1. J. Williams
D. Morgan
G. Santiago
L. Kotun
R. King
L. Lockner
BEHAVIORIST THEORY
Behaviorism Psychological Influences on
Education

2. Behaviorism
 Prediction and control of human behavior in
which introspection and/or independent
thinking play no essential part in teaching
 Developed during the industrial revolution,
modernism was the new focus
 Learning is purely an objective and
experimental branch of natural science
 No line between man and animal
 Learn through positive and negative
reinforcement (conditioning)

3. Students of Behaviorism
 Learn primarily through observation
 Pavlov, Skinner, and Bandura; key players in
development of behaviorism theories
 Ex. Students rewarded for good behavior and
punished for bad

4. The Behaviorist Theory:
 Behaviorism is a worldview
that operates on a principle of
“stimulus-response.”
All behavior caused
by external stimuli
 learner
responds to
environmental stimuli

5. Founders of the Behaviorist
Theory:
 Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
 B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
 Albert Bandura (1925-)

6. Ivan Pavlov
 Classical Conditioning: having a reflex in
response to a stimulus.
 He conducted an experiment where he rang a bell
every time he put food in front of dogs. The food
caused the dogs to salivate.
 He eventually just rang the bell,
and the dogs still salivated.

7. B.F. Skinner
 Operant conditioning: shaping behavior through the reinforcement
of stimulus responses.
 Conducted an experiment using pigeons.
 When pigeons behaved in a
certain way, their behavior was
rewarded.
 Rewarded behaviors will be
repeated, behaviors with
negative responses will stop.

8. Albert Bandura
 The Social Contract Theory: People learn through
observational modeling (copying observed behavior)
 He studied self-efficacy, one’s personal perspective of
their ability to encourage their self to learn.
 Studied personality by analyzing one’s
environment, behavior, and thoughts.

9. Behaviorism in practice today
 These theories are used in the classrooms of
today, especially at the elementary school
level
 In schools where behaviorism is practiced,
they believe frequent objective testing is the
best way to determine what students know
(FCAT). They reward students when they learn
, even when they learn small things, because
in behaviorism that is they key to successful
teaching.

10. Credits
 http://www.learning-
theories.com/category/behaviorist-theories
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Comprehe
nsive_Assessment_Test
 http://cantorsappsychologyblog.blogspot.com/
2010/12/learning-links.html
 http://0ml9.wikispaces.com/Pavlov