APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY IN

CLASSROOM: THE
PROCESSES OF LEARNING
 EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION: Learning is one of the most essential psychological process that helps us to adapt and survive
in the changing conditions of the world by developing behaviors and eliminating unsuccessful actions.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM: Students are said to be the pillar of a nation and their education builds up the
pillar of the society. Where, a classroom is the most effective place supporting the psychological process of
learning. Yet there exists several educational issues and deficiency in proper working of applying psychological
knowledge of learning in the classroom.

SCOPE: Thus, learning being an important topic, its applications within a classroom has been focused and used
over here as an epitome to wrap up the important processes of learning, we have learnt till date. However,
limiting my study on the syllabus and theories only related to classroom and not explaining the experiments can
be a drawback of my work.

METHODOLOGY: The presented studies are based on information collected

from secondary sources and carried out through a subjective method of research.

SCHOLARLY IMPORTANCE: My studies on learning can be used as a source

of recapitulation. Important topics on learning along with additional GK points are
included over each slide.

SECTIONALIZATION: The presentation will run into six sections, it will start with
the introduction, then it will lead the viewers to a discussion on the forms of learning.
And finally a suitable conclusion will bring the presentation to an end highlighting my views on it.
 INTRODUCTION
✦ The environment include all the forces that act upon the individuals from within and outside. The
environmental influences begin even from the time of conception in the mother’s womb to the
post-natal period. And from this period to death, environment exists in two types- physical and
social. Out of the various social environments, classroom is a place that exerts its effects largely
through the processes of learning, made possible by innate biological and psychological
mechanisms.
✦ Learning within an environ like classroom, can make humans learn which stimuli are important
and which responses are likely to result in goal attainment. This needs applying the psychological
science in behaviors to improve the processes of learning and promote educational success for all
students.
ALBERT BANDURA-1986
Learning refers to any change in our social and cognitive
behaviour resulting from any vicarious or direct experience.

GREGORY ADAMS KIMBLE -1961

Learning refers to a more or less permanent change in
behaviour which occurs as a result of practice.

BERTRAND ARTHUR WILLIAM RUSSELL-1952

Learning denotes modification of behaviour as the result of
experience
APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY OF LEARNING IN
STUDENT’S LIFE
✦ Being students, we learn, we write, we read and we encounter many
educational experiences and techniques in our life that aimed at
maximizing knowledge and skills and gaining better grades. But many
students are not satisfied with the outcomes of their hard work and
methods of learning. A big part of the problem is despite vibrant
educational experiences, students are rarely taught how to study, they
don’t know the art of stimulus generalization.
Behavior is influenced by
Behaviorism rose to
and is a result of learning, dominate psychology and
as said by the sought to explain the
psychologist John Broadus learning process. The three
Watson who suggested The behavioral major types of learning
that all behaviors are a school of thought described by behavioral
result of the learning proposed studying psychology are classical
process. The school of internal thoughts, conditioning, operant
thought that emerged from memories, and other
Watson's work was known conditioning, (Cognitive
as behaviorism. mental processes learning) and observational
that were too learning.
subjective.
 CLASSICAL CONDITIONING IN THE CLASSROOM
✦ Conditioning in psychology refers to a behavioural process whereby a response becomes more
frequent or more predictable in a given environment as a result of reinforcement. It was the
Russian psychologist named Ivan Petrovich Pavlov who pioneered the basic principles of
classical conditioning.
✦ In Classical Conditioning one stimulus comes to serve as a signal for the occurrence of a
second stimulus. It helps organisms to acquire information between various stimuli and makes
an involuntary response to a stimulus other than original, natural stimulus that normally
produces the response.
✦ In classroom, teachers can apply classical conditioning by creating a positive classroom
environment to help students overcome anxiety or fear. Pairing an anxiety-provoking situation,
such as performing in front of a group, with pleasant surroundings helps the student learn new
associations. Instead of feeling anxious and tense in these situations, the child will learn to
stay relaxed and calm.
In order to broaden his studies, Pavlov carried out many
experiments where he used dogs as his subjects. But in
reality, people do not respond exactly like Pavlov's dogs. The
real-world applications for classical conditioning are used for
helping people cope with phobias, anxiety problems, taste
aversions, etc.
 OPERANT CONDITIONING IN THE CLASSROOM
✦ This learning process makes individual learn to repeat behaviours that yield positive
outcomes or permit them to avoid or escape from negative ones. It is based on the
researches of two American Psychologist namely Edward Lee Thorndike and
Burrhus Frederic Skinner.
✦ Thorndike proposed the law of effect which stated that if an action is followed by a
pleasurable consequence, It will tend to be repeated, and if followed by an unpleasant
consequences, it will tend not to be repeated. While in other hand Skinner’s theory
of operant conditioning proposed the two main components in examples of operant
conditioning namely:
1)REINFORCEMENT 2)PUNISHMENT

✦ These two components are often used in a classroom to encourage good and wanted
behaviour whilst deterring bad and unwanted behaviour. They can be used both by
teachers and students.Teachers may use them to bring out any change in the behavior
of the students. while students can apply the law of effect and reinforcement by
showing amicable and respectful behavior towards their teacher for which in return
 THE CONCEPT OF REINFORCEMENT
Being one of his contributions to behaviorism, about reinforcement Skinner says that it may refer to the
application or removal of a stimulus to increase the strength of a specific behavior. It is of two types:

1) Positive reinforcement
✦ Positive reinforcement encourages actions and behavior with positive responses or rewards. These are favorable
outcomes or events.
✦ In the classroom during debates and presentations, a teacher encourages students to participate as it’s important for
character-building in the formative years. When they do well, clapping, cheering and praising them act as positive
reinforcement.
✦ Other common examples of operant conditioning that displays positive reinforcement is examinations. Students work
constantly to improve
Positive their performances
reinforcement as theirtoreward
uses rewards might
increase a be a grade, behavior
particular job, increment or other perks.

2)Negative reinforcement
. PREMACK PRINCIPLE:
Proposed by David
✦ Negative reinforcement is a response that looks to terminate an unpleasant behavior. Operant Premack, (Professor of
conditioning examples in everyday life show us how negative reinforcement strengthens a Psychology at the
behavior by removing unfavorable experiences. University of
✦ One of the most frequently seen examples of operant conditioning in our life is that the Pennsylvania, USA), this
strategy where ma’am let us to explore and study articles from any sites but she expect us to theory states that a more
write valid answers in our own words, not copied from any Wikipedia source or otherwise we preferred activity can be
would loose marks. This actually prompts us to upgrade our knowledge and writing skills and to used to reinforce a less
avoid the habit of plagiarism. preferred activity.
✦ Further, rules we are bound to follow act as negative reinforcements. In a classroom, rules are
equal and have to be followed by all. And teachers, being a reinforcer can cancel events and
activities if students break any rules.
Negative reinforcement is taking away rewards to increase response
 PUNISHMENT:AN IMPORTANT TOOL
In contrast to reinforcement, punishment refers to procedures by which the application or removal of a stimulus
decreases the strength of a behavior. It is an unfavorable or unpleasant reaction to an action or behavior,
basically a consequence to stop unpleasant actions from reoccurring. It’s also divided into two types:

1)Positive punishment
✦ Punishment by application is a positive response to bad behavior or actions. Students are restricted from
using phones in the classroom as they’re a distraction. Confiscating the phone if a student is caught using it
is a positive punishment. This is an example of classic operant conditioning in the classroom.
✦ Operant conditioning examples in the classroom also include a teacher scolding a student publicly for
repeating mistakes. It’s a positive punishment for coming late to class repeatedly or being too talkative.
✦ Positive punishment is most common with parents and in educational institutions.

2)Negative punishment
✦ Removing something pleasant as a result of an unpleasant behavior is natural and important, and is called
negative punishment.
✦ Suspending students from schools or any classroom activity for not having a satisfactory attendance can be
one of the most widely seen examples of operant conditioning. Also if students are seen busy with any of
his gadgets , teachers often takes it away.
✦ If a child misbehaves, lies or does something unacceptable, a parent may take away their video games or
toys.
Punishment should immediately follow the behaviour it is meant to punish, should be consistent, and
wrong behaviour should be paired reinforcing the right behaviour.
 COGNITIVE LEARNING
✦ Developed by the three key theorists namely Edward Chace Tolman, Wolfgang
Kohler and Martin Elias Peter Seligman, the cognitive learning theory states that
learning requires cognition, or the influence of an organism’s thought processes.
✦ Tolman through his experiment on rats, Kohler through Chimpanzees and Seligman
through his experiment on dogs developed the concepts of latent learning, insight
learning and learned helplessness respectively. But the underlying concepts of
cognitive learning has a lot to do with a student’s life in different manner. It is an
active, constructive, and long-lasting way of learning that helps students to use their
brains more effectively and fully engage in the learning process so that learning,
thinking, and remembering get easier.

The discovery and origin of the cognitive approach to learning can be traced back to
a Swiss psychologist named Jean William Fritz Piaget in the year 1936.

Later, Benjamin Bloom, breaks down cognitive learning into a 6 part hierarchy
(Bloom’s Taxonomy), which can form the basics of learning in a students life.
 OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING
✦ It is the learning of new behavior through watching the actions of a model,
someone else who is doing the behavior. Albert Bandura in the year 1986
proposed the four elements of learning which can be understood through the
following classroom experiences.
✦ 1)ATTENTION: To learn through observation, learner must pay attention to the
model. In order to learn how to pronounce a particular word, students must pay
attention to the teacher’s pronouncing of the word.
✦ 2)MEMORY: Learner must retain the memory of what was done. Recalling the
learned things would help to memorize and repeating the same would help to
store the information in the mind permanently, I .e. maintenance rehearsal, a
concept of memory.
✦ 3)INTIMATION: Learner must be capable of intimating or reproducing the actions
of the model. Students must be capable of reproducing the way teachers use to
present or carry on any activities, in their own way, as this would bring novelties
and creativeness to their work.
ALBERT
✦ BANDURA:
4)DESIRE: Canadian-American
Learner must have thePsychologist
motivation who
orproposed theperform
desire to social learning theory
the action.
Students must choose their desiredinstream
1977 or subjects for further studies.
 CONCLUSION
Psychology Is The Scientific Study Of Behavior And Mental
Processes
Behavior is practical and so the outputs of mental processes are.

Focusing on the real-world, implementation of any knowledge or

theories to better serve the community, should be the principal goal of any
discipline. Concerning the same, rooting the presented topics to applied
psychology, using the information gathered by basic psychology in order to
develop an understanding of the learning process in our daily practical life,
an applied side of learning has been presented over here. The field of
educational psychology, studying the social, emotional and cognitive
processes involved in learning and applying their findings to improve the
learning process, plays a very important role in holding up the concepts of
basic learning, which has been touched in the presentation.
Psychology is everywhere, but utilizing and implying the printed
knowledge into real life situations what makes us worthy of being a student
of psychology and bearing the responsibility to inherit the legacy.
APA FORMAT:
American
Psychological
REFERENCES
Association
Format
WEBSITES
✦ St.NE(2022), Psychology Promotes Teaching and Learning. American
Psychological Association .www.apa.org
✦ Gwynedd Mercy University(2021), What Is Applied Psychology?.
Sumneytown Pike. www.gmercyu.edu
✦ Cherry Kendra(31st March, 2020), The Psychology of Learning. Very well
Mind.verywellmind.com

BOOKS

✦ Ciccarelli, Saundra K. and White, J.Noland (2019), “Psychology”

Pearson India Education Service Private Limited,(pp.xvi+628)
✦ Baron, A. Robert and Misra, Girishwar(2022), “Psychology”, Pearson
India Education Service Private Limited, (pp.xxv+646)