Learning is the search for meaning and successful learning cannot be accomplished effectively without focusing on primary concepts. As each of us goes through our daily routine, we tend to forget how much time and effort it took in order for us to be able to achieve our everyday responsibilities. Sometimes we realize that we have taken the learning process for granted, but only when we are forced to learn something new in order to complete a difficult task. There are many different theories that attempt to describe the learning process. Within the spectrum of instructional control you will find behaviorism and constructivism placed on either end of the broad scope of instructional theories (Orlich & Harder, 2004). Constructivists argue that humans have the capability to learn naturally through a process of discovery and problem-solving, thus we can easily define constructivism as student initiated learning (Snowman & Biehler, 2003). Behavioral theories focus on observable behavior rather than underlying motivations and rely heavily on teacher initiated instruction (Eggen & Kauchak, (2001). In the following paragraphs we will focus on behaviorism and how it is applied to the classroom. .
Behaviorists assume that human behavior can be changed through operant conditioning which includes the positive reinforcement of desired voluntary responses and the negative reinforcement of undesired voluntary responses (Snowman & Biehler, 2003). The father of Behaviorism, John Watson, applied Ivan Pavlov's study of stimulus and response reactions in his experiments with dogs to the learning process in humans and other organisms. Pavlov's theory is often referred to as classical conditioning and occurs when a natural reflex responds to a stimulus (Philips & Soltis, 1998). Just as Pavlov conditioned dogs to salivate with the ringing of a bell without the presence of food, Watson believed that humans can also learn to be stimulated by a neutral stimulus, such as a bell, instead of by an unconditioned stimulus like hunger.
