Overview
Behaviorism assumes that human behaviors are the consequences of responses to certain external stimuli. It implies that the process of learning is tantamount to the progress of giving stimuli to the student with effective reinforcements to produce a desired behavioral response. (GSI Teaching and Resource Center, 2019)
Scenario
A group of middle students at a Spanish class is learning about a series of new vocabularies. First, the instructor introduces students all of the words and then explains the meaning of each word to them. After students familiarize with these words, the instructor shows the words they’ve just learned one by one on a PowerPoint and ask students to write down the meaning of each word on a paper. At the end of the Q&A activity, the teacher will collect the answer sheets and grade them. The top three who get most of the correct answers can have less amount of assignment on that day. The rest of the class would still have the regular amount of assignment.
Stimulus: To reward the student who can answer meanings of the most word accurately.
Response: Students become more motivated to memorize new vocabularies.
Positive reinforcement: To have less amount of assignment
Negative reinforcement: To have a regular amount of assignment
Pros
1. Observable behavior is observable and measurable. It is easy to tell once the behavior changes.
2. Stimuli and reinforcements can be easily implemented.
Cons
1. Learning response will quickly get extinct once the external reinforcement stops.
2. The style of teaching can only be efficient when the desired behavior change is straightforward and has only one correct answer.
Reference
GSI Teaching and Resource Center. (2019). Behaviorism. Berkley University of California. Retrieved from Https://gsi.berkeley.edu/gsi-guide-contents/learning-theory-research/behaviorism/
