Dismissed by many educators as archaic and dehumanizing, behaviorism seems anathematic in the post-modern world. However, after generations of Dr. Spock parenting and self-esteem school have directly contributed to high depression rates, low resilience, and falling performance among American youth, popular television shows like The Nanny and The Dog Whisperer are influencing the rediscovery of shaping as a tool for increasing learner focus and achievement.

Behaviorism reemergent

In addition to being a useful tool for training animals and children, conditioning is widely applied to modify behavior in clinical and correctional settings, classroom management in schools, recruit training in the military, and human development practices in business. Emerging applications of conditioning include training individuals suffering from bipolar disorder, autism, and Alzheimer's to be functional without medication. This section will review the modern history and controversies of behaviorism to conclude that, alone as a philosophy, behaviorism may be archaic and dehumanizing, but used as a tool in the right situations can be effective for producing behavior change.

Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist in the 1890s, observed that he could cause a dog to salivate by training the dog to associate a ringing bell with food. Pavlov had scientifically demonstrated classical conditioning, which is "a basic form of learning in which a stimulus that usually brings forth a given response is repeatedly paired with a neutral stimulus. Eventually, the neutral stimulus will bring forth the response when presented by itself" (DuBrin, 2000, p. 33). American Psychologist John B. Watson would use Pavlov's work on classical conditioning to pioneer a natural science of psychology called behaviorism, which dominated American education in the first half of the 20th century.

Assumptions

Behaviorists hold that learning is a passive process, with the learner as a blank slate that is shaped by responding to environmental stimuli (Schunk, 2004; Knowles, Holton III, & Swanson, 2005; Merriam, Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 2007). The underlying assumptions of behaviorism are as follows:

• the focus of study should be observable behavior, not internal thought;
• the environment determines learning, not the learner; and
• contiguity and reinforcement are central to learning; learning occurs by connecting and repeating external events (Merriam, Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 2007).

Behaviorist theories

Key theorists in the behaviorist perspective include the following:

• Thorndike’s connectionism
• Watson's behaviorism
• Skinner's radical behaviorism
• Bandura's social cognitive theory

Applications

Behaviorist learning practices generally focus on shaping behavior through conditioning. Shaping involves identifying the goals of instruction and the student's current behaviors, then formulating the steps the student must take to achieve the goals. The teacher then moves the student through the sequence of steps using demonstrations, individual student work and group work. The teacher provides immediate feedback as the student actively responds to the material.

Programmed instruction and contingency contracts serve as examples of behaviorist instruction practices (Schunk, 2004). Programmed instruction provides training materials that are developed using behaviorist principles of learning, like computer-based instruction. Contingency contracts apply reinforcement principles to change behavior by serving as agreements between teacher and student detailing the goals, deliverables, and desired outcomes for the student.

Millennia of trainers and parents have used conditioning techniques to successfully train animals and children, so it is no surprise that research generally shows that behaviorist methods positively influence achievement. Schunk (2004) asserts that behaviorist techniques enhance learning effectiveness in any environment, “regardless of theoretical orientation” by helping to assure that learners master the basic concepts necessary to operate at higher levels of learning and performance (p. 82).

For example, shaping can be effective for teaching a dancer the basic positions of ballet. Once the basic positions are mastered, the dancer can more easily piece together the steps to learn an entire dance under the instruction of a choreographer or create a new dance alone. Likewise, the baseball coach can help a player get out of a batting slump by using conditioning to help the hitter unlearn bad habits that are blocking performance.

Criticism

Behaviorism received significant criticism for being dehumanizing, as stated by Edwin Locke (1977): "The systematic use of reinforcement strategies leads to a demeaning and dehumanizing view of people that stunts human growth and development.” Behaviorism became out of vogue as research increasingly demonstrated that people can learn by observing others and thinking logically about consequences (Bandura, 2001), and holistic and contextual approaches to learning gained popular acceptance in educational practice.

Interestingly, after generations of Dr. Spock parenting and self-esteem schooling seem to have contributed to high depression rates, low resilience, and falling performance among American youth, popular television shows like The Nanny and The Dog Whisperer seem to be causing a reemergence of shaping as an effective tool for increasing learner focus and achievement. In addition to being a useful tool for training animals and children, operant conditioning is widely applied to modify behavior in clinical and correctional settings, classroom management in schools, recruit training in the military, and organizational development practices in business. Emerging applications of operant conditioning include training individuals suffering from bipolar disorder, autism, and Alzheimer’s to be functional without medication.