The
Behavioral Perspective
The Theory:
The Behavioral perspective, which is closely connected to the work of BF Skinner,
claims that students learn by responding to outside stimulus, suggesting that
a simple reward system (a good/bad grade) should create a successful educational
environment.
The Practice:
Behavioralists point to factors in the external environment that shape students'
behavior in a classroom. Specifically, an "antecedent" promotes a certain
type of student behavior, which in turn should be followed by a consequence
(from the instructor or instructional material). The behavior of a student
will be affected by the events that precede the behavior and also by the events
that come after it. The Behavioral perspective suggests that learning happens
when a student acts in the desired way in response to instructors' specific actions.
Instructor's Role:
In this case, an instructor's role is to set up the right learning environment
by clearly stating goals, guiding students with cues and providing feedback that
reinforces behavior. Ultimately, this theory seems a bit simplistic since it doesn't
take in the factors of mental activities, which become key in the Information
Processing and Constructivist perspectives.
The overlap of theories