Theories of Learning c4

 Theories of Learning

Behaviorism

 Behaviorism is an interesting philosophical and psychological theory that I had never really applied to
 teaching or learning.  In fact, I still don't know how it applies.  It obvious can be very effective for teaching
and learning specific rudimentary behaviors but I don't know how it applies to more complex activities.  How can a knowledge of behaviorism help me teach a student math problems or chess or physics?  Perhaps there is something I'm not thinking of, but until I am shown other evidence I remain skeptical.

On the other hand, behaviorism can help a teacher with classroom management.  However, I don't know if this is way to go about it.  Using classical conditioning seems like training robots and even operant conditioning doesn't seem much better.

I do think that a large majority of the claims made by behaviorists are correct.  I also think they have provided a very simple but insightful way to view human behavior.  The reason I don't think behaviorism will be my paper topic is because of its limited scope.

Social Cognitive Theory

Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) is interesting because it incorporates learning from others.  The bobo doll experiment showed this. However, the theory didn't seem to say anything interesting.  Perhaps this is because the theory is so ingrained into the social consciousness, but it all seemed like common sense to me.  People, especially small children, imitate.  People who grow up in violent surroundings are more likely to be violent, and vice versa.  While I think this is a beautiful view of humanity, namely that we are not violent or selfish by birth but rather trained to be that way, It doesn't say anything interesting.  At least not to me.