The second chapter in Driscoll’s book, Psychology of Learning for Instruction, discusses the concept of radical behaviorism which is associated with Skinner. The behaviorism concept encompasses experimental behavior analysis in order to proactively manage the principles of behavior as the basis of applying the concepts such as behavior modification, instruction objectives, and analysis of performance to create a comprehensive improvement plan.
Human behavior is a highly subjective and complex area of study. Every group that forms throughout a person’s life whether at work, social, sports, or university group, will encompass a unique blend of individual behaviors which will affect and mold that particular group’s development process, role definition, dynamics, and effectiveness. Ultimately, no two groups of people are ever the same. This may sound like an effortless conclusion to draw to the un-trained. However, after weeks of arduous study and experimentation, I am a testament to the fact that it takes many weeks of observations to construct an understanding of the way learners behave and how this behavior affects the learning process as a whole entity.
Realization of the strong effect of my instructor role became apparent during an exercise that tested the learner’s synergy level. During this exercise, I realized that when I am not authorizing myself as the leader, the effectiveness of my instructional methods suffers since the learners are tuned to behave in a particular way in response to different stimuli. The theoretical basis for reviewing behavior rests in an understanding of content expertise, understanding education, and instructional design. These theories are associated with the conceptualization of how behavior modification supports effective learning. Central to the development of a behavior modification approach is an understanding of the need and purpose for the learning objective. The development of skills and competencies for behavior modification is pivotal to the success of the entire learning process.