PSY 3107-1: EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Course Content
1. Definition, scope, concerns and relevance of Educational Psychology
2. Historical development of Educational Psychology (Contributions from B.F. Skinner, Jean
Piaget, Jacques Rousseau and John Locke)
3. Educational Psychology as a discipline
4. Theories of learning and their classroom application
5. Remembering and forgetting
6. Factors influencing learning
7. Transfer of learning
8. Individual differences in learning
9. Motivation, attitudes and learning
10. Personality and learning
11. Psychology of classroom behavior and management
12. The exceptional learner

INTRODUCTION

What is psychology?

Psychology is defined as the scientific discipline that studies animal and human behaviour and mental
process. As a science psychology is used in the understanding of behaviour, prediction of behaviour
and control of behaviour.

What is behavior?

Behaviour as anything we do, such as thinking, talking, sneezing, sleeping, loving and so on. It ois an
action that can be seen and oserved in an objective way and this involves both external and internal
responses to stimulation, observed and measured in an objective way.

Goals of psychology

To

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 • Describe behavior ( i.e. what is the nature of this behavior)
• Explain/understand behavior (i.e. why does it occur)
• Predict behaviour (i.e. can we tell when it will occur again)
• Control behavior (what conditions affects it)
• Improve behaviour

As a science of behavior psychology has many branches and approaches. The following are some of
the branches of psychology:
• Industrial psychology.
• Experimental psychology.
• Developmental psychology.
• Counseling psychology.
• Social psychology.
• Educational Psychology.

What is education? - It is the process of developing desirable habits, skills and attitudes that make
an individual fit into his society. It is the overall learning that takes place daily through formal
experiences, interactions and observations whether through formal or informal channels.

What is educational psychology?

Educational Psychology is defined as an applied branch of Psychology. It is concerned with the

application of the principles and techniques of psychology to the solution of the problems confronting
the teacher in the classroom.

Educational Psychology is also defined as the study of what people think, do and feel as they teach
and learn a particular environment where education and training are intended to take place

As an applied branch of psychology Educational Psychology focuses on the psychological study of

everyday problems of Education from which the teacher derives principles, models, theories, teaching
procedures and practical methods of instruction and evaluation. This involves the selection from the
total field of psychology of those facts, principles and techniques, which relate to the teaching-
learning process as they operate in and out of the classroom.

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Principal functions of educational psychology

• To develop and evaluate theories of human motivation, development, learning and instruction.
• To examine and propose modifications of educational practices.
• To evaluate teaching methodology in the light of psychological theory.
• To provide scientific approaches to research, with regard to psychological aspects of
education.

NB:

The broad aims of educational psychology are to understand, predict and control behavior in learning
situations.

Although Educational Psychology borrows heavily from psychology it has evolved as a distinct
science with its own methods and theories.

EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY AS A DISCIPLINE

• It is an applied science (works on controlled way and obeys particular rules)

• It uses scientific approach
• It borrows from other disciplines e.g. cognitive psychology, personality psychology etc.
• It has subject matter which is human behavior
• I t has objectives (main one being developing necessary skills and competencies in prospective
teachers in order to enable him/her understand, control and predict behavior of the learner)
• Uses the research findings and principles developed by psychologists in the laboratory to
improve the teaching-learning process in the classroom.

Areas of educational psychology

As an applied science it borrows from many areas within the wider field of psychology. The following
are some of the areas Educational Psychology borrows from:
1. Cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology that deals with the mental processes that rare
involved in understanding behavior. These are thinking, remembering, forgetting, problem solving
and perception. From this area of psychology, the teachers apply the principles of enhancing memory

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of learned material. He also learns what to do in the learning situation in order to minimize forgetting
of the learned material.
2. Developmental psychology
Developmental psychology is the science that studies the changes that take place in the lifetime of a
person. The changes take place in the body from the time of conception through uterine life, infancy,
early childhood, middle and late childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle adulthood, later
childhood, aging and dying.
Changes also take place in the intellectual dimensions. These changes refer to the development of
thought and the ability to acquire knowledge and use it throughout the chronological and mental ages
of children. In this dimension the child develops intellectually for example Piagetian stages of
cognitive development.

According to the Piaget, the child development is based on the reflexes that are present at birth. These
reflexes lead to the sensori motor development that is present from birth to two years of age
intelligence.
From sensori motor stage of cognitive development the child develops pre-operational reasoning,
concrete operations and formal operational stage. These stages are well covered in the human
development course. Our duty here is to point out that the teacher applies the knowledge in order to
develop curriculum that is in the line with the intellectual stage of development for the child. It also
helps the teacher to gauge the level of difficulty of content so that he can organize teaching and
learning activities that present the right level of difficulty to learners.
From the Piagetian theory the teacher also derives the teaching and procedures that are appropriate
to the level of cognitive development of the learner. For example, if learners are concrete thinkers,
then the teacher uses concrete things in teaching them. But if the learners are formal thinkers, then
the teacher can use abstract thinking. The application of information gained from cognitive
psychology makes teaching and learning very effective.
From developmental psychology the teacher understands the learners’ emotional, social and moral
development. With this understanding he is able to develop learning activities that help the learner
to develop positively in these areas. This ensures that the learner is well rounded in all aspects of
development; intellectually, physically, socially, morally, emotionally and even spiritually.

3. Social Psychology
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The teacher also borrows from the area of social psychology. Social psychology also refers to the study
of social interactions and their influence on individual and group behavior.
• From social psychology the teacher understands how attitudes are acquired and changed. For
example, how learners acquire positive or negative attitudes towards a teacher, a subject,
school or even the schools administration and how the acquired attitude affects learning and
adjustment to school.
• From social psychology the teacher gain insights to how biases and prejudices are acquired
and how they can affect learning.

• The teacher also acquires information regarding how friendships develop and how friendships
are maintained. This has a bearing on the learners‟ social adjustment and acceptance by the
peers and it effects on learning.
4. Psychometric psychology
Psychometric psychology deals with the measurement theory, which equips the teachers with the
skills needed in measurement of relevant variables. These are variables like achievement and
personality traits in educational settings. Equipped with the measuring skills the teacher is able to
evaluate learning and to make the necessary adjustments so that effective learning takes place.
5. Personality psychology
Personality theories are concerned with individual differences. They explain why each learner is
unique in terms of his needs and his personality traits. Information gained from personality
psychology equips the teacher with the tools he needs in terms of understanding each learner in
particular and learners in general. This understanding helps the teacher to organize learning
experiences that cater for each learner. This is important since the teacher deals with learners with
differences in intellectual ability, emotional experience and expression, moral thinking and behavior,
sociability and other traits that learners bring to class.
6. Mental hygiene
Mental hygiene refers to those factors that promote the child’s adjustment. These factors may exist in
the home, in the school among peers and in the community and may operate to promote or hinder
learning and adjustment. The teacher who is aware of these factors will be prepared to handle any
problem that arises from any of the possible angles and help the learner to cope adequately in all
situations.

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Guidance and counseling are major concerns of mental hygiene. The teacher who can both guide and
counsel learners will help to promote appropriate methods of solving problems and dealing with the
stresses of daily living in the learner.

The concerns of educational psychology

Educational Psychology is concerned with the learning situation. The learning situation involves
group dynamics as they operate to affect learning.
Educational Psychology is concerned with
• the learning process- this refers to the means by which learning can be made more active.
• the teacher’s role as the facilitator of learning.
• the learner- it seeks to discover the dynamics that operate to make the learner receptive to
learning.

FOCUS AREAS OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

The teacher needs to know something about the focus areas of Educational Psychology.
The focus area can also be referred to as the elements of teaching –learning situation. From the start
it is important for the teacher that the teaching –learning situation is a highly complex one. It consists
of many variables, which interact in highly complex ways. These variables may interact to hinder or
promote learning. The elements are the following:
1. The subject matter
The subject matter refers to the content. For the content to be learned with ease, it needs to be
selected, organized and presented in a manner that makes it learnable. The teacher should also
deliver the content in fluent and clear communication. In order to succeed in this task the teacher
should take into account the level of difficulty of content for the class level in order to ensure that the
content is assimilated by the learners.
2. The learner
The learner is a very important element in the teaching learning process. Without him nobody is
learning and of course if nobody is learning there is no teaching. The teacher should understand
learner characteristics. The learners in any classroom situation bring differences in stages of
intellectual development, personalities, learning styles, experiences, and level of motivation, abilities,
emotional dispositions, cognitive styles and perception. They bring differences in social economic
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backgrounds, cultural orientation, religious and family backgrounds as well. For these reasons the
teacher needs to use appropriate psychological theories and principles in order to understand each
learner and his personality dynamics. He needs to understand learners in general and social dynamics
that promote learning for each of them.
3. The learning process
The element is learning process. This is the process by which people acquire changes in behavior,
improve performance, reorganize their thinking, discover new concepts and information. The
learning process involves everything that people do when they learn. From educational psychology
the teacher gets to learn how pupil think and perceive, remember and forget. The teacher gets to
know the conditions that make these behaviors probable and also the conditions that inhibit them.
The teacher should have the awareness that teaching and learning are not coextensive. With this
knowledge the teacher can ensure that learning has all the chances of occurring.
4. The learning environment
The learning environment refers to the surrounding in which the learner finds himself in and in which
the learning process takes place. The learning environment can also be defined as any factor that
affects the learner or the learning process. This refers the facilities that are provided for learning. The
facilities may be adequate or inadequate for the use they are put in. They may be safe or unsafe,
comfortable or uncomfortable appropriate or inappropriate for their use.
5. The social climate
When we consider the learning environment we need to focus on the social climate as well. This is a
very important factor as it helps to facilitate learning or to hinder it. The social climate refers to the
human interaction that take place in any classroom situation between the teacher and the learners.
The social climate can be amicable or hostile. The hostilities may exist between the teachers.
Hostilities can also take the nature of intra and inter class fights. A hostile relationship between the
school and its immediate neighborhood can exist in situations where the school is engaged in hostile
social environment learning and teaching are affected negatively.
From the study of Educational Psychology the teacher gets to know the relationship between the
physical and social environment and the promotion or inhibition of learning.

RELEVANCE/ IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

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 • It assists educationists and educators to diagnose and deal with problems which adversely
affect teaching and learning.
• It is an important tool for tests, marking and using the tests results.
• It promotes learning process
• It serves as link between curriculum on one hand and the environment on the other hand.
• It equips the teacher with the scientific approach to learning and teaching.
• It equips the teacher with scientific and practical insights into the various aspects of the
learning teaching process
• It helps the teacher to gets to know and to apply what consists realistic goals for learning and
teaching. With this knowledge the teacher learns to avoid the use of pre-scientific methods
(such as habits, use of common sense, personal impressions, popular beliefs, folklore
/staffroom tales, subject centered approach, drilling) in the learning teaching process.
An Appraisal of the pre-scientific approach – these methods may not be entirely wrong. Their
only problem lies in the fact that they could be detrimental to learning, they could prevent
learning because they are incomplete. Their incompleteness lies in the sense that they do not
take into account the psychological factors that play a highly significant role in stimulating,
directing and disinhibiting the learning process. It is also true that the teacher who uses the pre-
scientific approaches to teaching lacks the awareness of the complexity and dynamism of the
learning process.
Benefits of the scientific approach
It is important to find out what the teacher gains from using the scientific approach in his interactions
with learners. This teacher demonstrates competence in the following skills:
• He possess the traditional skills of explaining, demonstrating, informing and evaluating.
• He can organize learning activities.
• He can diagnose learning difficulties of pupils.
• Can motivate children to learn so that they direct their energies towards the learning tasks.
• He is able to select materials appropriate to the level of learner’s attainment.
• He can identify the learning difficulties of children and refer them for treatment by other
specialists.
• The teacher has a better theoretical and functional understanding of the educational process.
• He has a broader deeper and more effective understanding of the learning teaching process
based on scientific research. This approach is realistic and it leads to effective teaching.
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 • Educational psychology fills the gaps in the teachers understanding of educational processes.
Corrects misconceptions so that the teacher sees education and its processes in a different
light. He sees possibilities, relations and problems.
• The teacher can identify problems in a given classroom situation and can find more solutions
to these problems.

Importance of educational psychology to a prospective teacher

It helps the teacher to understand the following
• Developmental characteristics of children and thus utilize the knowledge to impart
instructions and moulding the student’s behavior according to specified goals of education
• the nature and process of classroom learning
• Individual differences- each student is unique and possess individual characteristics
• The problems and challenges that children experience
• The use of effective teaching methods
• The process of carrying out and interpreting research data
• Effective approaches to classroom management and control.

Aspects dealt with in educational psychology

• Children’s learning and adjustment in school
• Educational placement
• Test and measurement of such concepts as intelligence, personality trait and temperaments
• Improving motivation in learning
• Dealing with learners disorders e.g. dyslexia – a reading disorder
• Setting programmes to improve student’s academic performance and behavior
• Providing guidance and counselling to facilitate student’s holistic growth and development.

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TOPIC 2: DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
The history of educational psychology is as old as the process of education on earth.
Those who contributed to development of educational psychology as a major applied field within the
context of psychology include:
Pre scientific educational psychology development
1. Democritus
-He was a Greek philosopher
- emphasized the influence of the home on the development of personality of the child.

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-In 5th century B.C, he wrote on the advantages of education and how home environment influenced
children.
2. Aristotle & Plato 4thC B.C
Their concern was on the purpose of education, how students learn, the extent of environmental
influence on learning, individual differences, learning and how education could bring about moral,
physical and emotional development.
3. Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
He argued that true knowledge originated from ideas with which the people are born with than from
experience (i.e. nature not nurture).
4. John Locke (1652-1704)
He believed that people are born with a body and a mind that is blank tablet on which experience
would imprint knowledge (i.e. he believed in nurture not nature).
5. Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
He proposed a system of education aimed at making the young people morally and intellectually self-
sufficient and therefore free.
6. Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827)
He argued that teaching should focus on drawing student’s ideas and capabilities rather than on
drilling information into children.
7. John Friedrich Herbert (1776-1841)
He stressed on the importance of interest and appreciation in education considering human
personality as a dynamic and individually structured system of forces.
8. Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852)
-He held the view that children are naturally good and that they unfold by developmental stages. -He
saw creativity as arising from an inner pressure rather than an outer pressure so that learning results
from drawing out of inner potentialities.
-He developed the method of teaching infants popularly known as kindergarten, an approach that
emphasizes the importance of early experiences in education.

The historical development of Educational Psychology is shaped by contributions from various

influential thinkers. B.F. Skinner, Jean Piaget, Jacques Rousseau, and John Locke made notable
contributions, each offering distinct perspectives on how people learn and develop.
1. John Locke (1632–1704) – Empiricism and Tabula Rasa

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John Locke was a British philosopher who laid the foundation for the behaviorist view of learning
through his idea of empiricism—the belief that knowledge comes from sensory experience. His
famous notion of the mind as a “tabula rasa” (blank slate) emphasized that children are born without
innate ideas, and all learning comes from experience and interaction with the environment. This was
revolutionary at a time when innate knowledge was thought to be important, and it influenced future
educational practices to focus on the role of experiences in shaping behavior and understanding.
2. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) – Naturalism and Child-Centered Learning
Rousseau's philosophy in "Émile, or On Education" highlighted the importance of natural
development and the belief that children should be allowed to grow without the interference of rigid
societal expectations. He emphasized that education should align with the stages of a child’s
development, particularly focusing on the natural progression of learning. Rousseau's child-
centered approach advocated for fostering a child’s instincts and curiosity, which was a precursor to
more progressive educational movements that advocate for freedom and autonomy in learning.
3. Jean Piaget (1896–1980) – Cognitive Development Theory
Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist who introduced the theory of cognitive development, which
has had a lasting impact on educational psychology. He proposed that children move through four
distinct stages of development (sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal
operational), each characterized by different ways of thinking and learning. His work emphasized that
children actively construct knowledge through interaction with their environment, challenging the
previously dominant behaviorist views that focused solely on observable behavior. Piaget's work
gave rise to constructivism, a learning theory that remains influential in modern educational
practices.
4. B.F. Skinner (1904–1990) – Behaviorism and Operant Conditioning
B.F. Skinner, an American psychologist, was a leading figure in the field of behaviorism and is known
for his work on operant conditioning. He believed that behavior could be shaped by reinforcement
(rewards) and punishment. In education, this translates into using positive and negative
reinforcements to encourage or discourage behaviors. Skinner's work laid the foundation for many
instructional practices, including the use of programmed instruction, behavior modification
techniques, and reinforcement-based learning methods.
Conclusion
• John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau laid the philosophical groundwork for later
developments in education, focusing on experience and the natural development of children.

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 • Jean Piaget revolutionized how we understand children's cognitive development and
provided a framework for education that acknowledges developmental stages.
• B.F. Skinner introduced principles of behaviorism that continue to influence instructional
techniques through reinforcement and conditioning.
These contributions have collectively shaped Educational Psychology by addressing how individuals
learn, develop, and can be best supported in educational settings.

Developmental history of scientific educational psychology

It started in later half of 18thC. The key people include
1. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
He carried out studies of sensation, perception, audition, attending behavior, vision, and
discrimination among others.
2. Herman Ebbinghaus (1850-1908)
He pioneered study on memorization and forgetting.
3. G. Stanley Hall (1844-1924)
Held the view that the central aim of education was the continuation of the race and further believed
that the learning experiences must correspond to the child’s stage of development and that emotional
development takes precedence over intellectual development.
4. James Mckeen Cattell (1860-1944)
He contributed in the area of individual differences and mental testing.
5. Alfred Binet (1857-1911) and Theodore Simon (1873-1961)
They published the first general intelligence test.

THE HISTORIC GROWTH OF PSYCHOLOGY

Modern psychology is believed to have begun in 1879 at Leipzig by Wilhelm Wundt (who is
recognized as the father of psychology) though its roots can be traced to philosophy and physiology
through philosophers such as Aristotle (384-322BC) and physiologists such as Johannes Muller
(1833).
Assignment: Identify the contributions of Aristotle and Muller in development of psychology as a
discipline. Also identify the contribution of Wundt in development of psychology.

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Development of history of psychology as a science
The development of psychology will be examined by looking at the following schools of thought.
Note:
A school of thought is a system of ideas, which the proponent wishes to promote. A theory is based
on a school of thought. Schools of thought are not always accepted and may be controversial.
1. STRUCTURALISM (1932 – 1920)
Structuralism is a term that originated from the word structure. This was the first school of thought
to emerge and the main proponent was Edward Tichener (1967-1927), who was Wilhelm Wundt’s
student.
This school of thought emphasized the role played by experiences. To the structuralists, each
experience was made up of three basic elements, namely;
• Physical sensations: the ability to see, feel and taste.

• Aesthetics: Feelings that we develop towards other people, objects and ideas.

• Images: our thoughts and reflections or memories.

All these elements must be present in order to create an experience.
Example:
When we meet a dog along a street, the three elements are combined as follows to make an
experience:
Physical sensation: The ability to see the dog
Aesthetics : The feeling of fear that the dog evokes in us
Images : The thoughts of having been bitten by a dog or having seen somebody being bitten.
Structuralists used introspection method to identify the aforementioned elements. Introspection is
a technique involving self-reporting of experiences and feeling by the subject of study( i.e. the person
or animal being studied in an experiment).
Introspection is beneficial because it has the advantage of enabling subjects to give reports of their
feelings and experiences. However, you need to consider the following side effects of using this
method:
• It is prone to cheating.

• It is not suitable for studying subjects who cannot communicate verbally, for example,
young children, animals, the sick people and the mentally retarded.
• It ignores all the observable traits.

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 • It is not possible to verify the information given by the subject.

The decline of structuralism

By 1920, structuralism began to decline because of the following reasons:
• Other better schools of thought emerged, for example functionalism and behaviorism.

• The method of collecting information, introspection, could not be accepted any longer.

2. FUNCTIONALISM (1890 – 1925)

Functionalism is a term derived from the word function, which implies practical application.
The main proponents of functionalism were William James and John Dewey. They disagreed with the
structuralists‟ idea of experiences being made up of three elements: sensations, aesthetics and
images.
According to the functionalists, a person‟s mind was governed by associations. Through these
associations, a person constantly revises past experiences through:
• Perceptions

• Emotions
• Sensations
These elements work in unison and cannot be separated.
How did functionalists study behavior?
You have already noticed that the structuralists relied entirely on introspection to gather information.
This method was eventually found inappropriate. The functionalists wanted to strengthen the
process of gathering information; hence, they included the observation method in the study of human
behavior.
Functionalism was therefore more objective than structuralism since it addressed the conscious and
sub conscious levels. The conscious part was covered through introspection while the subconscious
area was addressed through observation.
Functionalism was eventually eclipsed by Behaviorism in 1925

3. BEHAVIORISM (1925 – PRESENT) .

Its main proponent was John B. Watson and he asserted that psychology should only concern itself
with behaviour that was measurable and observable. He insisted that introspection had no part to

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play in the study of human and animal behaviour. Watson is on record as having stressed that
behaviour could not be inherited but was wholly learnt.
As we have already noted, behaviorism is still relevant today.

4. GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY
The term “Gestalt” means learning by insight, whole or form.
Gestalt psychology began early 19th century but its prominence was felt in the early 1930s. Its main
proponents were:
1. Max Wertheimer
2. Kurt Koffka
3. Wolfgang Kohler
This school of thought originated in German, with the Gestalt psychologists focusing on the study of
human experience and perception in relation to:
• Man‟s ability to solve problems
• Man‟s ability to learn from the environment

The Gestalt psychologists used introspection to gather information on perception among other issues

5. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
The individual differences school of thought became prominent after 1930s. Its main proponent was
Sir. Francis Galton. Galton asserted that behaviour could be inherited. He justified this by giving
results of a study on his family tree. He was generally impressed by the great number of exceptional
people in his family, for example, geniuses like Charles Darwin (his half cousin).
Galton is accredited with formulation of mental tests and the study of individual differences. His is
the first person to introduce statistical concepts in the field of psychology, one of them being the
concept of correlation coefficient.
Note:
A correlation coefficient is a numerical index used to show the degree of similarity between two or
more sets of data.
6. B. F. SKINNER’S S-R) PSYCHOLOGY
This school of thought became prominent in the 1950s and is still highly respected. It is named after
its main proponent B. F. Skinner. Skinner agreed with J. B. Watson, that psychology should only focus
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on what was measurable and observable in the study of human behaviour. His version of behaviorism
also addressed the significant role played by reinforcement in the learning of new behavior. He
asserted that positive reinforcement increased the probability of re-occurrence of the rewarded
behaviour, while its withdrawal led to extinction of the consequences of learning.
Note:
Skinner is one of the leading authorities in the field of operant/instrumental conditioning,

7. PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOLOGY
This school of thought became prominent after 1960. Its main proponent was Sigmund Freud. He
advocated that much of our behaviour is the result of hidden motives and unconscious wishes, and
that problems of adulthood had a foundation in early childhood experiences.
He laid the foundation for psychotherapy with his famous theory on psychoanalysis (Talking cure).
Freud is also famous for his contribution to the understanding of personality. He viewed a person‟s
personality as being made up of three components:
The ID: The selfish part of personality.
The EGO: The realistic part of personality
The Super-EGO: The moral part of personality

BRANCHES OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY

The branches of modern psychology can be summarized as follows:
1. Biological Psychology
This branch is concerned with links between biology and behaviour.
Note:
In this category, you will find specialists like behavioral neuro-scientists, neuro-psychologists,
physiological psychologist and bio-psychologists
2. Developmental Psychology
This is a branch of psychology concerned with the life of an individual from birth to death in terms of;
• Physical aspects

• Cognitive aspects
• Social aspects
3.General Experimental Psychology
This field applies experimental techniques to study behaviours like:
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 • Leaning

• Memory
• Motivation

• Emotion

• Personality
4. Personality Psychology
This branch of psychology focuses on the way people express themselves depending on their most
consistent and enduring inner qualities or traits.
5. Social Psychology
This area looks at people from a scientific perspective, in terms of how they think about others, how
they relate to others and how they influence each other.
6. Clinical Psychology
The clinical psychology branch involves diagnosis/assessment and treatment of psychological
dysfunctions.
7. Psychiatry
This is a branch of medicine with a strong bias on psychological disorders. The main theme is
psychological therapy.
Activity: What is the difference between Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology?
8. Industrial/Organizational Psychology
This area studies the work place and seeks ways of improving working conditions and relationships.
An industrial psychologist also addresses issues like job placement and the resolution of
employer/employee conflicts.
9. Educational Psychology
This is a branch of psychology that applies the principles of psychology to the solution of educational
problems, for example, using Guidance and Counselling principles to solve conduct disorders in
learners.
Revision Questions
1. Define the term “Psychology‟.
2. Describe two perspectives of psychology.
3. Give two reasons for the decline of Structuralism.
4. Describe the main themes of any two branches of modern psychology

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TOPIC 3: SCIENTIFIC TECHNIQUES OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY
Objectives of this topic
• Identify the various scientific methods suitable for gathering information
• Explain how data derived using these methods can be interpreted.
Human behaviour is not only complex, but it is also variable from day to day. No two persons are
equally alike in behaviour, including identical twins. As a relatively new science, psychology is still
developing a knowledge bank using tested research methods from the older sciences. These methods
are:
1. OBSERVATION TECHNIQUES
Observation is the most basic objective process of gathering information in psychology. In general,
observation involves the experimenter noting what his subject does and not what he feels or thinks
Observation is more objective than introspection, which is so subjective that it led to the decline of
structuralism in 1920.
While carrying out observations, the experimenter records the environmental conditions under
which behaviors are exhibited, in addition to the different types of behaviors exhibited in similar
situations. Let us now look at the advantages and disadvantages of using this method.
Advantages
• This method frequently calls for very accurate observation equipment, for example, video
cameras, and Global Positioning System (GPS) devices for studying subjects.
• The observation method can be used to study animals, young children, the feeble-minded, the
sick and the mentally retarded.
Disadvantages
• This method only concerns itself with the observable aspects, not what is happening within
the subject being studied.
NB:

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The observation equipment mentioned above can be a very expensive component in the research
budget
If you wish to accurately judge behaviour, you may combine the observational and introspective
techniques as the functionalists recommended. (Refer to the previous lesson).
Activity:
Identify five behaviours that a class teacher may want to observe among students

2. THE FIELD STUDY METHOD

The Field Study method is the technique frequently referred to as Naturalistic Observation, because
it involves critical studies of subjects in their natural environments. All observations must be made
without interfering with the subject’s environment. The subjects could be human beings or animals.
Advantages of Field Studies
• The main advantage of this method is that the investigator does not require direct co-
operation of his subjects. Experience has shown that field studies are most successful when
the subjects are unaware that they are under study.
• Another advantage is that the results of observations can be verified by an independent
investigator.
Disadvantages of Field studies
• This method can be time-consuming. For example, if an investigator wanted to study the
migration habits of elephants, the results may not come within the expected time probably
due to environmental variations.
• Field studies can be expensive with respect to procurement costs of observation equipment,
travel expenses, and honoraria for assistants.
• The subjects can behave artificially if they suspect that they are being observed.
• Some field studies can lead to loss of life or injury, especially those involving fierce animals.
Note:
• Field studies do not have to be expensive, dangerous or unreliable
• Very accurate results can be obtained in investigator plans well
Question: Identify four activities at school that can be studied using the field study method

3. THE LIFE-HISTORY METHOD.

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This technique involves an extensive study of certain aspects of a subject over a long period of time.
This method may take any of the following forms:
• Day book method
• Clinical method
• Biographical method

i. The Day – Book Method

This is mostly used in child study. The child’s development is carefully observed and recorded on a
daily basis. On completion, such record provides a standard with which to judge normality of children.
ii. The Clinical Method
The medical life history of a person can be reconstructed on the basis of the medical record available.
The researcher’s aim would be to;
• Discover the cause of a problem (its origin).
• Identify a solution to the problem.
The method is vigorous and requires the participation of at least three professionals:
1. Psychiatrists or physicians, to examine for signs of mental or physical illness.
2. Psychologists, to evaluate the subject’s mental state.
3. Social workers, to examine the subject’s home background factors.
This method usually involves follow-up interventions in order to monitor progress once a
remediation program has been embarked on.
iii. Biographical Method
This is simply an attempt to obtain information from an analysis of a subject’s biography.
Note:
A biography is a record of a person’s life that can be written by others or the subject himself.
Advantages of the Life-History Method
• The day-book method can be used to accurately determine whether a child is normal or not
• The clinical method gives vital information on the subject, which could also be beneficial to
family members especially when a certain condition appears to have a familial (genetic)
connection.
Question: Identify three health conditions that have a genetic connection

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 • The biographical method gives important clues on characteristics that underlie a subject’s
personality.
• It may be possible to verify information if records exist
Disadvantages of the Life-History Method
• The day-book method is unlikely to be accurate if record keeping is inconsistent or non-
existent.
• The clinical approach may be time-wasting if past medical records are not centralized.
• The biographical method can be compromised by personal interests and biases of the
biographer.

4. THE SURVEY METHOD

The Survey method is used by researchers interested in finding out the distribution of certain
variables in a given population. For example, a researcher may use surveys to study the following;
• The proportion of the population using malaria preventive medicine.
• The relative incidence of a certain disease in a given population.
• The average age of marriage for girls in urban areas.
When is survey research recommended?
Survey research is recommended in cases where it is impossible to observe or interview the whole
population.
Note:
• The term population refers to the whole group under study, for example, the total population
of Nairobi residents using malaria preventives. Since the population size is usually large, a
small group must be selected to represent the whole group. This small group is known as a
sample.
• It is assumed that the sample (n) possesses all the characteristics of the total population (N)
• The success of the survey method will depend on the accuracy of sampling and the complexity
of the study.
Survey Research Tools
The survey method applies the following tools for gathering information:
• Questionnaires
• Oral interviews

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Advantages of using Survey Research
• It is relatively accurate
• It is time saving compared to naturalistic observations
• It is relatively inexpensive
Disadvantages of using survey research
• The results can be compromised if sampling is biased, or various relevant strata are excluded
in the research.
• Telephone interviews can be very expensive
• The return rate of questionnaires in often poor, especially if they are to be posted back to the
researchers.
• The respondents can lie.
Activity:
• Collect samples of questionnaires and interview questions
• Place them in a display folder for future reference
Question: Do you think it is possible to verify the responses from questionnaires?

5. CASE STUDIES
These are detailed studies of individuals or groups. The main aim of the researcher may be to learn
about the subject’s social development and relationships with people in the society. Case studies
usually involve observations, but the method of study is dictated by the study objectives.
A case study can also draw information from an individual’s biography.
Advantages of Case Studies
• They provide vital information about interpersonal relationships
• If the observations are carried out well, the results can be very accurate.

Disadvantages of Case Studies

• They can be inaccurate especially if they are based on biased biographies.
• Case studies can be time wasting.
• Verification of information may not be possible

6. THE EXPERIMENTAL METHOD

This is the most highly developed and formalized of all data collection methods.
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Before making actual observations, the experimenter carefully defines and analyzes the problem
under consideration. A formal statement is then made, stating the problem, the conditions under
which observation will be made and an indication of the procedures to be followed in processing the
data and evaluating the results. The whole process in known as the Experimental Research Design
The seven steps of the Experimental Research Design
Step 1: Statement of the Problem
All scientific research in motivated by an idea that calls for further investigation. In this step, the
researcher is expected to state the problem in simple and clear terms.
For example 1: Can high school performance be used to predict achievement at the university? The
research problem should be in question form and should be directed at the relationship between two
or more variables.
For example2: Do teachers’ comments in pupils’ books improve performance? The variables are
highlighted (teachers’ comments and performance)
The variables should have the potential for empirical testing. This means that the variables should be
quantifiable (therefore observable and measurable). In the above example,
• Performance can be expressed in the form of marks from 0 to 100.
• Teachers comments can be quantified in terms of Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor or A, B, C, D and
each of these labels can be assigned a specific mark as follows:
Example:
A = 70 -100 = Excellent
B = 60-69 = Good
C = 50-59 = Fair
D = 40-49 = Poor
F = 0-39 = Fail

Step 2 .Statements of the Hypotheses

A hypothesis is a statement or proposition usually based on the results of previous observations. It is
therefore a suggestion of the likely outcome of the research. The purpose of research is therefore to
test the truth of the stated hypotheses.

Good hypotheses should have the following qualities:

• Should state the relationship between two or more variables
• Should be tested in a declarative sentence
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 • Should have the potential for empirical testing

An example of a good hypothesis. “Group studies contribute to a higher grade achievement.”

Types of hypotheses
i). Null Hypotheses (H0) - indicate the relationship between the variables in null form (state of no
difference)
For example:
H0: Group study has no effect on grade achievement
ii). Substantive/Alternative hypotheses (H1) - indicate either a positive or a negative relationship
between the variables.
For example:
H1: Group study contributes to a higher grade achievement than individual study.
H2: Individual study contributes to a lower grade achievement than group study.
* The words higher and lower indicate direction of relationship.
Step 3: Deductive Reasoning Step
Between the formulation of a hypotheses and its testing, there exists one important phase known as
the deductive reasoning step, which involves evaluating the feasibility of research. In this step, the
researcher considers the following aspects:
• Material requirements
• Suitability of subjects
• Time available for research
• Financial implications
• Replicability of the study
Note:
This step is very crucial as it is the real judge of the study’s feasibility. Some studies are modified at
this stage, while others are abandoned.
Step 4: Experimentation step
The aim of this stage is to collect data based on the hypotheses already determined. There are two
kinds of variables that the psychologist is concerned under this step. They are the dependent and the
independent variables
Note:
• The independent variable is the factor whose effects are being examined.
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 • The dependent variable is the factor that the experimenter predicts will change when changes
occur in the independent variable.
The test of the hypothesis is what happens to the dependent variable, if it changes in the predicted
manner, the results are said to support the hypothesis. If the predicted changes fail to occur, the
hypothesis is refuted.
Example:
H1: The use of Aspirin leads to reduction of pain
Reduction of pain = Dependent variable
Use of Aspirin = Independent variable
Note:
Experimental control is the process of holding constant all variables that might affect the outcome of
an experiment. Therefore, in a control group, the experimenter holds the independent variable
constant or removes it, while the independent variable is altered in the experimental group
Step 5: Analysis of Data
The purpose of this step is to convert raw data from the previous step into a meaningful form. In
simple studies, data may be analyzed manually and then depicted in the form of tables, graphs and
bar charts. In complicated studies, computer analysis is recommended, preferably using the Statistical
Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), for data processing and display.

Step 6: Conclusions, Implications and Recommendations

This step involves drawing of conclusions based on the results of hypothesis testing. The researcher
is also expected to determine the implications of these results before suggesting recommendations
for further action.
Step 7: Report Writing
This is the final stage of the scientific research design. It involves preparation of a concise document
for presentation to:
• Sponsors
• Beneficiaries of the research
• The government agency concerned
Note:
A good report should contain a summary of the previous steps as this will facilitate future replication.
In addition, the report should cover the implications of the research outcome and recommendations
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Advantages of experimental method
• It is very precise
• Verification is possible by the same or other researchers
• It is possible to use experimental controls.
• This method provides a procedure to test the validity of tentative principles that have been
established on the basis of previously observed facts
Disadvantages
• The method is lengthy
• The researcher needs specialized training to go through the seven steps
• It can be expensive
Definition of Key Terms and Concepts
Biographical Method: Collection of information from a person’s written account of his/her life-
history
Case studies: Detailed analyses of the way individuals and groups relate. Information is derived from
biographies or observations
Clinical method: Reconstruction of a person’s medical life history for purposes of identifying the
source of a problem.
Day-book method: Preparation of a day by day record of a child’s development with a view to judging
normality.
Dependent variable: the factor that changes when the independent variable is manipulates.
Experimental control: The process of holding constant all variables that might affect the outcome of
an experiment.
Familial connections: A genetic bond between family members, which may facilitate transmission of
certain medical conditions.
Field study: Observation of subjects in their natural environment.
Independent variable: The factor whose effects are being examined
Interview: An introspective technique that involves oral responses from the subject.
Null hypothesis: A statement indicating lack of relationship between variables.
Objective observation: A study of subjects, involving analysis of what the subject does.
Population: The total population under study
Questionnaire: A set of questions in paper form, which the respondent is required to address by
completing the relevant sections.
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Remediation: The process of correcting a medical problem
Sampling: The process of drawing a representative group from the parent population under study.
Subject: A person or animal under study.

TOPIC FOUR: THEORIES OF LEARNING AND CLASSROOM APPLICATION

Educational Psychology is a science that deals with learning and teaching. This topic will look at
• Definition of learning.
• The relevance of learning.
• Behaviorism and concepts that are applicable to the classroom situation.
• Modeling and how to apply some of the concepts in the classroom situation.
• Insightful learning and its application.
• The information processing model and its application.

The Relevance of Learning

Why we should be concerned about learning? When we hear about learning most of us think about
studying and school. We think about subjects for example mathematics, languages, geography,
history, biology and so on. But we need to know that learning is not limited to school subjects,
(Woolfolk, 1998).
We need to understand that all learning is intended to enable the person to adopt completely in life
situations:
• To think and solve problems.
• Fit well in the community.
• Perceive the word in a realistic manner.
This actually means that learning is not limited to the formal school settings. There are many informal
settings where learning takes place. For example:
• At home.
• In street corners.
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 • In the fields.
• In religious institutions.
• Through the mass media.
From these places children learn many unintentional things.
Even when children are in school, they learn many unintentional things for example:
• They acquire certain attitudes (positive or negative).
• They learn something about their capabilities; their areas of strength.
• Their limitations; their areas of weakness
• Their school; whether they like or dislike it.
• Their teachers; whether they are good or bad.
• Their subjects; whether they are interesting or boring

The teacher’s role in the learning process

• The teacher is very important in both the formal and non-formal settings within the school. So
although the teacher’s primary role is to deliver content knowledge he can influence the
student’s life in many other ways for example:
• He can provide experiences that contribute to the acquisition of behavior patterns that are
desirable and necessary for competent living.
• He should be the facilitator of learning. As a facilitator he should provide an enabling
environment for learning.

DEFINITION OF THE TERM LEARNING: What is learning?

Santrock (2004) defines learning as relatively permanent influence on behaviour, knowledge and
thinking skills, which comes about through experience.
Lefrancois (1994) defines it as the acquisition of information and knowledge, skills and habits,
attitudes and beliefs.
According to Myers (1990), learning is a relatively permanent change in an organism’s behaviour due
to experience.
Learning is also defined as the mental activity by means of which knowledge, skills, habits, attitudes
and ideas are acquired, retained and utilized resulting in progressive adaptation and modification of
conduct and behavior.

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The implications of these definitions are as follows:
• Learning involves a relatively permanent change. Meaning that the newly learnt behaviour
should not suffer from extinction within the short-run period. Therefore, any temporary
behaviour cannot be a form of learning.
Learning requires reinforced practice trials. This implies that the organism involved in
learning must have adequate reinforcement to enhance permanence of the new behavior.
There are many forms of learning, including:
• Classical and Operant Conditioning.
• Motor learning.
• Verbal learning.
• Perceptual Learning
• Attitude learning
• Concept learning

TYPES OF LEARNING
The types of learning are derived from the theories of learning. The focus will be on the following
types of learning.
• Classical conditioning/ associative learning
• Instrumental conditioning.
• Observational learning/ imitation.
• Insightful learning/ incidental learning/ learning by discovering.
• Information processing model
• Concept learning
• Rote learning
• Learning by inquiry
• Learning for masterly
Assignment:
I. Define the following terms: Rote learning; learning by inquiry; learning for masterly; concept
learning.
II. Discuss the argument for discovery learning.
III. Outline the advantages of discovery method to a student.

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Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning is also referred to as respondent learning. It is a simple form of learning
through associations. Normally people tend to associate events that occur together in time and place.
These events are said to be contiguous because the appearance of one indicates that the other event
is to be anticipated. In everyday life people know that where there is smoke there is fire because the
two events are contiguous. Also when lightning is seen people anticipate thunder to follow
contingently because the two events occur together in time and space. Therefore, in classical
conditioning is a type of learning in which an organism comes to associate different events. Thus, an
organism will learn to respond to a previously neutral stimulus through association with a natural
stimulus.
A neutral stimulus is any stimulus that is irrelevant under the prevailing conditions. For example, a
dog that is presented with a piece of paper will find this stimulus irrelevant. The paper is therefore a
neutral stimulus since it will not evoke any response in the dog.
A natural stimulus is any stimulus that does not require new learning for a response to be elicited.
Using the example of the dog again, let us assume that the paper stimulus is substituted with a piece
of meat. This time, the dog will respond by salivating and ingesting this pleasant stimulus. The
association between meat, salivation and ingestion is a natural one.
Ivan Pavlov’s experiments
The classical example that illustrates how learning occurs through classical conditioning is derived
from the experiments that were conducted by Ivan Pavlov. Ivan Pavlov was a Russian scientist. He
was a physiologist who conducted experiments on the dogs‟ digestive system. He had won a Nobel
Prize for his work. His experiments involved harnessing the dog in the laboratory and giving it food
and then measuring the amount of saliva the dog produced. The dogs were used to being given food
by Pavlov. During the course of the experimentation Pavlov noted that the dog salivated when he
heard his footsteps and also when it saw the food bowl. Pavlov guessed that the dog had learnt to
associate his footsteps and even the sight of the food bowl with food and that this association caused
salivation. Pavlov deduced that this salivation was a learned response. He then set out to conduct a
series of experiments to confirm his believe. His experiments have several stages.
1. The acquisition stage
During the acquisition stage Pavlov put a hungry dog in the experimental position, then he sounded
a tone and then gave the dog food. He repeated this sequence of events many times. After many
repeated trials the dog the dog would salivate at hearing the tone alone. If the dog hears the tone and

31
salivates, It means that it has learned the association between the tone and food. The acquisition stage
may require a minimum of ten trials.
Bell food salivation

Terminology used in classical conditioning

• The food
The food given to the dog before the conditioning process is referred to as the natural stimulus/
unconditioned stimulus (UCS) because under natural conditions the dog will elicit salivation on
being presented with food.
• The Natural response
Salivation when the dog salivates when it has been given food it is called a natural response/
unconditioned response (UCR) because naturally salivation is elicited by the presentation of food.
• The neutral stimulus (NS)
Before the conditioning process, the bell or tone is called the neutral stimulus because it has no
relationship whatsoever with salivation. Dogs will not normally salivate as a consequence of
hearing a bell.
• Conditioning stimulus (CS)
The bell during and after conditioning is called the conditioned stimulus because it acquires the
power to elicit salivation by its association with the food.
• Conditioned response (CR)
Salivation that occurs because the dog has learned to associate the tone or bell with food is called
the conditioned response. It is the learned response.
Summary of the classical conditioning stages:
1. Meat powder---------------------------------Salivation
UCS UCR
2. Bell--------------------------------------------No Salivation
NS
3. Bell + Meat Powder ------------------------Salivation
CS UCS UCR
4. Bell-------------------------------------------Salivation
CS CR

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Principles of classical conditioning
1. The principle of reinforcement
When the dog is put in the experimental situation and the tone is sounded and then food is given this
constitutes reinforcement. The food is a pleasant event presented to the dog and it constitutes
positive reinforcement
2. The principle of extinction
Extinction refers to the dying of the learned response, which occurs when reinforcement is
withdrawn. This occurs when a dog has been conditioned to associate the tone or bell with
presentation of food and after some time the food is not delivered. When the experimenter rings the
bell or sounds the tone without giving the dog food the learned response disappears.
3. The principle of spontaneous recovery
Spontaneous recovery is the appearance of a learned response. It follows the following stages:
• First the dog is conditioned to salivate when the bell tone is presented.
• Then the dog, which services to reinforce the salivation, is withdrawn. This removal of the food
causes extinction.
• Then the dog in the extinction is given a resting period when no bell tones are presented.
• After the resting period the dog is re-introduced to the experimental situation.
• The bell tone is sounded but no food is given this time.
• This dog remembers the learned association and salivates. This salivation is the one referred
to as spontaneous recovery. This response dies very fast if reinforcement is not re-introduced.
4. The principle of generalization
Generalization refers to responding to stimuli, which is similar to the original stimuli as long as both
are reinforced. This occurs when the experimenter reinforces the dog with food every time he sounds
different types or tones or bell sounds. In this training the dog that every time there is a bell sound
whatever the type there will be food therefore the dog learns to respond to similarities. So when there
is a tone similar to the one it was conditioned to.
5. The principle of discrimination
Discrimination refers to learning to pick the differences in the stimuli and therefore to respond to a
very specific stimulus. This occurs when a dog has been conditioned to respond to a particular
stimulus. If the experimenter introduces other stimuli he does not accompany them with the
reinforcement. As a result the dog learns to pick out the differences in stimuli to respond to very
specific ones. Discrimination training takes a much longer time and more trials to establish.
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Application of classical conditioning to the teaching learning process
1. The learning environment
From classical conditioning we learn that it is important to provide a conducive learning environment.
The believe is that all behavior is controlled by environmental conditions and demands. The learning
environment should be enriched enough. It should be arranged in a manner that makes learning
probable. It is true that if Ivan Pavlov had not provided the right environment for learning the dog
would never have been conditioned to learn the association between the bell and the food.
2. The principle of contiguity
This principle states that events that occur closely together in time and in space are associated
together. These are the events that are paired. When we look at the school situation, we are concerned
about the event that are paired If the teacher pairs pleasant experiences with the school experiences
the students learn to approach school with enthusiasm. They learn to enjoy school and learning.
On the other hand, the teacher who pairs the school experiences with unpleasant events conditions
pupils to fear and hate school.
There are many unpleasant events that can be present in school. These include; the use of harsh
words, insulting language and punitive events. These negative events affect the pupil adjustment to
school as well as their performance. They also create negative feelings and attitudes towards the
teacher, the subject he teaches and school in general. Teachers are therefore advised to pair school
experiences with pleasant events.
As a teacher
• create an attractive atmosphere for learners by for example being Warm, loving, kind and
attractive
• Avoid beating children or abusing so that do not develop fear and associate schooling with
negative experiences
• Let every child experience some measure of success in something
• Use some principles to make children like subjects or topics that they fear or dislike e.g.
association of mathematics and sciences with being a pilot, doctor.
• Use principle of generalization to help learners transfer knowledge, skills and attitudes from
one topic or subject to another or from one context to another.
• Use principle of discrimination to help students differentiate concepts e.g. past tense and
plural English.
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 • Use principle of extinction- to forget unwanted behavior
• Use principle of reinforcement- to encourage learning
• Principle of contiguity- negative events in school affects learners in adjustment to school,
affects performance, and creates negative feelings and attitudes towards the teacher and the
subject taught by the teacher.
• Use principle of spontaneous recovery

OPERANT/ INSTRUMENTAL CONDITIONING

Operant conditioning is the second type of simple learning through association. Operant conditioning
is a type of learning in which behaviour is strengthened if followed by reinforcement, or diminished
if followed by punishment. It was pioneered by B.F. Skinner.
There are differences between learning through classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
Operant learning is a little more complex than classical conditioning. Its complexity is observed in the
following ways:
• In classical conditioning the dog is a passive learner.
• It is given food and expected to salivate without working for the food.
• Salivation in the dog is said to be elicited since it is an involuntary behavior in order to learn
the associations and earn its reinforcement
• In operant conditioning the organism earns its reinforcement by showing desirable
behaviour.

Operational conditioning Experiments

Experiments to illustrate how learning occurs through operant conditioning were conducted by B.F.
Skinner. Skinner devised an apparatus called the Skinner box. The Skinner box was a small enclosure,
which was equipped with a few gadgets. At one corner of the box was a lever or bar. This lever was
connected to a food magazine, which contained food pellets. Skinner would put a hungry rat in the
Skinner box. Hunger would motivate the rat to move about in the box. Each movement was called a
trial. The rat would move all over the box without finding food. Accidentally it would touch the bar,
which would operate the food magazine. The food magazine would release a few pellets of food which
the rat would eat and continue the exploration of the box. After many trials the rat learned to associate
a certain corner of the box with food. This would reduce the unnecessary movement all over the box
as it would confine its exploration of the box to the particular corner, which yielded food. Soon the rat
35
would learn to associate the bar-pressing behavior with the food and would press the bar until there
is enough food. Therefore, the bar-pressing behavior was the learned response, which was
accompanied by the food, which was the reinforcement.

Application of operant conditioning in the teaching learning situation

In operant conditioning, reinforcement is a key element in learning. The principle is that
reinforcement strengthens behaviour and makes it more probable.
Operant conditioning can be applied in the teaching-learning process in the following way in the use
of:
• Positive reinforcement.
• Negative reinforcement
• Primary reinforcement
• Secondary reinforcement
• Learner involvement.

Positive reinforcement
This is the administration of a pleasant event contingent upon the desired response. Positive
reinforcers are like food, candy or something valued by the learner like a smile, a nod an exclamation
of “good!”, “great!” or even permission to do something the child desires.
Negative reinforcement
Negative reinforcement refers to the removal of a noxious stimulus in order to encourage the
desirable behavior. Noxious or unpleasant stimuli include:
• Annoying noise
• Harsh criticism
• A teachers nagging.
• Students always want to escape from these events. This reinforcement works in the following
way when the child is under negative stimuli like a teacher nagging or harsh criticism he is in
a state of discomfort. This state of discomfort reinforces him to do the desired task. When the
desired task is done the nagging stops. This type of reinforcement ensures that the desirable
behavior is strengthened and repeated by the child in order to escape or avoid the unpleasant
stimulus.
Primary and Secondary reinforcers
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We need to make the distinction between primary and secondary reinforcers. Positive primary
reinforcers are stimuli like food, water, pain avoidance, temperature regulation and sex. These are
physiological states that arouse the physiological needs. By satisfying physiological needs we can
strengthen behavior both human beings and animals. Physiological needs are unlearned and survival
related.
Secondary needs on the other hand are learned or acquired. They are not related to survival. The
person acquires these needs as he interacts with other people. Secondary reinforcers are things like
the need for money, power prestige. In school good grades are very reinforcing. The learner who is
achieving well is liked by the teacher and the parents and is also envied by the peers.
Learner involvement
From operant condition we can also apply the principle of learner involvement. This is because when
skinner put the rat in the Skinner box he wanted it to learn actively. The rat had to explore the box
and as a result, discovered the relationship between bar pressing behavior and food. Likewise the
teachers should encourage learner involvement. The learners should be given the chance to be
searchers of knowledge. If they search knowledge it becomes very significant for them. They should
be allowed to discover knowledge under conditions of reinforcement.
Programmed Instruction
From operant conditioning the teacher can apply the programmed instruction procedures. This
involves the following;
• Taking a topic or sub-topic of a given content.
• Breaking down the content into small manageable parts.
• Presenting the parts sequentially, each part at a time.
• Testing for the mastery of each part progressively.
• This is beneficial in the mastery of content which may be perceived as difficult.
• It is also a piece-meal approach to learning which can help the less gifted learners achieved a
degree of mastery of the content.
Behaviour Shaping
Behaviour shaping is used by animal trainers. It is also used by special educators to train mentally
retarded children acquire mastery of important skills. People training psychiatric patients also
benefit from behaviour shaping procedures. The following steps are used in behaviour shaping:

37
 • The trainer identifies the behaviour to be acquired by the animal or person. For example,
training a dog to retrieve balls that are thrown at a distance.
• The trainer will reinforce the dog with meat when the dog is facing the direction where the
ball is. This is a successive approximation.
• The dog will be reinforced when it is moving towards the ball. This is another successive
approximation.
• When the dog is touching the ball it is reinforced.
• These reinforcements procedures are carried out until the dog learns to retrieve the ball.

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

This type of learning is also referred to as observational learning. The theory is based on the belief
that people acquire knowledge, belief, attitudes and values through observing others in their social
world, (Atkinson, 1990). Children observe their parents, siblings, teachers, and community figures.
This theory was developed by Albert Bandiera, (1986,1977); Bandiera believed that traditional
behavioral views of learning although accurate were incomplete because they gave only partial
explanation of learning. The behavioral theories overlooked important elements because they
ignored social influences on learning (Woolfolk, 1998).
According to the Bandura‟s theory people learn new behaviors through two types of observational
learning namely: Vicarious conditioning and Modeling.

Vicarious conditioning
Let us look at vicarious conditioning. This is learning that occurs when the child observed another
child‟s behavior and its consequences. For example, a young sibling could observe an older sibling
being praised or rewarded for demonstrating positive behavior patterns like obedience, hard work,
honesty and good grooming or even excellence in field events.
The learner is the young sibling who will be motivated to engage in the behavior the older sibling is
rewarded or praised or for. This child tries to excel in that behavior in order to be treated like the
older sibling. The younger sibling can also observe the older sibling being punished for bad behavior
like cheating, bullying others, laziness, poor grooming and so on. The younger sibling watches as the
older sibling suffers as he carries out the punishment or as he takes blame from either the parents or
the teachers. He learns to avoid all those behaviors the older sibling is punished for. He learns to
behave differently in order to be praised or rewarded. He learns to avoid punishment.
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Application of vicarious conditioning to school
From vicarious conditioning we must ensure that the learners are exposed to model of good behavior.
At the same time, when good behavior occurs it should be ignored. It should be recognized and
rewarded in order to encourage its occurrence and its spread to other children. The problem among
people is the tendency to take things for granted. When good behavior is ignored it dies out. To avoid
this the teacher should recognize the efforts that learners are making and reinforce them.
Reinforcement strengthens the good behaviors. It also motivates other children to emulate the model.
Modeling
Modeling refers to learning through direct observation. It involves a model and an observer. The
model may be the father, mother, sibling, teacher, and peers. While the observer is the learner, the
model demonstrates behavior, which the learner imitates. The behavior could be mannerisms,
gestures, dressing style, language use, walking style, aggression, manner of working, attitudes and
even values. In order to acquire any of the above behaviors the observer watches the model
demonstrate the behavior and practices it.
The process of behavior acquisition
For the observer to acquire the behavior and demonstrate it just like the model he must do the
following things:
• Attend to the behavior. That is, see it, hear and even experience it.
• The behavior must be retained. This means that it must be stored in memory.
• In order to produce the behavior it must be practiced well until it is perfected.
• The behavior must be motivated and reinforced. This means that for the behavior to be
produced there must be an incentive. Good incentives could be, complementing remarks,
encouragement or even taught rewards.
Application
• To apply the concept gained from the modeling theory the teacher should do the following:
• Become models of good behavior like good grooming, punctuality, hard work, positive
attitude, responsibility, honesty and so on.
• The teacher should recognize models of good behavior from among the students and
reinforcement positively.
• The teacher should also invite models of the desired behavior from the community to come
and speak to the students. For example model of women who earn a living through
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 mathematics, physics, chemistry or even biology can be limited to talk to the girls and
encourage them to take these subjects seriously and also to confirm to them that women can
actually excel in them.

INSIGHTFUL LEARNING
This type of learning is also referred to as field learning. It is a cognitive type of learning which focuses
on the use of mental process like thinking. Perception and insight in the solution of the problem
confronting the organism. This theory focuses on the ability of animals and people to solve problems
through reorganizing the perceptual world and using the facilities thereof to solve problems.
• The experiments to demonstrate how learning occurs through insight were conducted by
Wolfgang Kohler in the 1920‟s. Kohler worked with chimpanzees. He had one bright
chimpanzee called Sultan, (Atkinson, 1990). Kohler put Sultan in a cage then put a banana
outside the cage out of Sultan’s reach. In the cage Kohler put a stick. Sultan wanted to reach
out for the banana but he could not retrieve it with his hand because it was out of reach. When
he did not get the banana he looked around the cage and saw the stick. Quickly he went for the
stick and used it to retrieve the banana.

• On the next day Kohler put the banana further away outside the cage but at the same time
placed two bamboo sticks in the cage. Sultan ran for one of the sticks and tried to retrieve the
banana. He failed to pull the banana within arms reach because the stick was not long enough.
He then sat frustrated at one corner of the cage. Then he saw the other sticks and went for it.
Initially he did not know how to use both sticks to get the bananas. However as he played with
both sticks. One end of the sticks entered into the hollow side of the other stick.

• Sultan looked at the joined sticks and immediately ran to solve his problem. With the now
lengthened stick he pulled the bananas in and ate them.

• Following this story insight refers to that moment in time that Sultan is able to mentally see
the relationship between the stick or sticks and the bananas.

• Insight then is that mental activity that is very rapid, almost immediate that helps us to solve
a problem, when we mentally see the relationships of things in our immediate environment.
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 • It is a rapid perception of relationships, which helps us to restructure or reorganize our
perceptual world. For example Sultan was able to restructure his environment and reorganize
it to solve his immediate problem.
Application
• From the theory of insightful learning we need to take note of the following:
• The teacher should enrich the learning environment by providing facilities/resources that
learners could use to solve learning problems.
• The teacher should have faith in the learner’s mental abilities to work over information until
they solve problems.
• The teachers should realize that learners like to make sense of what they learn by cognitively
restructuring events.
• Insightful learning is whole, complete and unforgettable.

INFORMATION PROCESS SYSTEM

The information processing system deals with the ability of human mind to take in information
(code), store it by maintaining it memory and the ability to retrieve or recover information from
memory.
There are a number of theories of information processing system, but I will focus on the model
developed by Atkinson and Shiffrin, (1968). This model draws on the similarity between the human
mind and the computer. Just like the computer the human mind senses, stores and retrieves
information much as a computer does.
The model discusses three hypothetical memory levels or stages. These memory levels explain how
learners acquire complex concepts; how these are attended to, how they enter the memory banks
sand how they are accessed when needed. This model discusses three memory levels also called
memory banks. They are the following:
• The short-term sensory storage/sensory register.
• The short-term memory/working memory.
• The long-term memory.

We need to look at what happens to information at each memory bank in order to understand the
conditions that facilitate learning or those that hinder learning.
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The Short Term Sensory Storage (STSS)/Sensory Register
This memory bank is also called the sensory register. Its function is to receive sensory information
from the environment. This information is stored briefly at the short Term sensory register. This
memory bank has limited capacity. The STSS memory consists of the exact replica of sensory
information. The visual memory is called iconic memory. It looks like a snap shot that fades away in
about 0.5 seconds. It is visual spatial. This means that objects are seen in different positions in space
e.g. we see a bird up a tree, the dog under the table, the hills in the horizon, the moon high in the sky
and so on. .
The auditory memory is called echoic memory and lasts for 4 seconds. This memory is phonological;
it contains the echo of the sounds that we hear. The STSS is bombarded by information all the time.
Therefore it must select what information to focus on or to attend to. Any information that is not
attended to is lost and we do not ever remember sensing it.
However, the information that is attended to is processed and encoded enabling it to move further
along the memory levels. It moves to the short-term memory and working memory banks.
The short term memory
This bank is also called the working memory. It is the conscious memory because this is where
thinking occurs. For this reason it is also called the thinking pad. This memory bank receives all the
information that is attended to at the STSS. At this memory level information is processed based on
what the information looks like, sounds like or means. This memory bank has limited duration, which
last for 20 to 30 seconds. It can contain 5 to 9 pieces of information at a time. Information is stored
acoustically and semantically, this is how it sounds like and what it means.
Two things happen to information at this bank. One may get information that we do not want to keep
for a long time. For example you may want to go to the shop to buy a few items but you do not write
a shopping list. On your way to the shop you will rehearse the items you want to buy until you buy
them. Once you have bought them you do not need to rehearse the information again and you quickly
forget it. This kind of rehearsal is called maintenance rehearsal and its purpose is to keep the
information in memory for a short time. This information does not move further along the memory
bank.
The second thing that could happen to information is that you may want to process information for
the purpose of storing it in the long-term memory bank. In this case you will engage in elaborate
rehearsal. This rehearsal involves a rehearsal of information and a memory search. You will search

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the memory to find out whether there is information there that is similar to the incoming information.
This enables you to link the new information with the information already in memory. For example if
you are introduced to your lecturer for the first time and you are told that he is called Mr. Odhiambo
you will search your memory and finds another Odhiambo stored there. You will link the new
Odhiambo to the old one to help you to remember him next time he comes to class. Elaborate
rehearsal helps to help to get information into the long-term memory bank.
The long term memory bank (LTM)
The long-term memory is the permanent storehouse of information. We store first dates, special
birthdays, capital cities and other information accumulated throughout ones lifetime there. This
memory bank has unlimited capacity. We may want to look at how information enters this memory
bank. In our discussion of term memory we have noted that information is kept in memory through
both maintenance and elaborate rehearsal. The maintenance rehearsal is for information that we do
not intended to keep in memory for long. The elaborate rehearsal is for memory we want to make
permanent. It involves a recreation of information through repetition and also giving it meaning
through its connection with already existing information. This information is then stored in memory
band is easier to remember if it has gone through elaborate rehearsal.
SUMMARY
• Brought out the relevance of the topic learning.
• Defined the term learning.
• Discussed the following types of learning
Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
Observational learning
Insightful learning
Information processing model of learning
For each type of learning the application aspects were addressed

Learning: -an enduring change in behavior potentiality which occurs as a result of reinforced
practice.
Classical conditioning: - Also called respondent learning. A type of association learning in which
events that appear together in time and place are associated.

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Operant conditioning: -A type of association learning in which the organism produces an expected
behavioral response in order to receive reinforcement.
Positive reinforcement: - The administration of a pleasant event contingent upon the desired
behavior.
Social learning: -Learning through observing other people and imitating them.
Information processing model: -A theory of learning that draws an analogy between the human
being and information processing system.

TOPIC FIVE: REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING

The classroom experiences show that learners forget the information they acquire or learn. The
teacher is a witness that the majority of learners in most of the tests taken hardly ever get full marks.
The explanation for this phenomenon is that between the time material is learned or even revised
and the time the test is taken some information is lost through forgetting
Memory- retention of information overtime or the ability to encode, store and retrieve information
no longer physically present.
Forgetting- inability to recall a particular piece of information accurately.

WHY STUDENTS FORGET THE CONTENT THEY LEARN

Educational experience show that some things are remembered very well, others are “there” but
sometimes difficult to find while still others are completely forgotten. A good teacher should know
why this happens so that he can try and create conditions that promote memory all the time.
Different theories give different explanations as to what causes forgetting.

From:
Behavioristic theory- decay/disuse model
- Interference model (proactive& retroactive inhibitions)
-delay of memory trace theory
Cognitive theories- information processing problems

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 -encoding failure
- cue failure
-cataloguing errors
Psychoanalytic theories- motivated forgetting

THE BEHAVIORISTIC THEORY

The behaviorists developed the following explanations

1 The Disuse Theory

This theory advocates that people forget the S-R connections or associations made previously because
they grow rusty or fade away through lack of use. This concept can be explained through the Pavlovian
or Skinnerian experiments:
• In Pavlov’s classical conditioning it refers to the withdrawal of reinforcement. If the food which
served as the reinforcer to keep the association between the bell and the food was removed
extinction occurred.
• If the dog was subjected to this state for long i.e. the bell ringing without the accompaniment
of the food, the stimulus-response connections were lost. In Skinners operant conditioning if
the rat continued to press the bar without getting food as a reinforcer this bar pressing
behavior disappeared because the connections or associations between it and food was lost.
• This information can be applied in the classroom situation for the purpose of helping the
teacher to understand the dynamics involved in forgetting and remembering.
• Just like Pavlov‟s dogs and Skinners rats would forget the S-R associations they had learned,
pupils too forget what they learn under similar principles.

Application
According to this theory, the teacher should ensure that learners rehearse information under
conditions of reinforcement.
Rehearsal
• Learners who do not rehearse content often lose the S-R connections they had learned.
Rehearsing refers to the constant repetition and review of content.
• For rehearsal to benefit learners, the teacher should give them time and place to do their
rehearsal (Study time).
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 • The teacher should also ensure that the learners rehearse content, which is meaningful to
them, because there is the tendency to forget content if it is meaningless.
• There is the need to show learners how the content they are learning is related to what was
learned earlier. These activities help to stamp in the S-R connections already learned keeping
them in memory and hence minimizing forgetting.
Reinforcement
• Remembering is best promoted if learning is reinforced.

• Withdrawal of reinforcement causes extinction, which is the disappearance of the learned

response.

• If a learner displays the desirable behavior without being reinforced, forgetting occurs.

• The teacher should never lose sight of the fact that reinforcement strengthens behavior and
makes it more probable. Making it more probable means that that behavior is given the chance
to occur again.

2 Interference model
This is another behavioristic explanation of forgetting. According to this model learners forget
content that they learn because others interfere. For example learners will forget old content because
new content interferes with its memory. They will also forget new content because old content
interferes with its memory.
• When old content interferes with the memory of new content, we call this proactive inhibition.

• If new content interferes with the memory of old content we refer to this as retroactive
inhibition.
Proactive inhibition
• Proactive inhibition is the forgetting that occurs when old information makes it difficult to
remember new information. For example a teacher gives learners a list of words and asks them
to study it. Call it list A.

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 • The teacher does not test for the memory of this list at this time. He gives the learners another
list of words to study. Call it list B.

• Then the teacher tests the learners on the recall of the second list of words (List B) not the first
(List A).
What normally happens is that as the learners try to recall words on the second list they
experience some mix-up.
• They remember some words and they forget others. At the same time some of the words from
list A are recalled.
• The words from list A are said to interfere with the recall of List B. This interfere is called
proactive inhibition because new information acts forward interfere with old information.
Retroactive inhibition
• Retroactive inhibition occurs when new learnings make it difficult to remember old content.
• First the teacher gives learners list A. They study it but are not tested immediately.
• Then he gives them list B. they study this list as well.
• Then the teacher tests them on the recall of list A.
• As the learners try to recall words on list A, they will forget some of them.
• At the same time they will recall some of the words from list B.
• This is because the memory of list B will interfere will with the recall of list A.
• This interference is retroactive because later or old memory acts back words to interfere with
the new information
Activity
Give learners the following lists of words. The first two lists to test for proactive interference
and the other two to test for retroactive information.
List A
Cat Cut
Hut Hat
Fat Fit
Rut Rat
Further Father
Goat Gate

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 Lot Rot
Cup Cap

List B
Dip deep
Reed Rind
Feat Feet
Ship Sheep
Leap Reap
Rate Late
Creek Crack
Arrive Alive
Application
The teacher should take note that both retroactive and proactive interference are greater when the
items in memory are similar.
Therefore to promote memory he should do the following:
• Make new learning clear by bringing out the similarities and differences between the old and
new information.
• A learning task must be practiced until it is mastered and even over-learned.
• The principle is that partially learned tasks interfere more with other partially learned tasks.
• Over learning means going beyond the mastery of a task and ensuring that the content is at the
“finger tips”. This means that content can be recalled with ease.
3. Delay of memory trace theory- Information is less available for later retrieval as time passes and
memory as well as memory strength, wears away because of dying neuron.
Assignment: What is the implication of this theory in teaching-learning situation.

COGNITIVE THEORIES
Information processing explanation
According to the cognitive theory. The key to memory is the way in which the material is coded and
organized, as it is stored in the long-term memory bank. Something important happens at every stage
of information processing to either promote memory or hinder it.

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At the short-term sensory storage (Sensory register) the key to memory at this level is attention.
For information to be retained in memory it should be focused on and rehearsed briefly so as to be
registered for further processing. Any information that is not attended to is lost or forgotten.
The short term memory/working memory
The most important process at this level is rehearsal. Rehearsal takes two forms depending on the
reasons why we want to retain the information in memory.
Maintenance rehearsal
• Sometimes we want to keep information in memory briefly and then discard it. For example
we meet old friend in town and gives us his cell phone number.

• Before we enter this number in our own cell phone or in our diary we shall rehearse it.
• Once the number is entered in the relevant place we stop rehearsing it.
• Another example to illustrate this type of rehearsal is a shopping list. We may want to go to
the market to buy some items e.g. ripe bananas, cabbages, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, green
maize and carrots.
• Before we make our shopping list we rehearse this items until we write all of them on paper.
• Again once they are on paper we stop rehearsing them.
• These two examples illustrate maintenance rehearsal. This is rehearsal of information, which
is not intended to move to the long-term memory bank.
• It involves repetition of information over and over again.
• When the information is no longer needed it is forgotten.
Elaborative rehearsal
Elaborative rehearsal is used for all the information that we wish to transfer to the long-term memory
bank. This rehearsal involves repetition of information and linking it with information already
existing in the long-term memory. These two processes ensure that the information is catalogued
and filed in the long-term memory.
The Long term memory Bank
The following memories exist at this bank:
• Declarative memory. This is memory for things that can be expressed in words e.g. this is a
dog, my grandmother died last year.
• Semantic memory. This is memory for general facts e.g. the sun rises from the east.

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 • Episode memory. This is the memory for personal experiences e.g. when I was coming to class,
I me with my friends.
• Procedural memory for actions and skills e.g. how to prepare meal.

At this memory bank information is organized in categories.

• Items that are similar are stored close together in a method that is close to cataloguing.
• For each item in memory there is an imaginary index card which is appropriately catalogued.
• Forgetting occurs if there are cataloguing errors i.e. a card can be catalogued in the wrong
place or a card can get lost.

What causes cataloguing errors?

• Cataloguing errors can occur if a learner takes in too much information within a short time.
• For example if you attend a function and are introduced to about ten people within a short
time you will find it difficult to match the right names and faces due to cognitive bottlenecks.
• But if you are introduced to one person every day for tend days you will not have a problem
remembering each one of them because you have processed all the information properly.
• If two things are similar one may be remembered in the place of the other.
Application
In order to ensure that content learned is remembered it is important to give it time to be processed
at all memory levels until it enters the long term memory bank because anything that gets there is
permanent.

IMPROVING MEMORY
There are a few methods that learners can use in order to improve their memory.
1 Increasing attention
As we have noted above, attention refers to focusing on information and registering it, isolating it
from all possible distracters. This is an important prerequisite for all memory. In order to increase
attention, one should do the following:

• Select a study environment, which does not contain too many distractions. Distractions will
refer to unnecessary noise, heat, cold, activities and things that appeal to sight. They refer to
any environmental event, which interferes with taking in of information.
• If learners are studying in a classroom or in a laboratory there should be minimal distractions
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2 Rehearsal
Rehearsal refers to the repetition of what has been learned in the school setting it may refer to what
is commonly referred to as study.
• As learners conduct their study it is important to ensure that they engage in repetition of
correct responses with the awareness of what the responses relate to. They should not engage
in repetition of meaningless material.

Role of the teacher for the study to be successful: The teachers should ensure that:

• The school organize study timetables

• Give the learners the time and classrooms convenient for the purpose
• Train learners how to conduct individual study, for example, how to pick out important facts,
review them immediately and again later
• Trained learners on how to engage in distributed practice or massed practice depending on
reasons for study.

Distributed practice involves taking short periods of study at a time and taking a break after each
period. This method is very beneficial when the learners want to process information and store it in
memory permanently.

Characteristics of distributed practice

• Involves taking short periods of study, for example two hours of study at a time and taking a
break before resuming the study again.

Nb: This beneficial for processing information and storing it in memory permanently

• Breaks are used to do unrelated activity such as be taking a shower, a walk, a snack or even a
nap.
NB: This activity should be one that helps one to rest/relax as well as reward oneself.

Massed practice refers to sitting for long hours of study e.g. studying throughout the night

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The learner can be introduced to the model of study developed by Robinson (1970) called SQ3R. This
refers to the following:
• Survey the material through once.
• Raise Questions about it.
• Read it looking for answers

• Recite it and by doing so committing it to memory

• Review it

By the time the learner is through with the last step the material is well committed in memory.

3. The use of mnemonic devices

Mnemonic Devices-techniques that have been developed to improve memory-particularly memory
for bits of unrelated information.

The Peg word method

• One mnemonic device is the peg word method .To use it you must first learn a series of words
to go with numbers for example one is bun, two is shoe, three is tree and four is door. The
words and numbers rhyme.

• When you want to learn a list of unrelated words you think of some image that combines the
peg word and the word you are trying to remember.

• Let us imagine that you wish to remember a grocery list, if the first item on the list is soap you
imagine a bun covered with soap bubbles.

• If the second item is apples you picture a shoe stuffed with apples. Eggs: -you imagine a tree
with eggs for fruits.

• If the fourth item is Cabbage: -you imagine a door with a large cabbage as the lock knob.
The Loci method
• Another technique is the loci method. This was a method used by ancient Romans.
• First you think of a location.
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 • Then, for each item you want to remember you think of a representative image something that
symbolizes that item to you

• Then you imagine each image in place in the location e.g.

Bedroom floor-------------------------soap bubbles

Your bed--------------------------------two large apples
Your dressing table---------------------filled with eggs
Your coffee table----------------------two huge carrots
The clothes wardrobe----------------cabbage hanging there
These techniques use imagery- a representation in thought of visual scenes forming a vivid, unusual
image of each object, which is unforgettable.
Other methods include: Key word method, Acronyms and acrostics, clustering (combining of
concepts), forming rhythms such as 30 days has September……….

4. Recitation- This is the process of mentally repeating what you have read.

5. Selection- Picking out the most important ideas, summarizing them and trying to remember them

6. Overlearning

7. Spaced or distributed practice.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1) What will you advise learners to do in order to minimize forgetting caused by:
a) Disuse.
b) Interference.
2) Discuss the role played by the following processes in aiding memory:
a) Attention.
b) Maintenance rehearsal.
c) Elaborative rehearsal.
3) Explain how you could help learners to engage in practice of learned material.

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TOPIC FIVE: FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE LEARNING

The learning-teaching process is a highly complex one. The complexity arises due to the fact that many
variables interact with each other to enhance or hinder learning. This lesson examines these factors
as they operate inside and outside the classroom and their effect on learning.

THE FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE LEARNING

When we think about learning, the concern is about delivery of content assumably from the teacher
to the learner. The teacher is seen as the source of knowledge and his role is to deliver the content for
learners to imbibe.

This lesson intends to bring out the fact that delivery of content by the teacher or even the imbibing
of the same is not a simple matter. It is complicated and involves dynamic interactions of multi-
faceted variables.

This lesson discusses the following variables and the operation of each one of them in influencing
or hindering learning.

- The teacher

- The learning environment

- The learner
- The subject matter

1. The Teacher
When we look at the teacher’s role in influencing learning, there is need to take into account several
factors. Crucially, we should recognize the role of the teacher as a facilitator of learning. As a facilitator
of learning the teacher has the enormous responsibility of ensuring that everything he does goes a
long way in facilitating or hindering learning. Even before we consider the delivery of content it is
imperative to look at other issues pertinent to the teachers role. Some of the issues may look minor
or irrelevant but their impact is not to be ignored. For example

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The Teachers Grooming
This refers to teacher‟s management of self in terms of dressing and general appearance. The teacher
should be consciously aware of his role as a model. While he may not afford designer clothes, he is
required to take good care of what he wears.
It should be clear to the students that the teacher takes time every morning to make himself
presentable in every possible way.
Any teacher whose personal presentation is shoddy does himself and the student a disservice. The
teacher should dress in a manner that is compliant with the expectations. Both males and females can
indecent.
We realize that what is decent or indecent is relative and therefore leave it to individual teachers to
use their good discretion in order to observe acceptable modes of dress. In any case the manner of
dress and grooming tell a lot about a person.
When people first see you as a teacher, they judge you by your appearance before they know whether
you can teach or not

Teachers Competence
The teacher‟s competence is considered in several issues. First among them his ability to handle the
subject matter and secondly his classroom management skills. Thirdly not least in importance is his
communication ability.
The teacher‟s competence in these areas is paramount because it can determine the amount of
learning that takes place. We need to be emphatic that the teacher should be well informed regarding
the subject matter, conversant and comfortable with its scholarship and methods of delivery

Classroom Management
Classroom management is a lecture discussed in this module and therefore it cannot be covered in
any depth here. However it should suffice to say that a good teacher is a good classroom manager.
He knows what to do when confronted with the specific challenges that present themselves in any
classroom situation.
He posses the necessary skills to adequately handle all manner of issues that arise inside the
classroom.
A good classroom manager is a good organizer. He is organized in his daily operations and in the
classroom.
Good organization helps to save time and other resources.

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The Teachers Communication Ability
Good communication is an art. It does not necessary require the teacher to use huge bombastic words
so that pupils know that he went to school it does not require him to be a walking dictionary either.
It calls upon the teacher to gauge the weight of his words depending on the recipients‟ level. He should
be fluent, clear and simple of course we do realize that each subject has its own technical jargon. The
teacher should ensure that these technical words are well understood by the learners.
A good teacher is a good businessman. He should treat students like clients. For this reason he should
maintain a pleasant atmosphere and not show hostility. Some teachers behave as if the classroom is
a war zone and sometimes they have good reason to do so. If the teacher knows that he is unprepared
for the lesson or lacks the necessary mastery of content he may result to the use of defense
mechanisms like fault finding, being excessively punitive among other negative practices. One
important aspect of teacher behavior is hid attitude towards the profession, the school the pupils or
even himself. If the teacher‟s general attitude is positive he will most likely maintain conditions
favorable for learning.

THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

The learning environment refers to the facilities available for use by the learners. These are; the
classrooms, the fields, the laboratories, the dining room and the dormitories. The issues of concern
here are appropriateness or inappropriateness, overcrowded-ness, ventilation and the psychological
environment

Overcrowdedness
Speaking to teachers reveals that many classrooms in Kenyan schools are overcrowded In some
classrooms the teacher does not have space to stand or even move around. This means he cannot
monitor learners‟ behavior effectively.
A classroom that is overcrowded is uncomfortable for both the teacher and the learners.
Overcrowded ness is a factor causing maladjusted behavior.
If the teacher is unable to access every pupil in the classroom there are those pupils who will engage
in divergent acts like writing letters, reading novels, dozing or even daydreaming while the lesson is
in progress.

Appropriateness
There are learning environments which are inappropriate for use, For example

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 Lessons that are scheduled in the dining hall next to the school kitchen. In this environment learners
are exposed to the various stages of food preparations as well as the changing smells as the food gets
ready. Hungry learners will not be motivated to be very attentive during the last two lessons just
before lunchtime break.

Also there are schools whose locations are inappropriate, here I have in mind those schools in
middle of towns sandwiched with bars, hotels and noisy operations that go on and on in the heart of
town. These schools have to be a big hindrance to learning.
Ventilation
Ventilation refers to the amount of air circulating in the classroom. Fresh air is important because it
burns food into energy. If there is enough air circulating in the classroom the pupils are likely to keep
awake, alert and attentive. However if the classroom is poorly ventilated the learners are likely to be
dull, lethargic and inattentive.
Poor ventilation can be caused by overcrowded-ness and inappropriateness of a learning
environment. For learning to be influenced positively the issue of proper ventilation should be
addressed in every school facility.
Quality Of Buildings
The overall quality of the school buildings is an important factor in either promoting or hindering
conditions for learning. Buildings provide security and warmth. Properly constructed buildings keep
the natural elements away i.e. the rain, the wind, the sun, the cold.
If the school buildings are not firm the wind blows away the roofs and sometimes children are
harmed or even killed.

During the rainy season children feel unsafe particularly in lightning prone areas. If no lightning
arrestors are installed then children live in fear because they know they are likely to be harmed or
even killed by lightening.

Even issues such as ensuring that the classroom has a ceiling can affect learning.

Without a ceiling the classroom can become uncomfortable particularly when it is raining. Pupils
can have most of the rainy afternoon wasted because the teacher‟s voice gets drowned in the din of
the raindrops on the iron roofs.

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 Sometimes pupils learn in buildings that have been condemned and therefore unsafe. They may be
afraid that walls or roofs will cave in and injure them.

3. The Learner Characteristics

The learner is the person for whom the learning process is intended. The teacher should always bear
in mind the fact that learners bring to class a wide range of differences in any one-classroom situation.
These differences are bound to influence learning. In this lesson the following learner characteristics
are addressed:
I. Personality dispositions.
II. Intellectual giftedness.
III. Motivational levels.
IV. Conflicts of interest.
V. Social-economic backgrounds.
Personality dispositions
Some of the personality dispositions of learners that the teacher needs to understand are the
following emotionality, sociability, and ability to cope with stress and even management of problem
situations.
There are learners who have serious problems managing anger, frustration and other emotions they
experience. As a result learning is affected negatively.

• Also there are those pupils who have problems making and keeping friends due to
deficiency in social skills they may be in constant conflict with peers and classmates a situation,
which will affect learning for them and their peers.
• Coping with stress and even managing problem situations cause difficulties for some pupils.
• Basically the teacher should be aware that if there are problems emanating from any of these
issues learning will not be promoted.
Intellectual Giftedness
Learners bring to class differences in intellectual giftedness. There is the high, the average and low
intellectual giftedness. Sometimes a teacher may conduct a lesson that favors the highly gifted
learners.
It is the intention of this lesson to remind the teacher that every learner has the right to benefit
from classroom interactions. Every learner should be given a chance to benefit from the lesson.
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 The view that the classroom is owned by a few learners while the majority is there to warm it for
the gifted ones should be discarded.

The teacher should cater for individual differences to ensure that every learner is attended to.

The teacher should also make sure that each learner is helped to realize their potential so that an A
student gets the A the B student gets the B and so on.

Any A student who gets a B is under achieving and any B student who gets a C is under achieving
and this situation should not be accepted nor allowed.

If a learner is under achieving proper investigation as to why this is happening should be carried
out.
Motivational Levels
An examination of motivation levels shows that a learner may be highly motivated and therefore
spends a lot of time and energy pursuing a subject. Another learner may have only average motivation
while yet another learner may lack motivation completely.
• The teacher should discover ways and means of maintaining the high levels of motivation in
highly motivated learners.
• He should also find out why learners may lack motivation to pursue a subject.
• Motivation and achievement are related in that the highly motivated learner is expected to
show high performance in tasks and conversely the low motivation translates itself in poor
performance.
• The teacher should discover both the teacher and learner factors that cause low motivation.
• Lesson seven which is on motivation will help the teacher to develop skills to use to motivate
the learners. All the pertinent issues will be handled in detail in that lesson.
Conflicts of interest
Sometimes learners fail to attend to the learning task even when the teacher is doing his best to
promote conditions for learning. This can happen if the pupil has other interests that conflict with the
learning tasks.
Sometimes the pupil has a problem that is social in nature, may be news from home that somebody
is unwell or their is disharmony. During the lesson those home issues distract this particular learner.

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 May be the pupil has quarreled with a friend or has been wronged by another and tends to focus
his interest in this direction other than to the ongoing lesson.

There are many things that could distract a learner at any one-time and the teacher should handle
each issue with a lot of sensitivity.
The Social Economic Backgrounds
The pupil‟s social economic backgrounds is a factor that will influence learning one way or the
another. Some learners come from backgrounds where they lack resources needed for learning. They
may not have books or writing materials or even adequate facilities to do their home work or further
study.
When these pupils come to school with unfinished work, untidy work or even late, the teacher
should handle each situation with sensitivity because at times the teacher‟s approach to a problem
may actually aggravate it instead of easing it.

4. The Subject Matter

Many years ago Ausubel (1978), Brunner (1960) stated that schools exist to foster intellectual growth
by transmitting knowledge and basic skills. They further acknowledge that learning should facilitate
intellectual growth. For this reason it is important to discover those factors that coupled with those
discussed above will facilitate learning in the classroom situation, of course when the teacher goes to
any classroom with the purpose of holding a teaching learning session he takes with him certain
content.

The content can be referred to as subject matter, which in turn can be translated to mean certain
facts, principles, skills or procedures. These could be from any subject, topic or sub-topic.

If all other factors are considered that is the learning environment, the teacher characteristics, the
learner characteristics and so on then the teacher turns focus on what should be done to make the
content learnable.

The teacher must ensure that the content is presented in such a way that the learners can imbibe
or assimilate it into their cognitive structure.

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 The most important factor to consider here is ensuring that the learner finds the content
meaningful. Meaningfulness of content is a critical issue in the sense that it leads to understanding.
Indeed meaningfulness and understanding are the essence of classroom learning.

Meaningfulness Of Material
The importance of meaningfulness of content lies in the fact that, what is meaningful is easy to process
mentally.
It rends itself easy for storage in memory.

It is easier to retrieve.

It makes the learner comfortable and ready for further learning

This reduces frustration for both the learner and the teacher.

How can a teacher ensure that the material is relevant

Read several sources of particular information. Different sources highlight different angles of a
situation. After reading those sources the teacher will be more enlightened.

The teacher could also consult colleagues who will share their own experiences, their approach,
even sources they have found helpful. By the forgoing the teacher is required to be resourceful and
not rely on a single textbook or some notes made many years ago.

The teacher should keep abreast with current developments in the content area. He should have
more in his bags of tricks so that at no time should he find himself inadequate.

The teacher who finds content meaningful goes a step further to ensure that the learner is helped
to find meaningfulness as well.

In this context the teacher should select the content, organize it in a potentially meaningful way.

To do this the teacher ensures that the content is consistent with the learner‟s developmental level.
This means that before content is presented to the leaner, the teacher has already gauged the
readiness level of the learner.
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 This refers to cognitive or mental ability of the learner to imbibe the content.

Here, the learner‟s motivation also counts. By learner motivation we refer to the learners desire to
want to know.

Readiness Of The Learner

It is important to look at the role of the teacher closely in this context.
The first thing he should do is to assess the readiness of the learner by identifying the knowledge
the learner already possesses, the learners abilities, motives and experiences and make the starting
point.
Secondly present the material in a style that captures the students interest. In doing this, the teacher
ensures that the content is well linked with the learner‟s experiences and where examples are given
they should be derived from the learners world.
Problems are experienced in some cases when teachers make the subject matter abstract. Abstract
content has no bearing in the lives and experiences of the learners. It is irrelevant and therefore
learning it becomes difficult.
Bringing out usefulness of content is an important concept. This is the idea of making the content
relevant to the needs of the learner making him perceive it as useful to him.
Discovery learning
Still on the issue of encouraging meaning and understanding, the teacher should encourage discovery
learning.
This can be done by giving learners assignments that require them to do their individual or group
projects in the library or in the field. In this the teacher should refer to learners to specific sources of
information with enough guidance that spells out the concepts, meanings and relationships to be
discovered.

Once learners have done their projects, they can present their findings in class for the purposes of
enriching each pupils or groups findings by integrating all the findings.

This way each learner acquires additional information on points they had missed out.

This method works on the principle that knowledge that is self-discovered is more significant to the
learner and is remembered better.

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Concept Learning
Concept learning too enhances both meaningfulness of content and understanding for the benefit of
enhancement of learning. The learner should not be exposed to facts that are isolated. Instead he
should be helped to perceive relationships, classifications. In other words, he should be exposed to
the big picture and not small unrelated pictures. If the learner can understand a concept then he can
also transfer the knowledge to future situations.
SUMMARY
In this topic we have looked at factors that influence learning. We have identified the role played by
the following specific factors.
Learning mainly deals with delivery of content.
There are teacher characteristics, which could operate to enhance or hinder learning.
There are characteristics of the learning environment, which will promote or hinder learning.
Learner characteristics with a focus on differences that exist among learners.
The characteristics of the subject matter dwelling on meaning an understanding
KEY WORDS
Imbibe - to assimilate knowledge
Intellectual giftedness: - refers to the variations in intelligence that occurs in any one-classroom
situation. Some learners have a high IQ scores others are average and others low.
Learning environment: - Any environmental factor that affects learning. It can refer to the physical
environment or the social environment.
Motivational levels: - The amount of energy a learner directs towards the learning task.
Rote: - memorization of meaningless content that the learner does not really understands.
Subject matter: -content or the skills, facts, principles that the teacher intends to deliver.
Teacher characteristics: -Any teacher factor that influences learning. The characteristics have to do
with teacher personality, mastery of content, classroom management, attitudes etc.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Discuss how the following factors are likely to have a positive effect on learning:
a. Grooming.
b. Mastery of content.
c. Positive attitudes towards learners.
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2. Explain what schools should do to ensure the following environmental conditions facilitate
learning:
I. The classrooms.
II. The location of the school.
3. Outline what you should do in order to ensure that learners find content meaningful.
4. In you own opinion, which factors predominate to determine what learners will learn easily and
what they will find difficult to learn?

TOPIC SIX: TRANSFER OF LEARNING

Knowledge that is learned in school is intended to prepare the student for life outside school. Content
learned in one context can be applied in another context within the same subject or in another subject.
For example, learning how to sew a shirt on a sewing machine during a Home economics lesson
should help a student to sew a skirt at home. Also learning English grammar should help a student
write correct English. Therefore transfer of learning is a key concept. IT refers to the ability to apply
knowledge and skills in new situations. If a learner cannot apply knowledge from situation to
situation learning will have little purpose.
In this topic, the discussion on transfer of learning focusing on
The definition of the term,
Aspects of transfer and
Teaching for transfer.

DEFINITION OF TRANSFER OF LEARNING

We shall first look at situations that help us to infer that transfer of learning takes place. We could say
that transfer of learning occurs when previously learned content influences current learning
positively or negatively. For example, when students learn a mathematical principle, which can be
used to solve a physics problem, this is positive transfer.
From the foregoing we can define transfer of learning as the process that enables us to make
previously learned responses in new situations. Transfer results in the ability to perform sensibly
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and adequately in a new task as a result of having performed other tasks previously. Put simply,
transfer of learning is ability to apply knowledge from one situation to another situation. For
example, the ability to apply mathematical formulae to compute mathematical problems, or the ability
of knowledge in mathematics to understand balancing equations in chemistry or physics.

ASPECTS OF TRANSFER
There are two basic aspects of transfer. These are:
Discrimination.
Generalization
Discrimination
When the learner is exposed to knowledge or skills that are similar he should understand all the
specific features so that he applies in each situation only those aspects that are applicable and leaves
out those features that are not applicable.
Ivan Pavlov illustrated the idea of discrimination when conditioning dogs to respond to bell tones.
In discrimination training he would give the dog food only under one particular tone and not any
similar tone. Then the dog learned that only one tone led to food and therefore it salivated only when
that particular tone was presented.

Likewise when it comes to transfer of learning the pupil should be able to pick out specific features
from the general features and use them. A good illustration here is the use of the following documents;
the dictionary, the catalogue and the directory. These documents have general and specific features,
the general features are found in the arrangement of content. All documents have their contents
arranged alphabetically and therefore require the same skill in their usage. However the aspect of
discrimination comes in when we consider the type of information found in each document.

When we want to look up meanings of words we pick out the dictionary.

When we wish to get some address or telephone number we pick up the directory

When we wish to locate some basic information of books available in a library we go for the
catalogue.

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 In bakery, discrimination can be applied. There are general guidelines that are used to produce
bread or cakes but when the baker wants to bake bread with raisins or fruitcake or even teacake he
applies very specific features by using discrimination.
Discrimination is an aspect used every day in computer programming. There are general features and
specific features in computer operations for example all computer programs have an interaction
interface. There are specific features like calculations, typing documents, carrying out simulations
and so on. It is the user who determines the specific feature to use depending on the task to be
performed. Discrimination as we have noted requires the ability to apply in a specific situation and
what not to. This involves the understanding of differences.
Generalization
This means understanding the general features, the similarities or sameness of information or skills.
For example the dictionary, directory and catalogue are similar in that the way information is
arranged alphabetically. These documents use the same skills to search for information but the
similarity ends there.
In baking there are similar procedures of mixing ingredients and using baking pans and oven for
the final products.
In computer operations the skills used to open the computer and to access information is the same.
In generalization therefore the learner understands the general features.

Pavlov conditioned dogs to acquire generalization training. He would call different tones and give the
food every time a tone was sounded. This dog knew that as long as there was a tone no matter which
one, food was on the way. Similarly, learners can acquire generalization in transfer of learning.
TYPES OF TRANSFER
There are three types of transfer:
Zero transfer.
Negative transfer.
Positive transfer

Zero transfer
This refers to acquiring knowledge, skills or principles that are not transferable from one situation to
another. This occurs, when there is no relationship between one subject and another one and
therefore learning one subject has no effect on the other one positively or negatively.
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 Examples of zero transfer can be illustrated by the learning of mathematics and Kiswahili. Unless
Kiswahili is used as a language of instruction in mathematics there is no other relationship between
the two. Mathematical principles will not help a learner understand Kiswahili principles or vise versa.

Other examples can be illustrated between geography and music or fine art and biology. These two
pairs of subjects share no meeting ground. Each is independent from each other in terms of facts,
skills, principles and technical jargon. The learning of one is independent from the learning of the
other and does not inhibit nor enhance the other.
Negative transfer
Negative transfer occurs content in a subject or in two different subjects has a negative influence on
one another. This happens when what is learned in one situation hinders or inhibits what is learned
in another situation.
For example if a learner is introduced to two new languages, which are similar at the same time,
negative transfer occurs. A learner who is learning English and German at the same time experiences
difficulties mastering both languages simultaneously due to inhibition or interference. English
interferes with German and vise versa.

Negative transfer operates much the same way as proactive and retroactive inhibition does. Before
mastering of each is achieved there is a lot of back and forth movement and even mix-up of English
and German words. Consequently this brings about a slowed process or retardation in the learning
process. However with enough practice and mastery of both negative transfer is minimized and even
eliminated all together
Positive Transfer
Positive transfer occurs, when knowledge acquired in one situation helps the learner to acquire
knowledge in one situation helps the learner to acquire knowledge skills or principles in another
situation much faster. For example learning of mathematical principles enables the learner to acquire
principles in physics. There are many illustrations of positive transfer in school setting, which can be
mentioned here:
For example
Learning grammar in any language and writing compositions in the language

The learning of biology and agriculture

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 Learning of physics and mathematics

Learning of chemistry, biology and Agriculture, Mathematics, geography, business Education,

Chemistry and Physics.

Positive transfer indicates a positive relationship between particular topic areas in given subjects
or even two or more content areas in different subjects.

Positive transfer can operate at two levels. These are:

Lateral transfer(horizontal )
Vertical transfer

1. Lateral transfer
Lateral transfer occurs a learner is exposed to content that is applicable to another subject or situation
at the same level. For example, a child who is trying to learn basics in arithmetic discovers that (4 x
9=36, 9 x 4=36), (3+5=8, 5+3=8) is transferring knowledge laterally or horizontally.
Secondly when a learner acquires the basic skills of baking a cake in school applies the knowledge
to bake at home horizontally. He will use the same ingredients, the same measures and the same
baking methods as learned at school.

Thirdly mathematical skills and principles learned in form one helps the learner to acquire
principles and skills to master form one physics. So this kind of transfer is applicable at the same level
and is basically foundational.

Vertical transfer
Vertical transfer occurs when knowledge is applied to other learning at a higher level either in the
same subject or in another subject. For example form one mathematics series is a foundation for form
two, form three, and form four mathematics. This happens at all applications of subject areas in an
ascending order.
For vertical transfer to occur the subject should be well mastered at the foundational levels so that
learning is given a chance to generalize and become useful further along the learning process.

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 For example when a pupil masters simple grammatical rules he is enabled to speak correct English,
write competently and to study other subjects in English as well.

Also when a pupil masters simple arithmetic and numeracy he is enabled to acquire complex
concepts in mathematics and physics.

TEACHING FOR TRANSFER

There are several basic ways of teaching for transfer
Substantive (specific).
Procedural (general) transfer.
High road transfer.

The substantive method

The substantive method refers to specific transfer of rules facts or skills. It is the direct transfer of
knowledge from one situation to another. For example applying rules of punctuation to write a job
application letter or using the knowledge of the alphabet to find a word n the dictionary. To facilitate
this type of transfer the teacher exposes the learner to the substance of the material to be applied.
This is a very common phenomenon in computer programming. If a certain computer program is
required in a person‟s occupation, the person is taught that particular computer program during
training.

Also in dress making the person is exposed to actual dress making skills needed on the job.

A surgeon is trained in a hospital setting and performs surgery under supervision. There are many
examples that can be cited the most important concept here is the exposure of the substance of
material to be applied and lots and lots of practice. According to Garvriel Salomon and David Perkins,
(1989). This transfer involves the spontaneous automatic transfer of highly practiced skills with little
need for reflective thinking. The key to low road transfer is practicing a skill often in a variety of
situations until the learner‟s performance becomes automatic. For example using many different
kinds of typewriters, computers sewing machine, driving cars. Practice enables a person to transfer a
skill to a new situation.

High road transfer

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This is training learners to consciously apply abstract knowledge learned in one situation to different
situations. There are two methods of doing this:
Forward reaching method
Backward reaching method

1. Forward reaching method

This method is used when a learner intends to use a principle or strategy in future. He plans transfer
in advance. For example a surgeon taking theory and practical during subsequent semesters may do
some forward planning. During the theory semester he may search for and collect all the relevant
skills and procedures surgeons‟ literature with the intention of applying them during the practical or
“hands-on” sessions.
Also a teacher preparing for teaching practice may search for principles about teaching and learning
(pedagogical skills). He may search in the focus areas like how to motivate learners, the art of
classroom management and so on with the intention of applying the same during actual teaching.
This kind of transfer is forward teaching in the sense that the person looks forward to applying it in
future situations.

The backward teaching transfer

This method is used when the learner is faced with a problem situation that requires some prior
knowledge. The person has to look back on what has been learned in previous situations to help to
solve the new problem. This method requires the person to search for other related situations that
might provide clues to the solution of the current problem. The most important thing in this kind of
transfer is mindful abstraction or deliberate identification of a principle main idea, strategy or
procedure that can apply to many situations. This guides future learning and problem solving.

The Procedural Method

This method is useful when applying knowledge about how principles and rules apply across a wide
variety of situations. It includes the learning of broadly applicable concepts, principles and
procedures. For example when pupils learn the meaning of words such as untie, unfair that is useful
to learning that the prefix un means not or contrary to.
Activity

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1. Apply the rule about the prefix un to find the meanings of the following words. Unaffected,
unaccompanied, unarmed, unlocked, unfastened, uncooked, uncooked, unbalanced and unsteady.
2. Add the prefix un before the following words and explain their meaning: Fortunate, do, pack, tidy,
ravel, accomplished, deterred, detected, focused.
To train learners to use this method the teacher should present them with a wide array of examples
in which they can see how new principles and techniques are used. The examples should be drawn
from real world settings.

NOTE
In order to ensure that transfer is given all the probability to occur. The teacher should ensure the
following:
That training situations are made as similar to the real world situations as possible. If the real world
is not accessible to the students it should be described to them.
Provide many practicals on the original task before the transfer task is attempted.
Stress transfer both inside and outside the classroom. This means that when teaching, transfer
should always be in focus.
The teacher should use specific, concrete examples from television, newspapers, school activities,
current events and life in general.
The teacher should devise projects and competitive games that foster, transfer
Finally the teacher should always test for transfer

KEY WORDS
Discrimination: -Ability to apply specific elements of a situation leaving out what is not applicable.
Generalization: -Ability to apply general or similar features of a situation.
High road transfer-training learners to consciously apply knowledge either forward or backward.
Horizontal transfer: - occurs when knowledge is applicable at the same level.
Negative transfer:-Occurs where two content area affect the learning of each through a process
similar to inhibition.
Procedural transfer: - applying broadly applicable rules and procedures.
Substantive transfer: -Application of knowledge directly.

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Transfer of learning-the usage or application of acquired knowledge skills or procedures in new
situations.
Vertical transfer: - occurs when content is applicable higher along the learning process.
Zero-transfer:-Occurs when two content areas are unrelated and there fore have no effect on each
other.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Imagine two novel situations that you could require your students to show:
a) Discrimination.
b) Generalization.
2) Bring out clearly the difference between Zero and negative transfer.
3) With examples show illustrations of:
a) Lateral transfer.
b) Vertical transfer.

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TOPIC SEVEN: INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN LEARNING
The teacher experiences shows that learners in the class, with the same books, same teachers show
variations in achievement. That is what causes individual differences in intellectual ability and
achievement. Every time the teacher interacts with a pupil, he should be aware of the facts of the
pupil’s life from the genes, the uterine environment, the home environment and the school influences
that contribute to make each pupil different from all other pupils. With this knowledge, the teacher
should show better understanding and more sensitivity in his interactions with pupils.

WHAT CAUSES INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN LEARNING?

Individual differences in intellectual ability (the capacity to acquire and use knowledge to adapt to
the environment ) is difficult to define and measure due to the complexity and the dynamism of the
variables that interact to produce these differences. The causes are the hereditary, the environmental
and the Interactional positions or approaches
1. The hereditary position
Adherents of this position believe strictly in the role played by genes in the determination of human
traits. This position holds the view that it is nature and not nurture that determines the intellectual
giftedness of individual children. Among the strong adherents of this position was Sir Francis Galton,
1869. In his view intellectual ability is genetically determined. He had observed that great scientists
had parents who were equally gifted. Studies done by various psychologists have tended to confirm
high correlation‟s in IQ among identical twins reared apart. This view holds the belief that during
fertilization when maternal and paternal genes interact, IQ is fixed. Therefore some children inherit
high IQs while still others receive low gifts in this trait. This position does not acknowledge the role
different environments may play in modifying intellectual ability. To them intelligence is fixed and
the child is a helpless pawn of the dictates of nature.

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The environmental position
The second position takes the environmental approach. Adherents of this position believe that
experiences provided by different environmental conditions and demands shape intelligence. Among
these psychologists is the J.B. Watson, (1913) who prided himself that if he was given a dozen children
and his own environments to raise them in, he would produce any kind of person as he so wished. He
would shape one into a beggar, another into a thief, the third into a banker and so on. This position
attributes variations in intellectual ability to environmental causes. Children intellectual giftedness is
ultimately determined by nurture not nature. This view focuses on the importance of improving
environmental conditions, enriching them in order to influence intelligence positively. Those children
who are raised in improvised environment have their IQ stimulated and enhanced.
The interactionist position
Today heredity versus environment is no longer an important question. The more important question
has to do with how individuals and environments interact during development with the processes
that account for intellectual change and with how deficits can be remedied and gifts fostered
(Lefrancois, 1994). Adherents of this position recognize that genes or nature contribute certain
potentialities towards intellectual endowment but the actual determinant to what a child‟s
intellectual ability will be lies in the interaction between what is genetically given and the
environment. This position identifies the interaction between nurture and nature as the sole
determinant of intellectual ability in a child. This is a popularly held position today and we need to
examine what genes contribute and what the environment contributes towards the shaping of
intellectual ability.
WHAT GENES GIVE
The question of concern here is whether genes fix intellectual ability. Genes do not fix intelligence as
such, they provide the blue print of intellectual abilities. By this we mean that genes establish a wide
range of possibilities or possibilities or potentialities. These potentialities are bound to unfold in
relation to the range of possible experiences that environment can provide. Put in another way, genes
provide the raw materials for intellectual abilities and set the limits. This means that even the
environmental influences modify the inherited potentials within certain limits. For example a child
may inherit a potential towards average IQ, which has its own ranges. All a teacher and the best
environments can do for such a child is to help him to realize his maximum potential.

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These potentialities are analogous to a rubber band, which can remain unstretched or stretched to
various lengths. The rubber band can be stretched all the way and it can also be stretched until it
breaks. This analogy is very important for learners.
It suggests that the learning environments should be arranged in a manner that will allow the rubber
band to stretch to full potential but not to stunt or break. When dealing with children we must know
their gifts and their limitations in order to nurture the gifts and help improve on limitations.
We should not allow a child with a high intellectual gift to underachieve and we should not expect a
child with an average gift to show outstanding performance.
Every child should be allowed to perform within the limits of their rubber band stretchability.

DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS
The environmental influences include everything from the health of a child‟s mother during
pregnancy to the amount of poisonous substances in the environment to the quality of teaching the
child receives, (Woolfolk, 1988).
We shall examine the influence of the following environments briefly:
The environment before birth.
The home environment.
The school environment.
The environment before birth
The first environment the human organism encounters is the uterus or the womb. This environment
has the potentiality of promoting the child‟s development as per the genetic plan or changing the
course of development completely.
In this environment the genetic blue print is given chance to begin unfolding through the process of
growth, maturation and development of all the characteristics provided for by the genes. These
characteristics are physical, physiological and mental, psychological.
If the uterus is baby friendly or compliant it produces nutrition, warmth and security, which allow the
genetic potentials to unfold as per plan. So the child is given the chance to develop a healthy body and
mental capacity Those children meant to be highly gifted, average or low intellectually realize their
natural gifts.
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On the other hand the uterus may have adverse effects on the developing child if the expectant mother
is exposed to the following
Undernourishment and malnourishment,

Certain diseases during the first three months of pregnancy (e.g. Rubella and Sexually Transmitted
Diseases),

Ingestion of psychoactive drugs or is dependent on them (e.g. alcohol, nicotine and heroine),

Certain medications (e.g. antibiotics, anti-convultants and anti-malarial drugs),

• High doses of X-radiation, prolonged stress or the rhesus factor. These conditions change the
course of development in extreme cases causing either the death of the unborn baby or
stillbirth. If the baby survives the adversity that these conditions cause he may be physically
or mentally defective or both. This means that a baby who would otherwise have been born
with a healthy and well functioning body is born with physical and psychological defects. A
baby who would have been born with normal intelligence is born with mental deficits due to
the brain damage these conditions cause.
So the womb as the first environment the human baby encounters is very critical. It sets the
foundations to intellectual development. All other environmental effects come later and they may
come when damage has already occurred.
The home environment
Ideally every child is born in a home. The home environment means many things. A home has physical
and social dimensions. These refers to the buildings and the facilities as well as the people. The home
provides for all the developmental needs of children: -the physiological and psychological. The
manner in which these needs are provided determines how the child will develop physically and
mentally. This lesson does not allow us to delve into all the logistics and operations of the home. So
we shall point out a few things that help to determine how the home factors influence intellectual
development First it is critically important to point out that homes are diverse environments. No one
is like the other and therefore even their influence on children‟s development is bound to vary.
However, there are certain basic features that we can examine in relation to their effect on intellectual
development. We can broadly place homes in two categories; the stimulative and non-stimulative
The stimulative homes

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These are homes that are enriched in terms of facilities that promote intellectual growth, these are
things like paper, number, number charts, letter charts pictures, colors and play materials. Besides
these facilities the child needs space in which to manipulate and interact with provided facilities.
These facilities play a stimulative role in the development of intelligence. They also aid in language
development. An enriched home provides the child with varying experiences with trips to various
places. In the modern world enriched homes expose children to facilities like television and
computers. All these facilities go along way to stimulating a child‟s intellectual growth.
The non stimulative home
There are homes that are impoverished. They do not posses minimal facilities. The material things
present are only those that are necessary for bare survival. The environment is restrictive as well as
monotonous and nothing exciting seems to happen. There are many homes where paper or pen, chart
or colors. Children never venture very far unless they are sick and have to be taken to hospital. When
a car visits the neighborhood the whole village goes to witness the wonder. A child growing up in this
kind of environment may have high levels of intelligence but the necessary stimulation. The child has
limited experiences, even fewer words to express himself and may have problems with ideas.

The social economic status

A glimpse into the relationship between socio-economic status ( SES) and intellectual ability in order
here. We have noted that children are born in homes that are stimulative while others find themselves
in homes that are non-stimulative. The question of concern is whether children born in rich homes
excel in intellectual ability while those born in poor homes fail in intellectual ability. Let‟s examine
the term social economic status. This is a term used to refer to variations in wealth, power and
prestige. We shall acknowledge that levels of wealth, power and prestige are not always consistent
and therefore not operationally definable because of the relativity inherent. An example may suffice.
Take for example teachers or professors in Kenya. They are members of professions that are
prestigious but which provide little wealth of power. In Kenya too there are people with political
power but who may not be wealthy. If you have talked with a wealthy man who did not get a good
education and there are many of them in Kenya, he holds the educated person who has no wealth in
owe. In fact many conflicts exist between the wealthy and less educated and the well educated but
not wealthy.
From these examples it is evident that we cannot use a single variable, not even income to effectively
measure SES. This not withstanding most researchers identify four general levels of social economic

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status the upper, middle, working and lower. For a long time the relationship between SES and school
performance has been tricky. If you listen to the stories told by prominent lawyers, doctors, engineers,
and politicians you realize that they tell one story. How they suffered their way up the educational
ladder to be where they are today. They were educated through bursaries, the sale of animal lands
and animals. Stories about huge sacrifices by individual families abound. These are people who did
not a second change of clothes nor two pairs of shoes. Yet they emerged as shining stars in their fields.
Among eminent scholars who are world-renowned and who have left Kenya for greener pastures
abroad the story is the same. This means that in Kenya the relationship between SES and intellectual
attainment is rather tricky.
One question begs to be answered. Is SES the sole consideration determining a child‟s intellectual
performance? Studies done in this area seem to suggest that parent‟s education may not be strongly
related to a child‟s excelling performance. Variables that have been found to yield positive results in
this area are parents‟ attitudes towards education, their aspirations for their children and the
intellectual activities of the family. (Laosa, 1984;Peng and Lee 1992; White, 1982). These studies
explain why children from affluent families may not necessarily excel in academic matters. We
understand why many families with limited incomes do an excellent job of supporting their children‟s
learning because of their positive attitudes and behaviors. Lack of income ceased to be an important
factor for school, achievement. This not withstanding an exploration of how poverty could mitigate
against intellectual ability is deemed necessary at this juncture.

Effects of low SES on Achievement

There are cases where poverty acts as a motivator. This happens when parents have encouraged their
children, or individual children have worked hard to excel in academic work in order to get a good
job and escape poverty. This scenario is very familiar to many educated people. These are people
whose efforts have been recognized and they have received support from well-wishers and bursary
awarding bodies. There are many children who are not this lucky and who seem lucky and who seem
bound in completely difficult situations where they are unable to rise above average performance or
even mediocre ability even when they have above average intelligence.
This picture is occasioned by many factors that exist and which help to maintain the cycle of poverty.
These factors have been identified by Gareia, (1991), as poor health care for mother and child. Limited
resources, Family stress interruptions in scholarship and discrimination.

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All these factors lead to school failure or even school drop out for both boys and girls. When a girl or
boy drops out of school they get poor paying jobs, they tend to marry and get children earlier than
their age mates who continue with their age mates who continue with their education. This leads to
another generation born in poverty. Children raised in low SES are exposed to hostile conditions.

They may wear old and torn clothes.

They are less familiar with books and school activities. They experience problems in verbal and
non-verbal skills-speaking ungrammatically.
They experience difficulties with reading and comprehension, mathematics and general
information. Consequently teachers and other children may assume that these children are not bright.
They believe that these children are not good in schoolwork and show a negative attitude towards
them.
The low SES children may respond in the following ways:
By being more inhibited and withdrawn leading to repeated failure.
Repeated failure leads to learned helplessness where the pupil comes to believe that doing well in
school is hopeless. The child has experience of many of his friends and relatives who never finished
school anyway. So it is normal to quit school as well as we noted earlier if he does not complete school:

- He finds a less rewarding job, where he barely ekes a living and continues to live below the poverty
line.
- This kind of person tends to get more children than his income can support. These children also drop
out school early and the poverty cycle continues.

The School Environment

The schools differ just like the homes. Some schools being more enriched than others and therefore
providing varying experiences. Like the homes, the schools are made up of physical resources and
human resources. The physical resources constitute the buildings and the facilities. Some of the
schools provide stimulative environments for intellectual development of learners while other
remain non-stimulative.
Issues of concern as mentioned earlier are adequacy appropriateness and security of school facilities.
There are those schools, which are lacking in these things and those that are overflowing with them
as it were.
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Equally important is the issue of human resources, mainly the teaching staff and the support staff.
Like we have said about the home, the attitudes held by the teachers and the school administration
regarding their pupils are very important in determining academic excellence or failure. School exists
where nothing that one would ask for in term of facilities is lacking but when you examine the pupils‟
performance you are faced by appalling results. Other schools exist where resources are limited but
the results excellent. This goes to show that the good will of the teachers, their positive attitudes
towards their work and towards learners may hold the key to whether learners will succeed
academically or fail dismally.

SUMMARY
The lesson has examined causes of individual differences in intellectual ability and discussed the
following:
Genetic heredity.
Environmental conditions and demands focusing specifically on:
- The uterine environment.
- The home environment.
- The socioeconomic status.
- The school.
KEY WORDS
Blue print: - a kind of program with the potentiality of unfolding in line with the inherited properties
of the organism and their interaction with the environment.
Environment: - All the forces that shape the child‟s life. These include the uterus, the home, the school
as well as ecological factors that affect the developing person.
Heredity: - The passing down of traits from parents to offspring through the interaction of genes.
Individual differences in learning: - refers to the marked variations among children in their capacity
to learn, the total knowledge a child acquires, the ability to adapt successfully to new situations and
the environment in general.
Non-stimulatitive: - impoverished environmental conditions, which retard or inhibit development.
Social Economic Status: -Relative measure of wealth, power and prestige.
Stimulative: - enriched environmental conditions, which enhance or promote development.
Teratogens: - any environmental agents that can cause abnormalities in the developing foetus.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
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1. What kind of advice would you give to expectant mothers to help them promote healthy mental
development for their children?
2. Describe an ideal home environment which can promote intellectual development in he children?
3. Why is it that some children coming from affluent homes do not perform well in school?
4. What changes would you like to effect in your school inorder to improve performance?

TOPIC EIGHT: MOTIVATION

Motivation concerns itself with the following:
Dynamics of getting pupils to want to learn, or have the interest to do so.

Have the desire to spend time on learning tasks.

To complete assignment and even to want to excel.

For teachers motivating learners remains one of the greatest challenges of the profession. Many
teachers will complain that pupils do not want to learn, they are lazy and they never complete
assignment and so on. Thistopic explores motivation in classroom setting.

Motivation is defined as the driving force or impetus behind behavior, thoughts and actions.
Motivation energizes behavior and gives it direction towards a goal. The goal is always to satisfy a
need, for example, hunger, thirst, pain avoidance, temperature regulation and elimination. At a higher
level motivation energizes behavior towards achievement, competence, affiliation, esteem and so on.

MOTIVATION IN THE SCHOOL SETTING

Motivating students is one of the critical tasks of teaching. Teachers are expected to get pupils
interested in learning or interested to display desirable behavior. This problem can be aptly summed
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up by the old adage that says that you can take the donkey to the river but you cannot force it to drink
water. Analogous with this saying the teacher should realize that he can have pupils in the classroom
and even provide an atmosphere conducive for learning but whether they learn or not depends on
them. It heavily depends on their interests or disinterests, their priorities and needs, their attitudes
and values. This means that the teachers interest in wanting to get learners to learn may not coextend
to their wanting to learn. Given this picture the teacher needs to know how to play his cards right so
that he creates a desire in the learner to want to learn. We shall start the exploration of this issue from
the theoretical viewpoints. What do different theories advocate.

THEORETICAL APPROACHES
Motivation is a vast and complicated subject encompassing many theories. We shall explore the
following theories in our endeavor to throw some illumination in this area. We intent to suggest
certain things teachers could try out as they apply concepts derived from each of the theories:
The behavioristric approaches
The humanistic approaches
The cognitive approaches
The social learning approaches
The Behaviouristic approaches
Behavioristic approaches advocate the use of reinforcement. Reinforcement refers to the use of
rewards or incentives. A reward is an attractive object or event supplied as a consequence of a
particular behavior. An incentive is an object or event that encourages or discourages behavior. For
example the promise of an A+ is an incentive. The threat to punish is an incentive. According to the
behavioral approach an understanding of student motivation should begin with a careful analysis of
incentives and rewards present in the classroom. These could be
Affection,
Money,
Praise,
Privileges,
Grades or even stars.
The teacher should also identify the behaviors that need to be reinforced. These could be
Outstanding performance,
Punctuality,
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 Neatness,
Attentiveness,
Completion of home work,
Good conduct,
Proper language use,
Non-aggression,
Honesty and showing respect for others.
This list is by no means exhaustive but it gives the teacher the general idea of what he could do. He
could come up with a catalogue of described behavior and a list of possible reinforcers.
The application
The teacher should always be alert and notice when the desired behavior occurs. Its occurrence
should be accompanied by a reinforcer. A student who shows improved performance could be praised
or rewarded. One who shows improved grooming should be rewarded appropriately. The idea here
is to acknowledge desired behavior and accompany it with reinforcing stimuli. The principle is that
reinforcement strengthens behavior and gives it the chance to occur again. The teacher should
remember that that any behavior, which is ignored, goes through the process of extinction, it dies off
so if you want behavior to recur, reinforce it by all means.

Cognitive Approaches To Motivation

Cognitive approaches to motivation developed as a reaction to the behavioral views. Cognitive
theorists believe that behavior is determined by our thinking not by rewards or punishments we
anticipate or receive. In their view behavior is initiated and regulated by inner plans not by external
events or physical conditions like hunger. Cognitive theorists tend to see people as
Active,
Curious and always searching for information to solve personally relevant problems.
In their view people work hard because they enjoy work and because they want to understand. They
emphasize intrinsic motivation, (Weiner, 1984). The teacher should help learners to develop their
curiosity and methods of searching for information students need to be trained to be intrinsically
motivated to search for knowledge for its own sake. Intrinsic motivation is included in this lesson and
will be dealt with at length then.

Note: The cognitive approaches deal with the higher mental processes involved in thinking problem
solving and perception
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Social Learning Theories Of Motivation
The social learning theories of motivation are integrations of behavioral and cognitive approaches.
These theorists see motivation as a product of two main forces: The individual expectation of success
in a task and the vicarious experience.
The person‟s expectation of success in a task is determined by personal effectiveness also called self-
efficacy. Self-efficacy refers to personal competence. One important idea that teachers could borrow
from these concepts is that learners need to be empowered to perform learning tasks with high
chances of succeeding. If a learner knows he will succeed in solving a mathematical problem or in
balancing a chemistry equation their motivation will be heightened. Studies have shown students
with a high sense of academic efficacy display greater persistence effort and intrinsic interest in their
academic learning and performance.

The vicarious experience constitutes observations of other students. A student compares his
performance with that of other children. If the child discovers that performance is poor he is likely to
loose his sense of competence and efficacy altogether. In this respect the teacher should help the child
to keep up with the level of performance of other children in order to keep up their motivation. In
many instances teacher aggravate the problem when they torment the child who is comparing with
peers unfavorably. They make the child sink deeper in despair and apathy. A little help understanding,
encouragement and even persuasive and moral support may be all that this child needs to improve
his sense of efficacy.

Humanistic Approaches
The proponents of the humanistic approaches to motivation are Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.
The humanistic perspective is referred to as the “Third force” psychology because it developed in the
1940s as a reaction against two dominant forces at the time. The first force was Freudian
psychoanalysis while the Second was Watson‟s behaviorism.
The Humanistic perspective emphasized intrinsic sources of motivation. They held the view that
every human being has an inherent desire to self-actualize. This desire motivates the person to
continually want to seek self-actualization. According to Abraham Maslow students cannot develop
in the direction of self-actualization unless their needs are met. He developed the hierarchy of needs
in order to illustrate the levels of motivation. We shall examine this hierarchy with a view to helping
the teacher to understand the conditions that must be met before we can ask students to be motivated
to learn.

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Maslow Hierarchy Of Needs
Maslow, (1970) suggests that humans have a hierarchy of needs ranging from lower level needs to
higher level needs are called metaneeds. The lower level needs are survival and safety related. They
consist of the primary needs, the basic biological needs like the need for food, water, temperature
regulation and pain avoidance. Safety needs refer to the persons desire to feel secure in non-
threatening physical and social environments. The higher level needs are those for intellectual
achievement and self-actualization. Self-actualization is Maslows term to refer to Self-fulfillment or
realization of personal potential.

Self-Actualization

Self Esteem

Belongingness

Safety

Physiological Needs

1. Physiological needs
At the base of the hierarchy are physiological needs. They constitute the need for food water,
temperature regulation and pain avoidance. These needs are basic for the survival of the organism
and they must be met first before the learner can be motivated to learn. A student who is hungry or
in pain or even one who needs to go to the toilet has to satisfy the need first because these needs are
proponent or pressuring.
What can the school do in order to help meet this need? The school should ensure that,
There is a lunch program

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 There is clean water to drink and
There are usable toilets for students.

Students should never be punished by being deprived of food neither should they be denied time to
use the toilet facilities.
2. Safety
The second level of the hierarchy consists of safety needs. These are needs to do with the security of
environment. These are natural elements like winds, floods and lightning. They can be met in the
following ways:
Schools provide firm safe buildings that will not be blown away by the wind or be washed away by
floods.
The school buildings should be fortified against natural elements like lightning. In lightning prone
areas lightning- arrestors should be installed. In flood prone areas proper drainage should be put in
place.

What are the sources of insecurity?

Insecurity can also be caused by the human factors like politically motivated aggression found in
bandit prone areas or areas hit by tribal clashes. These should be eliminated in order to give students
secure environments in which to learn.

Insecurity can also exist in the form of bullying where new comers are physically or psychologically
harassed.

These incidents should be minimized if not completely eliminated.

Teachers too can pose insecurity to learners if they use physically and psychologically threatening
methods in their discharge of duty. Whatever the source of insecurity, makes the students fearful and
they spend a lot of their time and energy dwelling on their fears rather on learning tasks
3. Belongingness
The third level of need is the need for belongingness. This is the need to be loved by significant other
people and to be accepted by them. For the student significant other people are; parents, siblings,
peers and teachers. Every person has the desire to feel accepted and is any threat to love is perceived
the person begins to malfunction psychologically.
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How can the teacher help learners meet the needs for love and belongingness? The teacher should
help learners
To make and keep friends by training them in social skills.

The teacher should also try to bond with the students by developing a loving relationship with them.
By a loving relationship we mean parental not romantic love.

The teacher should show concern and sensitivity to the needs and feelings of the learner and
communicate the attitude of care. Students respond to this by extending love and sensitivity towards
the teacher in reciprocation. This is an aspect that can go very far in instilling discipline and at the
same time motivating learning. W know that there is prevailing circumstances that make it difficulty
for the teacher to bond with students namely:
- Work overload,
- Overwhelming teacher student ratio among other professional challenges. However the teacher
should make effort to communicate care and sensitivity to his pupils at every opportunity.
4. Self Esteem
Self-Esteem is also referred to, as prestige need. It underlies the general competitiveness. The need
to be outstanding in various aspects of school life. Some students will excel in:
Academic performance while other will outshine others in field events.

There are those who hold positions of prestige and are envied because of their leadership qualities

Some students shine because of their outstanding beauty or strength.

How do teachers help learners meet their needs? In helping pupils fulfill this need, the teachers should
open their eyes to the school stars and give them an opportunity to shine by creating conditions that
allow healthy competitiveness.
The school should develop incentives to encourage competitiveness. Some schools do this by
promising field trips or valued awards to the students or group of students who show excellence in
academic work, games and sports in school beauty contests in leadership and in any other areas of
excellence. The main idea here is to put the lamp on the housetop where all can see it and not cover
it up with a bucket. So wherever we are we should let the school stars shine.

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The teacher should recognize that every student has the capacity to improve on task performance.
This goes even for those students who are not in the top ten or in any area whether academic or extra
curriculum. The teacher should provide the right incentives to keep tem trying harder and to improve
their performance.
5. Self-actualization
At the top of the hierarchy is the need for self-actualization, the need to develop ones human capacity
to think and feel and understand the world. In Maslow‟s view, people‟s failure to satisfy “lower” needs
leaves the individual unable to focus on “higher” needs. If students are hungry insecure and unloved,
they wont worry about academic success. Although this need looks like it is beyond the attainment of
learners, I believe their ways in which they can be assisted to systematically self-actualize. Learners
can be helped to become the best they are capable of becoming, to release their potential to optimum
levels if the school creates the right conditions consciously and systematically. Learners physiological,
safety, affiliate and esteem needs should be planned for and delivered. Then there should be
deliberate effort to help learners improve in many areas of school life namely:
Knowledge,

The need for beauty and,

The need to perform at peak in all school endeavors.

As far as knowledge is concerned learners can be trained t study and value good performance.

In the pursuance of beauty or aesthetics learners can be trained to value cleanliness, neatness not
only personal but environmental as well. They can be trained to appreciate good handwriting and to
strive towards perfection in these things. These are not difficult things to do as long as the teacher
has the will and the necessary commitment towards learners.

EXTRINSIC AND INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

Extrinsic motivation refers to the external forces that motivate a person‟s behavior. Intrinsic
motivation on the other hand refers to the internal forces that motivate behavior. The teacher needs
to understand both forces of motivation as well as how to use them to good advantage.
Extrinsic motivation
Extrinsic motivation can be delivered in two main ways

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 The use of punishment
The use of incentives

1. The use of punishment

This refers to the use of punishment or threats to punish the pupils who do not meet the set standards
of behavior whether academic or general conduct or attitude.
The use of force and even threats of to use it often serves as powerful motivators of behavior. If used
properly and wisely punishment can instill discipline. The emphasis is on using punishment wisely.
We may actually discover that many times we do not use it wisely.
Two things are bound to happen when we use punishment on behavior. First it serves as an incentive
to motivate the desirable behavior. It motivates the pupil to avoid or escape the punishment. But it
has serious limitations these are;

Even if it succeeds in stopping undesirable behavior it is likely to create dependence on external

agents.

A pupil who is used to the use of force never learns self-direction.

He relies on others to direct him.

A learner who is punished never performs a task with enthusiasm.

He resents the things he does

He never learns cooperation.

Use of incentives
This refers to the use of rewards or promise of rewards to pupils who display desirable behavior. For
example the promise of trips, status, points, marks, money and so on. This kind of motivation is useful
because people want and need rewards.
Pupils will work hard to get good grades so that they can get the promised reward.
They will also strive to attain standards of behavior that will lead to rewards. However the use of
rewards has similar effects on motivation as the use of coercion. It causes dependency, the pupil
works to please the teacher and in the absence of reward behavior stops. So the motivation is short
lived. For this reason it is important to rely on intrinsic motivation.
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Intrinsic motivation
This is motivation that comes from within the learner. It also referred to as identification or ego
involvement. This motivation results from the pupils identification with desired goals-The learner
has the desire and the will to learn. His ego is fully involved in the learning task. If this is the case then
the teacher needs to know what will make a learner identify with the learning task. The learner will
identify the learning task if his need for competence is met. By competence we mean
The ability to perform a task,
Mastery of a task or
Competitiveness in a task.
In fact every pupil has an inherent desire to perform competently in school tasks. The teacher‟s role
is to discover how to help the learner to achieve this. The teacher can assist the learner by providing
him with the opportunity to become competent. This can be done by helping the pupil avoid failure.
This can be achieved if learners are given tasks they are intellectually capable of performing. If a
learner is successful in performing a task his self-concept is enhanced and he gains self-respect from
the good feeling of being able to perform the task. This is ego inflating. It makes the ego grow fat.
Another thing that the teacher could do is to help learners set up both short term and long-term goals.
For example, I will get 80% in the biology test next week or I will improve my test marks in the
chemistry test tomorrow instead of getting 50% I am working for 70%. The short-term goals could
consist of mastering topics and sub-topics and getting good grades in the tests set on them. Passing
the end of year or terminal examinations should be long term goal. For example, aiming to score A or
B+ in a given subject. All stages the teacher should provide the learners with immediate feedback.
This means that they should know their performance soon after a test or an examination.
The feedback should inform them of the correct responses expected as well as informing them how
well they have achieved their goals. Basically we want to emphasize the importance of empowering
the learner so that he is successful in the learning task and making that the marks he or she earns are
reflected on the paper. Let us dispel the myth that a learner who scores 90% becomes self confident
and may slacken in his performance. Let the teacher know that a learner who is successful develops
an interest in an activity and continues to pursue that activity. On the other hand a learner who fails
results in declining interests. Failure other negative consequences, For example
Avoidance of the activity,
Absenteeism,
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 Total loss of motivation.
Achievement motivation
Achievement motivation is the desire:
To excel,
To complete difficult tasks,
To meet high standards and
To out perform others.

Pupils who are high in the need to achieve are those who are intrinsically motivated. They differ from
low need achievers in a number of ways
They do better on problem solving tasks
They show better performance and more rapid improvement on verbal tasks.
They set realistic but challenging goals for themselves
They show a need for competence for its own sake as early as three years of age.

What are the factors that promote achievement motivation? Achievement motivation is related
to the following factors.
a) Parental expectations-parents should put realistic pressure on the child‟s performance. They
should not allow a child to underachieve nor should they expect a child to achieve beyond his level of
competence. The sex of the child, depending on socialization, boys tend to show are higher on
achievement motivation than girls. This occurs in cases where they are expected to perform well, pass
their examinations get jobs and finally become providers for their families.

How true is this in the Kenyan situation? This scenario has changed in many families where girls are
no linger waiting to get married to men who have made it. There are families in Kenya today where
the girls are achieving and the boys failing not only in academic work but also in life.

b) The third factor affecting achievement motivation is the size of the family Again the view held is
that small families composed of parents and probably two children achievement motivation is higher
while in large families achievement motivation is low. In the African context and Kenya in particular

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the issue is not as simple as whether the family is large or small. There are large families, which have
produced many prominent people.
However as the cost of educating children continue to soar higher and higher then the families with
many children may not be able to sustain them in institution of learning.
c) Birth order of the child is another factor influencing achievement motivation. First borns have a
higher need for achievement than later siblings. Again this is determined by the families expectations
of its first borns. If the first-born is pressurized to achieve in order to take up parental roles, then he
will work hard in order to fulfill parental expectations. There are many instances today where the
first born ends up to become so spoilt that even finishing school remains a remote dream. Culture is
another factor affecting achievement motivation. There are cultures that encourage cooperation
while others encourage competition. The cultures that encourage cooperation do not nurture
achievement motivation. They encourage the individual to perform at the same level with the other
people. This is illustrated well in the way communal duties are performed. If a group of ten people
are digging a piece of land, they device a song and all the digging tools go up or down in rhythm. At
the end o the day nobody will claim to have put in more work than the others. No participant achieves
more than another because there is no competition. On the other hand the cultures that encourage
competition nurture achievement motivation. Children learning in these cultures learn to want to
excel, to out perform others and generally to be outstanding. In these cultures the individual child‟s
value is based on the ability to outperform others in tasks e.g. the fastest runner, the strongest, the
most outstanding in academic performance are all accorded positions of prestige.

Nurturing Achievement Motivation

How can a teacher encourage the development of achievement motivation? The tendency to achieve
success is determined by three things
The motive to succeed or need achievement

The persons estimate of the likelihood of success in a task

The incentive of success
The teacher should make every possible attempt to arouse in the learners the need to achieve. This
can be done by empowering learners to succeed by:
Providing them with tasks that they can master under conditions of reinforcement.

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 The learner should have the promise that the likelihood to succeed is high.

If he knows that he is more likely to succeed then he will pursue the learning task. It is the teacher‟s
task to help learners to be achievers.

Personalized goals and incentives as motivators

Intrinsic motivation is also displayed n personal goals and incentives in the sense that many motives
are personalized There are people motivated to be leaders and others to be followers. Some people
want to assert themselves by physical actions, other want to use the spoken word while others want
to seek recognition by becoming somebody, a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, teacher, lecturer and so
on. These personal motives determine the individual‟s level of aspiration. Here aspiration is the
expectation of accomplishment. Some people have high level of accomplishment tasks and low in
others. A person‟s level of aspirations is usually modified by his success and failure. A person who
often succeeds continues to have high aspirations while the failing person‟s aspiration drops. If a
person is succeeding and hence the level of aspirations is high then his self-concept is positive. This
can be noted in a person who considers himself an intellectual and studies hard to become a scholar.
The person does everything he can to maintain the image of a scholar. On the other hand the person
who develops a negative self-image of failure will not do very well not to do very much to change the
situation. Instead he becomes resigned to his fate. With this in mind the teacher is advised to help
each learner to identify his personal goals and aspirations.

KEY TERMS
Achievement motivation: -The desire to excel in learning that arises from the need to be efficient and
competent in tasks.
Behavioristic approaches to motivation: -Refer to the theories that believe in the power of
reinforcement in motivation.
Cognitive approaches to motivation: -theories that believe that thinking or inner plans and not
external events motivate behavior.
Esteem needs: -the need to hold a prestigious position among peers. The need for competitiveness.
Extrinsic motivation: -motivation that is determined by forces outside the individual. Motivation
aroused by the need for a reward or desire to escape punishment.

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Hierarchy of needs: -Maslow arrangement of human needs from the most basic survival needs to the
highest growth needs. The hierarchy is arranged in ascending steps which are broader at the base
and narrowing as the needs get higher forming a kind of a pyramid.
Humanistic approaches: - theories that advocate that human behavior is motivated by needs. If
needs are met the pupil will be motivated to move towards self-actualization.
Incentives: -use of rewards or promise of rewards to entice a person to behave in a certain way. Use
of punishment or threat to punish is also an incentive.
Intrinsic motivation: -motivation that comes from within the learner rather than from external
sources like rewards and punishments.
Motivation: -term used to refer to internal psychological forces that initiate behavior and give it
direction.
Self-actualization: -Word used by Maslow to refer to tendencies towards self-fulfillment or
realization of personal potentials.
Social learning theories: - approaches that believe in the power of efficacy and vicarious experiences
in motivating behavior.
Vicarious experience: -observing the other people and comparing oneself with them.
REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. In your own assessment what are the conditions that demotivate learners in a school setting?
2. Why do teachers sometimes ignore desirable behavior and fail to accompany it with reinforcement?
3. What happens to a learner who experiences continued failure in any subject?
4. What are some of the learners‟ needs that schools should meet in order to get learners to focus on
learning tasks?
5. What is the effect of good performance on motivation?
6. Do you really believe that first borns have higher achievement motivation than later siblings?

TOPIC NINE: ATTITUDES

This topic discusses the
• role played by attitudes in school situations,
• The components of attitudes
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 • The function of attitudes
• How attitudes develop
• How a teacher can change learners‟ attitudes.

Learning in the school and even a pupil’s adjustment to school is largely determined by the attitudes
the pupil holds. The pupils‟ interaction with the school and with peers lead to the development of
various attitudes. The pupil learns to like school or to dislike school. The liking of school is related to
the ability to adjust well in school. It can also be related to good performance. On the other hand the
dislike for school is related to the ability to adjust well in school as well as to good performance. On
the other hand the dislike for school is related to the inability to adjust well in the school setting and
it could also affect how the learner eventually performs.
It is of utmost importance then for a teacher to know how attitudes develop. If the teacher knows how
positive attitudes towards school and school subjects develop the he will be able to influence their
development. Also if the teacher knows how positive attitudes towards school and school subjects
develop then he will be able to influence their development. Also if the teacher knows how negative
attitudes can be changed he will be able to influence the changes.
DEFINITION OF THE TERM
Like many psychological constructs attitude is not easy to define. However we shall define it as a
favourable or unfavourable evaluative reaction towards things in ones environment. Attitudes are
exhibited through ones beliefs, feelings or intended behavior. (Myers, 1996.Severy Brigham and
Schlenker, (1976) defined attitude as an orientation towards an object in ones environment inferred
from behavior. Attitude can also be defined as a predisposition to act in a negative or positive way
towards persons, objects, ideas or events.
As predisposition attitudes are anticipatory responses.

They describe a relationship between a person and something else called the attitudinal object.

The attitudinal object could be another person, a place, an event or even oneself.

Attitudes are directional in the sense that they represent a positive or negative preference for the
attitudinal object.

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 Attitudes also vary in intensity, meaning that an attitude towards something can be very strong or
moderate or even weak.

Attitudes can also be defined as learned ways of consistently interacting with and responding to the
stimuli in ones environment.

We can also look at attitudes as general response patterns in the sense that they predispose a
person to be motivated in ways that are consistent to the attitude.

The way people behave reveal the attitudes they hold and sometimes it is difficult to infer attitude
from behavior.
COMPONENTS OF ATTITUDES
Attitudes have three components
The affective feeling/emotional
The cognitive
The behavioural

The affective component

This component describes ones emotional reactions towards the attitudinal object. It consists of
positive or negative feelings. In the positive direction there are positive feelings of liking, loving,
enjoyment accompanying the attitudinal object. Whereas in the negative direction there are negative
feelings of dislike, hate, feeling uncomfortable in the presence of the attitudinal object.
In terms component evaluation the affective components in the most primitive and irrational of the
three components. Any attitude operating at this level can cause a lot destination. Many animosities
that people visit on each other are caused by attitudes operating at this level. In this life Muslims may
hate Christians, Catholics may fight with Protestants and vice versa, men may dislike women, boys
may dislike female teachers, one tribe my rise up in arms and massacre another tribe simply because
of negative feelings held. Students may dislike a teacher, a subject or school without knowing why.
Most politically motivated attitudes operate at this level.

The Cognitive Component Of Attitudes

The cognitive component includes beliefs, facts, and information about the attitudinal object. At this
level the person holds an attitude on the basis of information. This component has its inherent
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problems in the sense that the attitude may be based on a large store of incorrect information and
false beliefs. For example a person may belief that somebody is good or bad or one may rely on stories
told by people who have various biases and prejudices regarding the attitudinal object. For example
a principal who does not want to go on transfer because of certain vested interests in the current
school may tell terrible stories about the in coming principal. He may summon the school on the
parade ground and tell the students that the incoming principal will eat up all the money in the school,
or that he is being transferred because of his inability to run his previous school. The story may run
to the effect that the incoming principal has even killed a student and so on. Given all the
misinformation the students will rise up in rebellion against the incoming principal before he sets his
foot in the neighbourhood leave alone the school compound. With this in mind it is very important
for one to confirm the sources of their information by considering the evidence and shocking facts.
People should seek to base the cognitive component of their attitudes on solid, factual and unbiased
information.

The Behavioral Component

Attitudes towards a person, an event, a place or an idea affect how the person behaves towards the
attitudinal object. An attitude is never observable. We cannot look at a person and then tell the
attitude he holds. Therefore we infer attitudes from observable behavior.. That if a persons attitude
towards a certain object is positive then the persons behavior should be positive and therefore
correspond with the attitude. Likewise if the held attitude is negative we expect the person to display
negative behavior towards the attitudinal object.

FUNCTIONS OF ATTITUDES
At this juncture it is important to examine the role attitudes play in our lives. These are the following:
Cognitive
Social adjustment
Ego defense mechanisms
Expressing Values

The cognitive function

Attitudes platy the role of assisting the individual understand the world.. Under this function attitudes
give one a frame of reference, a way to structure the world so that it makes sense. For example a
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pupils attitudes about possible professional fields may help him in the choice of subjects. It is also the
effort to put in order to attain the specific goals.
Social Adjustment function
Human beings are social creatures. Certain individuals and groups are very important to the person.
These important individuals called the significant other persons expect one to hold certain attitudes
particularly attitudes consistent with those they hold. When the person holds the desired attitudes,
he earns group membership through being acceptable as one of them. This is important and promises
survival in the group. The expression of the approved attitudes earns the person rewards,
identification and approval. On the other hand if the individual does not hold attitudes consistent with
the group is threatened with ex-communication. When a child is sent away from the family home, or
a pupil is expelled from the school it is because they fail to comply with the attitudes fostered by either
the home or the school. When Bishop Milingo of the Catholic Church went against the behavior
prescribed by the church he was threatened by excommunication.

Ego defense mechanisms

Human beings are psychologically uncomfortable with situations that threaten their self-esteem or
their ego. So in order to live with such situations they build psychological defenses around their egos.
The defense mechanisms involve a degree of self-deception as well as distortion of reality. For
example a pupil who has not worked hard for their examination will refuse to accept responsibility
for the failure that results. He will attribute the failure to other sources may be say the teacher dislikes
him and therefore can never give him good grades. Or the teacher is incompetent and the like. Or a
man who is beaten by his wife finds it extremely difficult to acknowledge and accept that indeed it
happens, so when he is among other men he becomes the staunchest advocate for the supremacy of
men, the power of the men over women and the need to keep women in their place.
A teacher may believe that a certain pupil or class is bad. A person who uses ego defense mechanisms
looks for the slightest opportunity to confirm the belief. This confirmation protects him from
acknowledging this weaknesses and basic truths about him. At times the ego-defense mechanisms
lead to self-fulfilling prophesies.

DEVELOPMENT OF ATTITUDES
The key questions here concerns how attitudes are acquired. Attitudes are acquired early in life
through the following methods:

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 • Observation
• Instrumental conditioning
• Classical conditioning
• Direct experience
• Observing our own behavior
1. Observation learning
According to the school learning theory attitudes are transmitted through the process of imitation.
This is learning by observing others. From early in life children see how a parent, a sister, a brother,
a teacher, a television character or model reacts towards a kind of food, a certain animal, person or
event. The child then models his own attitudes after those expressed by these important models. In
later childhood and adolescence the person observes the peer group and identifies with them by
assuming the attitudes they hold.
2. Instrumental conditioning
According to this theory attitudes can be established or modified through reinforcement procedures.
Throughout life people are reward with praise approval and friendship for expressing certain
attitudes. They are punished for expressing others. The attitudes that are rewarded tend to be held
more strongly while punished attitudes are weakened. According to these theories the environment
must be organized in such a way that an attitude has all the likelihood of being reinforced until it is
established.
3. Classical conditioning
Classical conditioning is learned through association. In life people see smoke and they know smoke
and fire occur together. When lightening is seen thunder is anticipated. Likewise when a person visits
the dentist, pain is anticipated. Experiments in classical conditioning have revealed when a neutral
stimulus is consistently associated with unconditioned stimulus that produces emotional response,
classical conditioning occurs. After repeated pairings of stimuli the previously neutral stimulus
become conditioned stimulus and elicits the same response that the unconditioned stimulus does.
At home if the mention of the neighbours home by the parents is associated with negative comments
e.g. they are of dubious character or background, they steal, they are proud and so on the children
assume the negative attitudes towards the neighbours.
If a boy continually hears his father comment negatively or derogatively about women he acquires
negative attitudes towards girls and women.

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Every time a child hears people speak negatively about members of a certain religion, community,
race or religion, then the child assumes similar attitudes.
In the school situation classical conditioning influences attitudes in the following ways;
If a maths lesson is paired with difficult incomprehensible concepts and maths tests with failing
grades the learner acquires negative attitudes towards mathematics. Also if school life is paired with
physical and psychological pain and discomfort, then the child acquires a negative attitude towards
school.

4. Direct experience
Many attitudes are learned by direct experience with the attitude object. This occurs through our
interaction with the attitude object as well as our memory for these interactions. For example a pupil
may have heard that a certain teacher is very harsh and every body fears him. When this teacher takes
up the mathematics class he instills discipline, goes about teaching seriously and systematically and
eventually the mathematics grade improves. The pupil learns to respect the teacher and his hope for
passing mathematics is renewed. This positive attitude towards the teacher is likely to endure.
Attitudes formed as a result of first hand or direct experience are well thought out, more certain, more
stable and more resistant to attack.

ATTITUDE CHANGE
In this section I have discussed attitude change in the light of different theoretical approaches.
The behaviouristic theory,
Cognitive theory,
Social learning theory.

A. Behaviouristic theories
The same theories that we have used to explain how attitudes are acquired can be used to explain
attitude change. At times a person who had acquired a positive attitude towards something assumes
a negative attitude and where a positive attitude was a negative one might replace it. If we consider
social learning theory and attitude change, a child or a pupil will change a held attitude in order to
conform with the one held by significantly other people. For example a boy who did not like a certain
kind of food changes his attitude when he learns that, that dish is the father‟s favourite. Since he
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wishes to identify with the father he likes the food the father likes. Using the operant conditioning
theory we note that the attitudes that are not reinforced go through the process of extinction until
they disappear in association learning, when the stimuli paired together cease the conditioned
behavior dies.
Personality traits that characterize persuasibility
The teacher as a person who is central in attitude change needs to know the personality traits that
characterize persuasibility. These are traits that make a person open or closed to suggestions that
change attitudes. These are the following:
1. Congruence
Congruence refers to the agreeability. In this respect individuals will readily listen to messages with
which they agree. They turn away when confronted with a message with which they agree with. By
way of example lets consider this boy who comes to school with his trouser hanging dangerously
around his hips, his shirt lacking all the buttons and shoes that have not seen polish for months. His
hair has not encountered the torture of a comb in weeks. This is an ungainly sight capable of revolting
even the most compassionate of teachers. If we want to change his attitude there are nice things that
this boy wants to hear. He wants to hear that he is a good boy that he is handsome, that you like him,
but is there something that he can do about his dressing? On the next day he will appear looking
better. This should not be ignored, he should be applauded for improved grooming and within no time
he will have rejoined the flock.
2. The age factor
Age is a factor that influences suggestibility. Children are more influenceable when they are young.
This suggestibility increases through early childhood through age nine. This means that all the
positive attitudes should be instilled at this time. From age nine through adolescence the influence is
from the peer group. So it is very important that the peer group has imbibed the appropriate attitudes.

3. Intelligence and educational level are factors influencing suggestibility

Intelligent and more educated people are more open to suggestion because they can process more
information.
They need to be presented with both sides of an argument because they have no problem dealing
with the pros and cons of an argument.

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 The less intelligent people can be persuaded by naïve arguments. The politicians, theologians and
even people who move masses for personal gain use his particular insight.

In school a few people use this style. They use a few arguments on people who don‟t think for
themselves and in a short while the school is burned down.
4. Sex is a factor
They sat that women are more readily influenced than men. This is because they are better listeners
and they absorb more messages.
5. Self esteem
People with high or low self-esteem are more influenciable than people with average self-esteem
6. Dogmatism
Dogmatism deals with the area of belief systems where people are supposed to take in religious
teachings and training without questioning. They are also expected to escape any possibility of
questioning and even become militant when people question their beliefs.
In dogmatism there are people who are high while others are low.
The High Dogmatic
High dogmatic people are intolerant, stereotypic in their thinking and highly defensive. They tend to
avoid views that are inconsistent with those they hold and avoid information as well. Due to these
reasons they are unable to mix widely with other people that is why they tend to spend a lot of time
together so that they foster narrowly held attitudes. Generally they tend to be psychologically
immature and poorly adjusted.
Teachers will encounter students who come from different dogmatic orientations. Students who
dress in a certain prescribed way, who eat only certain foods or drink certain beverages. The issue of
the Sabbath in seventh day Adventist areas has been contentious for long and will not be resolved.
The issue of how women should dress and how they should not has been controversial with
conservative thinkers wanting to prescribe a particular dress code of dress and subjecting women to
humiliating, horrors in public undressing of women in trousers and mini skirts.
Imagine if the Scott and not the English Colonised Kenya then every man would be wearing a Scottish
Kilt and those in trousers would be publicly undressed.
The low dogmatic people
The low dogmatic people are known to be calm, mature, forceful and efficient.
They listen to information even when it is inconsistent to their belief.

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Teachers should actually be sensitive to student‟s orientation so that they don‟t confront and attack.
Confrontation makes students more resistant because in the process of acquiring the various dogma
they also get psychological inoculation which makes them very resistant to attack.

B Cognitive Theories
The cognitive theories identify several methods, which can be used to change attitudes these are:
(i) Persuasion
(ii) Role models
(iii) Cognitive dissonance
Persuasion
Attitudes can be changed through persuasion.
In school we may wish to change attitudes regarding learners social behaviors.
Attitudes towards the positive aspects of the African cultures.
Attitudes towards healthy living habits and so on.

In persuasion we use persuasive messages. These messages should be repeated often until they
become familiar. This is similar to the methods used to advertise products. Every time the television
is on or the radio the advertisement selling the product is on. Currently the lux soap is being so highly
advertised on the television screens on the billboards, in the print media every where. There was a
time the AAR, makers of Kilometric, Panadol had hit the screens.
This method can be used in the school to ensure that pupils continue hearing certain message over
and over again. The use of persuasive arguments can also help to foster attitudes. Arguments should
be delivered depending on the audience receiving them.
To an audience that is dull a one sided argument will do. This side is presented with the side that
presents the attitude that is intended to be acquired. Many politicians and theologians use this
method.

The school could use this method when dealing with a young audience.

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 When dealing with an intellectual audience a two sided argument works very well. Let the audience
know the attitude to hold while presenting them with the opposing view as well. You tell them
something like this,

Proabortionists say this----but remember.

Or students are not working hard because they say there are no jobs--- but remember----.

This gives the audience psychological immunity. Again theologians and politicians are very good at
this.
In persuasion emotional appeal is very important. By emotional appeal we mean reaching the feelings
of the audience.
For example over and above telling a person that smoking causes mouth, throat and lung cancer,
these messages could be enriched by showing a video of doctors operating on cancerous lungs. The
emotions that will arise from watching the video will make the person stop smoking.

Likewise if a girl who wants to abort is exposed to a video showing doctors performing an abortion
will most likely stop wanting to abort.

If we want youths to change their sexual behavior, an exposure to video showing the sufferings
people go through before eventually dying of aids passes the message clearly across.
Role models
Role models can also be used to help change attitudes. The role model must be a person who is trusted,
one who is an expert, credible competent, better informed than most and one who is gregarious.
(Loves to mix with pole).
The model should be a person perceived as credible. For religious and moral issues the bishop or the
kadhi should be the role model,
For legal matters, the lawyer,
For medical issues the doctor.
If we want girls to change their attitude towards mathematics and science, female professors in the
respective fields should be taken as role models. This person could be invited to school to talk to the
students.
The students can also be shown a video of the person at work.

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Yet again commercial advertisements are very good at using famous people to sell their products. For
example:
The famous Kenyan rally driver was at one time used to sell panadol. There were huge billboards
with Njiru saying that, “I could not do the rally without my AAR membership”.
The famous one time gold medallist Kipchoge Keino was used to sell the kilometric biro pens with
the message that it runs and runs-----

The use of dissonance in attitude change

Cognitive dissonance theory of attitude change was developed by Leon Festinger, (1957). The theory
states that we change our attitudes because we are motivated to maintain consistency among our
cognitions According to the theory human beings are psychologically comfortable when the
cognitions they hold about themselves, objects, events and other people are consistent, all in
agreement. For example you believe that someone is your friend and when you have a problem he
helps you out. The cognitions in this example are;
John is my friend
The other cognition is; he helps me out when I have a problem.
The two cognitions are said to be consonant because they are consistent or in harmony.
We could also have a statement like;
I have always known Wafula is a traitor
When we sneaked out of school he told on us.
The first cognition here is that Wafula is a traitor.
The second cognition is that; he told on us. Again these two cognitions are consonant. Consonant
cognitions help to stamp in an attitude. They help to confirm it and not to change it.
Dissonance
Cognitions are said to be dissonant when they are inconsistent. The inconsistency is called dissonance
and it is caused by psychological tension arising from mixed feelings. Dissonance is psychologically
uncomfortable hence human beings strive hard to remove it. Examples of dissonance, having the
knowledge that something is bad or harmful yet one continues to indulge in it e.g. the knowledge that
cigarette smoking is harmful to the lungs, yet I cannot do without my cigarette.
The first cognition is that cigarette smoking is harmful. The second cognition is that I smoke.

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 Another example; Excessive consumption of harmful to the liver,
I love to drink heavily. The first cognition is; excessive consumption of alcohol is harmful, the second
I love to drink heavily. In both instances the cognitions are dissonant.
Sources of dissonance
Inconsistency with cultural mores in case dissonance occurs when one holds beliefs that go against.
Ones culture or religion, particularly when there are strong cultural or religious feelings about an
attitude. For example when a country is going to war and every body is in the war mood but there is
a person who holds feelings to the contrary.
In school there could be a culture of hard work and seriousness but one student may want to incite
the others to strike.
Dissonance can also be caused by inconsistency between a particular behavior and general trend of
behavior for example a person who is known to be honest or truthful or even obedient all the time
but at one time he is forced to be dishonest, untruthful or disobedient. In a school situation a student
may be performing very well academically but suddenly he begins to perform poorly.
How does dissonance cause attitude change?
All situations where dissonance occurs call for rethinking, decision-making and change of attitude. In
school the teacher could use dissonance to change attitudes in a way that will benefit learning. For
example a teacher who is posted in a new school where the dominant culture is mass failures in his
subject can use this approach. He could change the teaching methods, use teaching aids, teach in an
interesting manner initially give tests that students can pass and then increase the level of difficulty
as pupils improve their performance. At the end of it all the students will turn around and say ”we
had not imagined that maths or Chemistry can be this easy or interesting” Dissonance will have
worked to change an attitude.
ATTITUDES AND SCHOOL SETTINGS
How do attitudes relate to school settings?
Attitudes help to determine what a learner perceives and how he perceives it. The learner may have
acquired a positive or a negative attitude towards,
A particular teacher,
Subject or school in general. The acquired attitude affects school life

Learning and adjustment.

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It goes without saying that positive attitudes towards the teacher and school work lead to success and
healthy adjustments to school whereas negative attitudes make the learner desist and dislike school.
When the learner desists and dislikes school his energies and interests are channeled elsewhere.
This learner will fight all attempts to make him learn. He will perceive the learning task as
unpleasant and useless. The learners‟ attitudes towards self are also very important.

There are those learners who have positive attitudes towards themselves.
They become self-confident and they approach learning tasks confidently. This makes them
successful. Success is reinforcing and satisfying and helps to maintain the positive attitude towards
self and school. On the other hand the learner who holds a negative attitude towards self loses
confidence and consequently this leads to failure.

In turn failure leads to disorganization and disorientation.

The failing pupil will result to the use of defensive mechanisms for example blame his failure on the
teacher, who he may accuse of
• being bad,
• Biased and
• Unfair or
• even incompetent.

The negative attitudes block future learnings which results in repeated failure. Repeated failure
produce strong feelings of insecurity and inferiority, which eventually affect adjustment to school.

The teacher and attitude change

What is the teacher’s role in attitude change?
The teacher is the person on the ground. He is in direct contact with the students and therefore his
role in attitude change can never be underestimated. For him to be effective in changing pupils‟
attitudes he should be conversant with the following
Remember that attitudes are very resistant to change because they are tied up with personal feelings,
needs and self-concept.
Note that schools are usually unable to change attitudes because their programs do not appeal to the
total person.
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To be effective in attitude change the teacher should first know the attitudes held by learners then
use the following methods to change them
1.Use the peer group
The peer group can be used in discussions or debates on certain topical issues. For example: sexuality,
abortion, school life friendship and so on.
As the peers exchange their views and give points for or against the topic being debated or discussed
they influence each others attitudes.
The catch here is that the youth will readily accept values of their own peers. Attitudes changed this
way are more desirable.

2.First hand experience

Students need to be exposed to first hand experiences in the attitude issues concerned. If they had
previously thought that the subject is boring or difficult, they should be exposed to interesting
teaching and to proper guidance that leads to success. If they are taught in an interesting manner and
they experience how a good teacher works, they will change their attitudes.
3.Appeal to feelings
The teacher should always ensure that the students register information not only with their senses
but also with their affect; their feelings. If they are expected to cultivate positive feelings towards the
attitudinal issue or even negative feelings this issue should be well attained. The teacher could refer
the pupils to sources of information that will arouse feelings. Video shows that arouse feelings could
be shown. Stories with first hand experience could be exchanged. Whatever feelings the teacher
thinks will be beneficial should be evoked. Feelings lead to experience of catharsis, which is very
important in attitude change
4. Discovery method
The teacher could also allow the students to discover for themselves basic information concerning
the attitudinal object. For example there could be a student who is HIV positive or one who has lost
parents through AIDS and the rest of the class don‟t know how to behave towards him/her. Nobody
wants to share a desk or books with her. For the teacher to instill positive attitude towards the
particular student he could give students projects to visit doctors for information, to read about the
topic, to contact families with AIDS patients and then present their findings in class. After they have
discovered all the basic information, that they can, they will be friendlier, more helpful and more
accepting towards their fellow student.
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5. Persuasive periods
The teacher should look for persuasive periods in the childs life and then foster the necessary
attitudes. There are times when students will be most receptive to new attitudes; for example during
a transition or crisis. This is the time when the student is facing some challenge or some kind of failure.
This could be:
When a good student‟s performance has been dropping steadily due to influence from bad
company.
It could be a well-behaved student whose behavior has suddenly changed and is facing punishment
almost daily or
It could be a lazy student who has lost a parent and now he needs to see the importance of being
serious and focused in his life.

Whatever the case a student who is in a crisis situation will be more receptive to suggestibility and
attitude change.
6. Consistent attitudes
In attitude change, the teacher should foster attitudes that are consistent with attitudes held by the
home, the community and the mass media. In other words the teachers attitudes should not deviate
from the generally held attitudes. Of course some care and discretion may be required here because
there are widely held attitudes, which need some revision if not complete overhaul.
KEY TERMS
Attitude: -A predisposition to act in a negative or positive way towards persons, objects, ideas or
events.
Affective component: -the feelings evoked by an attitude. These could be positive or negative feelings.
Cognitive component: - The higher mental processes that involve thinking perceiving and which also
involve beliefs, facts and information about attitudinal objects.
Behavioral component: -Observable acts that occur in response to the held attitude.
Functions of attitudes: - refer to the roles attitudes play in our lives.
Consonance: -Consistency, agreement of cognition.
Dissonance: -Inconsistency, disagreement of cognitions in an attitude
DISCUSSION/REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Discuss four ways in which attitudes affect performance and adjustment to school.

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2. Discuss explosive situations that you have witnessed and which have been prompted by the
affective component of attitudes.
3. Many attitudes are established and have their roots in a large store of misinformation. Discuss.
4. Teachers need to be very careful when they are teaching in areas with tendencies towards high
dogmatism. Discuss.

TOPIC TEN: PERSONALITY

Personality psychology examines the differences that exist among people. When the teacher is dealing
with pupils in any one-classroom situation, he needs to be aware of individual differences that
predominate at any one time. If there are forty pupils in the classroom there are forty different
personalities there. Each pupil is unique and different from every other pupil who has been in the
past who, who will be in the present or future. These differences exist even when many variables like
age, sex, social class, cultural background and even family background are the same.
Importance of studying personality for a teacher
The knowledge of personality helps
• The teacher to know what causes the individual differences in learners and at the same time
gives him insights in the sensitivities required when dealing with the learners.
• The teacher gets to understand that there are learners who will not take a joke or humour.
• The information is also beneficial in classroom management and behavior modification and
change because if the teacher knows where the pupil is coming from he will be better equipped
to deal with any situations requiring behaviour change.
• The study makes the teacher needs conversant with, and which is beneficial to his discharge
of duties, the role personality plays in the whole mosaic matrices of school life for every
student.
DEFINITION OF THE TERM PERSONALITY
Personality is a complicated concept to define. The complication not withstanding psychologists have
agreed on some definitions.

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Larnsen (2002) defines personality as the set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the
individual that are organized and relatively enduring and that influence his or her interactions with,
and adaptations to, the environment (including the intra psychic, physical and social environments.
Mischel (2003) defines personality as the complex organization of cognitions, affects, and behaviors
that gives direction and patterns (coherence) to a person‟s life. Like the body, personality consists of
both structures and processes and reflects both nature (genes) and nurture (experience). In addition,
personality includes the effects of the past, including memories of the past, as well as constructions
of the present and future.
Allport (1961) defines personality as the dynamic organization within the individual of these
psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic behavior and thought.
There are common themes that run through these definitions of personality.

• That personality is the sum total of what a person is: the body the mental characteristics as
well as the psychological traits.
• The second theme running through the definition refers to the organization and structure of
personality.

There is agreement that personality is organized and structured so that there is frequency and
consistency of personality characteristics. For example if we know someone to be kind and
hardworking, friendly honest and so on, we expect the person to display these characteristics most of
the time, now and in the future. In the same token, if we know someone to be bad and mean, unfriendly
and dishonest we expect these traits to be consistent over the time.

DETERMINANTS OF PERSONALITY
There are two major determinants of personality. These are nature, which refers to the biological
makeup of the person or the genes.
The second is nurture, which refers to all the environmental influences on personality.

1. Genetic determinants of personality

From genes individuals inherit the “blue print” towards certain traits. The “blue print” refers to the
laid down potentialities.
• There are potentialities towards certain physical traits e.g. height, body structures and skin
pigmentation.

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 • Genes also lay down the potentialities towards the quality of the central nervous system. This
means that the quality of the brain and intellectual functioning has genetic heritability to it.
• Thirdly genes determine the biochemical balance of the body.

What are the materials of personality?

The principle raw materials of personality are; physique, intelligence and temperaments. These are
the foundations of personality, which are determined through structural inheritance.

• These raw materials are then patterned into personality characteristics through maturation
experience and learning.
• Genetic heredity produces the raw materials and sets the limits of development.
Does genetic heredity alone account for individual differences in personality?

When we acknowledge that we are unique, we have our own ways of thinking, feeling and behaving
that distinguish us from everyone else, we also need to acknowledge that genetic heredity explains
these differences partially. There are many environmental influences that shape and modify
personality. The genetic blue prints are given room to unfold as the person interacts with different
environmental conditions and demands.

What lesson should the teacher derive from genetic information?

• That each pupil possesses a distinctive personality from all other pupils.
• Physical traits, emotionality, sociability activity levels and intellectual functioning are all
influenced by the genetic potentials inherited by every child.
• That these innate potentials cannot develop beyond the set limits and therefore have realistic
expectations for every child.

2. Environmental determinants of personality

Children find themselves growing up in many different environments. Each environment leaves its
on mark on the malleable human being. Of course the most important environmental influences are
those that impact the child early in life during the formative period when the self-concept is being
formed.

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Many of these influences are experienced at home as the child interacts with the parents, siblings and
other persons in the home. Today many children go to school early as age three. By the time the child
attains school age, which is set at age six Kenya, they have been through
• Baby class at age three,
• Nursery school at age four and
• Pre unit at age five.

THE HOME INFLUENCES

There are certain home influences, which are very important in shaping the personality of a child. In
this section I have discussed:
- Love and acceptance
- Time spent at home
- Personal identifications,
- Methods of behaviour control
- Security of the home environment
- Emotional climate of the home.

i. Love and Acceptance

The home is usually the first social environment that the child encounters. It provides the child with
the earliest social experiences as he interacts with mother, father siblings and other people. These
people normally referred to as significant others in the child’s life lay down the foundations of trust
or mistrust

During infancy and early childhood, the individual will learn to trust the mother, then the self and the
world if they are exposed to
• A stable loving, acceptable and warm social environment.
• Parental love and acceptance sow seeds of trust and feelings of security in the child.
• These become the foundation upon which psychological health is built upon.

There are those children who suffer rejection and who are unloved.
• These develop a deep mistrust towards the mother, the self and the world. They feel insecure
and their psychological development starts on a troubled note. It is therefore extremely

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 important for parents to ensure that their young ones enjoy love and acceptance for
psychological health.
ii. Time spent at home
The time a child spends at home with family members is very important in the determination of
personality.
• The critical issue and one which many parents may be oblivious about is the fact that family
influences on personality are greater when a major part of ones time is spent in the home with
family members. Here we are concerned about the amount of time parents and children spend
together at home. The amount of time spent with a person determines how significant that
person is. Many times parents imagine that if thy provide for the physical needs of children
they have done their work- they have paid for their fees, there is food at home and other
necessities are catered for so what else does the child want from me? The child needs to spend
time with parents both the father and the mother. If the parent is pending time with the child
then it becomes easy to influence his attitudes, values and behaviour.
Who is at home with the children?

In many Kenyan homes the child is with other children raising each other with a little help from the
television and other electronic devices while the ayah cooks and cleans around the house. This means
that for some children parental influence is a remote possibility. Many parents are strangers to their
children and vise versa.

iii. Personal identifications

Identification is a Freudian concept. It refers to the child‟s wish to become like the father for the boys
or to become like the mother for girls. If the boy becomes like the father, he assumes the male gender
role while the girl assumes the female gender role if she becomes like the mother. Mostly a child will
identify with family members he respects and loves. He /she consciously or unconsciously imitates
that person. The big question here is; Is the father at home to give the boy the model for identification?
Is the mother at home to give the girl the model for identification?

We are concerned about parental absences from the home because each parent has specific
contributions towards rearing children, which nobody else can deputize.
• The mother‟s role is very specific. She should be there to provide nurturance as well as female
role modeling.
• The father should provide discipline as well as the male role model.
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 • The absence or non-participation of one parent in the child’s life leaves deficits or gaps, which
could be easily filled by, many negative influences. When we complain that our children are
using indecent language, are lacking in respect, are lazy are dressing badly and so on we should
be concerned about the kind of influences they are exposed to as a result of our absences or
non-participation in their lives.
iv. Methods of behavior control
The methods used by parents to control the child‟s behavior are very important. These refer to the
incentives the parents put in place to induce good behavior, the frustrations and punishments they
mete out to discourage unacceptable behavior. Many times some parents leave children‟s discipline
to chance. They hope that the children will pick up the desirable behavior by and by.
These parents are usually shocked when the children turn into monsters that nobody can tame. Other
parents are conscious of their role in instilling discipline in their children but they do all the wrong
things in this endeavour. When they beat their children they do it with a vengeance that leaves
children physically and psychologically damaged. When they deprive children favours, they deny
them food and other basic requirements leaving the children hungry unloved and damaged. Parents
should know that even when they must discipline children it should be love-oriented discipline. The
child should never feel unloved or rejected during the formative years. Child discipline should be
accompanied by love acceptance, unconditional positive regard.

v. Security of environment
Every child needs to feel secure. For this reason the home should be that secure environment where
the child should go with his joys and success as well as with his sorrows and defeats without feeling
unwanted, inadequate or unhappy. The home should provide the child with firm ground that gives
him anchorage. If the child is well anchored his development moves in the direction of self-
actualization.

vi. Emotional climate of the home

The emotional climate of the home is very important. Children need a healthy emotional climate. This
is aided by empathy, communication, and respect for each other, together ness and appropriate
methods of coping with disagreements. Just these conditions are conducive to the development of
psychological health in children. However in many homes these conditions are utopian and
unattainable as the order of the day in many homes is the lack of feelings for one another, lack of
communication disrespect and inappropriate methods of coping with disagreement. Many children

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are treated to rude shocks by night and by day when parents offer free for all entertainment in the
neighbourhood as they hurl verbal barrage of insults mixed with some physical actions of flying kicks
and fists at each other. The unfavourable frictional home climate affects children negatively. The
children from such homes develop hostility, antagonism and they grow to resist authority.

NEGATIVE HOME INFLUENCES

In this section I have discussed some of the negative influences that impact personality development
negatively. These are:
• Favouritsm
• Feelings of inadequacy
• Cheating parents
• Maladjusted family members
• Authoritarian control
• Marital maladjustment
• Child over protection
• Defective home descriptive

1 Favouritsm
This refers to the condition where the parents prefer other children openly in their words and actions.
Parents are known to openly talk about children they like and those they dislike. They will go out of
their way to extend favours to the “good” children while the „bad‟ ones don‟t get to visit exiting places
nor have nice things bought for them. The favoured child gets new things while the bad on gets the
old ones. This practice promotes sibling rivalry, which could at one time cause dire consequences
leading to death or injury. It causes insecurity and inferiority.
2 Feelings of inadequacy in parents.
A parent who is feeling inadequate for their role may be because they lack basic resources or may be
because they have misused or mishandled resources becomes a very dangerous person. Many men
and women will not accept their shortcomings. They will use defense mechanisms. They may become
too harsh and blame the other parent or children to the point that no one will dare approach them for
anything. A woman or man who comes home and starts finding fault in everything around him
fortifies herself/himself against any questions.
3 Cheating parents

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Parents both men and women may cheat about many things; about some suspicious past,
• Resources,
• Extra marital affairs,
• Jobs,
• Other children,
• Sicknesses and so on.

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Parents who cheat use a lot of psychological energy to cover up the things they want to keep hidden.
They also use resources and they institute some unexplained restrictions.
• They become difficult and complicated and sometimes fearful.
• They don‟t want you to meet their relatives or people who know them.
• They go places alone and won‟t entertain questions.

4. Maladjusted family members

Sometimes a family has someone who is maladjusted. For example:
• A known thief,
• Drunk,
• Or a known criminal.

Mostly teachers and other children make it their business to keep reminding the child about their
defective family member.
• The child is made to feel inferior and unaccepted because of a father who is in jail or a mother
who crawls home drank or a brother who steals and so on.
• This child feels insecure and rejected, which are not recipes for the development of
psychological health.

5. Authoritarian control
There are parents who are known to rule the family with an iron fist. The child is supposed to be seen
and not to be heard, to obey every command without questioning. A child raised in this kind of family
background never learns to be resourceful and neither does he learn to be autonomous. Parents are
therefore requested to be authoritative and not authoritarian. Being authoritative means allowing
children room to ask questions and reason out while at the same time being firm and loving while
dealing with discipline issues.
6. Marital maladjustment
Marital maladjustment refers to the situation where the married couple discover that the marriage is
not working yet they still share a roof amid fights, insults, separate lives and public dramatic scenes
or pretences. In many cases where there is marital maladjustment the child suffers a great deal. There
are instances where the parents decide to use the child as a weapon to fight the other partner. In other
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cases a partner can gang up with the child against the other partner or the child could go through a
great deal of suffering torn in between the two parents.
NB: The family factor is recognized as the single most important influence on cognitive development,
emotional development and the development of self-concept.

It is noteworthy to point out that if one or two aspects of the home are psychologically unfavourable
they may not cause personality development problems. No home can pride itself to be ideal-each
home has its shortcomings and challenges therefore the one critical factor in determining
psychological health is the experience and the feelings of security. As long as the home can make the
child feel secure it is alright

QN. What cause insecurity in children?

When children are rejected they feel both insecure and nervous and they are likely to become non
compliant. Rejected children may be abandoned, beaten up or starved. These children build up hate
and hostility, which they vent through retaliation against people and property. These children are
likely to become unsocialised and aggressive who fear neither man nor beast. They take on everybody
in a compulsive desire to revenge.

7. Over protection
Over protection refers to cases where parents insist on prolonging a child‟s infancy or childhood.
They feed and dress a child who should have outgrown being fed. The parent over restricts the child‟s
activities-he should play with other children or do anything that can cause him injury.
The over protected child develops feelings of insecurity jealousy, nervousness, submissiveness and
even enuresis.
8 The over demanding parent
When the parents demand more than the child is capable of achieving one child may become
submissive and work hard to attain parental standards. In the process of pushing oneself so hard this
child could develop neurotic symptoms. When another child is driven too hard he may result to
cheating to give the parents the false belief that he is achieving. A third child may become outrightly
rebellious and refuse to be driven.
9. Defective home discipline
When home discipline is defective children become poorly adjusted, aggressive, delinquent or even
neurotic.

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EDUCATIONAL DETERMINANTS OF PERSONALITY
Educational institutions play a significant role in personality development schools rank second to the
home as their influence comes early in life when the self-concept is being formed. In fact once children
join school they spend more time there than in any other place outside the home. School has different
influences and challenges on the child. It is the first place that provides the child with challenge. At
school the child is no longer a baby. He is an equal among peers. He cries they laugh at him and tease
him as a crybaby. He wets or soils himself and they break into laughter. School provides the child with
the opportunity to measure himself against the peers in terms of intellectual, social and physical
abilities.

What is a critical factor to consider before introducing a child to school?

1 Readiness For School

The purpose of the above activity is to point out some difficulties experienced by children when they
enter school. Some little boys and girls are traumatized by the school experience and there is nowhere
they can run to escape the torture that school can be. The mother or father beats them without
wanting to find out why they are unhappy with school, when they get to school the teacher continues
the lamenting ordeals while other children laugh at and taunt the poor child. We should ensure that
the ordeals children go through in an attempt to go to school are minimized by ensuring that first and
foremost, the child is physically and psychologically ready for school. That is he has control of his
bowel movement. He can control his urination. He has the ability to communicate his needs and he
possesses the social skills to ask the teacher for permission to go to the toilet. The school skills must
extend to the child‟s ability to live with other children with the degree of harmony that his age
permits. At least the child‟s should be able to share materials and to control his aggression to a certain
extent so that he earns peer acceptance. The child should also possesses competencies that other
children have and is able to meet other demands of the school. The parents and the teacher should
try to find out the problems the child is experiencing early and alleviate them instead of aggravating
them as happens many a time. If the child‟s problems are dealt with early enough adjustment to
school becomes possible. A child fails to adjust to school if they encounter ego-deflating experiences.
They wet or soil their clothes and other children laugh at them, the teacher beats them, the person
who washes their soiled clothes shows open disgust and hostility.
2 The emotional climate of the school

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The emotional climate of the school is very important to the child. This is where the teacher‟s role
becomes very critical as she is normally responsible for setting the emotional climate.
• The teacher‟s influence on personality development is second only to that of the parents.
• She is the mother of many children, all of them the same age. They look up to her
- For love,
- Acceptance and
- Fair play.
The teacher should be seen to treat all children equally, avoiding favouritsm. She should be seen to
have a keen interest on children and
• Always remember that children are very sensitive. They want to be assured of love, acceptance
and unconditional positive regard.
• Indeed the teacher sets the foundation for the child‟s adjustment or maladjustment to school.
• The teacher should use the enormous powers she possesses to put children on the right footing
in the direction of psychological health; the direction towards self-actualization.

3 Academic success
The degree of academic success that the child achieves affects personality development. If a child is
getting good grades in schoolwork he enjoys inner satisfaction which boosts his ego.
• Good grades not only lead to praise and commendation from teachers and parents, they also
attract envy from peers.
• They promise a good future as well as adjustment to school.
• A child who is performing well will most likely steer away from any disciplinary problems.
• This is the child you ask what he wants to become when he grows up and he has a clear vision
of it; a pilot, a lawyer, a surgeon, an engineer, they say
4 Academic Failure
If a child is getting poor grades in school work he losses self- efficacy which deflates is ego. This child
is likely to engage in negative practices like cheating, absenteeism, truancy, aggression and so on. It
also becomes very difficult for this child to focus and plan for the future. Due to the many discipline
problems this child may have, he may also experience hostile responses from the teachers. He may be
punished most of the time. In extreme cases the child may drop out of school all together.
5 Success in extra curriculum activities

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Some children may not show excellent performance in class but when they are in the field they hold
their own places very well. Some run for the school at district or national levels. Others are on the
school teams; football, volleyball, basketball, rugby, tennis, netball and so on. There are those who
have talent in leadership while others shine in drama, choir, or dance. These activities influence the
amount of peer acceptance the student enjoys. They also boost the ego and are good recipes for
positive development.
6 School type
Schools differ just like the homes. Some schools are well endowed with physical and human resources
while others could do with a lot more than currently available in both types of resources. Schools also
differ in terms of culture. Some schools have established cultures of hard work and success while
other schools have a culture of complacency and failure. This means that a child’s personality will be
shaped according to what the school has to offer. The unfortunate bit here is that a child’s success in
school and in life may be determined solely by the school factor.

PERSONALITY ADJUSTMENT AND MALADJUSTMENT

It is difficult to discuss personality without giving some attention to the concepts of personality
adjustment and maladjustment. A pupil will become adjusted or maladjusted depending on the
experiences encountered both at home and at school. Children who are exposed to pleasant
experiences from early childhood are more likely to develop capacity for adjustment and
psychological health while those who are exposed to unpleasant or traumatic experiences are likely
to develop tendencies towards maladjustment.
Let us look at these concepts closely.

Adjustment
Adjustment is the term used to refer to the process by means of which the individual seeks to maintain
physiological and psychological equilibrium. it refers to the adequacy of behavior patterns the
individual uses to satisfy his needs. A person is adjusted if he satisfies his needs within the framework
of the expectations and constraints of the social order. The person must satisfy his needs in ways that
are consistent with social expectations for age, sex and status. To be well adjusted a person must have
adequate coping skills.
Characteristics of a well adjusted person

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 • A well-adjusted person is efficient in dealing with situational demands. This means that he
adapts well and deals with challenges competently.
• He accepts his strengths and weaknesses and goes about life confidently.
• He also displays social sensitivity and conforms to social standards. This person rarely violates
rules.
• Adjustment gives the person happiness because the adjusted person lives in harmony with his
world and is oriented towards self-actualization.

MALADJUSTMENT
Maladjustment refers to a person’s inability to met needs in a manner that is acceptable for ones age,
sex and status. The maladjusted person lacks adequate behaviour patterns to solve the problems of
daily living. In a school situation a pupil is maladjusted if he cannot make and keep friends. He cannot
communicate his needs and feelings to other people. He is in discipline problems with the school
maybe due to aggression non-completion of assignments, rudeness, disobedience and so on. Some
maladjusted pupils are withdrawn, they are closed to themselves and will not open up to other people
to share their feelings, needs or fears.
People are faced with adjustment problems all the time. If the problems are too severe, and the
solution not forthcoming frustrations arise. Severe and continued frustration leads to maladjustment,
desperation, queer atypical behavior.
9.8.1 Characteristics of a maladjusted person
The maladjusted person displays inability to interact appropriately with the physical and social
environment.
• Is unable to satisfy ones needs
• Is likely to be an underachiever
• Suffers from anxiety motivated affiliative needs
• Has cultivated a self concept of inferiority and guilt
• Suffers a breakdown of efficiency under stress
• Withdraws from participation and can easily disrupt group work
• Uses defense mechanisms like excessive aggression and destructiveness
• Will engage in repeated transgressions despite punishment
• Suffers loss of constructiveness
• Will withdraw from school or social activities
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 • Worries excessively and is likely to fall into depression and pessimism.
Effects of Maladjustment on Learning
As expected personality maladjustment has negative effects on learning. The maladjusted pupil fails
to focus on learning grades. Failing grades have a negative effect on the pupil who may actually sink
deeper into maladjusted behaviour. He may engage in behaviours like stealing. Telling lies,
aggression, absenteeism and truancy.
Consequently, this pupil gets into trouble with the school authority all the time. He will be on the
punishment list than not. The problems of the maladjusted pupil are man as he may also get into
trouble with the parents who may also punish him.

Role of Parents and Teachers

It is important for the parents and the teachers to promote adjustment in the children. They will do
this if they keep in close touch with the children and note when problems arise. The children should
experience love, acceptance and guidance from both the parents and the teachers. The teachers and
parents can help the children to become competent in school tasks. They should train them to observe
the levels of desired discipline. Both teachers and parents should let children know the expected
behaviour or performance. They should use reinforcement procedures to encourage both desired
behaviour and performance.

NB:

The primary responsibility for the child’s adjustment lies with the parents.
• They are the ones who set the basic personality pattern through the security they provide in
early childhood.
• It also lies with the teachers. The teachers hold the key to whether the child will be fulfilled or
frustrated.
• Both the parents and the teachers should help children develop their capacity for adjustment
so that they learn to deal with present as well as future problems competently.
• If the parents and teachers do their job well then, cases of children who become delinquent,
school drop outs, those who have hopeless and helpless lives will be minimized

Summary

In this lesson we have discussed personality with a specific focus on the following;
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 • Definition of the term
• Determinants of personality
- Genetic determinants
- Environmental determinants
- The home influences on personality
- The school influences on personality

• Personality adjustment and maladjustment

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Why should the teacher study the topic personality?

2. From observation from people in your neighbourhood or family can you tell which physical,
intellectual or social traits that children inherit from their parents?
3. Who spend more time with the children where you come from? Mom or dad or the housemaid?
When parents are not at home, where are they?
4. What is the prevalence of domestic violence in your community? Who batters who, mom or dad?
5. What do you remember of your best and worst teachers in terms of how they dealt with problematic
students?
6. How will the understanding of forces that shape personality influence you as a teacher?

TOPIC ELEVEN: CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

THE RELEVANCE OF CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

The teacher‟s roles in the classroom are mainly two.
The first being to ensure that the classroom environment is conducive for learning while,
The second one is the delivery of content. The first role is critical because it might be the sole
determinant to the amount of learning that takes place.

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The classroom environment is largely determined by the teachers by the teacher‟s ability to manage
all the variables present at any one time for the purposes of promoting conditions for learning.
This means that the teacher‟s ability to run a well-managed class is of utter importance. In fact many
teachers fail in their job because of their inability to manage their classrooms than for any other
reason. Classroom management is seen as the teacher‟s number one professional problem,
Gage/Berliner, (1991)
For the teacher to be an effective classroom manager, he should:
Possess methods of identifying problem behaviors in the classroom
Know why students misbehave
Possess effective skills for maintaining discipline

METHODS OF IDENTIFYING PROBLEM BEHAVIORS IN THE CLASSROOM

For the teacher to be able to identify problem behaviors in the classroom, he needs
1. To be in touch with the class. This means being aware of what is happening in all parts of the
classroom so that he can interfere promptly and accurately when inappropriate behavior occurs,
Brophy, (1989).
2. The teacher should possess observation skills. Observation refers to watching children. The
teachers observation of children will reveal facial expressions that may indicate unhappiness,
anxiety, restlessness, hyperactivity, tension, self-consciousness, anger, nervous habits and day
dreaming.
3. The teacher could observe the learners’ social activities. When children are playing in the field
the teacher could use scientific gadgets like the binoculars to observe the pupils social interactions
unobtrusively. The use of this method will reveal the pupils
Who are playing together and
Those who are left out by the others so that a lot of the time they sit or stand by themselves.
If a student is observed alone on many occasions the teacher should know that this student has a
problem.

Observation of pupils‟ social interaction will also reveal the pupils,

• Who bully others,
• Those who are bullied,

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 • The fearful ones, the quarrelsome ones and
• Those who are defiant.

4. The teacher could also use sociometric questions to discover the pupils who are problems. For
example ask pupils in the class to nominate other pupils from the same class with whom one would
like to share cubicles, to be deskmates, to go for walks with and so on. This method will reveal those
children who are isolated or rejected by others. It is the teacher‟s duty to discover why any pupil will
be rejected by the classmates.

5. The teacher could also ask the class to write a story with following themes:
• What I dreamt last night. Normally people dream about things that bother them.
• If I had three wishes. Again as children write about this theme the teacher will know the
problems pupils have.
• The day I was most afraid. This theme will reveal the fears that individual learners have about
school and home life.

6. The teacher could also use the direct approach of finding out what is bothering the pupil. The use
of this method requires the teacher to ensure a private discussion in the staffroom and not public
address in the classroom or on parade ground.

WHY DO PUPILS MISBEHAVE?

Pupils do not misbehave for the sake of doing so, they have their own reasons. A good teacher is the
one who knows why learners likely to show problem behaviors. The following are some of the
reasons;
1. Unmet needs
Every child must achieve reasonable satisfaction of his physical, social and personality needs in order
to develop in a normal and wholesome manner. When these needs are frustrated then problematic
behavior arises.
2. Poverty
Children coming from poor homes may lack basic necessities like food. They will also be lacking the
things required by the school. For example when other children who have good uniforms and can

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afford other things like pens, books, money for trips, the child from a poor home lacks these things.
This child is also likely to be taunted by other children and called names referring to his torn clothes
and inability to have things like them. As a result the poor child will be ashamed of himself, his home
and his parents. Due to the hostility of his sociopsychological environment, this pupil has a high
likelihood of showing maladjustment behavior.
3. Broken homes
There are children who come from broken homes. A home may be broken by death of a parent or
divorce, separation, dissertation and even separation. Any of these conditions make children feel very
insecure. This security translates itself into the behavior problems conflict-ridden homes also
produce children who are nervous, unhappy and insecure and who are likely to show behavior
problems.
5. Conflict-ridden homes also produce children who are:
Nervous, unhappy and insecure and who are likely to show behaviour problems.
6. Personal inadequacies
Sometimes a pupil may feel inadequate when he is unable to carry out tasks that are expected of him.
The pupil who is unable to engage in physical tasks like the rest of the group or one who is unable to
achieve on mental tasks like the others experiences frustration. This pupil tends to feel inferior and
unhappy. In order to live with this problem inappropriate behavior arises.
There are pupils who set for themselves goals that they cannot attain, For example a child with
average mental ability wanting to be position one in a class where competition is high. This pupil can
never attain the goal and therefore the frustration that arises becomes a source of behavior problems.
The pupils who are self conscious tend to feel inferior and friendless and may crave for affection,
become attention seekers or even aggressive.
7. The rejected child
Many children come from homes where they are neither loved nor valued by their parents. Their need
for affection and security is threatened. These children may suffer neglect, separation from parent,
they could be nagged, humiliated before others or even compared unfavorably with others or even
compared unfavourably with others. These children will engage in attention seeking behavior, some
become restless or non-conforming. They are likely to develop unstable tendencies with disregard
for rules and convections of society.. They will develop shallow feelings, lacking in reaction of guilt,
suffer emotional instability, and lack self-control and they have underdeveloped ego, which makes

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them have no feelings of remorse. This means that many undesirable behaviors may be associated
with child rejection.
8. The overprotected child
This is the child whose every flimsy need is catered for. He eats whenever and whatever he wants,
has many material possessions. This child may be restricted from playing with other children so that
he does not get hurt. This child is likely to become selfish and aggressive, lacks a sense of
responsibility, develops infantile behavior, exhibits problems like thumb sucking, emuresis temper
tantrums. This child is likely to develop poor social adjustment, bad manners, impoliteness, rudeness,
disobedience, will be bossy, selfish, show off and lacking in frustration tolerance.
8. Unhygienic school practices
Many times conditions that exist in the school may result in a child‟s unwholesome development.
These are conditions, which could be detrimental to the good health of their pupils. These are;

a) Failure to cater for individual differences.

When the students feel that the teachers are not caring for them individually they tend to feel
insecure, uncertain and afraid. These students may show disobedience.
b) Autocratic control
If the teachers and the school administration do not exercise democratic control in their interaction
with pupils then problems arise. The pupils who are ruled with an iron fist as it have their
resourcefulness and initiative stifled. This happens because they can never learn to control their
behavior, their thoughts or their actions.
c) Humiliating pupils in public
There are times when students do the wrong things. For example they fail to complete assignments,
they make noise in class, they are rude, they tell lies, cheat etc. Many teachers react to these misdeeds
by scolding the pupil publicly in class on school assembly. Many times the scolding is meant to make
the erring boy or girl suffer humiliation in the presence of peers or the whole school. A teacher who
exposes pupils to this kind of humiliation is likely to contribute to delinquency. This will occur when
the pupil decides to skip school all the together and join a gang of truant pupils who care nothing for
school.
d) Teachers can also use labels on pupils.
This happens when the teacher decides to refer to pupils social inferiority or even stress on the pupils
negative behavior or weakness. This kind of cruelty is experienced by many pupils who have been
convinced that they are dumb bad, stubborn, disobedient and outright defective. Naturally children
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have a way of fulfilling their teachers prophesies by displaying their labels. They become what their
teacher says they are.
e) The teacher’s competence
The teacher‟s ability to fit their roles is critically important. Any teacher who has problems in any
area of his duty is likely to contribute to the emergence and existence of problematic behavior. Such
a teacher is likely to use defensive mechanisms. In order to cover up his shortcomings, he will blame,
the school, the pupils, the parents, the society.

HOW PUPILS REACT TO PROBLEMS

Pupils react to problems by becoming problematic. Problematic will not adjust to the socially
acceptable norms for behavior. A problematic pupil will disrupt his own academic progress and the
classmates. He lacks the ability to make and to keep friends due to poor interpersonal relations.

The problematic pupil is likely to show any of the several outwardly manifested behaviors:
1. Absenteeism
Absenteeism can be either physical absence means that the child is bodily away from class many times
with faked reasons of sickness or other problems.
Psychological absence mans that the pupil is bodily present in class but mentally he is far away. This
can be observed if the pupil looking outside the window, passing notes to others in the class, staring
vacantly, fidgeting or day dreaming.
2. Show of misconduct
The problematic child is likely to be involved in misbehavior, for example noise making, aggression,
defiance, use of profane language and basically acting tough.
3. Stealing
Pupils will engage in stealing for various reasons.
Sometimes they want to get revenge
They wish to vent hostile feelings towards parents.
A child may steal due to lack of respect for other people‟s property.
There are children who steal without an apparent good reason.
This may happen when a child has problems that are psychological in nature.

In this case a child will steal in order to fill a psychological deficit with material things.
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4. Lying
This refers to twisting or falsifying information for selfish motives. Children will tell leis for various
reasons.
To escape the consequences of punishment or to get attention.
To reduce anxiety or
To get something they want.

5. Cheating
Pupils will cheat when a task is too difficult and particularly when parents and teachers have set
standards that the child cannot attain.
The child will also cheat in order to avoid failure.
The cheating child may also be the one who feels both inadequate and inferior.
6. Truancy
The truant child stays away from school without knowledge of the parents.
He may go fishing, movie watching or just any other activity that keeps him away from school.
A child will become truant if school is threatening. For example a pupil who is being bullied or one
who is performing poorly in school will be truant.
Also the pupil who has neither found love at home nor at school will develop a strong dislike for
school and can turn to truancy.

METHODS OF BEHAVIOUR CHANGE

1. Punishment
In their effort to maintain order in the classroom, teachers use many methods of behavior change.
Among them, punishment rank very high. Punishment is a form of aversive control of behavior.
Aversive means unpleasant, noxious or painful. Students can be punished through the following
methods:
A teacher could administer an aversive stimulus like e.g. caning, kneeling
A teacher could also remove an individual from a reinforcing situation e.g. removing a student from
class also called time out.
Even removing a desirable stimulus from the student e.g. taking away playtime is punishment.

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 Punishment can also be psychological like scolding or blaming a student.
Purpose of punishment
When a teacher administers punishment to a pupil, he hopes to do the following:
To make undesirable behavior less probable.
To weaken it,
To suppress or eliminate it.

Nb: sometimes punishment may not be suppressed nor eliminated the behavior.
Therefore the teacher has to put the following into consideration if the punishment is to effectively
eliminate a behavior
1. Intensity of punishment
Intensity refers to the strength or severity of punishment. Punishments of high intensity are likely to
eliminate undesirable behaviour. Good examples are when a child touches fire and is burned he
ceases to touch fire for all time. Also any child playing with a sharp object stops doing so if cut by the
object. In the school situation very severe punishment are discouraged because they can harm both
the body and the mind. Teachers are not allowed to mete out punishments, which are physically, and
psychologically damaging as well. The punishments that are allowed are mild and bearable so that
the pupil may no problem repeating the punishable behavior.
2. Consistency of punishment
Consistency refers to the condition of punishing a pupil everytime the undesirable behavior occurs.
Consistency in punishment is difficult to maintain because the teacher cannot watch a child 24 hrs a
day, seven days a week and so on. This means that the pupil knows that he can escape with the
punishable behavior when the teacher is not around. Making punishment consistent is not humanly
possible. Inconsistency makes undesirable behavior recur.
3. Contingency of punishment
Contingency refers to the pairing of punishment with the undesired behavior. It means that
punishment should be administered immediately the undesirable behavior occurs. Punishment be
contingent; it should accompany the undesired behavior. For example at home if one wants to punish
a dog that is messing up the compound, the punishment should be administered when the dog is at
the act not minutes or hours later. The principle is that if punishment is made contingent upon the
undesired behavior the association between it and the behavior will be created and thus it will have
the power to suppress that behavior.
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Negative effects of punishment
It has become increasingly important for teachers to know that the effects of punishment are
frequently undesirable.
1. For one the threatening aspects of punishment may produce emotional tension in the pupil who
may actually learn to hate the punisher because of the fear of punishment.
2. The pupil may acquire many undesirable behaviors to avoid being punished. He may cheat, lie, and
become anxious.
3. The teacher needs to be aware that punishment has limited usefulness as a control technique

Conditions under which punishment should be given

From the foregoing it looks like we are discouraging the use of punishment. However we recognize
that punishment cannot b dismissed or ignored. We would therefore want to look at it as one of the
methods of behavior change which should be used under specified conditions in order to be
beneficial. The teacher may find the following suggestions useful;
If the teacher must punish he should specify and communicate the punishable behavior to the pupils
by means of classroom rules and regulations.

The pupils should be involved in the drawing of the rules

These rules should be posted where the pupils can see them

The rules should be reviewed often

The school should also provide the pupils with models of acceptable behavior. If the acceptable
behavior is good grooming, punctuality, honesty, hard work or responsibility, then a student who
displays any of these characteristics should be called in front of the school during the school assembly
for all to see an example of the desirable behavior that the teacher wishes to reinforce. The schools
should never display models of undesirable behavior because everytime they do so they create hero
worship of the pupils with the undesirable characteristics: Those with the most unkempt hair, lazy,
dishonest or poorly groomed pupils should never be put on the display. They should be denied
recognition.

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 If the punishment must be delivered it must be done immediately. This should be done in line with
the principle of contingency discussed above.

Pupils should be informed of the alternative behavior that is what they would have done instead of
the punished behavior.

The punishment should always be perceived as fair. This means that the teacher should not be seen
to practice partiality. Those who deserve to be punished must receive their punishment as prescribed.
Impartiality can be a major cause of school unrest and increased indiscipline.

Punishment must be delivered consistently in line with the principle of consistency. This means
that whenever possible the punishable act should never be allowed to escape punishment.

The teacher should try and avoid group punishment at all costs .A lot of gain is made if the teacher
is able to isolate a student or two and punish them instead of punishing the whole class. If the whole
class is making noise or failing to cooperate it is advisable to sometimes ignore the incidence or to
look for alternative methods of dealing with the situation. When the teacher uses group punishment,
it ceases to be punishment as learners may actually enjoy it.

BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION TECHNIQUES

There are several methods the teacher could use in classroom management and which could go along
way to minimize cases of indiscipline while at the same time they will help to maximize the
occurrence of desirable behavior. These theories are derived from the theories of behavior
modification. They follow the principles of learning that we are quite familiar with. They are the
following
From classical conditioning eliciting and extinction principles
From operant conditioning-reinforcement
Behavior contracting.

Classical conditioning
1. Eliciting
Eliciting is the act of expecting and calling upon the pupil to display the desirable behavior. The
teacher could call the students by name and ask him to answer a question or to do a certain
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assignment or pick something on the floor. The most important concept here is giving the pupil the
opportunity to do something desirable. When the pupil has displayed the desirable behavior he
should be given recognition. He should be told “thank you”, good, well done. The positive response
from the teacher will enhance the chances of recurrence of the behavior.
2. Extinction
This refers to the elimination of a response through the withdrawal of reinforcement. The teacher
could ignore a behavior that is undesirable sometimes. For example, some attention-seeking pupil
who comes to class late so that he can be asked why he is late could be ignored. A student who does
things to make the class laugh could be discouraged if the teacher instructs the class not to laugh.
Extinction works very well if the teacher accompanies with the reinforcement of alternative behavior.
For example in the above cases, the first pupil is reinforced for showing up for class on time. In the
case of the second pupil reinforcing him every time he displays seriousness in the classroom
interactions.
Reinforcement
Reinforcement is the key concept derived from operant conditioning theory. Reinforcement refers to
the use of rewards as incentives to induce and strengthen desirable behavior. The teacher should
always remember that rewards are useful when they are seen, as potential sources of need
satisfaction. Therefore certain pupils will work for certain rewards. For this reason the teacher should
know his pupils well, in order to know what rewards a learner will work for. Secondly rewards must
be attainable. If a pupil is attracted to a certain reward but he knows that he has little chance of
attaining it he will not work for it. Thirdly the reward punishment ratio should be right. A pupil must
receive more rewards than punishment to the ratio of 5:1. If the ratio falls to 2:1 the pupil can develop
neurotic symptoms of inferiority, inadequacy and generalized fear of failure when the ratio drops
further to 1:1 the pupil is likely to develop delinquent behaviors.
Token economy
Tokens are concrete forms of reinforcers. They can be in the form of points or poker chips. If a pupil
performs a desirable task, he is given tokens. For example punctuality can earn a pupil two tokens,
turning in complete homework 5 tokens, presenting neat work 2 tokens. At the end of he month the
tokens may be exchanged for something concrete eg the pupil can be given permission to do
something interesting or something desirable. Tokens can also be taken away if the pupil misbehaves.
Behavior contracting

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Behavior contracting involves two people. The teacher and the student. These people identify the
undesirable behavior as well as the desirability to change it. The behavior to be changed could be
lateness, poor grooming, untidy work, non-completion of homework, rudeness or any other behavior.
The teacher and the pupil enter into a contract. The contract details what will happen when the
undesirable behavior is changed. That is what the pupil will stand to gain on one hand and what he
stands to suffer or loose if the desirable behavior is not observed.
The strength of this method lies in the fact that the pupil is an involved party in the contract. He is
cognitively involved in his own behavior change and consequently when behavior change occurs it
becomes durable.

PREVENTIVE DISCIPLINE
There is an old wise saying that states that prevention is better than care. The teacher could borrow
a left from this old wisdom and seek ways and means of making sure that discipline is maintained
without necessarily relying giving rewards or punishments. This refers to the use of preventive
discipline, which should ensure that indiscipline is not given a chance to occur. In preventive
discipline the teacher arranges or organizes the experiences children are exposed to in school in a
manner that favours inbuilt disciplinary processes. Preventive discipline ensures that the pupils not
given room to engage in any indiscipline. The following are some of the measures that promise the
likelihood of preventive discipline. These measures go beyond rewards and punishment.

1. The teacher should respect and love children

Respect their identity
Acceptance means being aware of their unique personality, interests, strong points, failures,
temperaments
2. Help them to develop social competence so that they can win peer acceptance
3. Organize the school experiences to meet the need for new experiences
Expose them to new subject matter, new activities, progressive responsibility, field trips, use
teaching aids
Satisfy their need for curiosity, need for mastery, need for success

An achieving child will feel worthy, recognized, competent and autonomous.

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4. School programmes should be arranged for more equitable distribution of the experiences of
success.

Every child may achieve some degree of it

5. The school should provide varied opportunities for emotional, physical, intellectual aesthetic
achievement.
6. Provide good teaching
7. Let children be committed to behavior change
8. Establish clear behavior guidelines, expectations , standards and rules that are clear to all
9. Adopt a teamwork approach- involve teachers administration and parents and design a complete
discipline ladder with a clear description of available corrective disciplinary measures- warning, call
parents, and refer to principal or counselor.
10. Train self management and discipline
11. Invite good discipline by doing the following:
Focusing on student success and self-esteem
Implanting fair fi rules
Planning lesson thoroughly
Continually monitor the classroom environment
Minimizing problems early.
KEY CONCEPTS
Classroom management: -the skills the teacher uses to ensure delivery of content in an atmosphere
of order and good behavior as well as the ability to deal with cases of indiscipline.
Intensity of punishment: - refers to the strength or severity of punishment.
Contingency: - refers to the immediacy of punishment. It refers to proximity in time and space.
Eliciting: - refers to creating conditions that favor the production of a behavior.
Extinction: - the disappearance of a response due to non-reinforcement
Reinforcement: - refers to the strengthening of a response by proving certain incentives.
Tokens: -Concrete forms of reinforcers, which use the same principle as money.

DISCUSSION/REVIEW QUESTIONS

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1. In your own assessment what are the root causes of discipline problems in your school?
2. To what extent do teachers rely on punishment and with what results?
3. Have you come across a teacher who tries to use the other behavior modification techniques
discussed above?
4. In what ways do teachers apply preventive discipline?

THE END.

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