EduReadings: Social Learning Theory

This theory was developed by Albert Bandura and his associates. One of the theory's most important contributions to the science of learning was demonstrating that learning could occur without any overt behavior by the learner. That is, the learner did not have to do anything except observe what was going on around her. Social learning theory explains 4 components of human behavior to learn. Motivation, Attention, Retention and Behavioral Reproduction.



Motivation:         This theory suggests that to learn something, a learner has to be motivated. Because without any motivation to learn anything new he or she will be unable to give his best efforts in the process of learning which will eventually make the learning process a failure. So motivation to learn is very important.

Attention:        Second thing to be considered which is highly related with motivation is the attention of the learner towards the learning material. Because if the motivation is there he or she will give proper attention to what is presenting in front of him or her. Without the full attention no one can learn anything because of need to be fully attentive if you want to learn something new.

                      Few things can be done like turning off the cell phones or making the training room sound proof will help in keeping the learner's attention on the learning material.

Retention:          Once attention is focused on an object or event, the incoming information is processed for possible retention. Some of the information will be retained and some will be lost. The more training is designed to facilitate retention process the more learning will occur. To increase the retention rate, method of symbolic coding could be used in learning process. In symbolic coding information is translated into symbols meaningful to the individual. By using symbolic coding we can increase the retention rate of learner.

Behavioral Reproduction:          Behavioral reproduction is repeated practice. The more a person practices using new information, the more it is learned and retained. So it is like the learner is motivated to learn and give full attention and retain most of that and then you keep practice that new information again and again. This will make the learning process a big success.

1 Comments:

Mick Johan said...

It is an informative post.

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