Module 6: Learners with Exceptionalities

In this module, challenge yourself to:

Describe the basic categories of exceptional learners.

Define and distinguish he terms disability and handicap.
Demonstrates people first language when referring to exceptional
learners and advocate for its use.

Abstraction/Generalization
WHO ARE LEARNERS WITH EXCEPTIONALITIES?

Any individuals whose physical, mental or behavior performance is so

different from the norm - either higher or lower that additional
services to meet the individuals needs.
They are students with disabilities and students who are gifted.
Categorizing students with exceptionalities is widespread and
controversial. Categories include mental retardation, learning
disabilities, behavior disorders, communication disorders, visual
disabilities, and hearing disabilities. Students from cultural minorities
are disproportionately categorized as having learning problems.
Disability

The limitation of a function, such as cognitive processing or physical or

sensory abilities
It is measurable impairment or limitation that interferes with a
persons ability for example to walk, lift, hear, or learn. It may refer to
a physical, sensory, or mental condition.
Handicap

A condition imposed on a person with disabilities by society, the

physical environment, or the persons attitude.
It is the disadvantage that occurs as a result of disability or
impairment.
Categories of Exceptionalities

Specific Cognitive or Academic Difficulties

1.

Learning Disabilities- Involve difficulties in specific cognitive

processes like perception, language, memory, or metacognition that
are not due to other disabilities like mental retardation, emotional or
behavioral disorders, or sensory impairments.

Examples of Learning Disabilities

Dyscalculia- It is a specific learning disability that affects a

persons ability to understand numbers and learn math facts.
Dysgraphia- It is a specific learning disability that affects a
persons handwriting ability and fine motor skills.

Dyslexia- It is a specific learning disability that affects reading and

related language-based processing skills.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a brain disorder
marked by an ongoing pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity
that interferes with functioning or development.
Teaching Strategies for Students Who Have Learning Disabilities
and ADHD

Use explicit or direct teaching methodologies

Activate and use students relevant prior knowledge
Provide accommodations as required
Provide modifications as required
Facilitate students organizational and study skills
Facilitate students reading and writing skills
Use behaviour-management techniques when necessary

Speech and Communication Disorders

Speech and language disorders include a number of speech problems
(such as articulation disorders, voice disorders, and fluency disorders) and
language problems (difficulties in receiving information and expressing
language).
There is difficulty in spoken language including voice disorders, inability to
produce the sounds correctly, stuttering, difficulty in spoken language
comprehension that significantly hamper classroom performance.
2.

Social/ Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social

interaction, verbal and non-verbal communication, and restricted and
repetitive behavior. Parents usually notice signs in the first two years of their
child's life.
Mental retardation (MR) is a condition diagnosed before age 18, usually in
infancy or prior to birth, that includes below-average general intellectual
function, and a lack of the skills necessary for daily living.
Conduct disorder (CD) is a mental disorder diagnosed in childhood or
adolescence that presents itself through a repetitive and persistent pattern
of behavior in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate
norms are violated.
3.

Physical Disabilities and Health Impairments

This involves physical or mental conditions (usually long term) including one
or more of these:

Limited energy and strength

Reduced mental alertness

Little muscle control

Severe and Multiple Disabilities is a presence of two or more different

types of disability, at times at a profound level.
4.

Sensory Impairments

Sensory impairment is when one of your senses; sight, hearing, smell,

touch, taste and spatial awareness, is no longer normal.
Examples: If you wear glasses you have sight impairment, if you find it hard
to hear or have a hearing aid then you have a hearing impairment.
A person does not have to have full loss of a sense to be sensory impaired.
Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment or vision loss, is a
decreased ability to see to a degree that causes problems not fixable by
usual means, such as glasses.
Hearing impairment is a hearing loss that prevents a person from totally
receiving sounds through the ear. If the loss is mild, the person has difficulty
hearing faint or distant speech. A person with this degree of hearing
impairment may use a hearing aid to amplify sounds. If the hearing loss is
severe, the person may not be able to distinguish any sounds.
Giftedness involves a significantly high level of cognitive development.
People-First language
This language trend involves putting the person first, not the disability (e.g. a
person with a disability, not a disabled person.)
Other suggestions for referring to those with disabilities include:

Avoiding generic labels

Emphasizing abilities
Avoiding euphemism
Avoiding implying illness or suffering

Module 7: Behaviorism: Pavlov, Thorndike, Watson ,Skinner

In this module, challenge yourself to:

Explain the basic principles of behaviorism.

Make a simple plan applying the primary laws of learning.
Determine how to use rewards in the learning process more effectively.

Introduction:
Behaviorism is a psychological theory of human development that posits that
humans can be trained, or conditioned, to respond in specific ways to
specific stimuli and that given the correct stimuli, personalities and behaviors
of individuals, and even entire civilizations, can be codified and controlled.
Behaviorism
1. Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a Russian physiologist known primarily
for his work in classical conditioning. From his childhood days Pavlov
demonstrated intellectual brilliance along with an unusual energy
which he named "the instinct for research". Pavlov's principles of
classical conditioning have been found to operate across a variety of
experimental and clinical settings, including educational classrooms.
Pavlovian Conditioning
Pavlov (1902) started from the idea that there are some things that a dog
does not need to learn. For example, dogs dont learn to salivate whenever
they see food. This reflex is hard wired into the dog. In behaviorist terms, it
is an unconditioned response (i.e. a stimulus-response connection that
required no learning).
Pavlov showed the existence of the unconditioned response by presenting a
dog with a bowl of food and the measuring its salivary secretions.

Stimulus Generalization- Once the dog has learned to salivate at the

sound of the bell, it will salivate at other similar sounds.
Extinction- If you stop pairing the bell with the food, salivation will
eventually cease in response to the bell.
Spontaneous Recovery- Extinguished response can be recovered after
an elapsed time, but will soon extinguish again if the dog is not presented
with food.
Discrimination- The dog could learn to discriminate between similar bells
(stimuli) and discern which bell would result in the presentation of food and
which would not.
Higher-order conditioning- Once the dog has been conditioned to
associate the bell with food, another unconditioned stimulus such as a light
may be flashed at the same time that the bell is rung. Eventually, the dog
will salivate at the flash of the light without the sound of the bell.
2. Edward Thorndike (1874 - 1949) is famous in psychology for his work on
learning theory that lead to the development of operant conditioning within
behaviorism. Whereas classical conditioning depends on developing
associations between events, operant conditioning involves learning from the
consequences of our behavior. Skinner wasnt the first psychologist to study
learning by consequences. Indeed, Skinner's theory of operant conditioning
is built on the ideas of Edward Thorndike.
His three primary laws:
1)
Law of Readiness: First primary law of learning, according to him, is the
Law of Readiness or the Law of Action Tendency, which means that
learning takes place when an action tendency is aroused through preparatory
adjustment, set or attitude. Readiness means a preparation of action. If one
is not prepared to learn, learning cannot be automatically instilled in him, for
example, unless the typist, in order to learn typing prepares himself to start,
he would not make much progress in a lethargic & unprepared manner.
2)
Law of Exercise: The second law of learning is the Law of Exercise,
which means that drill or practice helps in increasing efficiency and durability
of learning and according to Throndikes S-R Bond Theory, the connections
are strengthened with trail or practice and the connections are weakened

when trial or practice is discontinued. The law of exercise, therefore, is also

understood as the law of use and disuse in which case connections or bonds
made in the brain cortex are weakened or loosened. Many examples of this
case are found in case of human learning. Learning to drive a motor-car,
typewriting, singing or memorizing a poem or a mathematical table, and
music etc. need exercise and repetition of various movements and actions
many times.
3)
Law of Effect: The third law is the Law of Effect, according to which
the trial or steps leading to satisfaction stamps in the bond or connection.
Satisfying states lead to consolidation and strengthening of the connection,
whereas dis-satisfaction, annoyance or pain leads to the weakening or
stamping out of the connection. In fact, the law of effect signifies that if the
response satisfies the subject, they are learnt and selected, while those
which are not satisfying are eliminated. Teaching, therefore, must be
pleasing. The educator must obey the tastes and interests of his pupils. In
other words, greater the satisfaction stronger will be the motive to learn.
Thus, intensity is an important condition of law of effect.
Principles derived from Thorndikes connectionism:
1. Learning requires both practice and rewards (laws of effect/exercise)
2. A series of S-R connections can be chained together if they belong to
the same action sequence(law of readiness)
3. Transfer of learning occurs because of previously encountered
situation.
4. Intelligence is a function of the number of connections learned.
3. John Broadus Watson was an American psychologist who established
the psychological school of behaviorism. Watson promoted a change in
psychology through his address Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it, which
was given at Columbia University in 1913. Through his behaviorist approach,
Watson conducted research on animal behavior, child rearing, and
advertising. In addition, he conducted the controversial "Little Albert"
experiment and the Kerplunk experiment. He was also editor of Psychological
Review from 1910 to 1915.
Experiment on Albert
Watson applied classical conditioning in his experiment concerning albert, a
young child and a white rat. Albert was a 9-month-old infant who was tested
on his reactions to various stimuli. He was shown a white rat, a rabbit, a
monkey and various masks. Albert described as "on the whole stolid and
unemotional" showed no fear of any of these stimuli. However, what did
startle him and cause him to be afraid was if a hammer was struck against a
steel bar behind his head. The sudden loud noise would cause "little Albert to
burst into tears. When Little Albert was just over 11 months old the white rat
was presented and seconds later the hammer was struck against the steel
bar. This was done 7 times over the next 7 weeks and each time Little Albert
burst into tears. By now little Albert only had to see the rat and he
immediately showed every sign of fear. He would cry (whether or not the

hammer was hit against the steel bar) and he would attempt to crawl away.
Watson and Rayner had shown that classical conditioning could be used to
create a phobia. A phobia is an irrational fear, i.e. a fear that is out of
proportion to the danger. Over the next few weeks and months Little Albert
was observed and 10 days after conditioning his fear of the rat was much
less marked. This dying out of a learned response is called extinction.
However, even after a full month it was still evident, and the association
could be renewed by repeating the original procedure a few times.
4.Burrhus Frederick Skinner
Skinner is regarded as the father of Operant Conditioning, but his work was
based on Thorndikes (1905) law of effect. Skinner introduced a new term
into the Law of Effect - Reinforcement. Behavior which is reinforced tends to
be repeated (i.e. strengthened); behavior which is not reinforced tends to die
out-or be extinguished (i.e. weakened). He believed that the best way to
understand behavior is to look at the causes of an action and its
consequences. He called this approach operant conditioning.
Operant Conditioning deals with operants - intentional actions that have
an effect on the surrounding environment. Skinner set out to identify the
processes which made certain operant behaviours more or less likely to
occur.
Skinner (1948) studied operant conditioning by conducting experiments
using animals which he placed in a 'Skinner Box' which was similar to
Thorndikes puzzle box.

Reinforcement- it is the key concept in Skinners S-R theory.

Positive Reinforcer- is any stimulus that is given or added to increase
response.
Negative Reinforcer- is any stimulus in the increased frequency of a
response when it is withdrawn or removed.
Punishment- is a consequence intended to result in reduced responses.

Shaping of Behavior. Skinner argues that the principles of operant

conditioning can be used to produce extremely complex behaviour if rewards
and punishments are delivered in such a way as to encourage move an
organism closer and closer to the desired behaviour each time. In order to do
this, the conditions (or contingencies) required to receive the reward should
shift each time the organism moves a step closer to the desired behaviour.
According to Skinner, most animal and human behaviour (including
language) can be explained as a product of this type of successive
approximation.
Behavioral Chaining. Come about when a series of steps are needed to be
learned.
Implications of Operant Conditioning
These implications are given for programmed instruction
1. Practice should take form of question (stimulus)- answer (response)
frames which expose the students to the subject in gradual steps.
2. Require that the learner makes a response for every frame and
receives immediate feedbacks.
3. Try to arrange the difficulty of the questions so the response is always
correct and hence, a positive reinforcement.
4. Ensure that good performance in the lesson is paired with secondary
reinforces such as verbal praise, prizes and good grades.
Principles Derived from Skinners Operant Conditioning
1. Behavior that is positively reinforced will reoccur.
2. Information should be presented in small amounts so that responses
can be reinforced (Shaping)
3. Reinforcements will generalize across similar stimuli (stimulus
generalization) producing secondary conditioning.
Module 8: Neo Behaviorism: Tolmans Purposive Behaviorsm and
Bandura Social Learning Theory
Bridging the gap between behaviorism and cognitive theories of
learning.
Objectives:

At the end of the lesson, students are expected to:

Explain Tolmans purposive behaviorism
Explain Banduras social learning theory
Give specific applications of each theory in teaching

Tolmans Purposive Behaviorism

Edward Chace Tolman spent most of his professional life on the faculty
of the University of California at Berkeley
His major work was Purposive Behaviorism in Animals and Men
published in 1932.

Purposive Behaviorism

Tolman believed that learning is a cognitive process. Learning involves

forming beliefs and obtaining knowledge about the environment and
then revealing that knowledge through purposeful and goal-directed
behavior.
Tolmans system was called purposive behaviorism because it studies
behavior as it is organized around purposes.
A new stimulus (the sign) becomes associated with already meaningful
stimuli (the significate) through series of pairings; there was no need
for reinforcement in order to establish learning.

Tolmans Key Concepts

Learning is always purposive and goal directed Individuals act on
beliefs, attitudes, changing conditions, and they strive towards goals. Tolman
saw behavior as holistic, purposive, and cognitive.
Cognitive map In rats Learning the location of reward. Once an individual
has learned where a given kind of reward is located, that location can often
be reached by means other than those originally used.
Example: A shopper finds an interesting store while exploring a city on foot.
The shopper can then return to the store either by car or bus.
Latent Learning Whenever learning goes on without its being evident in
performance at the time.
Example: Rats spent several nights in mazes with- out being fed. found
their way to the goal box without reinforcement. They develop cognitive
maps without rewards.
The concept of intervening variable Learning is mediated or is
influenced by expectations, perceptions, representations, needs and other
internal or environmental variables.
Example: Hunger was the intervening variable with rats.
Reinforcement not essential for learning. Tolman concluded that
reinforcement is not essential for learning although it provides an incentive
for performance.
Example:
Rat was able to acquire knowledge of the way through a maze even in the
absence of reinforcement.
Banduras Social Learning Theory
People learn from one another by observational learning, imitation, and
modeling.
General principles of social learning theory
1. People can learn by observing the behavior of others.

2. Learning can occur without a change in behavior.

3. Cognition plays a role in learning.
4. It is a bridge or a transitions between behaviorist learning theory and
cognitive learning theory.
How the environment reinforces and punishes modeling
1. The observer is reinforced by the model.
Example: student who changes dress to fit in with a certain group of students
has a strong likelihood of being accepted and thus reinforced by that group
2. The observer is reinforced by a third person. The observer might be
modeling the actions of someone else.
Example: an outstanding class leader or student. The teacher notices this
and compliments and praises the observer for modeling such behavior thus
reinforcing that behavior
3. The imitated behavior itself leads to reinforcing consequences. Many
behaviors that we learn from others produce satisfying or reinforcing results.
Example: A students observe how the extra work a classmate does is fun.
This student in turn would do the same extra work and also experience
enjoyment.
4. Consequences of the models behavior affect the observers behavior
vicariously. This is known as vicarious reinforcement. This is where the model
is reinforced for a response and then the observer shows an increase in that
same response.
Example: a model hitting an inflated clown doll. One group of children saw
the model being praised for such action, so the children began to also hit the
doll.
Contemporary social learning perspective of reinforcement and
punishment

Both reinforcement and punishment have indirect effect on learning.

Influence the extent to which an individual exhibits a behavior that has
been learned.
The expectation of reinforcement influences cognitive processes that
promote learning.

Cognitive factors in social learning

1. Learning without performance: a distinction between learning through
observation and the actual imitation
2. Cognitive processing during learning: attention is the critical factor for
learning
3. Expectations: people form expectations about the consequences that
future behaviors are likely to bring

4. Reciprocal causation: the three variables, the person, the behavior, and
the environment can have an influence on each other
5. Modeling: there are different types of models:
live model actual demonstration
symbolic model - person or action portrayed in the medium (television,
videotape, computer programs)
Conditions necessary for effective modeling to occur

Attention the person must pay attention to the model

Retention the observer must the able to remember the behavior
Motor reproduction the ability to replicate the behavior
Motivation learner must want to demonstrate what they have learned

Effects of modeling on behavior

Modeling
Modeling
Modeling
Modeling

teaches new behavior.

influences the frequency of previously learned behaviors.
may encourage previously forbidden behavior.
increases the frequency of similar behavior.

Educational implications of social learning theory

Students often learn a great deal simply by observing other people.

Describing the consequences of behavior can effectively increase the
appropriate behaviors and decrease inappropriate ones.
Modeling provides an alternative to shaping for teaching new
behaviors.
Teachers and parents must model appropriate behaviors.
Teachers should expose students to a variety of other models.

Primary Laws:
Law of Effect
Law of Exercise
Law of Readiness