Behaviorism began in the early part of the twentieth century with the argument that “the subject matter of human psychology is the behavior or activities of the human being” rather then the mental phenomena, such as consciousness, that had been the subject of study during the latter part of the nineteenth century.

The primary focus of the behavioral perspective is on behavior and the influence of the external environment in shaping of the individual’s behavior. Teaching, therefore, refers to the environmental conditions that are arranged and presented to students.

Learning is described as a change in the probability of a particular behavior occurring in a particular situation.

The primary responsibility of the Teacher is to identify and sequence the contingencies (antecedents and consequences) that will help students learn. In order to carry out this responsibility, the behaviorists suggest that the teacher’s role should be as follows:

• The teacher should state the objectives of the instruction as learner behaviors. In addition to identifying the goal behavior, this involves breaking that goal down into a set of simpler behaviors and arranging them in a sequence of frames that will help students’ progress towards the goal.
• The teacher should use cues to guide students to the desired behavior.
• The teacher should select and use consequences to reinforce the desired behavior since behaviors that are reinforced are more likely to be repeated.

John Watson
B. F. Skinner
E. L. Thorndike

Examples of behaviorist theory in practice might include the following:

• A history instructor uses online tutorial and self-tests to help students recall key names and dates from the Civil War.
• A graphic arts instructor uses a computer simulation of camera controls so students can see the effects of different shutter settings in particular lighting.
• A teacher of pharmaceutical science uses an online quiz to assess knowledge of the differences between various antibiotics.

Sources
1.Newby, Theory into Application, 1996
2. Digital Media Center, University of minnesota, http://dmc.umn.edu/tenets/theories.shtml