Principles of Learning: Explain Thorndike's learning theory in detail along with its educational importance.
Explain in detail Thorndike's theory with their educational implications. Or, critically explain Thorndike's contract theory. Critically explain the Bond Theory of
Thorndike.
Thorndike's Bond Theory
The principle of response is very important in the field of learning. Thorndike believed that behind every response there is some kind of stimulus. There are many elements to the learning situation. One of them or many elements together act as stimulants. These stimuli or stimuli exert their effect on the animal, as a result of which the animal reacts in a particular way. Thus, a stimulus is associated with a particular type of response. This relationship is manifested through the stimulus-response. This relationship is so strong that whenever this stimulus is repeated in the future, the animal starts reacting to this stimulus. The form of these relations or combinations becomes so strong that Thorndike has used the word 'connection' for them and that is why this principle is also called 'connectionism'. Some people have also given some other names to this theory, such as - Relationalism, Happiness - Pain Principle, Trial and Error Principle etc. Thorndike described the most important form of learning as learning by trial and error. The creature tries hard to reach a goal and thus he makes mistakes again and again and it also takes a lot of time. After repeated efforts, he adopts successful and beneficial actions and leaves behind unsuccessful and useless actions. In the end, a situation comes such that with every effort of the creature, the number of his errors also decreases and finally he achieves success in achieving his goal in less time.
Thorndike's Experiment Experiment 1. (Experiment) - To confirm this theory, Thorndike did many experiments on cats. In one experiment, he locked a hungry cat in a tangle-box. The door of this cage was fixed in such a way that the door would open when it was pressed. Outside this cage, a piece of fish in a plate, he started the process of getting out to eat it. He started trying to get out of the cage. Not knowing the position of the cage, the cat would wag its hands and feet, sometimes it would scratch the door with its claws and sometimes it would push on moving objects. Coincidentally, his paw fell on the chutney, due to which the twitch was suppressed and the door opened. The cat came out and ate a piece of fish and pacified his hunger. This experiment was repeated several times on the cat. Each time the number of errors made in opening the door decreased and finally a situation was reached when the cat was able to open the door on the first attempt without making any error and thus the relationship between the stimulus and the response was established and the cat was trapped in the cage. Learned to open the door.
Experiment 2 - Thorndike did his second experiment on rats. This experiment done on rats is called learning by maze. In this experiment, Thorndike took sonic rats. He took a hungry mouse and placed it at the beginning of the labyrinth. Put some food at the end of the maze. The mouse had to find a way through the maze to reach the food. There was only one right and right path. There were many unsuitable roads which ended in dark alleys. Such a provision was made that when the mouse went on the wrong path in the maze, it would get electrocuted. There was no Dakka on the proper road and he also got food. The first time the mouse made a mistake, it kept wandering here and there. Through efforts he found the right way and got food. Again when he was placed in the maze, he made fewer mistakes. After doing this many times, he left the wrong path and learned to follow the right path.
Experiment 3 - In this experiment, Thorndike took a glass tub for Fundulus fish, in the middle of which there was a glass wall dividing the two equal parts of the tub. There was a hole in this wall through which the fish could move from one part to another. Fundulous fish by nature prefer to stay in the shade. Now the glass tub was filled with water and kept in such a way that half of it remains in the shade and half of it in the sun. The fish were kept in the sunny part. He started trying to come towards the shadow part. After trying again and again, the fish were successful in finding the hole made in the middle of the glass wall and passing through this hole one by one reached the shadow part. In the first attempt of this experiment, the fish took more time to reach the shaded part. Then this time gradually decreased and a situation came when the fishes without wasting time from the sunny part immediately reached the shaded part by queuing. Thorndike's Laws of Learning Based on his experiments, Thorndike has presented some learning rules, which have been divided into two categories - main rules and minor rules. There are three rules under the main rules and five under the minor rules. Thus Thorndike's eight laws are stated.
(a) Primary Laws
(1) Law of Readiness
(2) Law of Exercise
(3) Law of Effect
1. Law of Readiness - This law of learning means that when an animal is ready to do a task, it takes pleasure in it and it learns it quickly and for which it is ready. If it does not happen and is forced to do that work, then he gets annoyed and is not able to learn it soon. In readiness lies the willingness to act. If there is no desire, the creature will surely sit down to study out of fear, but it will not be able to learn anything. Readiness is helpful in focusing the attention of the child. In fact, the meaning of the law of readiness is that when the creature considers himself ready to do or learn some work, then he does the work or learns very quickly and he also gets a greater amount of satisfaction. If he is not ready to learn, he gets dissatisfaction in that action.
2. Law of Exercise - According to this rule, by doing or repeating an action again and again, it is remembered and if left or not, it is forgotten. Thus this rule is based on using and not using. For example, to memorize poems and tables, they have to be repeated again and again and they have to be used along with practice. By not doing this, the learned work starts to be forgotten, for example - if the memorized poem is never recited, then it starts forgetting slowly. The same applies to cycling, typing, music, etc.
According to Thorndike, there are two sub-rules under the law of exercise.
(i) Law of Use
(ii) Law of Dis - use
(i) Law of Use – “When a variable conjugation is formed between a situation and a response, the conjugation becomes firm when other things are equal.
"(ii) Law of Dis-use) - "Under the law of disuse, due to non-repetition of any situation and response for some time, the coincidence becomes weak. ,
According to Douglas and Holland - "The work which is not done or repeated for a long time, it is forgotten. This is called the law of disuse or practice." Criticism of the law - Thorndike's law of practice There was also a strong criticism. Under this rule, instead of emphasizing on understanding, emphasis was laid on mechanical repetition or practice. By conscious learning, mistakes are reduced. This type of mechanical repetition is not found in human life. Thorndike wrote this Realized the lack and around 1935 he amended the rule of practice and formulated the rule of controlled practice. The action of controlled practice consists of repetition of action as well as understanding of meaning, reasoning, association of ideas, learning. All actions are included, etc. According to the second criticism, remembering an action does not depend on its repetition. If it was not so, the cat would have remembered both the right and wrong responses in opening the illusion box, but it only the correct responses Keeps it.
3. Law of Effect - This law of Thorndike is the basic law of learning and teaching. This law is also called the law of 'satisfaction'. According to this, the work done by which the creature gets beneficial results and in which one gets happiness and satisfaction, the same person repeats it. A person does not repeat the work which causes pain and gives sad results. In this way a person learns only that work from which he gets benefit and gets satisfaction. In short, the work that rewards the reward is learned and the action which is punished by doing it is not learned. Or the contract becomes firm. Thorndike pointed out that “satisfactory results neutralize the stimulus and response or response relationship.” In contrast, “sad or unsatisfactory results critique the law of stimulus and response – like the law of practice, the law of effect too.” There was severe criticism. Behavioral psychologist Watson expressed his disagreement with this rule and said that contentment and dissatisfaction are subjective words. This law has been criticized for the fact that reward does not weaken the relationship in the same way as it strengthens the learning relationship. On the basis of punishment, human and animal also fully learn the action in which it is punished. Punishment is used in many animals such as teaching a horse to move, teaching a bear to dance, etc.
(B) Secondary Laws
1. Law of Multiple Response - According to this rule, when a new problem comes in front of the person, he takes different types of actions to solve it and keeps on doing it till he gets the right response. does not search. When this happens, his problem gets solved and he gets satisfaction. On failure, one should not sit with hands on hand, but is based on one's rule of 'try and mistake'. After that one should keep on following the remedy until success is achieved.
2. Law of Mental Set - This rule is also called the law of readiness or attitude. This law emphasizes that the reactions to the external situation depend on the attitude of the person, that is, if the person is mentally ready to learn then he will learn the new action easily and if he is mentally ready to learn If you are not ready then you will not be able to learn that task. Sleep, civilization, exhaustion, aspirations, emotions etc all affect our attitude. For example, Hindus fold their hands on seeing the idol, they are satisfied by bowing their heads in front of the idol, and by hurting the idol, they also get hurt. ( Learning is influenced by the Set or Attitude of the Learner )
3. Law of Partial Activity - This law emphasizes that there is no one reaction to the whole situation. It is only for some aspects or parts of the whole situation. When we repeat the same part of a situation, a reaction occurs. In this rule, the teaching formula 'from part to full' is followed. Teaching the lesson plan by dividing it into small units is based on this rule. In short, when a problem arises, a person concentrates his response on the basic elements, leaving behind its unnecessary detail. Thorndike has described the law of partial action only to find a solution to the problem by doing partial actions.
4. Law of Assimilation or Analogy - The basis of this law is prior knowledge or prior experience. When a new situation or problem is present, the person remembers another situation or problem similar to it, from which he has already gone through and in such a situation the person reacts to the new situation in the same way as he did in the old situation. . Learning becomes easier by linking new knowledge to previous knowledge on the basis of similar elements. The teaching formula 'from known to unknown' is based on this rule.
5. Law of Associative Shifting - As the name of this law suggests, there is a change in the learning response. This relocation is done towards the object attached to the original stimulus or to any of its associated stimuli. For example- saliva starts dripping from the dog's mouth after seeing the food material, but after some time saliva starts dripping only after seeing the food cup. Thorndike considered the adapted-response to be a special form of associative relocation.
Criticism of the Theory - The main points of criticism of this theory are as follows (1) This theory makes more explanation of simple and low level animal learning because the experimenter did all his experiments on animals.
(2) According to the theory, progress in learning comes gradually and the success that is achieved is often by chance.
(3) It takes a lot of effort to learn through effort and mistake. This wastes energy and time. Only a lot of effort and practice does not bring much benefit.
(4) This theory considers the process of learning as mechanical and also considers human as mechanical whereas human does not learn mechanically.
(5) Emphasis has been laid on memorization based on the rule of practice.
(6) Behaviorists do not follow the 'law of influence'. According to him the 'rule of practice' is the main one. This is the whole essence of learning. But Thorndike does not consider 'practice' as the absolute element for learning. He recognizes that learning takes some part of practice. Sometimes it has also been seen that no good result can be obtained by this. Thorndike emphasized both punishment and reward in the process of learning, especially reward. Punishment also has its own special importance in learning.
(7) Gestalt Psychologists - Strongly criticize Thorndike's three laws. Thorndike's theory is called Connectionnism, that is, he sees the relationship between Stimulus and Response in the process of learning. Thorndike tries to show how this relationship is established. According to him 'learning' is the organization of some 'independent units'. According to organicism, there is no need for such an organization because this organization is inherent in perception. According to him, the basis of 'learning' lies in the discovery itself. Therefore, on the basis of creative works, children should be encouraged to learn.
Importance of theory in education (Educational Implications) The importance of this principle in the field of education can be expressed as follows,
(1) By this principle, the person benefits from the experiences of the mistakes made in the past and his behavior gets improved.
(2) This principle lays emphasis on continuous effort. That's why the child is not afraid of any problem. He develops the qualities of patience and hard work.
(3) This principle is based on the action of practice by which the learned action becomes permanent. If a child fails in any of his work, then the teacher should not do the child. that he continues to encourage the student to try until he
(4) According to this principle, the child knows the goal, but he does not know the right way to reach there. Through various efforts, he finds out the right way to achieve the goal, by which the qualities of self-reliance and self-confidence develop in him, which prepares the child to fight the problems of future life. is formed.
(5) Through this principle, the child is optimistic and sees success in failure.
(6) This principle is especially useful for big and slow-witted people.
(7) This principle can be successfully used in the field of problem solving. ,
(8) This principle gives more emphasis on 'learning by doing'.
(9) According to this principle, while teaching children, their individual differences should be taken into account.
(10) According to this theory, student's attitude is closely related to learning. It is absolutely necessary to do. In this view, before teaching anything to the students, a positive attitude towards the work should be created.
(11) In this theory a lot of emphasis is given on motivation. Therefore, before teaching anything to the children, they should be well motivated.
(12) In this theory, understanding or insight is also used, which proves very helpful in solving various complex problems.
(13) In this theory, habits are formed as a result of repeated process. Also, this principle has a significant contribution in improving the bad habits of children.
(14) This theory gives a lot of emphasis on oral practice, so it is very useful from the point of view of subjects like grammar, music and mathematics.
(15) According to this principle, if the child makes a mistake repeatedly, then the teacher should give the signal to the student to rectify the mistake. If the student is not able to solve a difficult problem even after many efforts, then he should tell the correct solution to the problem so that inferiority complex does not arise in him.
