Pariksha SaathiLesson 6 of 10 · Child Development and Pedagogy
Theories of Learning: Pavlov, Thorndike, Skinner, Kohler's Insight and Constructivism
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What learning is
Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour or understanding that results from experience or practice, as opposed to changes caused by maturation, fatigue, illness or drugs. Theories differ on what changes and how. Behaviourists study observable behaviour and explain learning as connections between stimuli and responses shaped by the environment, with the learner largely passive. Gestalt and cognitive psychologists study perception and thinking and explain learning as the reorganisation of understanding. Constructivists see the learner as actively building knowledge.
Pavlov's classical conditioning
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), a Russian physiologist who received the Nobel Prize in 1904 for his work on digestion, noticed that dogs began to salivate before the food arrived. Food is an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) that naturally produces salivation, the unconditioned response (UCR). When a neutral stimulus such as a bell is repeatedly presented just before food, it becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) that alone produces salivation, now a conditioned response (CR). If the bell is then sounded again and again without food, the response fades (extinction), but it may return after a rest (spontaneous recovery). Similar stimuli also produce the response (generalisation), while responding only to the specific stimulus is discrimination. John B. Watson, the founder of behaviourism, showed with 'Little Albert' (1920) that fear can be conditioned in the same way. A child punished or humiliated during mathematics may come to fear the subject itself, so the classroom must feel safe.
Thorndike's connectionism
Edward Thorndike (1874-1949), an American psychologist, placed hungry cats in puzzle boxes with food outside. By trial and error a cat eventually worked the latch and escaped, and over repeated trials the time taken fell gradually, which he explained as the strengthening of a stimulus-response bond. His theory, called connectionism or trial-and-error learning, gave three primary laws. Law of readiness: when a person is ready to act, acting is satisfying and being prevented is annoying, so learning should begin when the child is prepared. Law of exercise: bonds strengthen with use and weaken with disuse, so practice should be regular and meaningful. Law of effect: responses followed by satisfying results are strengthened and those followed by annoying results are weakened; Thorndike later found that reward works far better than punishment. He also gave subsidiary laws such as multiple response, attitude (set), partial activity, analogy and associative shifting.
Skinner's operant conditioning
B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) studied rats and pigeons in an operant chamber, the Skinner box, where pressing a lever or pecking a key produced food. In operant conditioning, behaviour is shaped by its consequences. Reinforcement increases a behaviour: positive reinforcement adds something pleasant (praise, a star), and negative reinforcement removes something unpleasant (a child who completes her work is excused from extra homework). Punishment decreases a behaviour: positive punishment adds something unpleasant, and negative punishment takes away something pleasant, such as play time. Continuous reinforcement gives the quickest learning, but intermittent schedules - fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval and variable interval - make behaviour last longer, with variable ratio the most resistant to extinction. Complex behaviour is built by shaping, the reinforcement of successive approximations, which also underlies Skinner's programmed instruction and teaching machines: small steps, active response, immediate feedback and self-pacing.
Gestalt and insight learning
Gestalt psychology, founded in Germany by Max Wertheimer with Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt Koffka, held that the whole is more than the sum of its parts and that we perceive organised patterns (laws of proximity, similarity, closure and figure-ground). Kohler, working with chimpanzees on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, placed bananas out of reach. After failed attempts and a pause, the chimpanzee Sultan suddenly joined two sticks to rake in the fruit; others stacked boxes to climb up. Kohler called this insight: a sudden restructuring of the perceptual field in which the relations between parts are grasped, the 'aha' experience. Insight learning is sudden rather than gradual, depends on seeing the whole situation, is retained well and transfers to new problems. In class, present problems as wholes, allow time to think and help pupils see relationships instead of memorising steps.
Constructivism
Constructivism holds that learners build their own knowledge by connecting new experiences to what they already know. Cognitive constructivism (Piaget) stresses the individual's mental activity; social constructivism (Vygotsky) stresses dialogue and culture. Knowledge is not transmitted ready-made, prior ideas - including misconceptions - shape what is learned, and learning is active, contextual and social. NCF 2005 adopts this view and asks teachers to move away from rote methods. A constructivist lesson begins with a question or an experience, lets children explore, predict and discuss, and only then builds the formal concept, as in the 5E cycle of engage, explore, explain, elaborate and evaluate.
Choosing among theories
Behaviourist techniques suit habits, practice of basic facts and routines; Gestalt ideas suit problem-solving; constructivist methods suit building concepts. Albert Bandura's social learning theory adds that children learn by observing models, through attention, retention, reproduction and motivation, so the teacher's own conduct also teaches. In CTET scenarios the best answer avoids punishment, uses reinforcement wisely and leads children to discover and explain ideas themselves.
Key facts
- Learning = a relatively permanent change in behaviour from experience or practice (not from maturation, fatigue, illness or drugs).
- Pavlov (classical conditioning): food (UCS) gives salivation (UCR); a bell paired with food becomes a CS that gives salivation (CR); extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalisation, discrimination.
- Watson's Little Albert (1920): fear of a white rat was conditioned in an infant - a reminder that punishment can make children fear a subject.
- Thorndike (hungry cat in a puzzle box): trial and error, connectionism; laws of readiness, exercise (use and disuse) and effect.
- Skinner: positive reinforcement adds something pleasant, negative reinforcement removes something unpleasant - both increase behaviour; punishment decreases it.
- Variable-ratio reinforcement is the most resistant to extinction; shaping = reinforcing successive approximations; programmed instruction = small steps with immediate feedback.
- Kohler (chimpanzee Sultan, sticks and boxes, Tenerife): insight learning - sudden understanding of the whole situation, well retained and transferable.
- Gestalt psychology: the whole is more than the sum of its parts; founded by Wertheimer, with Kohler and Koffka.
- Constructivism: learners actively build knowledge on prior ideas; NCF 2005 favours it; 5E cycle: engage, explore, explain, elaborate, evaluate.
Quick revision
Learning = relatively permanent change from experience; Pavlov classical conditioning (UCS, UCR, CS, CR, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalisation); Watson Little Albert 1920; Thorndike trial and error, laws of readiness, exercise, effect; Skinner operant: positive and negative reinforcement increase, punishment decreases, variable ratio most lasting, shaping, programmed instruction; Kohler insight (Sultan); Gestalt whole more than parts; constructivism (NCF 2005).