Behaviorism

 REFLECTION 8 (BEHAVIORISM)

Behaviorism is a theory about why people behave the way they do. Behaviorism is a school of psychology that studies that only behavior that can be observed or measured. It does not include the study of emotions or motives. Behaviorists propose that the amount of learning that takes places can be measured by observing behaviors. Moreover, they argue that learning and knowledge can be measured by observing the amount of correct answers (Fornataro). Students are given knowledge and asked to reproduce what they have learnt to the teacher. Therefore, behaviorists describe learning as nothing more than the acquisition of new behavior and view the mind as a black box and concentrates only responses to stimulus that can be observed and completely ignore the possibility of thought processes occurring in the mind (Meesing, 2004). In learning, behaviors are measured by a learners’ response to stimuli. Learners’ response to stimuli can be reinforced using positive or negative feedback. One of the best ways that teachers could incorporate behaviorism is using a point or sticker system to reward students about good behavior or good academic performance. According to behaviorism, students learn through experience and practices. I could use behaviorism theory in my classroom in some ways. For example, when I teach my students, I often give quizzes or tests every week or use positive or negative reinforcement to encourage and reward my students for good behaviors and to punish bad behaviors.

In general, behaviorism has some good points. For instance, learners can focus on a clear goal and responds automatically to the signs of that goal. The strong point with this learning theory is that it ensures that a person behaves in the same way whenever the same circumstance is presented; for example, it is very important that a computer user runs the same query at the end of each month to produce the monthly sales report.

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