Educational Philosophies: Behaviorism

When I first learned about the educational philosophies that teachers teach by, I was glad to hear there were so many options and it seemed that there were enough of them to fit every style of teaching. The one that intrigued me the most was behaviorism and I started to think, why does it appeal to so many people? Behaviorism claims that human psychology can be studied by observations. There were many people who helped develop behaviorism but some of the most notable were Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner who created different types of conditioning which they proved very effective. Behaviorism is seen in school because that is where behaviors are learned. The skills that students learn through behaviorism are skills that will help them outside of school in the real world. Behaviorism uses conditioning to alter the students behaviors. The students who do well get rewarded by the teacher and therefore they are motivated to accomplish things later in life because they know that if they succeed they will be rewarded. The method of conditioning the students is very different than any of the other methods used the other educational philosophies and i think this is why so many people chose to teach using it. I think that I would try and incorporate the conditioning used in behaviorism in my teaching but I would not rely on it and I would mix it with other styles of teaching that I found to be effective. I think that studying the many philosophies of education that are out there is an important thing for a person to do before they start teaching, in order from them to become a successful educator.