Learning Principles

Module 4

Principles of Instruction

• One basic assumption of the behavioral approach to education is that the role of education is to transfer skills, beliefs, practices. This notion of the transfer of skills is important, because it assumes the existence of some specific body of knowledge that one individual has, who is responsible to give it to another.  This is in contrast to some constructivist or developmental approaches.

  Do you believe that students are tin-cans that need to be filled with knowledge, or do you believe students are active constructors of their own learning?

  

  Current behavioral theory criticizes current approaches to education on several points.

  (1)  Learning occurs in non-real world settings.  Classrooms remove students from the environment in which they will be expected to perform, and therefore remove students from the reinforcement system that is naturally occurring in the world.

  (2) Classes are too large.  Because of the size of classes, teachers are unable to attend to individual needs, and thereby manage the contingency system in their classroom.

  (3)  Students seldom feel immediate success.  Education is future oriented and students are denied tangible rewards that support immediate production of desired behaviors.

  (4) Reinforcements are provided infrequently and without clear connections to consistent goals and behavioral expectations.

  (5)  The time between production of behavior and the reinforcer is often very long, decreasing the impact of the reinforcer.

  (6)  Schools do not use successive approximation to shape learning over time, but strive for immediate mastery.

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