Learning Learning can be defined in many ways, but most psychologists would agree that it is a relatively permanent change in behavior that results from experience. During the first half of the twentieth century, the school of thought known as behaviorism rose to dominate psychology and sought to explain the learning process. The three major types of learning described by behavioral psychology are classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning. Behaviorism Behaviorism was the school of thought in psychology that sought to measure only observable behaviors. Founded by John B. Watson and outlined in his seminal 1913 paper Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It, the behaviorist standpoint held that psychology was an experimental and objective science and that internal mental processes should not be considered because they could not be directly observed and measured. Watson's work included the famous Little Albert experiment in which he conditioned a small child to fear a white rat. Behaviorism dominated psychology for much of the early twentieth century. While behavioral approaches remain important today, the latter part of the century was marked by the emergence of humanistic psychology, biological psychology, and cognitive psychology.Classical Conditioning Classical conditioning is a learning process in which an association is made between a previously neutral stimulus and a stimulus that naturally evokes a response. For example, in Pavlov's classic experiment, the smell of food was the naturally occurring stimulus that was paired with the previously neutral ringing of the bell. Once an association had been made between the two, the sound of the bell alone could lead to a response. How Classical Conditioning Works Operant Conditioning Operant conditioning is a learning process in which the probability of a response occurring is increased or decreased due to reinforcement or punishment. First studied by Edward Thorndike and later by B.F. Skinner, the underlying idea behind operant conditioning is that the consequences of our actions shape voluntary behavior. Skinner described how reinforcement could lead to increases in behaviors where punishment would result in decreases. He also found that the timing of when reinforcements were delivered influenced how quickly a behavior was learned and how strong the response would be. The timing and rate of reinforcement are known as schedules of reinforcement. How Operant Conditioning Works Observational Learning Observational learning is a process in which learning occurs through observing and imitating others. Albert Bandura's social learning theory suggests that in addition to learning through conditioning, people also learn through observing and imitating the actions of others.As demonstrated in his classic "Bobo Doll" experiments, people will imitate the actions of others without direct reinforcement. Four important elements are essential for effective observational

1. Educational Psychology
EDU-202
Spring -2022
Dr. Fouad Yehya
fyehya@aust.edu.lb
1

2. Big goals
In this session, you will:
• Define learning and describe five approaches to
studying it.
• Define motivation, and compare the behavioral,
humanistic, cognitive, and social perspectives on
motivation.
• Explain why classroom management is both
challenging and necessary
• Discuss how to create a positive classroom
environment.

3. WHAT IS LEARNING?

4. • Learning: A relatively permanent influence on
behavior, knowledge, and thinking skills that
comes about through experience.
WHAT IS LEARNING?

5. APPROACHES TO LEARNING
• Approaches to learning can be categorized as
behavioral or cognitive.
- Behaviorism is the view that behavior should be
explained by observable experiences, not by mental
processes. For the behaviorist, behavior is everything
that we do, both verbal and nonverbal, that can be
directly seen or heard: a child creating a poster, a
teacher explaining something to a child, one student
picking on another student, and so on.

6. Cognitive Approaches
• Cognition means “thought”. We have four
main cognitive approaches to learning: social
cognitive; information processing; cognitive
constructivist; and social constructivist.
• 1- The social cognitive approaches emphasize
how behavior, environment, and person
(cognitive) factors interact to influence
learning (Bandura, 2009, 2010a).

7. Cognitive Approaches
• 2- The information-processing approaches
focus on how children process information
through attention, memory, thinking, and other
cognitive processes (Martinez, 2010).
• 3- The cognitive constructivist approaches
emphasize the child’s cognitive construction of
knowledge and understanding.

8. Cognitive Approaches
• 4- The social constructivist approaches focus
on collaboration with others to produce
knowledge and understanding.

9. WHAT IS MOTIVATION?
• Motivation involves the processes that
energize, direct, and sustain behavior.
• Motivation is a driving force for learning
engagement

10. How can you explain
motivation based on the
behavioral, humanistic,
cognitive, and social
perspectives?

11. PERSPECTIVES ON
MOTIVATION
Different psychological perspectives explain
motivation in different ways:
- Behavioral
- Humanistic
- Cognitive
- Social.

12. PERSPECTIVES ON
MOTIVATION
The Behavioral Perspective: The behavioral
perspective emphasizes external rewards and
punishments as keys in determining a student’s
motivation.
Incentives are positive or negative stimuli or events that
can motivate a student’s behavior. Incentives include
numerical scores and letter grades, which provide
feedback. Incentives include giving students recognition
(certificate of achievement, verbally mentioning their
accomplishments, playing computer games or going on
a field trip.

13. The Humanistic Perspective: The humanistic
perspective stresses students’ capacity for
personal growth, freedom to choose their
destiny, and positive qualities.
This perspective is closely associated with
Maslow’s belief that certain basic needs must be
met before higher needs can be satisfied.
PERSPECTIVES ON
MOTIVATION

14. • According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs,
individuals’ needs must be satisfied in this sequence:
- Physiological: Hunger, thirst, sleep
- Safety: Ensuring survival, such as protection from
war and crime
- Love and belongingness: Security, affection, and
attention from others
- Esteem: Feeling good about oneself
- Self-actualization: Realization of one’s potential as a
human being
PERSPECTIVES ON
MOTIVATION

15. • The Cognitive Perspective: According to the
cognitive perspective on motivation, students’
thoughts guide their motivation.
• The cognitive perspective on motivation fits
the concept of competence motivation, the
idea that people are motivated to deal
effectively with their environment, to master
their world, and to process information
efficiently.
PERSPECTIVES ON
MOTIVATION

16. • The Social Perspective: Are you the kind of person
who is motivated to be around people a lot? Or would
you rather stay home and read a book?
• The need for affiliation, or relatedness, is the motive
to be securely connected with other people. Students’
need for affiliation or relatedness is reflected in their
motivation to spend time with peers, their close
friendships, their attachment to their parents, and their
desire to have a positive relationship with their
teachers. A key factor in students’ motivation and
achievement was their perception of whether they had
a positive relationship with the teacher.
PERSPECTIVES ON
MOTIVATION

17. EXTRINSIC AND INTRINSIC
MOTIVATION
• Extrinsic motivation is often influenced by
external incentives such as rewards and
punishments. For example, a student may
study hard for a test in order to obtain a good
grade in the course.
• Intrinsic motivation involves the internal
motivation to do something for its own sake.
For example, a student may study hard for a
test because she enjoys the content of the
course.

18. • Intrinsic motivation emphasizes self-determination,
optimal experiences, interest, cognitive engagement
and self-responsibility.
• Researchers have found that students’ internal
motivation and intrinsic interest in school tasks
increase when students have some choice and some
opportunities to take personal responsibility for their
learning.
• Optimal experiences and flow occurs when
individuals are engaged in challenges they find
neither too difficult nor too easy.
EXTRINSIC AND INTRINSIC
MOTIVATION

19. MANAGING THE
CLASSROOM

20. Management Goals and
Strategies
• What are the management strategies in
teaching elementary and secondary school
students?

21. MANAGEMENT ISSUES IN
SCHOOL CLASSROOMS
• What are the management strategies in
teaching elementary and secondary school
students?
Goals and strategies include:
(1)helping students spend more time on learning
and less time on non-goal-directed activity
(2)preventing students from developing
academic and emotional problems.

22. (3) Use proactive management strategies rather
than being immersed in reactive discipline
tactics.
(4) establish expectations for behavior and
resolve student uncertainties
(5) make sure that students experience success,
(6) be available and be in charge.
MANAGEMENT ISSUES IN
SCHOOL CLASSROOMS

23. Describe the positive design
of the classroom’s physical
environment.

24. Principles of Classroom
Arrangement
• Basic principles of effective design of the
classroom’s physical environment include:
(1)reducing crowding in high-traffic areas
(2)making sure that you can easily see all
students
(3)making often-used teaching materials and
student supplies easily accessible
(4) making sure that all students can see whole-
class presentations

25. Arrangement Style
• It is important to personalize the classroom
and become an environmental designer who
considers what activities students will be
engaging in so as to draw up a floor plan,
involve students in classroom design, and try
out the arrangement and be flexible in
redesigning it.

26. Discuss how to create a
positive
classroom environment.

27. Creating, Teaching, and Maintaining
Rules and Procedures
• Classroom rules should be:
1) Reasonable and necessary
2) Clear and comprehensible
3) Consistent with instructional and learning
goals
4) Consistent with school rules.

28. Getting Students to Cooperate
1- developing a positive relationship with
students
2- getting them to share and assume
responsibility (involve students in the planning
and implementation of school and classroom
initiatives, encourage them to judge their own
behavior, don’t accept excuses, and give the self-
responsibility strategy time to work

29. Getting Students to Cooperate
3- rewarding appropriate behavior (choose
effective reinforces, use prompts and shaping
effectively, and use rewards to provide
information about mastery.

30. knowledgeable about the
cultural background
• Explore the cultural background of your
students to avoid miscommunication with
them.
• Engaging in culturally responsive teaching can
help teachers reduce discipline problems in the
classroom.

31. DEALING WITH PROBLEM
BEHAVIORS
• Formulate some effective approaches that
teachers can use to deal with problem behaviors.
• Be prepared for aggressive actions on the part of
students so that you can calmly cope with them
• Management strategy is to have supportive
resources (peers as mediators, calling on parents
for support, enlisting the help of a principal or
counselor, and finding a mentor for the student.