Infographic 1
Infographic 2
Learning Situation
Observation Checklist
Reflection
Infographic: Social Learning Basics
Infographic: Social Learning in Instructional Design
Learning Situation: Balancing a Checkbook
Learning Situation: A Bank employee (Georgia) teaches a college student (Ringo) how to balance a checkbook.
A young man walks into his bank.
“Hello, how may I help you today?” Says the Bank Manager, Georgia.
“My mom told me to come set up a checking something-“ explains Ringo.
“That would be a checking account,” Responds Georgia, “do you know how to use a checkbook.”
“I don’t think I learned that in school,” Ringo says.
“Ringo, balancing a checkbook is an important process to learn in order to be in control of your finances,” Laughed Georgia.
Ringo protests, opening the banking app on his phone. “… and can be used even with online banking.” Responds Georgia. “Plus, the process only takes a few minutes each month.”
As Georgia pulls up a fake bank account on her computer, she shows Ringo how to record the transactions from his account as they occur, including account deposit/ withdrawals, debit card transactions, and bank fees.
“See what I’m doing?” Georgia asks. She enters the date in the first column, transaction in the second column, and amount in the third. Then, Georgia pulls out a matching Bank statement, “here, Ringo, add up the transactions from this column, and tell me how much should be in this bank account.”
Ringo adds up the numbers, “Is $998 correct?” He guesses.
“Let’s check the bank statement,” Georgia responds. The Bank statement reveals a different number, $1,023.00.
“Look, on the transaction for July 18, you subtracted a deposit instead of adding it.” She shows Ringo the row where he made a mistake.
“Does it make sense why these numbers don’t match?” Asks Georgia. “How about you try again?”
Ringo nods in agreement and adds up the transactions in the checkbook.
“Is this supposed to match the statement?” Ringo inquires.
“Yes, that means you did it correctly!” Praises Georgia.
“Okay, that’s all I have to do, right?” Ringo asks, as he sighs with relief.
“Yes,” confirms Georgia, “and for opening a new checking account with us this month, you receive a $20 Amazon gift card.”
Ringo leaves, with a half-hearted promise to balance his checkbook every month. In his next bank statement, Georgia includes a note to Ringo, reminding him to balance his checkbook. When Ringo receives the note he balances his checkbook correctly immediately.
From the very first moment Ringo, the learner, walks into the bank, he is interacting with his environment, according to reciprocal causation. Once Georgia approaches him, the two of them begin to interact, creating a shared meaning about the purpose of a checking account. Ringo states that his mother has asked him to get one, while Georgia adds it is also a useful financial tool. Then, Georgia and Ringo begin to fill out a check register for a fake bank account together. Georgia begins by modeling how to enter transactions onto each line. Then, Ringo imitates her behavior by adding in more transactions. Ringo then adds up the numbers. On the second try, Ringo adds up the numbers, for which he is given direct reinforcement through positive praise from Georgia. While Ringo is off at school, he is in a different environment. When he receives the note from Georgia, Ringo has enough self-efficacy to know he can balance his checkbook on his own, which he does.
Observation Checklist
| How often was the event observed? | |||||
| Never | Once or twice | Consistently | N/A | ||
| Students given opportunity to interact with others or environment. | |||||
| Multiple perspectives were presented. | |||||
| Teacher plays the role of coach, guide, or facilitator, rather than instructor. | |||||
| Students compare their own thought processes with those of experts. | |||||
| Students pose their own research questions. | |||||
| Students have time to reflect on own construction of knowledge. | |||||
| Learners build knowledge collaboratively. | |||||
| Problems are solved. | |||||
| Learners model the behavior of others. | |||||
Reflection
For as long as I’ve had friends in education fields, whether they were education majors, or current teachers, the concept of “Think, Pair, Share” has always come up in conversation: its ubiquity, its benefits, its overkill in education courses. I was so familiar with the peripheral idea of Think, Pair, Share, my group even incorporated it as an activity for our IDE 631 project. As I am researching instructional design theories, lo and behold, Think Pair Share has its roots in Social Learning Theory. During the think phase, learners arrange the information into their own schema. Then, learners work with a fellow student to create a shared meaning from each of their knowledge. During the share phase, learners are confronted with the varied opinions of the entire class, to create a shared meaning.
For me, the usefulness and acceptability of Social Learning Theory falls somewhere between Cognitivism and Behaviorism Theories. Unlike Behaviorism, I believe Social Learning theory can apply to more than just dogs and small children; however, I do not believe it does not apply in as wide of a range of situations as cognitivism does. Social Learning is best used for demonstrative tasks, where the learner can model the movements of the instructor. The two can work together to create a process that is most beneficial for the learner to use. Creating shared meaning in a group setting can also be difficult to do, depending on the group. Certain group members may be misinformed or have ulterior motives that can affect the shared meaning.
In class, Professor Koszalka has been facilitating partner work the whole semester, mixing up our groups to bring in new ideas and perspectives each time. We also worked as a class to create a shared meaning of the term “learning” by finding commonalities in our own definitions of the word. We were asked to engage in the process by reflecting on our own experiences of learning. Still, my experience in the current education system has led me to ask the question, “…but was that right?”
One of Social Learning Theory’s greatest assets, in my opinion, happens outside if the classroom entirely, through social behaviors. We as humans learn to interact in everyday environments by watching and modeling our peers. We learn how to look, communicate, and just survive in our environment, without even realizing it. Again, misnomers of Social Learning Theory can apply, where an influential person can model harmful or disconcerting behaviors for the rest of the group (think smoking ads, school bullying).
I have included partner work in my lessons as long as I have been teaching them. Being aware of social learning theory, I know partner work, such as Think, Pair, Share, and other team activities have a greater instructional theory behind it. I plan to use it more purposefully from now on.
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