Behaviorism in Today’s Schools-part 01 What is Behaviorism

This is part one in the series Behaviorism in Today’s Schools, as well as the first posting within the Education Pedagogy section of the Ed Tech Guy blog. This site is not just about the tech toys in education and training it is also about building curriculum and strong educational values.

As most educators who have been in the profession can attest to, behaviorism has been a dominant force in thoughts and policies. Before a person can decide if a school of thought is for them, it is important to understand the underlying ideology of that school. In this essay we will take a closer look at what behaviorism is, what are some of the basic tenants, and is it still a viable school of thought in today’s educational world.

What is Behaviorism?

While this term is well known in the education world, what does it actually mean? Behaviorism is a school within psychological that deals with learning and personality.
When dealing with an organism, be it human, monkey, pigeon, rat, lawyer, etc…there are three components:

• The stimulus
• The brain
• The outcomes

The Stimulus

This is any change in the environment. It is something that causes the organism to leave a state of equilibrium and seeks to once again regain a stable relation with its environment.
The environment can be both internal and external. The external environment is what is around us. Hot, cold, bright, dark, loud, quite, anything we find ourselves immersed in outside the body. The internal environment is what is going on inside our bodies. Are we tired, hungry, under stress, etc…
So a stimulus is any change in our internal and/or external environments.

The Brain

Behaviorism was developed in part as a reaction to the then pervasive introspective ideas of psychology. Behaviorist holds dear the idea that the brain and thoughts cannot be directly observed and therefore are not part of the overall equation of behavior. This is a polar opposite of introspective psychology. Introspective is when the individual thinks about their thinking. They self report on their own thoughts, desires and sensations. (Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2008)
The term observable is a sacred word in behavioral psychology. All stimuli, and outcome must be observable. Thoughts are subjective, they cannot be objectively studied therefore are inconsequential to the true behaviorist.
Keep in mind as the discussion continues that observable is a key term in behaviorism. If it is not observable, and cannot be objectively measured then behaviorists do not sully themselves with it.

Outcomes

This is the organism’s response to the stimuli. This is the component of the equation that behaviorist are interested it. It is by manipulating the stimulus that outcomes should change

Join us for Part 02 Classical Conditioning