Schools of Learning

(i) Evaluate each of the three approaches to learning (Behaviourist, Cognitive and Social Learning approaches).

Learning is not just some place we visit, it is not something we can buy, or something we stumble upon, it just does not happen. Learning is a way of life from conception to our imminent deaths, even through death we learn. Learning has constantly evolved throughout the centuries, from the first academics and thinkers like Plato, Aristotle to Pavlov, Gestalt, and Freud to today’s modern approaches. Learning helps us to improve our own personal and social well being, most importantly its helps up to develop our economic world, to improve the lives of those in the underdeveloped worlds. We have an obligation to future generations to continue the work began centuries ago to develop, expand our minds and push out the boundaries. We are the foundations for future knowledge.

Firstly, I would like to establish the main roots of learning. I will briefly evaluate the approaches of the three main schools of learning - Behaviourist, Cognitive and Social.

Behaviourist

The belief of the behaviourists’ was that we learned from our environment. Our conditioned response to same on a constant basis, constantly associating and constantly reinforcing.

Ivan Pavlov (1849 – 1936) a Russian physiologist was one of the main proponents in this school of thought. From extensive research and observation of his now famous dog, Pavlov developed the concept of association. He considered this the only way learning would occur (McDonagh and Weldridge, Behavioural Science for Mkt and Business students, pg. 42) Pavlov probed the notion of respondent behaviour. This is where a reflex is drawn out through certain stimuli, this theory also focuses on repetition. The purpose then was to produce a behavioural change in a desired direction, known as Classical Conditioning.

Pavlov’s work was further developed by B.F. Skinner (1904 – 1990) an American Psychologist and...