Here is a brief introduction to cognitive and behavioral learning theories.

Behavioral learning theories suggest that learning is the result of pleasant or unpleasant experiences in life, while cognitive theories of learning suggest that learning is based on mental processes. However, in a warning against being too guided by any one set of pedagogical principles, Johnson (2003) suggests that a fixation with process-oriented educational theories among those in education policy has not served the educational community well. by lining up professionals in separate groups. fields.

A behavioral view in psychology has held that exploratory analysis of cognition must begin with an examination of human behavior (William & Beyers, 2001). Behavioral theory has benefited from the work of early researchers such as Pavlov, Thorndike, and later the work of BF Skinner. Work related to the development of behavioral theories in educational psychology has allowed theorists to explore ways in which human action could be controlled through the manipulation of stimuli and patterns of reinforcement.

Cognitive theory, as it relates to epistemological processes within the individual, is based on the idea that learning occurs as a result of processes related to experience, perception, memory, as well as overtly verbal thought. Since the 1970s, information processing theory has been a dominant focus of study for cognitive theorists. Although the list of theories associated with cognitive theory is extensive, to say the least, for the purposes of this article, it is appropriate to mention several contemporary theories of cognition, including: information processing theory, schema theory and the theory of situated cognition.

Information processing is based on a theory of learning that describes the processing, storage, and retrieval of knowledge in the mind. Factors such as sensory registration, attention, working memory, and long-term memory play important roles in this theory of cognition. Schema theory offers that human beings interpret the world around them based on categorical rules or scripts; information is processed according to how it fits into these rules or schemes. As an epistemology, schema theory focuses on meaningful learning and the construction and modification of conceptual networks. Situated cognition theory posits a social nature of situated learning within a community of practice in which knowledge is socially constructed.

An important component of this type of learning, apprenticeship, is based on social learning theory. Situational cognition as a theory postulates that the individual is not a passive recipient, but an active self-reflective entity; as such, cognitive processes develop as a result of the interaction between oneself and others.

Another loosely related concept linked to social cognition is the construct of reciprocal determinism. This is a behavioral theory under which it is theorized that the environment causes the behavior and, at the same time, the behavior causes the environment. Under this theory, personal factors in the form of (a) cognition, affect, and biological events, (b) behavior, and (c) environmental influences, create interactions that result in triadic reciprocity (Pajares, 2002).

References

Johnson, B. (2003). Those Nagging Headaches: Perennial Problems and Tensions in the Field of Educational Policy. Education Administration Quarterly, 39 (1), p. 41-67.

Haystacks, F. (2002). Overview of social cognitive theory and self-efficacy.

Williams, R. and Beyers, M. (2001). Personalism, social constructionism and foundation of ethics. Theory and Psychology, 11 (1), pp. 119-134.