Learning theories outlines how individuals acquire, process, and remember details obtained when undertaking learning activities. Students have the potential to learn new skills and knowledge through observing various behaviors. The essay will focus on the social learning theory (SLT) to assess how the concept is applicable in different learning environments. The model is selected because it can easily be applied in education, the workplace, and even at home. Generally, learning refers to the overall process of acquiring new values, abilities, behavior, attitudes, and understanding. Can learning outcomes improve when trainers apply the SLT to educate people?
SLT is a learning theory that most educators have employed to ensure learners gather and retain adequate information. The model was developed by psychologist Albert Bandura to explore how the process of learning occurs. The scientist stated that learning majorly takes place through observation (Rumjaun & Narod, 2020). In other words, people tend to observe and then mimic what others do in order to understand and gain experience on how to perform the same task. Therefore, based on Bandura’s argument, human behavior is modeled by observing other people’s conduct. It requires a high level of self-efficacy for an individual to learn through observation.
The theory mainly follows five key steps to facilitate the effective learning outcome. First, SLT is based on observation whereby the learner must observe specific behaviors and engage in several mental processes to facilitate imitation. Second, the student must pay close attention to the respective conduct being displayed. Third, the learners should be able to retain the details of the behavior observed. The process requires the individuals to have a good memory to vividly remember the respective process they want to replicate (Rumjaun & Narod, 2020). Fourth, after the above three stages, the learner should be able to reproduce and perform the same task as it was being done. It requires students to develop creativity to enable them to understand the processes involved (Waitley, 2004). Firth, the trainee must be motivated to enhance the reproduction of the behavior. In most cases, the outcome of the conduct should be favorable to influence the ability of the observer to imitate it.
The SLT framework is applicable in different settings to reinforce a desired outcome. For instance, parents can use the approach to instill good morals in their young ones. Assuming guardians want their children to be gentle and calmly handle issues, the parents can always act the same way and solve problems without being aggressive. The young ones will observe the behavior and imitate it whenever they are faced with troubles.
Similarly, SLT can be applied in an educational setting to influence the learning outcome. For instance, educators can show learners how to solve a given calculation problem using a specific strategy and then allows learners to apply the same concept to solve a similar task (Ahn et al., 2020). The practice can easily influence the way students learn and interpret questions (Lloyd & Weiten, 2003). Furthermore, teachers can rely on modeling to advance the ability of the students to comprehend different concepts that might be challenging for the learners.
In addition, SLT is applicable in a work environment to enhance the development of new skills among employees. Generally, in every organization, there is always a need to learn different capabilities to promote the productivity of workers. In such situations, management may be forced to hire skilled personnel to come and demonstrate to the entire staff members how the respective task can be performed. Through close observation, employees can easily imitate the trainers’ approach to adjust and undertake the job (Santrock, 2006). In most cases, the practice is common when the firm recruits employees who are less experience, and then they are assigned together with more experienced persons to guide them through.
In summary, the SLT is an essential learning framework that allows learners to acquire necessary and relevant skills and knowledge from expertise. Based on Bandura’s philosophy, learners through observation can easily acquire new knowledge and skills from their trainers. For instance, in school a teacher may give an example on how to solve a given problem then provide related question to the students to evaluate using the same criteria used by the educator. Similarly, at workplace, junior staff can obtain relevant capabilities by working together with their seniors whereby they observe how the individuals perform the tasks. Therefore, SLT is vital learning theory that can easily improves the overall learning outcome since it relies on the ability to remember the details.
References
Ahn, J. N., Hu, D., & Vega, M. (2020). “Do as I do, not as I say”: Using social learning theory to unpack the impact of role models on students’ outcomes in education. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 14(2). Web.
Lloyd, M. A. & Weiten, W. (2003). Psychology applied to modern life, adjustment in the 21st century, (7th Ed.). Wadsworth Publishing.
Rumjaun, A., & Narod, F. (2020). Social Learning Theory—Albert Bandura. In B. Akpan & T. J. Kennedy (Eds.), Science education in theory and practice (pp. 85-99). Springer, Cham. Web.
Santrock, J. W. (2006). Human adjustment. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Waitley, D. (2004). Psychology of success: Finding meaning in work and life (5th Ed.). McGraw-Hill.