COGNITIVE AND BEHAVIORISTIC THEORIES

GENERAL DIFFERENCES  BETWEEN COGNITIVE AND BEHAVIORISTIC THEORIES

What  Is Learned ?

In describing what is learned , behaviorists use term like S-R associations, habits, and contigences . cognitive theoristics describe what is learned in terms of information, expectancies,schemata, principles,and insights

What is the function of reinforcement?

For most behaviorists, reinforcement is a necessary condition for learning . for them. It is reinforcement that causes S-R associations to form, contingencies to be learned, or the rate or probability of responding to change. In contrast, most cognitive theorists believe that learning occurs independently of reinforcement. For them, what reinforcement does is provide the organism with information that can act as an incentive to translate what has already been learned into behavior.

How Are Problems Solved?

Most behaviorists claim a problem is a approached in accordance with its similiarity to other problems individuals have experienced in the past. If the attempted solutions fail or if learners have never confronted such a problem , they resort  to trial and – error behavior until they hit on a solution. The cognitive theorist maintains that learners “think” about the problem until they gain in insight into its solution. The behaviorist would emphasize behavioral trial and error; the cognivist would emphasize cognitive, or vicarious, trial and error that is thinking.

What Assumptions are made about the Learner?

Certainly what teachers believe to be the nature of the human mind will influence what they believe would be effective teaching practices. We have already seen two examples of this. The behaviorists, who tend to accept aristottle’s and locke’s position that the mind begin as a tabula rasa (blank slate), emphasize the importance of sensory experience in formulating the content of the mind . teachers accepting this position would specify that would bring about the desires behavior. Behavioristically oriented teachers would be more educational arrangers than anything ellse . their most important task would be to arrange an environment that is responsive to the behaviors deemed important by the school; that is, they must create an invorenment that allows the student tobe rein forced for be having in accordance with various course objectives.

The cognitive theorists believe that the mind is not a blank slate at birth and that the mind is active , not passive. The mind is capable of weighing alternatives )thinking). And has the built in need to reduce ambiguity  and to make everythink as simple as possible . teachers accepting this gestalt  point of view are-not mere arrangers  of the learning environment; rather, they are active participants in the learner teacher relationship. Teacher must help the students are able to recite numerous facts and ideas are part of  a larger concept. That the are able to recite numerous facts without seeing their interrelationship is meaningless to such teachers . if one took an auto mobile completely apart and threw all the parts are. Would be there. How the parts are arranged is at least as important as what tehe parts are. As we have seen the gestals point of view always emphasiaes that the whole is different from the sum of its parts.

The cognitively oriented teacher ‘s job consists of two duties: (1) to induce ambiguity and (2) to help the student clarify the ambiguity. The teacher induces ambiguity by introducing problems and then helps clarify the ambiguity by suggesting strategies for solving the problems . as started earlier, classroom practice based on gestalt principles would involve give and take between the theacher wouldnot strongly emphasize working with small groups. Self pacing and small steplearning procedures may or may not be important to the gestalt – oriented teacher: their suitability must be determined for each student. These teachers attempt to determine for each student the best strategy for learning :that is, they must know to conceptual basis from which each student is starting before the can help the student continiu toward under standing the concept being taught, this, of course, is another is another reason why there must be close contact between the student and the teacher.

How Is The Transfer Of Training Explained ?

The behaviorist tends to accept thorndike’s identical elements theory of transfer as the number of common elements in two situations goes up, the tendency to make similar responses in both situation goes up . according to the behaviorist, if you want to enhace transfer of training from classroom education to experiences outside the classroom, , you are obliged to increase the similiarity between the twoo situations. For example , if one purpose in teaching mathematics in to provide students with the information necessary for filling out tax forms.

The cognitive theorists would tend to emphasize the transfer of principles . using the tax for example, the cognitively oriented teacher might claim  that the learning of mathematical  skill will transfer readily to filling out tax form and  grocery shoping , even if tax form and shopping had not been experienced in the classroom because the principles involved in both situations are believed to be the same.

The issue of transfer of training, clearly one of the most important problems in educations, is still highly controversial . in ffact , it appears that the notion of formal system . for example , the prominence given to the teaching of mathematics creates a stronger “reasoning faculty”. Especially since most Americans require less than a fifth  grade level of proficiency in mathematics for the neds of their daily lives. For a discussion of the  reappearance of formal disclipline in American schools see kolesnik (1958) or Symonds (1960).