Behaviourism

Watson was an early 20th century American psychologist who studied human behaviour. He rejected Sigmund Freud's study of human behaviour based on the unconscious because it relied too much on subjective interpretation (e.g. Freud on dream analysis) whereas Watson's theory was concerned only with observable, recordable and measurable behaviour such as that observed in the conditioning experiments of the Russian psychologist Pavlov.

Pavlov mainly applied his theory to child development, claiming that behaviour was directly influenced by the environment.

In the second half of the 20th century, B.F. Skinner followed in Watson's footsteps and further developed the theory of Behaviourism, referring in particular to positive and negative reinforcement/stimuli as the catalysts for behavioural change.

We are surrounded by examples of behaviourism throughout our lives. For example, if we drink and drive, the consequences will be punishments such as loss of points on our licence or accidents. Therefore, we avoid negative reinforcement by obeying traffic laws.

In the workplace, we are likely to be evaluated on our performance and therefore repeat the behaviours that will allow us to be evaluated better.

Using Behaviourism in potty training

Behaviourism would be the most appropriate learning theory to teach a child to go to the toilet.

To apply the behavioural theory, the adult should first observe the actual behavioural signs shown by the child when he/she is ready to relieve him/herself.

Next, it is important to establish a routine of sitting the child on the potty after each meal so that the task becomes repetitive and sets the stage for a reinforcement pattern.

At first, the child is familiar with the prop, and it is explained what is expected of him/her.

The child truly understands what is expected of him/her the first time he/she uses the potty, when the adult suddenly erupts with verbal praise and cuddles.

In contrast, when the child goes to the toilet in a place other than the potty, he or she receives no praise and is cleaned up in silence.

This introduces B.F. Skinner's concept of operant conditioning, in which the potty is the stimulus, and the child then associates the potty with reward or punishment and responds accordingly.

As a result of positive or negative consequences, the child will soon learn to change their behaviour and use the potty regularly.

To reinforce the adoption of the potty and maintain the child's motivation, the adult can introduce a reward chart marking each stage of learning, such as achieving results on the potty, the child not getting wet, the child asking to use the potty or the child taking the initiative to use the potty. [1]

Two pros of developing instruction grounded in behaviourism

• Because instruction is broken down in smaller chunks [2], it is easier to measure the learning outcomes of behaviourist-based teaching than to measure the outcomes of learning that require significant cognitive input from the learner.

• Behaviourist-based teaching has a real-life application. It is a typical approach to training in call centres, ensuring that employees apply a specific process into their role or learn new policies. If the employee performs poorly, it is easy to go back to a defined module and review the steps of performing a task until the skill is learned and performed.

Two cons of developing instruction grounded in behaviourism

• It is not always clear whether a person learns a new behaviour because of the potential reward or by aversion to the loss of a potential reward. This could make a person dependent on the reward and affect the learning outcome over time.

• As behaviourism is based on conditioning and is a somewhat simplistic approach to learning, it is very difficult to continually introduce activities that will motivate the learner and keep them engaged and interactive, as after a while the learner may anticipate the reward, which can become disengaging.

References

[1] HSE.ie. 2022. How to toilet train your child. [online] Available at: https://www2.hse.ie/wellbeing/babies-and-children/parenting-advice/caring-for-a-child/how-to-toilet-train-your-child/ [Accessed 23 April 2022].

[2] Ananga, P. (2020). Pedagogical considerations of e-learning in education for development in the face of COVID-19. International Journal of Technology in Education and Science (IJTES), 4(4), 310-321. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1271209.pdf> [Accessed 24 April 2022].

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Cognitivism

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Andragogy

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