BEHAVIORAL SCHOOL OF THOUGHT Part 1 (Week 4)

Hello everyone, 

In this post, I will be focusing on the first part of the Humanistic school of thought. This theory helps us understand why we behave as we do. In this school of thought, there are a few important concepts that we must remember. They will be explained below.

a) Contiguity

Figure 3.1

Contiguity means  being in direct contact with something. In terms of education, it is closely related to stimulus and response. It simply means that any environmental event and any action that occurs in a brief span of time tends to be associated together. For example, when a students sees a certain subject in his timetable, he then checks whether there is homework given for that subject as the teacher constantly gives homework for the subject. Here, the stimulus is the constant giving of homework and the response is the thought of whether there is homework or not. Both these events has taken place in a short duration of time.

b) Classical Conditioning

Figure 3.2

In classical conditioning, we focus on learning that occurs when we have established a connection between the initial stimulus-response and new stimulus-response. This is done long enough to produce the similar response as when the first stimulus- response was used. 

Ivan Pavlov's experiment with the dog depicts this theory very well. In Figure 3.2, food is shown to the dog to which it reacts by salivating. Then a whistle is blown but there is no response. After that, the whistle is blown together with the food. This time the dog salivates. As now the dog knows that the whistle and food are related, it will salivate whenever it hears the sound of the whistle as it knows that food will be present.

For example, in the school environment, at the end of the lesson, the ringing of the bell (original stimulus) tells the students that it is the end of the lesson. For a change, the teacher assigns homework (new stimulus) indicating end of the lesson. Now there is a change in the stimulus but it still produces the same response that is the thought of the lesson ending.

c) Operant conditioning

Figure 3.3

As seen in Figure 3.3 above, the teacher has practiced positive punishment by asking the student to rewrite a phrase for 20 times instead of beating him to prevent him from repeating such behavior. So the next time the student thinks of repeating the same mistake, he will remember this punishment and therefore not perform the undesirable action.

Frederic Skinner came up with the theory of learning facilitated through reinforcement, be it positive or negative. He defined negative reinforcement as punishment and positive reinforcement as the strengthening of a certain event. For example, if a student were to send his homework on time, he will be given a sweet by the teacher. This strengthens the will of the student to continue to send his homework and do his class activities on time so that he will be rewarded in the future. As a teacher to be, I strongly believe in positive reinforcement as it is important to make our students feel appreciated and worthy. Negative reinforcement may embarrass them and they may not want to try or participate in any activities after that anymore. 

d) Social Learning

Figure 3.4

Social learning is all about learning through observation. Students must be taught to follow behavior that is accepted and refrain from negative behavior. For teachers, we should avoid relating content with anything that students dislike or do not have an interest in as it will confuse them or make them to feel weak as they do not understand the content taught. Teachers should also avoid giving homework as means to punish them, instead homework should be viewed as a way to improve their progress in a certain subject. Whenever in the class, teachers must remember that everything said and done are being seen by students and they will model after it. Thus teachers must take care of their actions and choice of words so as to not hurt the students and teach them misguided behavior.

There are a few ways to appreciate students and help them progress with good behavior in and out of the classroom. Here are a few ways.

1. Appreciate their improvement even though it may not be significant. 
2. Try to draw attention in a friendly way to students who show proper behavior so others can follow.
3. Get to know what is rewarding to them and reinforce student centered learning.
4. Always provide learning reinforcement for new tasks.
5. Encourage response and thank them for trying though it may not be accurate.
6. Create situations where every student can succeed or at least try.
7. Work together and communicate with parents to fortify valuable behavior.

In the next post, I will be writing about the approaches in this school of thought. Do keep up with the blog posts. Thank you and have an edifying day.