Instructional Design and Technology
edX - UMUC University of Maryland University College
Oct- Dec 2017
Behaviorism was a movement started at the beginning of XX century with the studies of John Broadus Watson (1878 - 1958), an US psycologist who first suggested that psychology had to be studied through objective, observable behaviors rather than subjective, internal thoughts and consciousness.
Behaviorism began as a reaction against the introspective psychology that dominated the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Watson, and later on Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990), argued that since it is not possible to observe obje and measure what occurs in the mind, scientific theories should take into account only observable indicators such as stimulus-response sequences, that is behaviors.
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Watson stated that experience and external environment dictate how a person will behave, like all animal species: as Ivan Pavlov (1849 - 1936) experiment on dogs highlighted, humans behavior can be seen as a set of responses to stimuli: when we receive a positive response to an action, we aim at repeating it; on the contrary, when we receive a negative response, we try to avoid repeating that action.
Referencss:
- Behaviorims. (n.d.). Retrieved from Berkeley Graduate Student Instructor: http://gsi.berkeley.edu/gsi-guide-contents/learning-theory-research/behaviorism/
- Burrhus Skinner. (n.d.). Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burrhus_Skinner
- Ivan Pavlov. (n.d.). Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Pavlov
- Watson, John Broadus. (n.d.). Retrieved from Treccani: http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/john-broadus-watson/
My personal experience
Let's give a look at my three personal experiences I listed in Personal Learning Experience page: are they learning examples that were grounded on behaviorism?
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Middle school learning experience: I was studying something I didn't like, something that was so boring to me. So, why was I doing it? Because of grade: I just wanted to obtain a good grade, not to disappoint my teacher who had such a good opinion of me. In this sense, I see my behavior as a conditioned responce to a stimulus, so I see that this learning experience was grounded on behaviorism.
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High school learning experience: I was listening to my teacher telling a story, involving us with questions, making connections between different authors, linking their thoughts to our current days political, social, or even personal situations. In this sense, she was suggesting that there were no correct answers, but multiple possible analysis, different interpretations. What she was teaching us - most of all - was the critical thinking. Of course this approach was not grounded on behaviourism: she was giving us hints to let us make our own path, in order to freely experiment our analysis capabilities and develop our own point of view. A behavioristic approach would have been very different: a list of chunked information to remember, instead of a whole philosophical world to be explored.
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Learning experience at work: I was defenitely learning by doing, conductiong my own research to find out what I needed. So, generally speaking, it was not a learning experience based on behaviorism, as there was no stimulus-responce process, there was no repetition, there was no pre-defined correct answers.
But, there is one aspect in this expereince that might be grounded on behaviorism: I noticed that some colleagues were quite reluctant to share information about their daily activities. In order to reach my goal, that is to obtain the information, I had to modify my approach: the humbler I was and the more I praised them about how good they were in managing their job, the more they opened to me and easily shared any necessary info. In this specific case, I see a stimulus-responce process, where stimulus was my humbleness, responce was the sharing of information, and the praise where positive reinforcement to keep on sharing information.
Behaviorism in instructional design
Behavoirism in learning processes can be very useful, but at specific and recurrent conditions:
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One correct answer: 1-0, right-wrong, on-off. Whenever it is possible to identify - or better: measure - one correct answer, then the behavioristic approach is quite useful, because with the repetition of stimulus-responce mechanism we can "force" learners towards the correct answer.
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Measureable behavior: I need to be able to measure the response, to observe it objectivelly, otherwise I will not be able to judge if the learning process has been successful or not.
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Repetition: it is a must. Stimulus has to repeat multiple time, in order to generate the conditioned responce we desire.
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Positive reinforcement (like feedback): fundamental to increase motivation in learners. On the contrary, negative reinforcement tends to be highly frustrating, so it should be managed carefully.
Overview
Figure 4: Behaviorism. By Biazzi, I.
Figure 1: Middle school. By Biazzi, I.
Figure 2: High school. By Biazzi, I.
Figure 3: At work. By Biazzi, I.