Understanding Your Learner: Conducting a Learner Analysis

Behavioral Learning Theory

The earliest theories of learning grew out of behavioral psychology. Behaviorism, as an educational learning theory, suggests that learning results in observable changes in behavior (Ertmer & Newby, 1993). Some of the most well-known behaviorists include Edward L. Thorndike, Ivan Pavlov, and B. F. Skinner. Their contributions to understanding learning focused on the observation of behavior and the predictable link between stimulus and response. Moreover, these early learning theorists argued that observing behavior was the most reliable way to research psychological and mental processes. Behaviorist theory posits that learners should be assessed prior to instruction in order to determine where instruction should begin (Ertmer & Newby, 1993). Limitations associated with behaviorism emerged in the late 1970s as researchers began to explore unobservable phenomena such as memory. As a result, a new theory of cognitive science, where memory, schema formation, and mental processes, was introduced and studied (Winn, 2004).