Time has not moved on from behavioral learning theory; over the last five centuries, many professional fields took flight on the Greeks’ thoughts: philosophers, including Hobbes and Hume, educators, such as Franklin Bobbitt, and psychologists, like Hermann Ebbinghaus.
Refer to the Who and What Helped Shape Behaviorist Learning Theory? section below for more information.
Chen, Irene. (2011). Behaviorism and Developments in Instructional Design and Technology. Instructional Design: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools and Applications. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-503-2.ch510. https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/behaviorism-developments-instructional-design-technology/51883
WHAT IS BEHAVIORIST LEARNING THEORY?
To the behaviorist, knowledge is objective, it is quickly remembering the right response for a given stimulus. Learning, then, is performance – it is rapidly offering the correct response when given a specific stimulus. A teacher’s duty is to arm their students with all needed responses to an array of stimuli by using tools that instill or extinguish behavior.
Such tools include predetermined learning objectives, repetitive drills, guided practice, feedback, and positive and negative reinforcement. Learning occurs when students demonstrate they reached the expected outcome(s) through objective behavior.
Instructional Design and Technology: Learning Theories. (n.d.). W2.2 Learning Guide: Behaviorism. USMx - LDT100x. https://learning.edx.org/course/course-v1:USMx+LDT100x+3T2021/block-v1:USMx+LDT100x+3T2021+type@sequential+block@0f96de0c289e40e585c0bb73ebd6c2b8
WHO
& What
This section outlines six behaviorists who made key contributions to teaching and learning. The following is not an extensive list of all behaviorists.
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NAME
LIFESPAN
COUNTRY
CAREER FIELD
Ivan Pavlov
1849-1936
Russia
Physiologist and Scientist
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Pavlov established a scientific approach to analyzing behavior:
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Break a task into its simplest components
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Subjective phenomena cannot be measured so observe overt behavior only
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1898-1930
Pavlov published the first findings on classical conditioning:
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A form of learning behavior is the conditioned reflex, in which a subject produces a consistent unconscious, neutral response to a stimulus and, eventually, produces a similar response when offered a second stimulus that was associated with the first
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Does not create new behavior and cannot be used for training because this applies to involuntary, biological responses
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6.1.1906
2
Gantt, Horsely W. (n.d.). Ivan Pavlov. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ivan-Pavlov
What are strengths and limitations of behaviorism in education?
A key strength of behaviorism in education is its focus on objective evaluation. Only the response a learner offers can be quantitatively analyzed – not her thoughts, feelings, or perception. Therefore, learning should focus on shaping behavior, and learners’ resulting responses should be analyzed scientifically by replicating the situation that elicited the behavior until it is completed rapidly and consistently correctly. The repetition and guided practice, along with effective reinforcement, helps to alter the learner’s response pattern. Once the response is established, it is measured scientifically by an exam or timing how long it takes for the response to come about.
Behaviorism prizes a systematic approach – not only in how one conducts evaluation of learning but also in the way content is presented to the learner. A second benefit of behaviorism in education is that it emphasizes a thoughtful, structured approach in delivering information to the learner in order to ensure the learner arrives at the correct response. For example, to teach someone how to wash dishes, you must first consider their knowledge of a sink. Then, their familiarity with dish soap and sponges should be addressed. Finally, the best technique for washing dishes would be imparted. This systematic approach to offering the correct stimulus at the right time to elicit the right response is a great contribution of behaviorism.
After all, the behaviorist believes the function of education is to provide learners with the complete array of responses to a specific stimulus and then to reinforce that behavior through a structured schedule. Reinforcements is another behaviorism contribution that teaching often relies heavily upon.
A benefit of behaviorism in education is that it emphasizes a thoughtful, structured approach in delivering information.
A recent news story about training cows where to urinate offered a good example of how reinforcements can be positive when the desired response is shown, such as getting a tasty treat, or negative, like getting spritzed with a short burst of water when an incorrect response is given.
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Behaviorism is built on the notion that knowledge is objective – only one response, method, or practice is correct. Therefore, when a learning outcome is binary, behaviorism is especially useful. Behavior must be shaped from stimuli and reinforcements to ensure the learner arrives consistently and rapidly at the one correct response. In the cow example, their handlers showed them which passthrough to use to arrive at the correct location to relieve themselves. After a few passes, many cows caught on and repeated the behavior. Their actions were then immediately reinforced positively with food. When cows relieved themselves in the non-designated area, however, their behavior was negatively reinforced with the short burst of water. This tenet of behaviorism is seen in the classroom through repetition, done as drills, guided practice, and question-and-answer sessions. Positive reinforcement is seen in praise the student receives, rewards, as well as earning passing grades. Negative reinforcement may be losing free time to continued practice sessions or earning a low grade.
The corollary to behaviorism being great for binary learning opportunities is that it may not work as effectively for learning that is complex, or allows for many answers. Behaviorism views knowledge as simply remembering information. The best way to remember that information is through rote memorization and repetitive drills. Such approaches may work for history and mathematics but will be less applicable to composition (e.g. English lit), comprehension and advanced reasoning (e.g. theoretical physics or philosophy).
A limitation of behaviorism in education is found in its principle that the desired response will reflect the single correct option, which overlooks situations in which there are many correct responses or no single wrong answer.
Another limitation of behaviorism in education is its failure to take into accord other learning factors, such as human learning and behavior. Some learning theories take into consideration biological influences for example, or the mood, thoughts, and perception of the learner, which is anathema to behaviorism. Biological psychologists underscored genetics and the brain as key determiners and influencers of human behavior – a big contrast from behaviorism. Sigmund Freud faulted behaviorism for not accounting for the unconscious mind. Carl Rogers disagreed with the behaviorists’ deliberate minimization of personal agency. Many critics fault behaviorism for its “one-dimensional approach to understanding human behavior.” (Cherry, 2021).
The critique that behaviorism has a distorted view of human behavior connects to another limitation – that of the passive learner. In the behaviorist’s classroom, the teacher is at the center of the process. From evaluating students’ internal conditions, to delivering information and reinforcements in a structured schedule, to driving the change of behavior, the teacher leads the way. Behaviorists see teachers driving the learning process, which leaves the student with no agency. This lack of agency means the student will rely on external reinforcements to build extrinsic motivation to learn the correct response. In behaviorism, the student’s intrinsic motivation is irrelevant, and this can be an important factor to ignore in the classroom.
Berkley Graduate Division. (n.d.). Behaviorism. Graduate Student Instructor Teaching & Resource Center. https://gsi.berkeley.edu/gsi-guide-contents/learning-theory-research/behaviorism/#teaching
Chen, Irene. (2011). Behaviorism and Developments in Instructional Design and Technology. Instructional Design: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools and Applications. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-503-2.ch510. https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/behaviorism-developments-instructional-design-technology/51883
Cherry, Kendra and Dr. David Susman. (February 20, 2021). History and Key Concepts of Behavioral Psychology. VeryWellMind. https://www.verywellmind.com/behavioral-psychology-4157183
Western Governors University. (May 29, 2020). What is the behavioral learning theory? Teaching & Education. https://www.wgu.edu/blog/what-behavioral-learning-theory2005.html
IMPLICATIONS OF BEHAVIORISM FOR INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN
The instructional design toolbox contains many Behaviorist principles and mechanisms:
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Individualized Instruction: Built upon teaching machines and programmed instruction, using personalized approaches to systems teaching is common in the form of adaptive content flow, guided activities, practice scenarios, and feedback
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Examining Internal Conditions: Developing an evaluation, often as a pre-course survey, to measure students’ internal conditions to ensure their capability in meeting the defined objectives
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Behavioral Objectives: Drafting learning objectives that adhere to a training outline, or learning hierarchy, particularly using Bloom’s Taxonomy
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Learning Hierarchy: Chunking and sequencing content deliberately so that the most basic skills are demonstrated first, and more complex skills last
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Prompts: Offered to guide learners with specific directions or motivate them with feedback
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Reinforcements: Included in courses are both positive reinforcement, such as allowing a learner to advance to the next topic upon passing the previous topic’s Knowledge Check, and negative, such as instructing a student who failed a lesson’s Knowledge Check to return to a particular lesson page and review content before attempting the Knowledge Check again
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Evaluation: Understanding that failing to secure the correct response from a learner requires not only examining the learner – did they fail to adequately understand a concept? - but also the course – was all necessary information presented, and done so in the correct order?
More exciting than common tools between behaviorism and instructional design is the evolution of a behaviorist tool. The behaviorists’ puzzle boxes were the forerunner to a systems design approach of instruction. In Thorndike’s puzzle box, cats had to press a bar or pull a lever to release a weight that held the box closed. Once out, the cats were rewarded with food. In Skinner’s puzzle box, rats could trigger the release of a rewarding food pellet by stepping on a lever. In both instances, once an animal inadvertently discovered the required response, it would repeat it faster in each successive trial. Eventually, though, learning did level off. The scientific approach these psychologists followed to measure and catalog response times was just as important as the puzzle boxes themselves. Together, they led to programmed instruction, which also follows a scientific approach in capturing data points.
Webinars and Virtual Instructor-Led Trainings follow an empirical approach in several ways:
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evaluating students’ base response with a pre-survey,
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offering prompts with specific directions or feedback,
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utilizing Knowledge Checks to ensure the student understands that topic, and
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providing reinforcement in the form of positive and negative feedback.
This behaviorist approach is alongside programmed instruction’s foundation of building a course upon a deliberate learning sequence. All prerequisites necessary to achieving the learning objective, or desired response, are thoughtfully organized across lessons from simplest to most complex. Instruction sequence is crucial to ultimately guiding the learner to the correct response.
xAPI may be the latest branch on this systems design tree, as it allows for capturing scores of data points for a single learner. Rather than reviewing test scores and seeing that a student had trouble with question #8, for example, xAPI will allow the instructor to see which pages that student stayed on the longest, viewed the fastest, the order in which they viewed content and how many times they viewed it among many other interactions. This level of specificity regarding students’ experience with an online course will allow instructional designers to make adjustments to their courses accordingly. If a good number of students struggle with a Knowledge Check, it could be reworded. If many have trouble understanding a concept, perhaps a new lecture or resource could be added. The powerful ability to acquire live course interaction data through xAPI’s scientific data analysis and then be able to adjust presentation, prompts and reinforcement is one that morphed from the work of behaviorists, Thorndike and Skinner especially.
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360 team. January 30 2019. Learning Theories and Instructional Design. 360eLearning. http://360elearning.com/blog/learning-theories-and-instructional-design/
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Lumen Learning. (n.d.). Behaviorism in the Classroom. Educational Psychology – The Learning Process. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/edpsy/chapter/behaviorism-in-the-classroom/
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Instructional Design. eLearning Industry. https://elearningindustry.com/learning-theories-instructional-design-implications
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What-when-how. (n.d.). Introduction: the basics of behaviorism. What-when-how. http://what-when-how.com/distance-learning/behaviorism-and-developments-in-instructional-design-and-technology-distance-learning/
