PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT

Instructional Plan on Behavioral

Views of Learning

Submitted by:
Shaheedah Amandac L.

Arjune Ferrer C.

BS Psychology II

Submitted to:
MARY DAWN VALENCIA, MA PSYCH., LPT., RPm.
Instructor
A. Objectives
At the end of the discussion, the students will be able to learn and gain an
understanding of the Behavioral Views of Learning.

Specific Objectives

Objective 7.1: Define learning from a behavioral perspective, including ties to neuroscience
and the processes involved in learning through contiguity, classical conditioning, operant,
and observational learning.
Objective 7.2: Explain early views of learning through contiguity and classical conditioning
and describe their implications for teaching.
Objective 7.3: Explain operant conditioning, particularly the differences and similarities
between positive and negative reinforcement and presentation and removal punishment
and how reinforcement schedules affect learning.
Objective 7.4: Apply behavioral approaches to modifying behavior in and out of the
classroom using applied behavioral analysis approaches to encourage and discourage
behaviors, shaping, positive practice, contingency contracts, token reinforcement, group
consequences, and the appropriate use of punishment.
Objective 7.5: Apply functional behavioral assessment, positive behavioral supports, and
self- management techniques.
Objective 7.6: Evaluate contemporary challenges to behavioral theories of learning and
address concerns about their application.

B. Subject Matter
Title: Behavioral Views of Learning

References:
Biggs, J. (1999). Teaching for Quality Learning at University. SRHE & Open University
Press.https://cetl.ppu.edu/sites/default/files/publications/-
John_Biggs_and_Catherine_Tang-_Teaching_for_Quali-BookFiorg-.pdf
Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. Prentice-Hall.
https://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html
Fanselow, M. S., & Gale, G. D. (2003). The amygdala, fear, and memory. Annals of the
New York Academy of Sciences, 985(1), 125-134.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12724154/
 Piaget, J. (1970). Piaget's theory. In Carmichael's Manual of
Child Psychology (pp. 703-732). John Wiley & Sons.
https://www.scirp.org/reference/referencespapers?
referenceid=1716835
Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and Human Behavior. Free Press.
https://www.bfskinner.org/newtestsite/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/ScienceHumanBehavi
or.pdf

Materials needed: Organizational chart and other materials

Time planning: 1 hour and 15 minutes/50 minutes

C. Procedure or Strategy

1. Preparation
The reporters will provide a visual aid/org chart and introduce themselves and
the topic of the discussion to the class

2. Opening Prayer
The teacher or reporter will lead the prayer.

3. Activity that will stimulate the student’s attention which is related to the topic.

4. Discussion/Lecture
The teacher/reporter will begin the discussion guided by the following
guidelines
 I. UNDERSTANDING LEARNING

Learning is the process of acquiring new knowledge, skills, behaviors, or attitudes

through experience, study, or teaching.

● Experience
- Learning often begins with direct or indirect experiences. Experiences can come from
interactions with people, events, or the environment.
● Reinforcement
- Positive or negative reinforcement can shape learning. Rewarding good behavior
encourages repetition, while punishing bad behavior discourages it.
● Cognitive Processing
- Learners actively process information to make sense of new knowledge. This includes
attention, memory, and problem-solving.
● Application
- Learning is not just about gathering information; it's about applying what you've learned
to solve problems or adapt to new situations.

A. NEUROSCIENCE OF BEHAVIORAL LEARNING

- Behavioral learning refers to how individuals acquire new behaviors through interactions
with the environment, primarily focusing on observable changes in actions.
- Neuroscience explores how the brain and nervous system support these learning processes by
understanding how neural circuits and brain regions are involved in forming and modifying
behaviors.

B. LEARNING IS NOT ALWAYS WHAT IT SEEMS

Learning is often thought of as the straightforward acquisition of knowledge or skills, but
it’s much more complex than that. Here's why:

● Surface vs. Deep Learning

- We may seem to "learn" when we memorize facts for a test, but this is often surface-level
learning. True learning involves understanding concepts at a deeper level and being able to
apply them in different situations.
● Failure as Learning
- Learning doesn’t always mean success. In fact, failure is a powerful teacher. Mistakes help us
identify gaps in our understanding, pushing us to find better solutions.
 ● Unconscious Learning
- Not all learning is conscious. We often absorb behaviors and attitudes from our environment
without realizing it, like picking up cultural norms or social cues.
● Learning Takes Time
- It’s easy to think we’ve learned something after a single exposure, but real, lasting learning
requires repetition, reflection, and sometimes unlearning old habits.
● Learning Isn’t Linear
- Progress in learning doesn’t always follow a straight path. You may experience setbacks or
need to relearn something you thought you mastered.

II. EARLY EXPLANATION OF LEARNING: CONTIGUITY AND CLASSICAL

CONDITIONING

A. CONTIGUITY
a psychological concept of learning that emphasizes a strong temporal relation between
stimuli and responses as the only requirement to create a correlation. It argues that as long as the
conditioned stimulus and the response happen simultaneously, learning will take place whether or
not reinforcement is offered.

B. CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Russian biologist Ivan Pavlov discovered the field of classical conditioning, or Pavlovian
conditioning, in the 1920s. Pavlov had a major influence on it. He found that the rate of early
learning phases depended on the stimulus's noticeability and the time elapsed between introducing a
neutral stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus. It focuses on the learning of involuntary emotional
or physiological responses such as fear, increased muscle tension, salivation, or sweating. These
sometimes are called respondents.

● Unconditioned Stimulus
Elicits a response out of instinct and spontaneity without conscious thought. It is not
required to learn how to respond to unconditioned stimuli.
● Unconditioned Response
An automatic response to the stimulus
● Conditioned Stimulus
Generated by a neutral stimulus that has been consistently associated with an
unconditioned stimulus.
 ● Conditioned Response
A behavior that must be taught by combining a neutral stimulus with a strong
stimulus.

III. OPERANT CONDITIONING: TRYING NEW RESPONSES

Operant conditioning is a learning process through which behaviors are influenced by their
consequences. It involves reinforcement (to increase a behavior) and punishment (to decrease a
behavior).

A. TYPES OF CONSEQUENCES
● Positive Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement involves presenting a favorable stimulus after a behavior,
which increases the likelihood of the behavior being repeated.
● Negative Reinforcement
Negative reinforcement involves removing an aversive stimulus when a desired
behavior occurs, which increases the likelihood of the behavior being repeated.
● Positive Punishment
Positive punishment involves presenting an aversive stimulus after an undesired
behavior, which decreases the likelihood of the behavior recurring
● Negative Punishment
Negative punishment involves removing a desirable stimulus after an undesired
behavior, which decreases the likelihood of the behavior recurring.

B. REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULES
Reinforcement schedules in operant conditioning are the rules that determine how and when a
behavior will be followed by a reinforcer. They play a crucial role in establishing and maintaining behaviors.
There are two main categories of reinforcement schedules: continuous reinforcement and partial (intermittent)
reinforcement.

● Continuous Reinforcement
- The desired behavior is reinforced every time it occurs.
- This schedule is effective for teaching new behaviors quickly, but the behavior may
extinguish rapidly once reinforcement stops.
-
● Partial (Intermittent) Reinforcement
- The behavior is not reinforced every time it occurs, but rather intermittently.

- This schedule makes behaviors more resistant to extinction because the individual
 does not expect a reward every time.

Types of Partial Reinforcement:

a. Fixed-Ratio (FR) Schedule
b. Variable-Ratio (VR) Schedule
c. Fixed-Interval (FI) Schedule
d. Variable-Interval (VI) Schedule

C. ANTECEDENTS AND BEHAVIOR CHANGE

Antecedents are the events or conditions that occur before a behavior and signal whether a
particular consequence will follow the behavior. They act as cues or triggers that set the stage for the
behavior to occur.
Types of Antecedents:
● Discriminative Stimulus (SD):
This signals that a particular behavior will be reinforced. For example, a teacher
announcing "Who can answer this question?" serves as an SD for students to raise
their hands because they know that answering the question may lead to praise or
reward.

● Motivating Operations (MOs):

These are conditions that affect the desirability of a reinforcer or punisher. For
example, hunger increases the value of food as a reinforcer, making a person more
likely to engage in behaviors that lead to food.

● Effective Instruction Delivery

Effective instruction delivery involves providing clear, concise, and specific
directions to ensure that individuals understand what is expected of them. This
method helps to set up the desired behavior for reinforcement.

● Cueing
Cueing involves using signals or reminders to prompt a desired behavior. Cues can be
verbal, visual, or physical signals that serve as reminders for the expected behavior.

● Prompting
 Prompting is providing additional assistance or hints to encourage the desired
behavior, especially when an individual is learning a new skill. Prompts can be verbal,
gestural, or physical.

IV. PUTTING ALL TOGETHER TO APPLY OPERANT CONDITIONING: APPLIED

BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS

A. METHODS FOR ENCOURAGING BEHAVIORS

Reinforcing with Teacher Attention
Psychologists advise educators to "accentuate the positive" by rewarding excellent behavior
and disregarding misbehavior. They also advise using differential reinforcement, which
involves quickly rewarding appropriate behavior while disregarding poor behavior. These
techniques are thought to be effective methods for managing the classroom (Alber &
Heward, 1997, p. 277; Alber & Heward, 2000).

Selecting Reinforcers: The Premack Principle

A helpful guide for choosing the most effective reinforcers is the Premack principle, named
for David Premack (1965). According to the Premack principle, a low-frequency behavior
(a less-liked activity) can be effectively reinforced by a high-frequency behavior (a desired
activity). This is known as "Grandma's rule": “First, do what I want you to do, and then you
may do what you want to do”.

Shaping
Shaping, also known as successive approximations, is a technique for teaching that divides
difficult behavior into manageable portions. By dividing abilities and procedures into
smaller, more manageable steps rather than aiming for perfection, this approach aids in the
training of personnel. It involves task analysis by R.B. Miller. A task analysis depicts the
logical steps that lead to the final aim. Awareness of this process can assist teachers ensure
that pupils have necessary skills before they move on to the next step.

Positive Practice
Through positive practice, students switch out one behavior for another. This method works
particularly well for handling academic errors. Students who make mistakes ought to
practice the right answer and fix them as quickly as they can. The similar principle can be
used when students disobey the rules in the classroom.

B. CONTINGENCY CONTRACTS, TOKEN REINFORCEMENT, AND GROUP

 CONSEQUENCES
Contingency Contracts
A teacher creates a customized contract with each student, outlining precisely what the
student must achieve in order to qualify for a given privilege or reward. Students
recommend actions to be rewarded for and the benefits of participating in particular
programs. Since the negotiating process teaches students how to set fair goals and follow
contracts, itself can be educational.

Token Reinforcement Systems

Giving good grades to every student who deserves them is a difficult task. This matter can
be resolved with the use of a token reinforcement system, which gives tokens to all students
for both good academic performance and respectful classroom conduct. However, token
reinforcement systems are complicated and time-consuming. Generally, they should be used
in only three situations:
1. to motivate students who are completely uninterested in their work and have
not responded to other approaches;
2. to encourage students who have consistently failed to make academic
progress; and
3. to deal with a class that is out of control.

Group Consequences
A teacher can use reinforcement based on target student behavior or collective behavior,
earning rewards by adding points to class or team totals. Group consequences can also be
used without class division, but caution is needed as the whole group should not suffer for
individual misbehavior if the group has no real influence over that person.

C. HANDLING UNDESIRABLE BEHAVIOR

Negative Reinforcement
Negative reinforcement can be used to enhance learning by stopping or avoiding unpleasant
situations. However, true behaviorists argue that too much student thinking and
understanding are needed for negative reinforcers to work. Teachers can ensure unpleasant
situations improve when student behavior improves. Negative reinforcement also gives
students a chance to exercise control. As soon as they perform the appropriate behavior, the
unpleasant situation ends.

Reprimands
Studies have indicated that when reprimands are given adequately for the entire class to
hear, disruptions either get worse or stay the same. Some students take pride in being called
 out in public for wrongdoing, or they don't want their peers to witness them "lose" to the
teacher. Students typically react well to private reprimands if they aren't used excessively
and the classroom is generally a pleasant, welcoming environment (J. S. Kaplan, 1991).

Response Cost
Anyone who has ever paid a fine is familiar with the idea of response cost. People must
forfeit money, time, or privileges for breaking certain regulations (J. E. Walker, Shea, &
Bauer, 2004).

Social Isolation
The tactic of social isolation, also known as timeout from reinforcement, is one of the most
controversial behavioral techniques for reducing undesired behavior. The procedure is
taking a really disruptive student out of the classroom for 5 to 10 minutes.

Some Cautions about Punishment

Anytime you think about using punishment, you ought to combine it with another strategy.
First, the punishment must be administered and the unwanted behavior must be stopped.
The second goal is to make clear what the student should be doing instead and to provide
reinforcement for those desirable actions. Thus, while the problem behaviors are being
suppressed, positive alternative responses are being strengthened. Punishment does not, by
itself, promote good behavior. Strict discipline sends the message to students that "might
make right" and may provoke revenge.

D. REACHING EVERY STUDENT: SEVERE BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS

Students with severe behavior problems provide some of the most difficult challenges for
teachers. These studies show how applied behavioral principles can be useful in helping these
students:
● Lea Theodore and her colleagues (2001) worked with the teacher of five adolescent
males who were diagnosed as having severe emotional disorders.
● Kara McGoey and George DuPaul (2000) worked with teachers in three preschool
classrooms to address problem behaviors of four students diagnosed as having
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
● Behavioral interventions are often used with children with autism. Sara Bartlett and
her colleagues tested a response cost strategy to treat the problem of spitting by Evan,
an 8-year-old boy with autism who had very limited verbal abilities.

V. CONTEMPORARY APPLICATIONS: FUNCTIONAL BEHAVIOR ASSESSMENT,

POSITIVE BEHAVIOR SUPPORT, AND SELF-MANAGEMENT
 A. DISCOVERING THE “WHY”: FUNCTIONAL BEHAVIOR ASSESSMENT
Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) is a systematic process used to identify the
underlying causes or functions of challenging behaviors. It involves gathering information to
understand the "why" behind a behavior, which helps in developing effective interventions to address
or modify it.

Components of FBA:
● Identifying and Defining the Problem Behavior- Clearly describe the behavior in
observable and measurable terms.
● Collecting Data- Use various methods such as direct observation, interviews, and
questionnaires to gather information about when, where, and how often the behavior
occurs.
● Analyzing the Antecedents and Consequences- Identify what happens before
(antecedents) and after (consequences) the behavior to determine its function.
● Hypothesis Development- Formulate a hypothesis about the function of the behavior,
such as attention-seeking, escape, tangible gain, or sensory stimulation.
● Intervention Planning- Based on the hypothesis, develop and implement strategies to
modify the behavior, such as teaching alternative skills or changing the environment.

B. POSITIVE BEHAVIOR SUPPORTS

Positive Behavior Support (PBS) is an approach aimed at understanding and addressing
challenging behaviors in a proactive and constructive way. It focuses on promoting positive
behaviors by altering the environment, teaching new skills, and using positive reinforcement, rather
than relying on punishment. The goal of PBS is to improve the overall quality of life for individuals
by encouraging and maintaining socially appropriate behaviors.

Components of PBS
● Understanding the Behavior- Identify the reasons behind the challenging behavior
and the needs it fulfills.
● Prevention- Modify the environment to reduce triggers for challenging behavior.

● Teaching Replacement Behaviors- Teach new skills or alternative behaviors that

serve the same function as the problematic behavior.

● Positive Reinforcement- Reward appropriate behaviors to increase their likelihood of

recurrence.
 C. SELF-MANAGEMENT
Self-management is a process by which individuals use specific strategies to regulate their
own behavior, emotions, and thoughts in order to achieve personal goals. It involves setting goals,
monitoring one’s own behavior, evaluating progress, and making adjustments as needed.

Concepts of Self-Management:
● Goal Setting- Identifying clear, achievable objectives to work towards.
● Self-Monitoring- Keeping track of one’s own behavior, actions, or performance.
● Self-Evaluation- Assessing one’s progress towards the goals set.
● Self-Reinforcement- Rewarding oneself for meeting goals or showing progress.
● Self-Instruction- Giving oneself verbal cues or instructions to guide behavior

VI. CHALLENGES, CAUSTIONS, AND CRITICISMS

A. BEYOND BEHAVIORISM: BANDURA’S CHALLENGE AND OBSERVATIONAL

LEARNING
Albert Bandura (1977) identified several limitations of the traditional behavioral theory of
learning more than 35 years ago. Two significant differences between learning and performance, as
well as between enactive and observational learning, were highlighted by Bandura in his work, social
learning theory.

● Enactive and Observational Learning - Enactive Learning is learning by doing and

experiencing the consequences of your actions. Observational Learning is learning
merely by observing another person or animal learn, and this fact challenges the
behaviorist idea that cognitive factors are unnecessary in an explanation of learning.

● Learning and Performance- Bandura also distinguished between the acquisition of

knowledge (learning) and the observable performance based on that knowledge
(behavior). In other words, Bandura suggested that we all may know more than we
show.

B. CRITICISM OF BEHAVIORAL METHODS

- Critics state that behaviorism overlooks the impact of internal cognitive processes in
opposition to concentrating solely on external behavior. It might not adequately address
 critical thinking, creativity, and complex learning—all of which are important in today's
educational environments.

- Psychologists are concerned that compensating students for learning in any way will make
them less engaged in learning. Research suggests that offering incentives to students who
have become familiar with the subject matter may actually make them less enthusiastic when
the program finishes.

C. ETHICAL ISSUES
Goals
The strategies described in this chapter could be applied exclusively to teaching students to
sit still, raise their hands before speaking, and remain silent at all other times. This certainly
would be an unethical use of the techniques.

Strategies
Punishment may have undesirable negative consequences, such as encouraging negative
mental responses and functioning as an example of an assertive response. It is unnecessary
and perhaps unethical to punish when positive approaches—which carry less risk—have the
potential to be just as effective.

D. BEHAVIORAL APPROACHES: LESSON FOR TEACHERS

Students' learning histories are diverse, with each having unique fears and anxieties. These
may include public speaking, sports, persistence, or work-related conditioning. Group work can
reinforce or punish certain behaviors. However, there are some universal principles applicable to all
people:
1. No one eagerly repeats behaviors that have been punished or ignored. Without some
sense of progress, it is difficult to persist.
2. When actions lead to consequences that are positive for the person involved, those
actions are likely to be repeated.
3. Teachers often fail to use reinforcement to recognize appropriate behavior; they
respond to inappropriate behaviors instead and sometimes provide reinforcement
attention in the process.
4. To be effective, praise must be a sincere recognition of a real accomplishment.
5. Whatever their current level of functioning, students can learn to be more self-
managing.

Summary and Integration to their daily routine/life

Questions and Clarifications

Examination (15 to 25 questions)

Identification
Multiple Choice
Matching type
True or False