Explain the behavior and cognitive approaches to learning. Which is most relevant to
training?
Whereas both cognitivism and behaviorism are both viable learning theories,
cognitivism has overshadowed behaviorism as the dominant perspective. For the last
two decades and more stringently at the turn of the century, behaviorism no longer
holds the dominance it once held as a learning theory. Discontent with behaviorism’s
“thoughtless” approach to learning, cognitivism and its subcategories of multiple
intelligence, brain-based learning and learner-style learning have usurped behaviorism
as the most widely acceptable and utilized theories today. While behaviorist theories
explain learning in terms of strictly observable behavior with the learner as
a passive recipient of knowledge through stimulus-response interaction with the
environment, cognitivists view the learner as an active participant in the learning
process. Cognitivist place greater interest in knowledge, meaning, intentions, feelings,
creativity, expectations and thoughts as well as cognitive structures and processes such
as memory, perception, problem-solving, comprehension, attention, and conceptLearning.
Despite the major difference between the two theories—the fact that behaviorists do
not take into account the mental processes that underlie cognitive learning theory—
cognitivists and behaviorists share similar beliefs. Both believe learning theories
should be objective and based upon the results of empirical research. Both observe
the responses individuals make to different stimulus conditions. Both theories believe
in feedback. Both discuss the impact environment has upon the learner. Finally, both
believe experience impacts learning. There are, of course differences within the
specifics of each theory. As do modern day cognitivists, behaviorists held the belief
that learning theory should be objectively based upon the results of empirical
evidence. However, behaviorists could not study the internal cognitive processes that
produce the responses they recorded because the technology was non-existent.
“Behaviorists chose not to incorporate mental events into their learning theories,
arguing that such events were impossible to observe and measure and so could not
be studied objectively”.
Cognitivists agree that reward helps influence learning and behavior. They simply
disagree as to the source of that reward. Brain-based studies have proven that the brain
has an intrinsic reward system called endorphins. Cognitivists look more at how
individuals process the stimuli they encounter. Like behaviorists, cognitivists also believe
the environment has an impact upon the learner.
A final commonality of the two learning theories is the belief that prior experience
has an impact upon learning. Skinner held that “each step in the learning process
should be short and should arise from previously learned behavior” (as cited by
Semple, 2000, para.10). Constructivist theory is founded on the premise that, by
reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world.
However, unlike behaviorism, constructivists
believe learning is not the result of external stimulus response, but rather the process of
adjusting our internal mental models to accommodate new experiences. In short,
behaviorism and cognitivism are not such vastly different theories as one might first
believe. There is room for application of many theories in the classroom if implemented
by a competent, highly trained educator familiar with both the fitness of various
techniques for individual students and the application of educational research.