Cognitive and Social Learning Theories

The state of Kansas is one of only three states to enact comprehensive social and emotional learning standards with developmental benchmarks in K-12 education, (Dusenbury, Weissberg, Goren and Domitrovich, 2014), and it has also tied those standards to college readiness. The Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) lists The Kansas social, emotional, and character development model standards aligned to Kansas college and career readiness standards (2012). Among these standards is the ability to “Identify multiple techniques to manage stress and maintain confidence” (KSDE, 2012). In order for stress management and confidence strategies to be taught, the students, teacher, and education system as a whole, must make it a priority instead of assuming that students will develop the skills on their own.

Within the elementary classroom, there is a copious amount of rules, guidelines and considerations a teacher must take into account. Learning theories such as social, cognitive, and behavioral learning should be implemented to provide framework and boundaries for the children. When incorporating learning theories in the classroom, it is important to have a clear understanding of how they work and how they will benefit the child and the teacher. These particular theories allows the teacher to run an efficient and effective classroom from day one.

In Conclusion, learning is something that you can grow from figuring out what strategies work for you whether is be from writing it down to seeing in the form picture and model. Learning is something where you do what is best for you and your difficulties and what can help you overcome your difficulties in any class that you have and once you find what works for you, you will be able to do your best and achieve what you

Learning is the main process by which children acquire behaviour and understanding from the environment. Children learn in various ways and acquire new ways in learning, as they get older.

Social learning theory, developed by Bandura, discusses how people learn from one another through observation, modeling, and imitation bridging an individual’s attention, memory and motivation. Social learning theory identifies the importance of cognition, observable behavior, individual self-efficacy, and the extent of how the events surrounding an individual affect them; their locus of control. Social learning theory also looks at individual problem behavior being influenced by positive or negative reinforcement (Ashford & LeCroy, 2012).

Learning by definition is any relatively permanent change in behavior that is brought on by experience or practice. The “Relatively Permanent” part of the definition refers to the fact that when people learn anything, some part of their brain is physically changed to record what they have learned. (Farmer et., 2013; Loftus & Loftus, 1980). This is actually a process of memory, for without the ability to remember what happens people cannot learn anything. It is thought that once a person learns something it is present somewhere in their brain in physical form even if they cant get to it. As for the inclusion of experience or practice in the definition of learning this is seen in the fact that if we do something and have a negative experience such as pain we are likely not to do it again where as if we have a positive outcome after doing something we are more likely to do it again. Other changes in the brain are caused by growing. This is controlled by our genetic blueprint. This is called maturation.

The Social Learning Theory is best defined as crime is learned through associations with others who commit crimes. Juveniles are very impressionable or gullible, wherein they want to be popular or part of the in-crowd or clique. In comparison to the 1970’s versus today, juveniles are emulating criminals depicted on television not just through associations. Consider the current state of technology, specifically the internet and websites such as “You Tube.” With respect to crime and juvenile delinquents, You Tube is and can be a negative influence. In addressing the topics of associations and crime, the Columbine massacre, as well as the current school shootings, can be attributed to the Social Learning Theory.

Researchers define learning as a permanent change in performance of individuals undergoing the process of adaptation. Learning is considered as an act of individual to enhance his knowledge. Every person in this world will pay proper attention to what he learns, how he learns, and when he learns. There are specific learning styles for each one of us and it differs from person to person. And, it is due to this reason that researchers have defined nature of learning as paradoxical.

Learning is the process of gaining knowledge or skills through study, experience or teaching. It is a process that depends on experience and leads to long-term changes in the possible behaviour of an individual in a given situation, in order to achieve a goal.

The cognitive theory also believes in learning from prior experiences. They believe prior experiences, knowledge, and expectations are key to learning (Learnativity, 2002). The cognitive theory has a great way of thinking. Many self-help books have been written on the cognitive point-of-view. They believe that by changing our thoughts we can change our mood, decrease our anxiety, or improve our relationships. By thinking more positively we can easily quit smoking, make more friends, enjoy our job, pretty much do anything we set our mind to. Their basic premise is, if we perceive the glass as half full rather than half empty, the world will look much brighter. And in a

Furthermore, criminal behavior is often studied from the point of view of the social learning theory. Thus, Jeffrey (1995) argues that criminal behavior is learned from the social environment. Akers (1990), on the other hand, views criminality from the point of rational choice theory, arguing that social learning is not the only indicator of criminal behavior and that a choice made by a person who is being influenced by their immediate environment can deter from engaging in criminal activity. Building on Akers research, Bradshaw (2011) points out that social learning theory has its limits when it comes to criminology is not applicable many of the types of crime, specifically, corporate and state crime.

New Mexico Public Education Department (2009) has developed English Language Development Standards (ELD). The Pre K-12 ELD is based upon the World Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) Consortium’s model (2004, 2007). Each appears in two frameworks: Summative and Formative. The two frameworks can be used for planning curriculum, instruction, and assessment of English language learners. The common elements of the two frameworks are: 1). English development standards, 2). language domains, 3). grade level clusters, and 4). language proficiency levels. The formative strategy, in particular, is used to develop cultural and linguistic diversity within the state through instructional assessment activities, tasks and projects across the English language development standards.

Social Learning theory is one of the most widely researched theories because it attempts to explain the origins of criminal behavior. Albert Bandura was one of the pioneers of this approach. His main point was that criminals are not ‘born’ criminals; rather individuals learn to be criminals through a process of learning, which occurs as a result of experiences. (Akers, 1990:3). However, this paper’s focus is not on Bandura’s theory rather it is on Ronald Aker’s theory that explores which associations are more significant than others when it comes to deviant behavior. According to this theory, individuals, especially youth, who associates more with those who engage in deviant behavior are much more likely to commit a crime (Verrill, 2005:33). If social learning theory states that criminal behavior is learned then the ‘nothing works’ approach does not make sense because like everyone else, criminals also learn everything through punishment and rewards (Cullen & Gendreau, 2000). Meaning if they learned deviant behavior, then they could also learn lawful behavior with effective rehabilitative programming. Rehabilitative programs, such as Multisystemic therapy, which focuses on violent juvenile offenders and recognizes that individual’s association with others greatly impacts how that person will make deviant and non-deviant choices (Borduin et al., 1995).

Akers and Sellers (2013) has stated that social learning theory is an expanded theory of differential association processes and improves it with differential reinforcement and other principles of the behavior theory. They added classical conditioning (the sharpening of involuntary reflex behavior); discriminative stimuli (internal stimuli that lead to signals for behavior); schedules of reinforcement (rewards and punishment ratio following behavioral feedback); and other theories of behavior (Akers & Sellers, 2013).

Many learning theories can be used to motivate learning and improve people’s ability, knowledge, skills, and many other important factors. Social learning theory and Goal setting I consider very important. Social learning theory emphasizes that people learn by observing others, like role models who are credible and knowledgeable. The doctrine recognizes that behavior that is reinforced or rewarded tends to be repeated. For example, employees can learn new skills or adapt different behavior from experiencing the consequences of using a practice or professional qualifications. They also can observe others and identify the consequences of their actions. During the process of social learning theory attention, retention, motor production, motivational processes, and matching model performances represent essential elements. This theory recognizes that behavior that is reinforced or rewarded tends to be repeated. People can learn by observing others and seeing the consequence of their actions. For example, when I lived in Japan, I couldn’t speak the language and learned through observation of other people. You learn with no additional performance by using cognitive process and modeling. Self-regulation techniques are a great tool that people can use to improve their abilities. In fact, by observing other employees’ performance, some individuals can increase appropriate behavior and decrease the inappropriate one. For example, people can use logical verification and observation of