College of

Teacher Education

PED05 Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching

Midterm, 1st sem. A.Y. 2021 - 2022

LESSON 8 – PAVLOV’S CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

_____________________________________________________________________________________
Overview:

In the parlance of psychology, behaviorism is concerned with the behavioral changes and the role
of the environment in these changes. Behaviorists claim that nurture is crucial in the process of
acquiring knowledge (Dastpak et al., 2017). One known behaviorist is John B. Watson (1982), who
writes that the ultimate goal of behaviorism is to derive laws to explain the relationships existing
among antecedent conditions (stimuli), behavior (responses), and following
conditions (rewards, punishments, or neutral effects). The theory of
behaviorism may be dichotomized into associationism and reinforcement.

In this lesson, you will meet Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, is well know his
work in classical condition or stimulus substitution. Pavlov’s most renowned
experiment involved meat, a dog and a bell. Initially, Pavlov was measuring the
dog’s salivation in order to study digestion. This is when he stumbled upon classical conditioning.

__________________________________________________________________________________
Objectives:

Upon successful completion of this module, students should have the opportunity to:

1. Explain how behaviors are learned according to the Pavlovian and Watsonian theories
2. Determine the salient processes and phenomena of the Pavlovian and Watsonian
theories
3. Cite classroom implications of the association theory.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Discussion:

Before we dive in to our lesson, I want you to think of a teacher that is most unforgettable to you
in elementary or high school. What kinds of rewards and punishments did he/she apply in your
class? For what behaviors were the rewards and punishments for? Write your answer on the
table below:

Student Behavior Reward/Punishment

1.

2.

3.

____________________________________________________________________________________
PED05Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching compiledby:gregana&chua-1stsem2021-2022
What makes this teacher unforgettable for you?

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Were the rewards and punishments given effective? Please elaborate.

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

How I wish that I could instantly read your answers and share it to your classmates. In line with
our lesson, what you have experienced is an example of classical conditioning.

The theory of Pavlovian conditioning involves a set of multilayered procedures. Initially, the food
is called the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). In psychology, any environmental event that affects
the organism is called stimulus. The food is an unconditioned stimulus because it leads to an
unconditioned response (UCR) without any learning taking place. The immediate salivation of the
dog is referred to as the UCR, The UCS and UCR are considered unlearned stimulus-response units
termed as reflexes.

Conditioning the dog requires recurrent presentation of a neutral

stimulus paired with the UCS. For instance, the buzzer was sounded
repeatedly but caused no dog's salivation at all. However, when the
buzzer came with the food, the dog salivated. Later, by just hearing the buzzer, the dog salivated.
The buzzer is now called a conditioned stimulus (CS) that elicited the salivation of the dog, now
termed as a conditioned response (CR).

When applied in the classroom, the use of the pointer or stick to whip unruly learners in class
may affect other pupils. They may associate the stick with whipping, thus triggering fear. Later,
merely hearing or seeing a stick in class may elicit fear among them. This is why expert educators

____________________________________________________________________________________
PED05Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching compiledby:gregana&chua-1stsem2021-2022
in the country suggest that classroom teachers should avoid using the stick as pointers. Instead,
they are advised to use their open palm to pointing words on the chalkboard

Other Phenomena in Classical Conditioning

According to Buoton and Moody (2004), when the CS is

repeatedly unreinforced, that is, without the UCS, the CR will
eventually diminish in intensity and effect. This phenomenon is
called extinction. When the extinction of learning passes
through time, the CR may still be restored (Robins, 1990). This
recovery-after-extinction phenomenon is termed as spontaneous recovery. This means that
extinction does not completely involve unlearning of the pairings (Redish et al., 2018).

Generalization is another phenomenon in Pavlovian's

classical conditioning. When the dog salivates by just
merely hearing the buzzer, it is likely to elicit similar CS
when it hears a faster or a slower beat of the buzzer or
any device with quite a similar sound. Harris (2006),
however, pointed out that the more different the new
stimulus to the CS, the lesser generalization surfaces.

When the dog recognizes that the sound of the buzzer is

different from other stimuli (i.e., the sound of a bell), thus
salivating only upon hearing the buzzer, discrimination
occurs. This is a phenomenon when the subject reacts
differently to other stimuli. This means that it can decipher
the CS very strongly.

Watsonian Conditioning

During the dawn of the 20th century, a psychologist, greatly influenced by Pavlov, rose and aimed
to revolutionize the status of American psychology. He was John Broadus Watson (1878-1958).
According to Watson, if Pavlov is successful in proving associationism between stimulus and
response, people can also have such ability to associating certain feelings, behaviors, instances,
and even symbols. He theorized that unlearning and relearning can occur. He also posited that
humans are born with emotional responses such as love, fear, and hate.

Perhaps the most popular conditioning experiment he did was “Little Albert.” Here, Watson tried
to prove that emotions can be learned. Initially, Albert played with the white rat, thus not eliciting
any fear upon seeing the rat. After some time, Watson and his partner, Rosalie Rayner,
accompanied the appearance of the white rat with a banging sound, so Albert was conditioned
to fear the rat. Later, Watson and Rayner accompanied the presentation of the rat with other
objects. They found out that Albert also feared the occurrence of the objects even without the

____________________________________________________________________________________
PED05Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching compiledby:gregana&chua-1stsem2021-2022
rat's presence. This experiment became the anchor of Watson's belief that learning happens by
association.

Association
Stimulus Behavioristic
Learning
Response Repetition

__________________________________________________________________________________
Evaluation:

Activity 1

1. Teacher Clariza is a neophyte teacher in a public elementary school. She always complains
about her noisy and unruly pupils. Telling them to keep quiet in a soft manner has not been
effective. Suggest some tips on how she can condition her class to keep still by applying the
Pavlovian and Watsonian Behaviorism theories.

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

2. How do teachers form a good and lasting image to their students by using classical
conditioning?

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

3. Why is it important for in-service teachers to learn the concept of conditioning in teaching a
learner-centered classroom?

____________________________________________________________________________________
PED05Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching compiledby:gregana&chua-1stsem2021-2022
______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________
References:
Aquino, Avelina M., Ed.D., 2015, Facilitating Human Learning, 2 nd Ed., REX Bookstore, Inc.
Bulusan, Fedinand, et.al., 2019, Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching, 1st Edition, REX Bookstore
Lucas, Maria Rita D. PhD and Corpuz, Brenda B., PhD. 2014, Facilitating Learning: A Metacognitive Processes, 4 th Ed., LORIMAR
Publishing, Inc.

____________________________________________________________________________________
PED05Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching compiledby:gregana&chua-1stsem2021-2022