Behavioral and Social Theories of Learning
Description
The focus of reading and discussion in
EDAT 6115 this week was on behavioral and social theories of learning. A behavioral
learning theory is related to the way behaviors are learned and “unlearned”. Learning
is when an individual change happens because of an experience. Learning can
also be a change in the knowledge of a learner from an experience that they
have had. When people, especially children watch some television programs, they
learn behaviors that can be aggressive, violent and prosocial.
Analyze
In children’s television programs,
aggressive behaviors can be present. Aggressive behavior can cause physical or
emotional harm to others. It may range from verbal abuse to physical abuse.
Physical aggression can be anywhere from shooting, biting, or hitting in the
program. Verbal aggression maybe yelling, putting others down with harsh words
or name calling. Violent behavior in children’s television programming is when
characters from the programs show violent actions.
Albert Bandura who developed the theory
of social learning believed that children model aggressive behaviors that they
have seen. Bandura believed that modeling is when others imitate behaviors. He
felt that much of the behaviors learned are shaped by consequences that are
learned from a model (Slavin,
2014, p. 114). In 1963, Bandura did
an experiment with young children to test out the social learning theory of
aggression (The Curious
Classroom, 2013). In the experiment, children were divided in groups and
shown three films. In one film, a model who was an adult, showed aggressive
behavior to a doll by kicking and punching it. Children were then left in a
room full of games, toys, and the doll. Children who observed the adult show
aggressive behavior towards the doll, modeled the behavior that they saw the
adult do to the doll. Children who were in the groups who observed the adult
showing prosocial behavior like helping, sharing and complimenting the doll,
showed the same prosocial behaviors that they saw the adult show towards the
doll when left in the room alone with the doll and other toys.
In the video, Bandura states, “Televised
violence has four major effects. It teaches aggressive styles of behavior,
weakens restraints over aggression, desensitizes and habituates viewers to
human cruelty and shapes viewers images to reality” (The Curious Classroom, 2013, start
at: 2:08-2:26). Every day in our lives we as people learn through watching
and imitating others. This is called observational learning. Observational
learning involves four phases: attentional, retention, reproduction, and motivational
phases (Slavin, 2014, p. 114).
First in the attentional phase, people pay attention to the model. In the
second phase, retention phase, the models’ behavior is imitated and learned
through practice or rehearsal of the behavior. The third phase, reproduction phase
is when people try to match their behavior to the model’s (Slavin, 2014, p. 114). The
last phase in observational learning is the motivational phase. In this phase,
people imitate the behavior of the model because they believe that doing so
will increase their own chances to be reinforced (Slavin, 2014, p. 114).
Children
observe other people’s behaviors. They observe how others act and talk to each
other in different situations. Such observations provide models that teach
children strategies to use at times and places (Slavin, 2014, p. 115). During
observational learning, children observe some aggressive behaviors such as
verbal or physical aggressive accts. Watching violent television shows model’s
behavior that may teach children to be aggressive to other children and even
adults. Children mimic and imitate what they see and hear not only on
television but in real life situations too.
Reflection
The concept of children imitating
aggressive behavior that they have learned while watching television programs
for children is a concept that I can relate to in my kindergarten class. I have
some students that act aggressively like cartoon characters. So, this topic is
significant to me and my class because I do have some students who often think
they are Power Rangers or a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They are aggressive
physically to other students as well as aggressive verbally to other
classmates. They often hit, swing their arms around, kick and hurt other
children in the class. They also do a lot of name-calling to their classmates
and think that it is okay. When I asked them where they learn the behavior
from, they often say a television program.
Some positive aspects of the concept
are if students view television programs that model prosocial acts, they will
imitate and act like those characters that they see. When my class has down
time, I often play programs that model pro-social behaviors and have a class
discussion about the good things that were seen in the program.
A negative aspect of the concept is if
parents do not monitor children's viewing of aggressive and violent
programming, children may think it is okay to model such behavior that they see
on the programs. Then their children will act aggressive towards other children
and even adults. Some children spend many hours a week viewing television in
general. Instead of viewing so much television, children can read, create their
own non-violent television programs or even play a structured game with a
positive learning outcome.
Based on the information that I have
learned, if students show aggressive behavior I will try to find out where they
are learning or modeling the behavior from. If they are learning it from
television, I will do my part as an educator to talk to their parents about
limiting the programs that their child is watching. I may also suggest to
parents alternative activities that the child can do instead of watching
aggressive television shows. Being that I am the child's teacher, I will
explain to the child that the behavior is not acceptable in class or anywhere
else because it can harm someone physically or verbally.
References
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