Behaviourism

"Behaviourism is a behavioral approach to psychology that combines elements of philosophy, methodology, and theory."

Behaviourism assumes learners start out with a blank slate and can control repeat behaviour through positive or negative reinforcement, just like with Pavlov's dog. This theory is primarily tested on animals, possibly because they generally have more of a blank slate than adults. Adult learners always bring past experiences and opinions to the classroom, which make behaviourism more difficult.

I have tried handing out candy in classrooms as positive reinforcement for answering questions, but it did not work because a majority of the adults did not want candy, but I have colleagues who have found that this method works really well to improve classroom engagement.

Classical conditioning is Ivan Pavlov's theory that stimuli, such as ringing a bell, can result in a conditioned training to produce a certain result, such as knowing that food is ready. As humans we have been trained that when we hear a siren to stop and/or get out of the way because an emergency vehicle is coming.

Operant Conditioning is B.F. Skinner's theory of removing stimuli to entice a desired response. This is essentially providing a consequence or negative reinforcement. Sometimes even knowing the consequence exists is enough to discourage bad behaviour, such as going to jail for committing a crime, or even being fired for slacking off at work. However, Skinner also found that positive reinforcement is more successful with trying to change behaviour.

Behaviourism. (2013, August 3). Retrieved August 19, 2015, from http://learningandteaching.info/learning/behaviour.htm

Behaviourism Theory of Learning. (2010, April 19). Retrieved August 19, 2015, from www.slideshare.net/guestfa5a5c/bevhaviorism-theory-of-learning

Mergel, B. (1998, May). Retrieved from etad.usask.ca/802papers/mergel/brenda/htm