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THEORIST KEY1. According to Skinner, learning is a change in BEHAVIOR WHICH PERSISTS OR IS MAINTAINED OVER TIME.Example: Learning begins with a stimulus from the outside environment, to which the person responds with an action/behavior (response). A consequence is what follows the response – it can be a reinforcement (which can be positive or negative) or a punishment or ignoring of the behavior. The consequence is the effect that follows the action. Reinforcement can be divided into two kinds. Positive reinforcement increases a desired behavior by providing a desirable response [desirable to the individual – faculty addition]. Negative reinforcement also increasesa desirable behavior by removing an unpleasant or aversive stimulus. Behavior is any action a person takes – it is observable and thus is the only basis for measuring if learning has occurred. The environment dictates how the individual will act – learning comes from outside, from the environment. Skinner argued that as humans, we ultimately shape our culture and our environment by designing the contingencies through our responses to stimuli (not through free will or any feelings).Example: Learning occurs through stimulus from the environment which the person responds to with a behavior. That behavior is reinforced either positively or negatively and the behavior increases (if the person finds the response reinforcing) or the behavior is punished or ignored and the behavior decreases or is extinguished. The person learns things from part to whole and all learning is uni-directional – coming from the outside environment. The environment is constant for behaviorists.Example: The environment shapes the individual’s behavior. Environment providesstimulus, learner responds to stimulus, environment gives a consequence based on learner’s response. If environment favors response, it will reinforce response behavior to increase that behavior, or if the behavior is not favored, will cause extinction of behavior. Positive reinforcement is something the environment provides the learner immediately after the desired response to increase that behavior. Negative reinforcement is something the environment removes immediately after the desired response behavior to increase that behavior. Extinction is when the environment ignores [or punishes – faculty addition] a response behavior because it is not favorable.Example : Learning comes from the environment to the individual. The environment,which includes teachers and other people, but is not limited to humans, initiates a stimulus that the learner responds to. After response a consequence comes. This consequence comes in the form of positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, ignoring, or punishing and its intent is to reinforce desirable behavior. Depending onthe consequences that the learner experiences after a particular response, he or shewill choose to either behave the same or differently next time.FACULTY COMMENT: Notice that each of these answers addresses the theory as it relates to all people, which is what Skinner intended. Behaviorist theory is not restricted to the classroom. Please also keep in mind that, according to Skinner, consequences for behavior happen all the time. A consequence is reinforcing to a particular person only if the consequence increases a behavior. In the classroom, teachers attempt to use consequences to increase behaviors that they determine are desirable. In the world at large, ANY behavior that increases (whether we value the behavior or not) is considered to have been reinforced by the consequences.2. According to Piaget, learning is a CHANGE IN SCHEMA AND INCREASING COMPLEXITY OF THINKING PROCESSES. Example: Learning begins with a state of disequilibrium in response to a situation orpiece of information that does not fit into the learner’s current schema. The learner can then either assimilate the information in order to fit it into her/his current schema or accommodate (change their schema) to adapt to the new information. Both assimilation and accommodation are forms of adaptation but learning occurs throughaccommodation, or schematic change.Learning occurs as a progression through cognitive stages (sensori-motor – pre-operational – concrete operational – formal operations) in which cognition moves from concrete (sensori-motor/learning is action) to abstract (formal operations . . . “operations on operations”). Learning also requires a movement from figurative knowing (understanding the form, structure, symbols of something) to operative knowing (understanding the nature/concept of something and how to apply it). And .. . the individual acts on the environment.Example : Learning occurs through a process of adaptation that balances between assimilation and accommodation. The catalyst for the learning process is a “bumping” of new info with current schema – a point of disequilibrium. As one changes schema to accommodate new info, cognition advances and structural, schematic change occurs = learning occurs. Schematic change moves one through stages of thinking (sensori-motor, pre-operational, concrete operation, and formal operations). Interaction with the environment inspires change in thinking and movement to more abstract thinking. Within the stages of development, an individual can move from figurative to operative knowing. Example: Learning begins when an individual is forced into a state of disequilibrium. Whether through receiving new information or having a new experience, the learner will strive to return to a state of equilibration. This is accomplished through the process of adaptation, and can occur through either assimilation, which is the process of integrating information into existing schema, or accommodation, which is the process of changing or adding to existing schema to integrate new information. Piaget believed that children learn through 4 qualitative stages: 1. Sensori-motor; 2. Pre-operational; 3. Concrete operational; 4. Formal operations. In the first stage, the child is developing schema, blueprints for action,through concrete experiences in her environment. As she moves into the more advanced stages of things, these schema become complex operations which can beused to produce abstract hypotheses. Conservation, reversibility, and class inclusion, for example, develop in the 3rd stage and represent an ability to abstractly


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EVERGREEN MIT 2007 - THEORIST KEY

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