Learning Theory

Abstract

Psychologists have proposed many different theories to explain how we learn. Behaviourists insist on a scientific, controlled approach where each behaviour is seen as a response to a stimulus.  The behaviour modification techniques that have appeared most effective in the special education setting are mainly positive reinforcement and contingency management (Ross and Braden 1991).  Teachers should attempt to ensure that they provide frequent but variable ratio reinforcement for appropriate behaviour (Weiten, 2004) and that inappropriate behaviour is denied reinforcement by means of time out or other contingency management.  As students vary in their learning styles, teachers may need to identify different techniques to be effective for individual students.


When an individual demonstrates a lasting change in behaviour, as a result of experience, this is called learning (Laird, 1992; Myers, 2004).  Different theories have been proposed in the attempt to explain how learning occurs. The behaviourist school of psychologists insist on a scientific, controlled approach, where each behaviour is seen as a response to a stimulus.  According to these theories, we may increase the frequency of a particular behaviour either because it is being triggered by a stimulus that frequently had been associated in time with another stimulus that would more normally have elicited the behaviour (classical conditioning); or because it had been followed by favourable consequences when we did it previously (operant conditioning); or because we had observed favourable consequences occur to someone else after they behaved that way (observational learning).  A decrease in the behaviour would be expected to have occurred if the consequences had been adverse.  Behavioural therapies assume that psychological disorders are a special form of learned behaviour, feeling or thought.  The goal of behaviour modification is to use the principles of learning to replace unwanted behaviours or feelings or thoughts with preferred ones, by a new learning process (Laird, 1992).  This essay will examine behaviour modification techniques and their application in the special education setting.

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Behaviour modification techniques, using the theories of classical conditioning, are known as counter-conditioning and include systematic desensitization, flooding and aversive conditioning (also known as aversion therapy).  Counter-conditioning aims to condition replacement responses to stimuli that had triggered unwanted behaviours in the past (Myers, 2004).

Behaviour modification techniques using the theories of operant conditioning include positive and negative reinforcement, contingency management, and operant aversion therapy.  Positive reinforcement aims to increase the frequency of a behaviour by giving the subject a reinforcer (or reward) for the behaviour.  In the educational setting, the reinforcer may be combined with the feedback that the behaviour ...

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