The emergence of behaviorism was due to the historical need to revise the subject of psychology and its methodological foundations. Representatives of behaviorism (J. Watson, E. Tolman, K. Hull, B.F. Skinner and others) were among the first to decide to destroy all old stereotypes and offer a new approach in return. Behaviorism gave psychology many useful ideas and techniques and had a strong influence on psychology as a whole. The science of behavior was created, the research of which contributed to the establishment of an objective approach in psychology.
In scientific psychology, there are two approaches, two points of view on the problem of mental development and its connection with learning:
1) theories proceeding from the recognition of the independence of development from training (education). Z. Freud, A.L. Gesell, Jean Piaget
2) theories that identify these two processes, reducing development to learning. Theories of learning. We are interested in the second approach and ideas related to it. The concept in modern science «learning» began to be used in educational psychology in relation to a person to refer not so much to the process as to the result of learning (learning «the teacher taught, and the student learned»). The task of the teacher is to teach in order to learn.
E. Thorndike «learning is development.» He formulated a number of laws of learning, which, in his opinion, are universal in nature (“the law of exercise”, “the law of effect”, “the law of readiness”) However, behaviorists were not interested in how mental development is related to learning, they believed that everything related to the psyche inaccessible to objective scientific research and identified development and learning. At the same time, the historical achievements of behaviorists in the field of education should be noted:
- Many patterns of skill development have been established;
- Practical teaching methods have been developed based on the control of external influences, the body’s reaction to these influences, as well as the receipt of various kinds of reinforcement, which further determines the formation of a particular reaction.
However, all teaching methods were based on the principle of reinforcing the correct acts of behavior, leading to the formation of the necessary skill, which excludes awareness, which could not develop the internal cognitive activity of the individual, i.e. to develop in him the skill of inteorization of activity. That. one of its main components, awareness and internalization of actions, is excluded from the specifics of learning.
The methods were actively developed by Skinner and were called the method of programmed learning, which in a short time allows the process of learning the necessary knowledge and skills, as well as correcting undesirable behavior. Programmed learning is a system of theoretical concepts and organizational forms that provide opportunities for self-acquisition of knowledge and skills by various categories of students. Currently, programmed learning is considered as one of the means of independent work of schoolchildren. Behaviorists have developed the main systems of programmed learning: linear (Skinner), branched (Krauser), adaptive. Each of the systems first of all solved the problem of the general principle of control based on feedback and reinforcement as the main regulators of the assimilation process. The feedback principle was implemented in two forms — control without errors (linear programmed learning) and control based on typical errors (branched programmed learning). Programmed learning comes from the need for maximum individualization of the learning process, in which each student can learn in accordance with individual characteristics, level of development, individual pace in learning. Programmed learning is based on a training program that strictly systematizes: 1) the training material itself; 2) the student’s actions to master it; 3) forms of mastering control.
We can highlight the main principles and advantages of programmed learning:
- Dosage of educational material;
- Active independent work of the student;
- Constant control of assimilation;
- Individual pace of learning;
- Possibility of using TCO, AOC;
- Ability to translate any material into a programming language.
Practical material for analysis was presented by the elementary educational school (pro-gymnasium) No. 10 in Sarapul. The school has an experimental site for the study and practical application of the system of developmental education by A.V. Zankov. The school has created educational programs for the main courses of elementary grades
Analysis of programs based on developmental education L.V. Zankova shows the existence of the basic principles of programmed learning, namely:
- Each topic is structured as follows: a system of tasks, questions of a search type is given, which leads to the disclosure of a specific unit of assimilation, after which definitions or rules are introduced.
- There is a constant adjustment of independent work of students;
- Exercises are given to apply the knowledge gained in the previous stages;
- Multiple return to the topic (at certain time intervals);
- All material is presented in the form of special units corresponding to the assimilation step;
- The assimilation step is the minimum unit of educational information. In case of a wrong decision, correct information is provided;
- There are several options for learning. At a more complex level, in case of a mistake, students receive an explanation of the mistake made, and the necessary knowledge is presented to him and an instruction is given to repeat the performance of a particular educational task.
Psychological and pedagogical monitoring was carried out, the results of the academic performance of the gymnasium No. 10 in Sarapul. The results are presented in the table:
academic progress
We see that the effectiveness of training in the Zankov system is higher than in training in other programs. The same results were obtained when comparing the main educational courses: Russian language, mathematics, literature, the world around us, technology.
Thus, the integral system of L.V. Zankova developing and improving the principles of the best representatives of the activity approach and programmed learning allows:
- educate each child at a high level;
- be aware of the learning process;
- optimize the overall development of the child;
- give priority to theoretical knowledge.