Ms Essays (1459 words) - Educational Psychology,

Application of Learning Theories Antoinette J. Patterson-Bailey EDU620: Meeting Individual Student Needs with Technology Dr. Robin Throne September16, 2010 Application of Learning Theories Introduction What is a theory? A theory can be defined as a general principle that explains or predicts facts, observations or events and is generally accepted as valid having survived repeated testing. A theory can never be established beyond all doubt. (Dictionary, 2010) The social learning theory developed and studied by Albert Bandura was based on people learning through observing others? behavior, attitudes, and outcomes of those behaviors. According to Albert Bandura ?Most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action? (Bandura, 1977) Social learning theory explains human behavior in terms of continuous mutual interaction between cognitive, behavioral, and environmental influences. An individual can effectively model after another person through attention (noticing something in the environment), retention (remembering what was noticed), reproduction (developing an image) and motivation (having the desire to do it). Bandura believed in ?reciprocal determinism?, that is, the world and a person?s behavior cause each other, while behaviorism essentially states that one?s environment caus es one?s behavior. Bandura, who was studying adolescent aggression, found this too simplistic, and so in addition he suggested that behavior causes environment as well. (Bandura, 1977) Later, Bandura soon considered personality as an interaction between three components: the environment, behavior, and one?s psychological processes (one?s ability to entertain images in minds and language).(Bandura, 1977) In addition the Social learning theory is a general theory of human behavior, but Bandura and people concerned with mass communication have used it specifically to explain media effects. Bandura warned that "children and adults acquire attitudes, emotional responses, and new styles of conduct through filmed and televised modeling. In using the application of the Social Learning theory in my classroom of Kindergartners who are classified as English Language Learners and special needs, I think about what I am trying to achieve in my classroom for my students and myself as a teacher. Most of these students have never been to school, or spoken English or read any English materials. My first objective is to get their attention and introduce myself as friendly as possible. Then I allow them to ask me questions about myself and through retention I would quiz them on the responses were. Next I try to input an image of myself as a student to them, since I am learning just as they are and we work on this with each student, by learning about one another we can relate to one another better. Allowing them to learn about me helps me setup the classroom activities in a similar way; it keeps them motivated for learning and helps them develop great social skills inside and outside of the classroom. Many of these students came to me with behavioral problems because of their attitudes, other have some social disabilities that we need to develop. Another activity that we use along with the Smart Board is learning specific things about each other in reference to culture, since the Latino culture has so much diversity, the students pick up bias remarks and sometimes it causes conflicts. I teach them about other Latino or Hispanic cultures and they must remember something special about another culture that is similar or different to theirs, once we have that established the students are ask to bring in something that identifies with their culture and talk about it. The students are so excited and motivated that we usually have a celebration and they are more eager to begin identify with each other as friend and classmates. This exercise helps them develop long last friendship and it has work in our classroom for a few years. Most of these students are still in a close relationship and they always come back to the school to let us know how they are progressing in their educational goals. Another way we use this theory is teaching students about their environment is through trip throughout the city. Being in NYC there are so many educational, historical and cultural events and activities, and just to have a class excursion is