Learning Theories
Darcie Malcom
Dr. Mark Hawkes
Educational Psychology
November 19, 2008
Social
Learning Theory
Albert Bandura was a man who promoted
and supported the Social Learning Theory. Bandura stated in 1977 that this
theory is about how people learn from one another through imitation, observation,
and modeling. Attention, memory, and
motivation are also covered in this theory.
Some learning may or may not change behavior for it can be taught
through just observation. Also reinforcements and punishments have an indirect affect
on this learning process in which can lead to many different things. The reason
for reinforcement is to increase a particular behavior by the individual doing
some type of response that you want to happen. On bad exception when it comes
reinforcements is many times it is bribery for the individual by doing the
appropriate behavior. To make sure this doesn’t make the child work just to get
a prize you need to start off with a piece of candy or toy as a reinforcement
and then make your way down to giving the student a positive verbal
reinforcement or a high five. This is still showing the child they are doing a
great job but they will not always get a big reward for doing what they were asked
to do. One example of reinforcement
would be if I am a teacher in a classroom and I notice a student observing and imitating another student who is an
outstanding and hard working student then I would walk up to the student that is observing and give
him positive reinforcement such as saying great job. This will show the child that I am happy with
his or her behavior in the classroom.
For successful modeling Bandura mentions
four conditions that is necessary for an individual to model a behavior of
someone else successfully. The first condition would be the person needs to pay
attention to the model. Secondly, the observer then needs to be able to
remember what behavior the model is doing. The third condition, the observer
should be able to replicate the exact behavior and demonstrate. Then at last
the observer should want to demonstrate what they have learned.
This learning can be taught to children
by animations or real life situation with real people. For instance, my nephew watched me walk to the
porch and start unloading the laundry from the dryer and put another load in the
dryer. In a couple of hours the buzzer went off and when I went to go get the
clothes out of the dryer again he was already out there with the door open and
putting clothes into the laundry basket. By my nephew observing what I was doing
he then decided he wanted to behave and do what I was doing. The social learning theory should work properly
if the learner is in the necessary conditions for the model
to be effective. The individual should pay attention to the subject, remember what
the model is doing, and duplicate
the behavior after seeing what is done. My
nephew paid attention to what I was doing; he then remembered it and duplicated
me when he knew the time was right for him to do the same as I did earlier.
Social Learning is a great for children
to learn in different ways because each student has their own way of obtaining
information. For one child, the best way to learn is by being visual and
watching others. Another child could be able to learn best by listening to the
teachers or others and remembering what they say. Or even some children have a
hard time listening and paying attention in class but when it comes to doing a
project at task he doesn’t have a problem with it once he sees how it is done. So
as a teacher I would need to make sure I am involving all of these aspects into
my lessons. For example, let’s say Tim has a hard time paying attention in
class because he is always interested in watching the students in the room. So
then I ask another student a question while Tim is paying attention to them.
The student answers the question right and a reinforcement is given to her like
a sticker. Tim sees that and decides he would really like to get a sticker
himself and starts trying to pay attention more. Many students have different
ways they learn and as teachers we have to figure out what is the best way for
each individual student to learn the appropriate material.
By students using the Social Learning
Theory in the classroom will help them find an easier way of learning. And as
children find their different ways of how to learn, they are motivated in their
minds to keep finding ways to learn new information. By showing a child some of
these ways of learning at a younger age will stay with them for their lives and
help with future schooling to come. School will be easier for children if they
know how and what ways to learn.
This theory is showing children many
different ways to learn how to act in class.
By using this theory, children learn cooperation, teamwork, self
control, understanding, and responsibility for themselves. These are important
ideas for any student to learn with the use of academic and social skills that
are needed.
Ormrod, J. E. (2006). Essentials of Educational
Psychology. Upper Saddle River: Pearson.
Ormrod, J.E. (1999). Notes
on Ormond's Human Learning . Retrieved November 18, 2008, from Social
Learning Theory: http://teachnet.edb.utexas.edu/~lynda_abbott/Social.html
Social Learning
Theory (A. Bandura). (1997).
Retrieved November 16, 2008, from Explorations in Learning & Instruction:
: http://tip.psychology.org/bandura.html