BEHAVIORISM AND LEARNING: HOW IS EDUCATION INFLUENCED BY THORNDIKE’S THINKING?

Abstract

Thorndike did pioneering work not only in learning theory but also in educational practices, verbal behaviour, comparative psychology, intelligence testing, the nature-nurture problems, transfer of training, and the application of quantitative measures to socio-psychological problems. Thorndike’s years of animal research was summarized in his doctoral dissertation, entitled “Animal Intelligence: An Experimental Study of the Associative Process in Animalsâ€, which was published in 1898 and expanded upon and republished as Animal Intelligence in 1911.The issue of transfer training as purported by Thorndike includes drill, or practice, of desired responses and environment in which the teacher forms and models appropriate habits. It is therefore not surprising what Polytechnic Colleges and Universities as well as Technical Secondary Schools utilize work experience, practice of task in the curriculum. Pupils must then perform task to the point of high competence. This is captured in the ‘Law of Exercise, which states that as long as a response is made to a particular stimulus, each recurrence of that stimulus tends to recall that response as an S-R bond is being strengthened. Thorndike established the ‘Law of Effect’ under controlled conditions. He observed that particular consequences had a direct effect on behavior and made a backward-acting effect on the strength of a behavior. Thorndike noted that reinforcement (positive or negative) had strong effect on behavior. This is a critical rationale for the employment of different reinforcement by teachers in the learning process because of its effect on behavior modifications. Currently, Thorndike’s ‘Law of Effect’ has continued to contribution to the teaching-learning environment as educators employ different reinforcement in an effort to directly affect the learning process