Learning is the process in which we acquire knowledge through study, experience or being taught. There are many different branches of psychology and philosophy which study the different ways in which people learn. There are many opposing views and theories put in place by many different psychologists, teachers and others on how people do learn. People have studied the idea of learning for many years, even dating back to classical times. Plato was born in 424 BC in Ancient Greece and was the founder of the first higher learning institution in the Western world, he is a very important figure in the theories of learning as he does mark the inception of the study.
In modern times, there has been much development in theories of learning. With the application of pedagogy by teachers becoming more and more important, so are the ways in which people learn. A major theory which is frequently practiced is behaviourism. Behaviourism is the idea that all knowledge is acquired from experience rather than having any innate knowledge; humans are all born as a ‘Tabula Rasa’. The environment is also an important factor in the behaviourist theory. Classical conditioning is a theory based on the studies of Pavlov on dogs. The experiments he ran developed from the idea that dogs don't need to learn to salivate when they see food and in fact this reflex is inborn. Pavlov also discovered that any stimuli that was associated with food would trigger the same response, to salivate. He used a neutral stimuli (bell ringing/lab assistant) in conduction with feeding the dogs and this then instead developed into a conditioned stimuli as it would increase salivation. As this became a conditioned stimuli, there has been a change in the dogs mind, which is due to learning. Pavlov devoted many years to studying this theory of learning. Since Pavlov’s initial theory, many other psychologists have expanded and developed behaviourism. Another notable psychologist who developed this theory was B.F. Skinner.he developed the idea of operant conditioning. This work for us in to the conclusion that operant behaviours or actions that individuals take to meet the demands of their environments. Much of his work focuses on the external factors contributing to a person’s behaviour.
In education, behaviourism is a theory which is applied by many teachers. Methods used to apply this can vary from: an approving gesture, rewards and even higher grades. The basic philosophy of the theory is that people's actions are driven by a need to gain rewards and avoid punishment. Another definition is that the behaviours which teachers reward and reinforce are likely to continue and students are less likely to perform behaviours which will get them punished. In the classroom behaviourism can be used when dealing with problem students, there at four ways of dealing with a student using behaviourism. These reactions are split into two sections: enforcement and punishment. Reinforcement can come in two forms, either positive or negative. Positive reinforcement is to add something of value all that is desired, for example: giving a child a gold sticker for behaving well. When I was in year 4, I had the loveliest teacher, who was French. She would have a large tub of French sweets in her teacher’s cupboard and everyone would daydream about it. I think Mrs Di Simone had the most well behaved class in the school; no one knew when or for what you would be given a sweet, so everyone kept on their best behaviour all of the time. This was due to the conditioned response that we had learnt from past experiences and the positive reinforcement of the sweets. If we ever had lessons with other teachers or even progressing to year 5, you could clearly see the difference in our behaviour as we knew we wouldn't be rewarded in delicious French sweets.
Negative reinforcement is not a punishment as such but in start removing something on pleasant for the people, for example: if a child completes the home work on time they can avoid next week’s spelling test. The same is said for the punishment section of behaviourism. Positive punishment is adding something on pleasant, for example: giving a child detention. The idea of negative punishment is removing something valued or desired by the pupil, for example: not allowing a child to attend golden time as they did not complete their homework.
Behaviourism is closely linked to exams in terms of assessment. Exam grades can be seen as either reinforcement or punishment. Apart from my teachers openly loathing their jobs and us, I believe the ideas of behaviourism had a great deal in why I struggled so much to behave in year 7 to 9. I found it very hard to behave well. I was easily distracted, loquacious and had a bad attitude. The positive reinforcement came from my fellow pupils rather than teachers. I did sometimes get in some trouble: getting sent out of rooms, put on report cards and even internally excluded twice but I easily laughed off this positive punishment. The positive responses to this behaviour was making people laugh, becoming liked, popular and making friends which outweighed the punishment. The real change in my behaviour came when I started my GCSEs. My grades hadn't been impacted my my behaviour until this time as it was a higher level of work. When I saw the poor grades in my initial mock work, which acted as a negative punishment which was a different type of punishment I had experienced before. It was then that I started to work harder, stopped being disruptive and achieved what was predicted of me.
Another theory of learning is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs. Maslow was one of the pivotal psychologists in the theory of humanistic psychology. This branch of psychology focuses on the individuals potential and importance of growth and self-fulfilment. The hierarchy of needs is a five tier pyramid comprising of all the human needs which motivate people to achieve them. The basic needs and psychological needs are known as the deficiency needs, all of these had to be met to progress onto another level. If any needs conflicted the more basic of the two was dominant. The self-fulfilment needs on the pyramid were more important for terms of developing personality. Maslow believed the physiological needs on the pyramid were the basic and instinctive needs because all other needs of a human become secondary until these are met. Physiological needs are met in schools by breaks, lunchtimes, school holidays and also in free and reduced meal costs in schools for children who may eat little or no food. Safety needs are also important in survival but less so than the physiological needs. In schools this is implemented by safe classrooms, fire safety, school nurses and presence of staff. Belongingness and love needs are in a form of relationships with others, they are also known as social needs. Schools implement this by a sense of community and a family feel to a class. In primary school, I did have a problem with bullying. I remember feeling lonely, isolated and as if I had no friends; I was anxious to go into school and sometimes I refused to. I worked very much with a learning mentor to improve my self esteem and my parents worked closely with the teachers to prevent it happening again. The higher of the levels of the hierarchy are esteem needs and self fulfilment. If esteem needs are not being met the person may suffer with low self esteem or an inferiority complex. Self fulfilment needs are a persons desire to become their full potential. It is rarely met and Maslow believed that less than 1% of adults achieved total self actualisation. These people would accept themselves and their flaws, motivated by growth and not needs and not phased by the opinions of others of themselves.