ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we consider pedagogy with respect to behaviourism, that is, how teachers can operate within the epistemology and how they can apply the theories outlined in the previous chapter. We have seen that behaviourist teaching is based on the belief that learning occurs when the appropriate responses are reinforced and inappropriate responses are ignored or punished. Learning is an active process of building more and more complex responses as the reinforcement becomes more focused and the responses more refi ned under the varying and developing reinforcements. We have also seen how new behaviours are established through modelling. Behaviourist learning theory strongly underpins pedagogy and a wide range of teaching strategies. Those strategies enhance and enable the learning environment and the preparedness of the learner to learn.
