Behaviourism

 Behaviourism

Behaviourism, also known as behavioural psychology, is a theory of learning based on the idea that all behaviours are acquired through conditioning. Conditioning occurs through interaction with the environment. Behaviourists believe that our responses to environmental stimuli shape our actions.

According to this school of thought, behaviour can be studied in a systematic and observable manner regardless of internal mental states. According to this perspective, only observable behaviour should be considered—cognitions, emotions, and moods are far too subjective. Strict behaviourists believed that any person can potentially be trained to perform any task, regardless of genetic background, personality traits, and internal thoughts (within the limits of their physical capabilities). It only requires the right conditioning.

Key Concepts in Behaviourism: There are several principles that distinguish behavioural psychology from other psychological approaches.

· Two Types of Conditioning: According to behavioural psychology, there are two major types of conditioning, classical conditioning and operant conditioning.

Classical Conditioning: Classical conditioning is a technique frequently used in behavioural training in which a neutral stimulus is paired with a naturally occurring stimulus. Eventually, the neutral stimulus comes to evoke the same response as the naturally occurring stimulus, even without the naturally occurring stimulus presenting itself. The associated stimulus becomes known as the conditioned stimulus and the learned behaviour is known as the conditioned response.

Operant Conditioning: Operant conditioning (sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning) is a method of learning that occurs through reinforcements and punishments. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behaviour and a consequence for that behaviour. According to this principle, actions that are followed by desirable outcomes are more likely to be repeated while those followed by undesirable outcomes are less likely to be repeated.

Actions that are followed by reinforcement will be strengthened and more likely to occur again in the future. Actions that result in punishment or undesirable consequences will be weakened and less likely to occur again in the future.

· Learning through Association: The classical conditioning process works by developing an association between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus or an association is made between a behaviour and a consequence for that behaviour.

· Conditioning can be influenced by association: During the first part of the classical conditioning process, known as acquisition, a response is established and strengthened. Acquisition refers to the first stages of learning when a response is established. In classical conditioning, it refers to the period when the stimulus comes to evoke the conditioned response.  Consider Pavlov's classic experiment with dogs. By associating the presentation of food with the sound of a tone, Pavlov was able to condition the dogs to salivate to the sound. The phase in which the dogs began to salivate to the sound is the acquisition period.

When an association disappears, this is known as extinction, causing the behaviour to weaken gradually or vanish. Factors such as the strength of the original response can play a role in how quickly extinction occurs. The longer a response has been conditioned, for example, the longer it may take for it to become extinct.

· Consequences Affect Learning: Behaviourist B.F. Skinner described operant conditioning as the process in which learning can occur through reinforcement and punishment. More specifically, by forming an association between a certain behaviour and the consequences of that behaviour, you learn. For example, if a parent rewards their child with praise every time they pick up their toys, the desired behaviour is consistently reinforced. As a result, the child will become more likely to clean up their rooms.

· Timing of reinforcement Plays a Role: Reinforcement schedules are important in operant conditioning. Simply observe a behaviour and then offer a reward or punishment. Skinner discovered that the timing of these rewards and punishments has an important influence on how quickly a new behaviour is acquired and the strength of the corresponding response.

· Continuous reinforcement involves rewarding every single instance of a behaviour. It is often utilized at the beginning of the operant conditioning process. But as the behaviour is learned, the schedule might switch to one of partial reinforcement.

· Partial reinforcement involves offering a reward after a number of responses or after a period of time. Sometimes, partial reinforcement occurs on a consistent or fixed schedule.

Educational Implications: The greatest contributions of behavioural psychology lie in its practical applications. One of the greatest strengths of behavioural psychology is the ability to clearly observe and measure behaviours.  Its techniques can play a powerful role in modifying problematic behaviour and encouraging more positive responses. Outside of psychology, parents, teachers, animal trainers, and many others make use of basic behavioural principles to help teach new behaviours and discourage unwanted ones. The behaviourist approach to learning has greatly influenced modem educational practices. Behaviourists have conceived  teaching as a  manipulation of the environment in order to produce desired behavioural changes in learners and thus make education more effective.

· Curriculum Development: The curriculum is prepared in a way to create a stimuli-response relationship, and the desire to learn  driven by this relationships. The curriculum which follows behavioural theory focuses primarily on observable and measurable behaviours. Teacher centred or subject centred curriculum is focused by behaviourists.

· Instructional Design: Behaviourists believed that meaning exists in the world separate from personal experience. The role of teachers becomes very crucial in deciding what changes of behaviour the learners should display when they learn, and in teaching in such a way that learners can attain those behavioural changes. Knowledge of results and use of positive reinforcement, minimum delay in reinforcement, and elaboration of complex behaviour by dividing learning into a series of small steps are the applications of behaviourism.

· All instructional goals are framed in specific, behavioural, and observable terms. In this approach, the instructor is the focus of the presentation and interaction. Teachers work with the individual students when they need extra help. The student’s role is to absorb instructional presentations and material, and use them to create performances which indicate attainment of correct mental models. Direct instruction is used by teachers. Structured assignments are directly linked to the learning objectives. There is minimal or no discussion in this model of direct instruction.

· Programmed Instruction: Programmed instruction is a self-learning system in which the subject matter is broken up into small bits and presented in logical sequences. A learner progresses through the sequence of steps at his/her own pace. Each step presents some new information about the theme that is being taught through the programme. At the end of each step there is a question to be answered by the learner. After the question is answered, the learner is expected to check his/her answer with the correct answer supplied in the programme. This correct answer functions as a reinforcing stimulus. Thus, the process of reinforcement is an inbuilt feature of programmed materials.

· Another example of the educational uses to which a behaviourist approach can be put, is individualising instruction such as a personalised system of instruction based on reinforcement theory that has been widely used in education.

 · Educational software and computer-assisted instruction: Examples of behaviourism in online instruction are educational software and computer-assisted instruction. Drill and practice tutorials are designed to reward students comment before moving on to the next learning objective. In this method, machines present the individual learners with a series of questions to be answered, problems to be solved, or exercises to be done. In addition, they provide automatic feedback to the learners. Teaching through machines and electronic gadgets encourages learners to take an 'active' part in the instructional process.

 The use of mechanical teaching devices has the following advantages:

i) Right answers are immediately reinforced. Machines encourage and sometimes even compel the learner to come up with the right answers.

ii)  Mere manipulation of the machines will probably provide enough reinforcement to keep an average student at study for a suitable period each day.

iii) Any learner who is forced to leave the activity of learning for a certain period can return at any time and continue from where he\she left off.

iv) Each student can proceed with his\her learning on an individual basis at his/her own pace.

v) The teacher is forced to arrange and design the content carefully in a hierarchical order.

vi) There is constant interaction between the teaching material and the learner, thus sustaining the learning process.

vii) After evaluating the progress of the learner, the teacher can supply necessary supplementary reinforcement. Thus, machines make it compulsory that any given material be thoroughly understood before the student moves on to the next set of materials.

· Assessment and evaluation are based upon individual tests and performances to demonstrate mastery of content, activities, and processes. Behaviourist principles have also influenced contemporary approaches to evaluation. For instance, Bloom has suggested a model of 'taxonomy of educational objectives' based on the hierarchy of learning objectives.