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Learning

Relationship Of Learning To School Performance



The concepts discussed above (such as conditioning, imitation, and modeling) would seem to have little role to play in modern education. Teachers, especially in the later grades, favor so-called constructive approaches to learning, which means that they arrange the environment in such a way that children are allowed to discover relationships on their own. This approach stands in contrast to the concept of conditioning, where the child can be seen as a passive receptacle who absorbs what the teacher presents, without regard to how it fits with the child's preexisting knowledge. Educators continue to debate these two extreme approaches, and some forms of conditioning and imitation, such as drilling multiplication tables, continue to be popular in U.S. schools. Furthermore, in classes for children with special needs, it is still common for classical and operant principles to shape children's behavior. In such classrooms, teachers award points for acceptable behavior and take away points for unacceptable behavior. Children can redeem these points for perks such as extra recess. So, notwithstanding the debate between learning theorists and constructivists, learning principles are still common in classrooms although the application is sometimes not a conscious result of the teacher's planning.



See also: MEMORY

Bibliography

Bandura, Albert. Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986.

Bandura, Albert, Dorothea Ross, and Sheila Ross. "Transmission of Aggression through Imitation of Aggressive Models." Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 63 (1961):575-582.

Domjan, Michael. The Essentials of Conditioning and Learning. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole, 1996.

Freidrich, Lynette, and Aletha Stein. "Prosocial Television and>Young Children: The Effects of Verbal Labeling and Role Playing on Learning and Behavior." Child Development 16 (1975):27-36.

Hay, Dale, and Patricia Murray. "Giving and Requesting: Social Facilitation of Infants' Offers to Adults." Infant Behavior and Development 5 (1982):301-310.

Meltzoff, Andrew, and M. Keith Moore. "Newborn Infants Imitate Adult Facial Gestures." Child Development 54 (1983):702-709.

Parke, Ross, and Ronald Slaby. "The Development of Aggression."In Paul Mussen ed., Handbook of Child Psychology, 4th edition. New York: Wiley, 1983.

Schiamberg, Lawrence. Child and Adolescent Development. New York:Macmillan, 1988.

Spiegler, Michael D., and David Guevremont. Contemporary Behavior Therapy, 4th edition. Elmsford, NY: Pergamon, 1990.

Stephen J. Ceci

Rebecca L. Fraser

Maria Gabriela Pereira

Additional topics

Social Issues ReferenceChild Development Reference - Vol 5Learning - Classical Or Respondent Conditioning, Operant Or Instrumental Conditioning, Relationship Of Learning To School Performance - Observational Learning