Social Learning Theory

Abstract

Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory (SLT) focuses on how learners can acquire knowledge and change their behaviors and attitudes by observing people around them and through their social interactions. People's behaviors, social media tools, and verbal instructions can be called as models, and the actions desired to be taught are regarded as modeled behaviors. Both the modeled actions and reactions to those actions in learning environment can lead to behavior or attitude changes in learners. In order to increase the likelihood of the desired outcome, four steps are suggested: attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation. All these steps are intertwined, and affect learning. Therefore, teachers embracing SLT should plan their teaching considering these four steps; be aware of their roles as models; and enrich learning environments by adapting diverse strategies to increase learners' attention, to ease the retention process, to encourage the reproduction of the behavior and lastly to motivate learners.