.
This comes in the form of a positive or a negative
reinforcement. (Extra privileges for good work,
revoking of privileges as punishment).
Students receive information from teacher.

Active listener, direction-follower

The students role is to absorb instructional lessons and
materials. Repetitive behaviors.

Teach classroom rules and expected behaviors

3-5 Big ideas in

theory
concerning

teaching and
learning that you
will apply in your
professional

practice.

List several Big Ideas that inform your instructional planning

you have developed based on this theory.

Learners actively work to make sense of their environment

and construct their own, unique understanding.

Learning is more likely to occur when learners pay attention

to the information to be learned.
Learners learn more effectively when they relate new

information to prior knowledge.

Learners future learning and performance are influenced by

Ex. Negative reinforcement, no homework pass.

Benefit
Auditory learner would benefit most from this type of
instruction.
Used a lot for behavior.
Benefit least- Students who need more than just the teacher
teaching. Different learning needs. Students who are more
visual models and hands on learning. (Constructivist
approach hands on)
Learners who previously experience failure in a classroom,
can benefit from this learning theory
Integration of ALL students
Repetitive routines and rules
Teacher to student communication
No self-discovery
Tabula rasa

Explain Big Ideas and how you applied them.

Information Seeking
Modeling and response
Drawing on from existing information
Provide students with cues and hints to influence behavior (for
example: Whole Brain Teaching)
Discriminative stimuli
Programmed instruction

Lesson Plan you

developed/used
rooted in this
theoretical view
of learning.

List and briefly

describe 2-5
other lesson
models that fit
this theory.

the consequences that follow their behaviors

Hints about how to think or behave often facilitate
performance
Learning is enhanced when learners engage in self-evaluation

Describe the focus/use/intent of this lesson model and how it

met the learning objective of your students
Vocabulary Acquisition Lesson/Model
Actively engage students with the learning process and aim to
achieve deep understanding of vocabulary.
Studying the word and its structure.
Reflecting on the words meaning.
Analyzing the words form
Connecting to prior knowledge.
Crafting a personalized understanding.
Applying the work in context.
Determined by external stimuli by the culture you live in.
Controllable- desirable behaviors can be brought about by
incentives, undesirable behaviors can be eradicated by
consequences or punishments.
Observable overtime that individual develops a behavioral
repertoire.
1. Vocabulary Acquisition
Teacher-guided
Pretest knowledge of words critical to content
Discuss and hypothesize meaning
Explore patterns of meaning; for deep understanding
Read and study
Evaluate and post test
2. Direct Instruction
Teacher-directed
Lecture, questioning, explicitly teaching,
practice and drill, demonstrations, etc.
Purpose and reason for teaching the
subject/topic (learning objective).

How to incorporate theory in the classroom

Remember that you are the educator in change for
incorporating behavior in your classroom.
Develop a deeper understanding of vocabulary (TIER 2)
Teach explicitly derivational morphemes and include
morphological analysis
Teach explicitly words with multiple meanings
Possibilities for using context clues (and their limitations)
should be taught explicitly

Assessment Type

Personal
Application
(Provide 3 or
more examples)
Add web links for
articles.

Assessment and evaluation based upon:

Individual tests
Individual performance, mastery
Rubrics
Determine if goal/objective has been met
Formative, summative, formal, informal, authentic,
observation
Journals, quiz, exams, presentations, homework, worksheets
Behaviorists use tests as the vehicle for evaluation (of learning)
(CCSS)
Behaviorists may use technology as a new means of assessment
and to save artifacts and interactions for later review by
students (the distractions that come with technology are a
problem)
How do/could you apply this theory for teaching learning?
Teacher giving meaningful and descriptive reinforcements.
Ex. If a child performs well on an assignment, the teacher can say good job! you must have worked really hard on this instead of
saying wow youre so smart. Attribute accomplishments to hard work and determination.
http://psychology.about.com/od/psychology101/u/psychology-theories.htm
http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/pavlov.htm
http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/f/behaviorism.htm
http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/theories/behavioral_theory.htm