SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY

Albert Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory



Albert Bandura's Social -Cognitive Theory

Introduction

This assignment based on a critique on eth article “Social Cognitive Theory”, written down by Heidi Denler, Christopher Wolters, and Maria Benzon. The article is a successful contribution to the field of this theory and provides valuable insights about the learning behaviors of the basic principles of learning theory. Modern theorists have focused on learning reinforcement as a necessary condition for the acquisition, retention and behavior modification. Skinner, for example, argued that external reinforcement necessary for learning. Albert Bandura, while recognizing the importance of external reinforcement, does not consider it as the only means by which acquired, retained or change our behavior. The article focuses on the topic in four broad perspectives:

Historical Origins Of SCT

Core Concepts Within SCT

Television: Educator's Friend or Foe?

Implications For Classroom Instruction

Synopsis

Bandura believes that mental functioning understood in terms of continuous interaction between the factors of behavioral, cognitive and environmental (Bandura, 1986). This view is very different from that of Skinner, which limits the explanation of human behavior to a two-factor one-way model in which external events are the sole cause of behavior (Bandura, 1986). In contrast to Skinner, who is almost always considered learning through direct experience, Bandura lays emphasis on the role of learning through observation in the acquisition of habits of behavior. Indeed, the most distinctive feature of the socio-cognitive theory of Bandura is the belief that human behavior largely shapes by observation or on the basis of examples.

"People have developed an increased ability of learning through observation, which allows them to expand their knowledge and skills based on information supplied by the simulation. Indeed, in essence, all the phenomena of learning through direct experience can occur indirectly by observing people's behavior and its outcomes" (Bandura, 1986a, p. 14-15).

Theory

The article uses the following parts of the theory:

It is based on the concept that shows the cultivation of learning process in the social context. Learning usually takes place in the social context where much of what is learnt is based on observation.

The concept is based upon classroom learning, motivation, and achievement outcomes under the present circumstances.

The theory of influence from the environment is another useful concept for this issue. Our learning involves not just the acquisition of new behaviors, but also of knowledge, cognitive skills, concepts, abstract rules, values, and other cognitive constructs.

Social Foundations of thought and action: A Social-Cognitive Theory is an explanation of the motivational and cognitive processes that can be used to define and reshape classroom systems and other pedagogical practices.

In the centre of social, cognitive theory is the position that the new forms of behavior can be obtained in the absence of external reinforcement. Bandura notes that much of behavior that we demonstrate is acquired by way of example: we're just seeing what others do, and then repeat their actions. This emphasis on learning through observation or example and not on direct reinforcement is the most characteristic feature of the theory of ...