Behaviorism
What is Behaviorism?
Behaviorism is a psychological approach based on the scientific study of behavior, that is the external, directly observable aspects of mental activity. Its founder is considered to be the American John B. Watson (1878-1958), according to whom the human mind is a sort of "black box", whose internal functioning is unknowable and therefore there is no point in trying to study it. If the content and processes of the mind are not the central point, the inputs that are given and the outputs that result from the inputs are the real focus, because the only possible element that psychology can and must study is the behavior of the individual. And the individual behavior is simply the individual response to external stimuli.
Pavlov and Skinner
Watson's Behaviorism is based on the classical conditioning model, based on the stimulus-response schema. Starting from the assumption that behavior is nothing more than the result of an environmental stimulus, behaviorists analyze the relationships between certain types of stimuli or environment and certain types of responses. Russian Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) was the first author who identified the behaviorist mechanism. The most significant experiment in this sense is the famous "Pavlov's dog" experiment. In this experiment Pavlov precedes the action of giving food to his dog with the ringing of a bell. Over time the dog learns to associate the arrival of the food with the sound of the bell, so much so that even when the bell rings but the food does not arrive the dog involuntarily begins to salivate. Therefore we can guess that the dog associates the sound of the bell with the arrival of the food and that this causes him to salivate. In this way Pavlov demonstrated that the brain controls not only social, but also physiological behaviors. Pavlov is not strictly a behaviorist, in the sense that he preceded the definition of Behaviorism as a psychological theory. But we can consider him to be a key point of reference for later behaviorists. Following Pavlov's studies and Watson’s theory, another important behaviorist was B.F. Skinner (1904-1990), who introduced the theory of "operant conditioning". Skinner prepared a new experiment: he placed a mouse in a cage, known as the "Skinner box", where the mouse could see two levers: one lever transmits an electric shock, while the other gave access to a small amount of food. Initially the mouse explored the cage and happened to press the two different levers randomly. Finally he understood which lever was working in his favor (the one that gave the food) and he no longer press the one that gave the shock. This experiment led to the theory of "operant conditioning". This type of behavior can be determined by the possibility of receiving a reward (food) or a punishment (electric shock) following certain behaviors.
Classical vs Operant conditioning
The central difference between classical and operant conditioning is whether the behavior is involuntary or voluntary. Particularly clear are the words of Kendra Cherry: “Classical conditioning involves associating an involuntary response and a stimulus, while operant conditioning is about associating a voluntary behavior and a consequence. In operant conditioning, the learner is also rewarded with incentives, while classical conditioning involves no such enticements. Also, remember that classical conditioning is passive on the part of the learner, while operant conditioning requires the learner to actively participate and perform some type of action in order to be rewarded or punished.” (Kendra Cherry, 2022).
Behaviorism in e-learning and Instructional Design
After having theorized the Operant conditioning, Skinner Skinner developed the "teaching machines", which allowed individualized and gradual learning, which adapts at the pace and difficulties of each student. With Skinner’s teaching machines, new educational technologies were born. The element on which I would like to focus my attention here and which I found particularly interesting is the idea of an alliance between psychology, didactic theories and new technologies. This alliance will be many years lately combined with the development of information technology and computers, and it will turn out to be an important pillar of e-learning. In a behaviourist sense, the purpose of education is to offer learners the appropriate repertoire of behavioral responses to specific stimuli and subsequently to reinforce these responses through appropriate, repetitive and positive reinforcement. Without positive reinforcement, learned responses will quickly fade away. Behaviorist teaching methods tend to rely on repetitive exercises for effective reinforcement of stimulus-response patterns. Behaviorist methods are usually based on the use of positive reinforcers such as verbal praise, good grades, and rewards. Methods that measure observable behavior such as learner performance are used to assess the degree of learning. Both in the school system (K-12) and in the field of corporate training, Behaviorism has found (and often still finds) numerous practical applications. Many elements in the contemporary Instructional Design, such as the design of interactive educational software and the development of learning objects applied to e-learning, often are based on behaviorist ideas such as structured paths, gradualness of content delivery processes, use of tests as study tools and for evaluation. Anyway its important to sat that even if “principles of behaviorism can help us to understand how humans are affected by associated stimuli, rewards, and punishments, Behaviorism may oversimplify the complexity of human learning. Behaviorism assumes humans are like animals, ignores the internal cognitive processes that underlie behavior, and focuses solely on changes in observable behavior.” (Bekki Brau, Nathan Fox, & Elizabeth Robinson 2017).
Personal considerations
Personally I think that behaviorist teaching methods have proven to be more effective in fields where there is a "correct" answer or if you want to teach easily memorized material. However, the effectiveness of behaviorism when teaching more advanced skills, such as critical thinking, analysis and improvisation, is not totally convincing, and this applied both to K-12 or corporate training. What doesn’t make Behaviorism fully suitable for responding to the demands of the contemporary social and cultural system is the inability to respond to significant learning where more sophisticated skills and competences are involved. But we can conclude with Marisa Keramida’s words: “Today, we know that a behavioristic perspective of certain activities in Instructional Design does not mean that other approaches may not be used simultaneously for the same online course for different types of eLearning activities. Rather than following a single approach for the entire eLearning course, we should, therefore, select the most appropriate for each one to cover the learning objectives.” (Marisa Keramida 2015). Perhaps therefore the best answer lies precisely in the possibility of adopting multi-approach learning solutions, adapting them from time to time to the concrete needs of the course and of the learners. And personally I can only agree with this assumption.
References
Kendra Cherry. Operant vs. Classical Conditioning. https://www.verywellmind.com/classical-vs-operant-conditioning-2794861 Updated on September 08, 2022. Marisa Keramida. Behaviorism In Instructional Design For eLearning: When And How To Use It. https://elearningindustry.com/behaviorism-in-instructional-design-for-elearning-when-and-how-to-use May 28, 2015. Bekki Brau, Nathan Fox, & Elizabeth Robinson. Behaviorism. https://edtechbooks.org/education_research/behaviorismt 2020. Berkeley Graduate Center. Behaviorism. Graduate Student Instructor Teaching & Resource Center. https://gsi.berkeley.edu/gsi-guide-contents/learning-theory-research/behaviorism/ Accessed 16/02/2023. Giovanni Bonaiuti. Comportamentismo. http://www.formazionecontinua.marconatonetwork.it/pdf/Comportamentismo.pdf Accessed 16/02/2023.