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Work 1: Educational Theory Analysis

Project Overview

Project Description

Topic: Take one of the theories or theoretical concepts introduced in this course. Look ahead into the course learning module to get a sense of upcoming ideas—don’t feel constrained to explore concepts introduced early in the course. Or explore a related theory or concept of your own choosing that is relevant to the course themes. 

Convey in your introduction how your topic aligns with the course themes and your experience and interests.  Outline the theory or define the concept referring to the theoretical and research literature and illustrate the significance of the theory using examples of this concept at work in pedagogical practice, supported by scholarly sources.

Word length: at least 2000 words

Media: Include images, diagrams, infographics, tables, embedded videos, (either uploaded into CGScholar, or embedded from other sites), web links, PDFs, datasets or other digital media. Be sure to caption media sources and connect them explicitly with the text, with an introduction before and discussion afterwards.

References: Include a References “element” or section with at least five scholarly articles or books that you have used and referred to in the text, plus any other necessary or relevant references, including websites and media.

Rubric: Use the ‘Knowledge Process Rubric’ against which others will review your work, and against which you will do your self-review at the completion of your final draft.

Icon for Social Learning

Social Learning

Introduction

As a 10th year elementary school teacher, I have always been very interested in learning and how it actually occurs. I have been through many courses that discuss behavioral learning and psychology courses that describe the way the mind processes information and how to help it retain said information. After watching and observing kids for so long, I know that they learn so much in school from one another. I always find it most effective to show students how to do something and then to pair them up with peers in order to learn a new skill more in depth. I find the process of social learning very interesting and would love to learn more about it.

Reinforcement Theory of Motivation developed by B.F. Skinner

A specific reason I would love to know more about it is when it comes to classroom and behavior management. I am a strong proponent of positive reinforcement. The Reinforcement Theory of Motivation was developed by B.F. Skinner, an american psychologist. You can see an example of the 4 quadrants in the chart above ("Reinforcement Theory of Motivation", 2018). I feel that social learning is something that I have always used alongside positive reinforcement without being fully aware of it. I know that when students are modeling a desired behavior, the best way to get the other children to show the same is by calling out the student for what they are doing with positive praise. “Oh WOW! Mary is doing an amazing job standing in line! I love the way you are using walking feet and keeping your hands to yourself. Way to go, Mary!!” When I do this, many other students (not necessarily all) immediately display the behavior as well. I partly want to know, what is stopping the other students who did not display the behavior I complimented? Why are some more willing and able to change their behavior while others could care less? I feel the answers to these questions and understanding the theories behind it could make me a better teacher, and could hopefully help others have a better grasp on the management of their classroom or even their children at home.

 

What is Social Learning?

Social learning involves the action of observing and then continuing to model behaviors, emotional reactions, and attitudes of others. Learning is an extremely complex process which explains why there are so many different psychological theories behind it. Albert Bandura is responsible for proposing the Social Learning Theory which is based on the idea that observation and modeling play a huge role in the process of learning. The video below gives a very thorough explanation of social learning and the theory behind it.

Media embedded September 8, 2019

In the video above the tutor, Fallon S., states the 4 important elements required for observational learning to take place. In order to learn this requires that the person who is learning pays attention to the person that they're observing. The second major element is that the person remembers the behavior that they've observed. The third crucial piece is that the person learning has the ability to replicate the behavior, and finally the person learning has a motivation to act in the same way (S, 2016).

The Social Learning Theory (Friel)

Attention: It seems obvious, but in order to learn you need to be paying attention. If you cannot focus on the observed behavior and cannot focus your attention, then learning cannot occur. The more interesting the subject, the more likely the behavior will be learned.

Retention: If learning is desired, then the person must be able to remember the behavior they observed. If they cannot retain it, then it cannot be repeated. There are many factors at play that can affect the ability to retain information, but making sure the context is relevant to the observer, using language and visuals, as well as heightening emotions in some way can help the ability to retain.

Reproduction: Once the person trying to learn has paid attention to the stimulus, has retained the information they observed, they must have time and space to practice said behavior. The more practice and rehearsal, the higher advancement of the skill at hand.

Motivation: If a behavior is to be truly learned through observation, the learner must have a motivation to act in the same way. Reinforcement and punishment have a very important role when it comes to motivation. If the learner observes someone being punished for a behavior, it will likely deter them from imitating the behavior that was modeled. On the other hand, if the observer sees a reward like positive praise or a treat, it encourages or reinforces the desire to repeat said behavior (Cherry, 2019).

 

There are 3 core concepts of Social Learning as you can see in the image above. The first main idea is that people can learn through observation (as previously stated in the 4 key elements of observational learning). The second main idea is that your mental state matters when it comes to learning a new behavior. The 3rd and final core concept is that learning does not necessarily lead to a permanent change in behavior. These concepts will be further discussed in the sections below.

 

Albert Bandura

Albert Bandura is a Canadian-born American psychologist. Bandura developed the Social Learning theory and is “best known for his modeling study on aggression, referred to as the “Bobo doll” experiment, which demonstrated that children can learn behaviours through the observation of adults.” (Nolen)

 

Albert Bandura is a Canadian-born American psychologist (Nolen).

“In 1961, Bandura carried out his famous Bobo doll experiment, a study in which researchers physically and verbally abused a clown-faced inflatable toy in front of preschool-age children, which led the children to later mimic the behaviour of the adults by attacking the doll in the same fashion. Subsequent experiments in which children were exposed to such violence on videotape yielded similar results.” (Nolen) This experiment provided much evidence for the observational learning theory. The children observed the behavior and then proceeded to mimic the behavior when given the same doll to play with. A further look into the series of experiments can be seen in the video below.

Media embedded September 8, 2019

"Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do," Bandura stated in his book Social Learning Theory from 1971. "Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action." (Bandura, 1977)

Again, there are 3 core concepts of the Social Learning Theory as defined by Bandura. The slide below restates the concepts.

3 Core Concepts of Social Learning (Kremikie, 2011)

As demonstrated by the BoBo Doll experiments, people can learn through observation. The children imitated the aggressive behaviors they saw demonstrated by the adults. Bandura identified the 3 major ideas of learning through observation which were:

”1. A live model, which involves an actual individual demonstrating or acting out a behavior.

2. A verbal instructional model, which involves descriptions and explanations of a behavior.

3. A symbolic model, which involves real or fictional characters displaying behaviors in books, films, television programs, or online media.” (Cherry, 2019)

A learner doesn’t need to actually watch the behavior that is learned, they can hear verbal instructions or even read the information and learn from it. It is this type of observational learning that creates controversy among parents and their children learning things from video games, online, on television, or even from watching fictional characters in movies. This controversial learning will be addressed more in a section below.

Another important concept Bandura addressed when it comes to social learning is that just because an action was observed, doesn’t mean it will be learned. The mental state the observer is in has a huge effect on whether learning will occur or not. Many behavioral learning theories relied on a type of external reinforcement to ensure learning takes place. Bandura, on the other hand, realized that internal forces such as pride, satisfaction, and a sense of accomplishment can play a key role. His theory has heavy roots in behaviorist theories but also strongly ties in the mental state and cognition (memory, attention, and motivation) (Friel), hence Bandura categorizing his theory as a social cognitive approach (Cherry, 2019).

Human behavior (Shin, 2019)

The 3rd major concept of the Social Learning Theory is that just because we learned something, doesn’t necessarily mean that a behavior change will occur. I find this idea to be very frustrating when it comes to classroom behavior management. If I teach a desired behavior, I am hoping that this will change a students negative behaviors. According to this concept and through my own classroom experiences, I know it is not necessarily the case. As the chart above addresses there are many factors at play when it comes to changing human behaviors- cognitive factors, environmental factors, and behavioral factors (Shin, 2019). Learning can only occur if the 4 requirements of observational learning are met; attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation (as stated above).

 

 

Applications of Social Learning

The above core concepts and requirements for social and observational learning can help to explain why a teacher may not see desired classroom behaviors demonstrated after they are taught. A student who cannot focus for an extended period of time or has no real motivation to imitate the desired behavior simply will not do so. Creating a highly engaging environment with plenty of visuals and motivational reinforcements that play to positive feelings and emotions could lead to more success.

Teachers play a major role in helping to teach desired behaviors. They can consistently model the behaviors and use different examples of the desired behaviors while doing their best to not demonstrate the inappropriate or undesirable (Kremikie, 2011). Teachers can read stories of characters building positive relationships or following directions in order to show students different ways this may look. I personally love to use students as examples and may have them role play or act out with one another a situation that may occur and how to handle it. An example of this is during reading we have a lot of shared reading and buddy time. I use several students as models and have them sit together and they act out what good buddy behavior looks like. I may have them say things such as, “What was your favorite part of this story? I love the way you changed your voice for the different characters! What was the major problem in the story?” Young students often need help in having and guiding positive interactions and discussions. This provides them a good model. It may hit the motivational factor because I usually pick students who I have seen display these behaviors, so if they want me to have them come up to model it in front of the class a different time they might start imitating this buddy work more often.

“If children see positive consequences from a particular type of behaviour, they are more likely to repeat that behaviour themselves. Conversely, if negative consequences are the result, they are less likely to perform that behaviour.” (T.T., 2017) The ultimate goal of course is to move from intrinsic motivators to helping students create self-efficacy and their own intrinsic sense of pride, satisfaction, and motivation to learn. Social learning is truly ubiquitous in nature because we as humans now have the capability to learn from one another on the internet. You can see examples of this in the video below.

Media embedded September 8, 2019

As the video above discusses (Universal, 2011), we can learn from one another on Youtube, we can google an issue and find out how others have solved a problem, or we can even post a question on a forum and others will be able to teach and guide us. All of this is innovative and observational in nature. We can use this concept when trying to apply social learning in the classroom and beyond. A simple google search for “positive behavior reinforcement ideas for the classroom” shows over 13,100,000 results in 0.74 seconds. In order for learning to take place we just need to make sure the attention, retention, reproduction, and motivational aspects of the environment are in place and provide various positive models and observational opportunities.

 

Controversial Social Learning

It is important to note that social learning can result in controversial or negative learning to take place. As Bandura’s BoBo experiments displayed, negative and aggressive models of the adults produced the same negative behaviors in the children. “As you can imagine, it is this type of observational learning that has become a lightning rod for controversy as parents and psychologists debate the impact that pop culture media has on kids. Many worry that kids can learn bad behaviors such as aggression from violent video games, movies, television programs, and online videos.” (Cherry, 2019)

As a teacher, I am seeing this more and more in the behaviors displayed by my students. Our society is driven by the media, and social media has a huge impact on the young minds.

Social Learning can have positive and negative consequences on behavior. Photo by bruce mars from Pexels

There are some limitations of the theory as well. Some say that it doesn’t take free will into account. It focuses all of learning on the fact of attention, reproduction, and motivation. It also doesn’t fully address the question of why some students are more likely to display the desired modeled behaviors or learn the academic material than others when all of the 4 major key concepts of observational learning are met. There are innate behavioral differences in humans that are present, including the fact that what one person sees as a punishment could be seen as a reward for another ("BANDURA'S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY", 2013).

 

Conclusion

There are many different psychological theories to explain how and when learning takes place. Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory bridges the gap between behavioral and cognitive theories by stating that learning takes place through observations and reproduction. The major concepts to understand when it comes to Social Learning are that a learner doesn’t need to actually watch the behavior, but can read, or listen and have the same result. Just because an action is observed, doesn’t mean it will be learned- mental states are important to learning. The 3rd concept being that just because a behavior is learned, doesn’t mean a behavior change will occur. Observational learning has 4 major requirements which are attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation. According to this theory, a learner needs a highly engaging, motivational space to learn, with plenty of time and allowance of practice and repetition for the skill or behavior to be advanced. I feel that this research has helped me in understanding the behaviors in my classroom and ways to improve my behavior management techniques. I will continue to do my best by providing plenty of positive models of desired outcomes, while trying to reach each individual child at their level of attention, give them time to imitate and practice, and help to instill the importance of intrinsic motivation.

References

Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs.

 

(2013, March). BANDURA'S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY. Retrieved from http://bandurasociallearningtheory.weebly.com/strengths--weaknesses.html

 

(2010, November 9). bobo doll experiment. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/Pr0OTCVtHbU

 

Cherry, K. (2019, July 17). How Does Observational Learning Actually Work? Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/social-learning-theory-2795074

 

Friel, G. (n.d.). Social Learning Theory Review. Retrieved from http://www.gerardfriel.com/instructional-design/social-learning-theory/

 

Kremikie (2011, November 19). Social Learning Theory. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/kremikie/social-learning-theory-10237858

 

T. T. (2017, June 15). Learning Theories: Bandura's Social Learning Theory. Retrieved from https://www.teachthought.com/learning/bandura-social-learning-theory/

 

Nolen, J. L. (n.d.). Albert Bandura. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Bandura

 

(2018, October 23). Reinforcement Theory of Motivation. Retrieved from https://expertprogrammanagement.com/2018/10/reinforcement-theory-of-motivation/


 

S, F. (2016, March 14). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/ftm3Ohm65zs

 

Shin, N. G. (2019, January 8). MMLS@Wordpress. Retrieved from https://mmls.mmu.edu.my/wordpress/1181401046/2019/01/08/week-11-social-learning-theories/

 

Universal, F. (2011, February 16). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIlwGYY0_AA