Theories in Education on Behavior, Social Learning and Contructivism

New research and literature are being contributed to the theories of learning in the
hopes that the educational process will be successful and academically sustainable for students
all over the world. The theories of learning explore how children acquire, process, and retain
knowledge when learning, or more simply put, they explain how learning is accomplished.
Several theories that were developed by psychologists including Jean Piaget, Vygotsky, and
Bandura are included. Lev Vygotsky, whose work contributed to Social Constructivism, and Jean
Piaget, whose work was essential to Cognitive Constructivism, are credited with developing and
furthering the constructivism theory of learning. The essential principle of this theory is that via
their experiences, learners actively develop their own information, ideas, and ideals. By drawing
on their prior interactions and experiences, learners add new information to their existing ones.
The idea also highlights that learning is an active activity rather than a passive process whereby
the learner is a “empty vessel”, devoid of their own mental processes. Making meaningful links
between recent and historical knowledge is essential, and this can only be done through active
learning and first-hand experience. According to this view, all knowledge is subjective since
different students choose their own special way of comprehending and applying information
based on their prior knowledge and beliefs. As a result, various children's interpretations of the
same activity may result in different results. According to cognitive constructivism, new
information is actively created based on the learner's pre-existing cognitive structures and is
dependent on the learner's stage of cognitive growth. According to Piaget, a child progresses
through four phases of cognitive development. The first is referred to as the sensorimotor
stage, during which the kid learns through grabbing and sucking and can distinguish between
itself and objects. Children at this stage understand that an object can still exist even if it is not
in their range of view, which is known as object premeance. The preoperational stage comes
next. Children are able to think metaphorically, and language becomes more sophisticated as a
result of an expanding vocabulary. Their degree of cognitive development prevents kids from
exercising critical thought at this time. Children cannot, therefore, comprehend ideas like
comparisons, time, and other complex stuff at this developmental stage. Their vocabulary and
worldview expand, and they gain awareness of outside events, during the concrete operational
stage. Children become more reasoned and reasonable, and less egocentric. The formal
operational stage, which lasts till maturity and begins at age 11, is the last stage. At this point,
they are able to articulate their own thoughts, convey our arguments, and think fictitiously.
They possess analytical and critical thinking skills. In the cognitive developmental theory, Piaget
also introduces the term "schema." Cognitive structures are described by the term schema. A
schema adds to, modifies, or alters existing schemas to aid in our ability to interrupt and
comprehend information. Two processes—accommodation and assimilation—are used in the
adaptation process. The process of assimilating new information into an existing framework is
called assimilation. When a student adjusts or creates a new schema after learning new
knowledge, this is known as accommodation. Equilibration is the state in which learning new
information and adjusting schemas coexist in harmony. Lev Vygotsky's theory of social
constructivism describes learning as a cooperative process that emerges through the
interactions a child has with culture and society. Children learn socially, consciously taking in
information from others and their environment, according to Vygotsky. Children start to
develop when they can self-regulate. According to this hypothesis, the student can complete
tasks that are outside of their zone of proximal growth with enough teacher assistance.
Children working together in similar zones of proximal development share more sophisticated
methods of thinking, which makes cooperative learning ideal. Children who collaborate,
converse, and engage in other social activities with adults acquire higher brain processes,
including mediation, according to Vygotsky. a method whereby older kids or adults break down
more difficult things for students to better understand and acquire new psychological
capabilities and techniques.
The Social Learning Theory, developed by Albert Bandura, emphasizes that people
would imitate others' actions more frequently if they are pleasant and serve to reinforce that
behavior. Imitation includes actual reproduction and copying of the observed behaviors. The
Social Learning theory is considered to as a "bridge" between behaviorist and cognitive learning
theories since it integrates attention, memory, and motivation. Since not all learning may
benefit from direct reinforcement, this theory includes a social component that maintains that
new information can be learned just by observing how others behave and act.
The Behavioral Learning Theory is focused on observable and quantifiable behavior. The
behaviorist learning theory places a strong emphasis on the fact that behavior changes result
from learner-made associations between stimuli and responses and that stimuli, not free will,
are what drive behavior. Because of current psychological motivations and prior conditioning,
an individual chooses one response over another. This approach places a strong emphasis on
the idea that all behavior is learned from the immediate environment. Operant conditioning
behavior is the study of reversible behavior sustained by reinforcement schedules. It is behavior
that is "controlled" by its consequences. The Law of Effect, a concept introduced by Skinner,
asserts that undesirable conduct that is reinforced repeats itself whereas undesirable behavior
that is not reinforced is suppressed. While reinforcers are responses from the environment,
whether positive or negative, that enhance the likelihood that the action will be repeated,
neutral operants are responses from the environment that do neither increase nor decrease
the behavior from reoccurring. Punishers are actions that reduce the likelihood of the behavior
because they are associated with something bad.
Positive reinforcement is the process of encouraging behavior by giving the learner
rewards. By offering a result that the learner desires, this reinforces behavior. Negative
reinforcements increase behavior by removing a painful consequence the learner does not wish
to experience. Punishments, which end the behavior without making it worse, are the opposite
of reinforcements. Other behavioral theories exist as well, such as classical conditioning
proposed by Ivan Pavlov. The perspectives and concepts in these theories, which are on the
same spectrum, differ significantly from one another.
 According to the behavioral learning theory, behavior is generated as a response to
stimuli rather than through active learning. The Social Learning theory also refers to learning as
an active process because the learner must maintain an upstream thought process while
observing and retaining the observed behavior. The constructivist theory describes learning as
an active process where learners construct based on their past and current experiences. Both
the Social Theory of Learning and the Behavioral Theory of Learning place emphasis on the
importance of motivation and positive and negative reinforcement in predicting whether an
action will be repeated or abandoned. In constructivism, links are created between learning and
society and the outside world and meaningful interactions are had with it, as opposed to
behaviorism, where connections are made between stimuli and learning. Teachers can use
behavioral theory to ask questions that will elicit the proper answers, guide practice toward the
desired outcome, and reinforce the desired behavior. In contrast, under the Social Learning
Theory, teachers give students projects to complete in pairs of groups and give prizes to
encourage desired conduct in the students. To aid with student retention, the instructor may
conduct the same activity more than once. The instructor in a constructivist classroom is merely
a facilitator, and the students' prior knowledge has a significant impact on how they develop
cognitively. The teacher will only offer assistance in connecting and using knowledge. Positive
self-talk helps pupils stay motivated internally, and they are urged to work together and apply
problem-solving techniques. The three perspectives on learning are important and significant in
education. They can be used in classrooms concurrently and side by side, or one theory can be
implanted to meet the needs of the pupils.
The constructivist theory is very different from the behavioral theory and the social
learning theory. Although the three theories in practice provide varied outcomes, the learning
theories aid teachers and students in achieving their objectives and advancing their academic
careers. While the social learning theory describes learning as something that is observed and
repeated by modeling, motivation, and reinforcement, the behavioral learning perspective is
concerned with a passive way of learning where the learning happens without the student's will
or by design from the environment by giving reinforcements. Constructivist theory recognizes
the social component of learning, whereby students build their own knowledge that is
pertinent to their own cognitive level by drawing on what they learn from one another, their
environment, and other people. In contrast to constructivism, behavioral and social learning
theories do not place much emphasis on induvial cognitive levels. However, these theories are
essential to education since they improve student learning and make it easier for teachers to
fulfill academic objectives.