ABSTRACT
This is perhaps the most well known of all approaches to learning, stemming from the work of Pavlov and Skinner-although there are other influential behaviourists. It has also been the most common theoretical perspective used in education because it seems functional and scientific. However, we shall examine it in a little more depth and show that it is but one approach to learning and has weaknesses as well as strengths. This chapter starts by giving a behaviourist definition. Thereafter we examine the work of a number of the most well-known theorists in this field and analyse their work. The third section discusses conditioning, and finally we turn to teaching and learning.
