Discussion (Padlet) - Padlet Group 1: Behaviorism by Brenda Jane Pritchard

Basic Definition of Behaviorism

wildercm — 2025-09-17 22:07:14 UTC

From my understanding, behaviorism is a learning theory that completely focuses on the external environment and external motivators for learners. Learners are encouraged toward certain behaviors (i.e., taking notes and studying, answering test questions correctly) by offering external rewards, while they are encouraged away from other behaviors (i.e., answering questions incorrectly, behaving disruptively in the classroom) by offering negative consequences.

Key Concepts of Behavioral Learning Theory

tauferdl — 2025-09-17 22:51:05 UTC

'Classical conditioning', which was developed by Ivan Pavlov in the 1890's. This is recognized as learning through association. An example would be a child hearing an ice cream truck would mean a treat.

'Operant conditioning' focuses on reward or punishment to increase or decrease the likelihood of a behavior.

'Extinction' is another process where a behavior that was previously rewarded and decreases until the reward is no longer given (or extinct).

Three sources:

vaccarelladebby25 — 2025-09-18 01:06:06 UTC

I found some useful information about Behavioral theory using these sources.

Gamification

wildercm — 2025-09-18 15:15:27 UTC

One thing that I found interesting in the textbook section on behaviorism is the idea of gamification. Using the elements of games that are motivating, such as earning points and winning prizes, leveling up, etc. can be an effective use of behaviorism in the classroom. Here is a recent literature review that discusses several studies on gamification in educational and training settings.

Comparison to Other Theories

gillianpayne21 — 2025-09-19 18:53:18 UTC

While looking for the three resources I found this great infographic that compares behaviorism and some other learning theories. I find it really helpful to compare perspectives to build a deeper understanding of something so this was really helpful for me. I liked the breakdown of key strengths and weaknesses especially. I think a core criticism to be made of behaviorism is one we talked about last week during the conversation on standards: If there is too much focus on just skills or passing a test there isn't space to get to deeper comprehension and thinking.

Behaviorism Overview Video

wildercm — 2025-09-19 21:28:53 UTC

This video gives an excellent overview of behaviorism and focuses on the psychology and scientific studies behind this theory. After watching this video, I have more negative feelings about behaviorism because of the use of negative reinforcement and the applications of this theory in animal training. In educational settings, behaviorism might lead to results but it is not likely to lead to a love of learning, positive relationships, or lasting internal motivation.

Behaviorism explained in education

pritch54 — 2025-09-19 23:24:42 UTC

I love seeing the visual video elements in the explanation of this theory. As someone who works with children in a school, I see behaviorism approaches used well, and I see the drawbacks. It definitely puts the theory into perspective. And the author has an Australian accent ;)

pritch54 — 2025-09-19 23:38:40 UTC

The thing that immediately came to mind when I saw the first pro-behaviorist item is that utilizing this learning theory can help scientists to generate empirical data, but wouldn't that data be skewed without utilizing other theories? If data is formed from someone with a blank slate, not considering the human element or constructivist theories, isn't that data automatically incorrect?

pritch54 — 2025-09-20 00:10:09 UTC

A non-exhaustive list of pros and cons of behaviorism

pritch54 — 2025-09-20 00:12:38 UTC

Textbook Chapter on Behaviorism in Education

wildercm — 2025-09-20 00:44:12 UTC

Though a bit of a longer read, this chapter from a textbook used in a Masters of Arts in Teaching program has a lot of helpful examples of what behaviorism actually looks like in a classroom setting.

Incorporation of Behaviorism in Learning

agarl — 2025-09-20 18:28:03 UTC

This website provides a general overview of behaviorism, but what I want to focus on from it is its breakdown of incorporating the theory in a variety of ways. It stresses the importance of positive reinforcement in particular, given how it benefits both retention and encourages further improvement within a skill/topic. Beyond this point, however, it also sheds light on other facets to incorporate that tie into the positive reinforcement, such as the repetition of information/training, the formulation of motivation in learners, and the consideration of aspects from social learning theory. I personally am intrigued by the point included in social learning theory (given its consideration of outer influences) since I feel it helps to address a gap that behaviorism might run into otherwise, and it helped me to think further on the theory. I believe it helps to cement in aspects of behavior learning beyond that of just repeating desired behaviors.

Textbook Chapter on Behaviorist Theories of Learning (Foundations of Educational Technology)

agarl — 2025-09-20 18:55:48 UTC

While more in the vein of educational technology, this textbook chapter from the "Foundations of Educational Technology" takes a focus primarily on classical and operant conditioning. It covers the history and aspects of the processes themselves, but also delves into some of the more psychological aspects of these types of conditioning, which I was happy to read about. This included identifying the various stimuli and responses associated with classical conditioning.

The chapter itself concludes by reflecting on the way behaviorism is incorporated into educational technology, but I think it's notable here how the focus is primarily on aspects of operant conditioning. Having highlighted both, it would have been beneficial to see how aspects of classical conditioning might have affected educational technology as well, as this would have tied back into both behaviorist theories mentioned.

Controversies & Criticisms around Behaviorism

agarl — 2025-09-20 19:22:35 UTC

The overview on behaviorism by The Decision Lab is a comprehensive one, but I wanted to shed light on the section that it has on "Controversies", which can be jumped to in the overview by the tabbed menu on the left side of the page.

In noting the shortcomings of behaviorism, it is emphasized how it is one-dimensional in nature, as it doesn't consider internal factors when it comes to human behavior (e.g., thoughts, feelings, etc.). Critics who have taken this stance over time would include Sigmund Freud and Carl Rogers.

Alongside this, while evidence of behaviorism in humans is highlighted as a criticism, another point against it that intrigues me would be how behaviorism doesn't explain why a behavior might occur. This point is expanded upon by considering the work of Edward Tolman on latent learning, but I wanted to reflect on this since it has me thinking on the correlation between the "Why?" with behaviors and how this can tie into the previous criticism posited of behaviorism being one-dimensional. In its dismissal of aspects such as thoughts and feelings, it is not likely that behaviorism can answer the question of "Why?" beyond pure prediction. This is something that could likely be addressed by implementing aspects of more social learning based theories, but as it stands serves as a mark against behaviorism in my mind.

Behaviorism and PBIS

kmtrevor — 2025-09-21 19:26:54 UTC

As I was reading about behaviorism, I was reminded of a teaching "buzzword" that was popular in my school a few years ago- PBIS. I looked up this infographic to refresh my memory on the basics. The goal part at the bottom stood out to me, as I think it in theory sounds great and is rooted in good intentions, but my school faced the following issues:

Staff buy in- this required everyone to be on board and was a huge shift that some teachers did not fully support, which impacted how it was carried out to students
Not all expectations were trauma informed, or there was not enough nuance in the implementation to make it so
Unreliable data- ex. if we were tracking tardies, we found that some teachers tracked tardies and updated our tracking system more than others, resulting in students demonstrating superficial growth

kmtrevor — 2025-09-21 19:34:57 UTC

A lot of us gave great examples of when we have seen behaviorism strategies being implemented in the classroom. It made me think about my old school and how we used a merit and demerit system to track behavior. I think it definitely had its pros and cons, and this study dives deeper into the idea as a whole. The study "connected and drew inferences between teacher perceptions of discipline and how the merit and demerit system impacted student referral and punishment." This study supports a lot of our anecdotal faults with behaviorism (and positive and negative reinforcement behavior systems) with applicable research.

Behaviorism and Behavior Intervention Strategies

kmtrevor — 2025-09-21 20:09:56 UTC

I sometimes find it easier to think about things as a whole when I have specific examples/ideas of what it actually looks like. These are 20 strategies that use rewards (mainly around intrinsic motivation), consequences, and reinforcement to manage behaviors in the classroom. I also liked how it emphasized the following key points when considering implementing these strategies effectively: 1. Does the person implementing the strategy have a solid foundation in trust and a positive relationship with the student?

2. Does the strategy match the functional needs of the student?

Seminal critique of behaviorism

mmclyne — 2025-09-22 01:52:51 UTC

On reading about behaviorism, I immediately recalled hearing some critiques of reward systems -- namely, that they decrease intrinsic motivation, eliciting mere compliance rather than actual learning. In searching for the source of those critiques, it appears that this is THE book on the subject. I haven't been able to read the whole thing, but the Kirkus review has my interest piqued! Seems to be chock full of studies (and an actual interview with B.F. Skinner himself!)

More on theories of motivation

mmclyne — 2025-09-22 02:07:25 UTC

This section of a textbook on Educational Psychology goes into detail on different theories of motivation. I appreciate the perspective that a behaviorist approach is helpful in classroom settings where teachers simply aren't able to assess motivation -- whether because they don't have the time, there's a communication barrier, or other reasons. This underscores, for me, that behaviorism is an extremely pragmatic (utilitarian?) theory.

Applications to IL Instruction

mmclyne — 2025-09-22 02:19:11 UTC

This paper from an academic librarian at Northern Illinois University is kind of old, but I think still helpful for a.) teasing out how traditional instruction in general has roots in behavioral theory, and b.) how the theory can be applied to information literacy instruction specifically.

Behaviorism and Consistency

gillianpayne21 — 2025-09-22 03:08:42 UTC

I wanted to find some information about how behaviorism is used in classrooms and the impacts of it and found this article about consistency and it's role in school discipline. The researchers conducted focus groups where they spoke with teachers about their use of consistency in discipline and rule setting, and their opinions of its effectiveness. If you don't have time to read the whole thing, highly recommend skipping to the findings section and reading through the teacher responses.

Irby, D., & Clough, C. (2015). Consistency rules: a critical exploration of a universal principle of school discipline. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 23(2), 153–173. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2014.932300

B.F. Skinner Interviews

gillianpayne21 — 2025-09-22 03:39:01 UTC

In the process of finding resources about behaviorism itself I kept stumbling upon information about Skinner, Pavlov, and Watson. I knew more about Pavlov and Watson, so I decided to do a bit of research on B.F. Skinner. I wound up reading through his Wikipedia page and a few biographical things, but I found these interviews the most interesting. Through this research was also how I made the connection that Skinner wrote Walden Two, which I've read. That connection in addition to the interviews really expanded my understanding of how he himself views behaviorism and wants to use it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/15/science/bf-skinner-now-sees-little-hope-for-the-world-s-salvation.html

https://archive.org/details/bf-skinner-all-things-considered-1990