Learning in Children

Introduction

Parents or caregivers surround their ultimate life goal towards civilizing their own flesh and blood; aiming to in still the best possible societal values and norms in their children. In order for them to nurture into profound, intellectual, ascetic human beings, fit to serve and combat a complex phenomenon as this world.

According to the Encyclopaedia of Human Behaviour (1994) ‘Once established, reputations do not easily change.' Little does it render to our beliefs about preserving the moral conscience of doing right and wrong. It is ideally through the social institution of the family constituting parents and caregivers that such reasoning and reflection is brought forward to the social ground.

A common thought that helps to serve the human mind revolves around as to how parents teach appropriate behavioural skills to their children? Henceforth, psychological principles of learning enable us to understand the element of both good and bad behaviours taught by parents to their children. The ultimate foreground of the Social Learning Theory, Operant Conditioning and Punishment all contribute towards the following of learning behavioural patterns amongst children, hoping to achieve the best norms of societal values. Nonetheless, an evaluative stance is necessary to fully understand how such behaviours are actually endorsed and portrayed by children.

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"Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most human behaviour is learned observationally through modelling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviours are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action."

(Albert Bandura, Social Learning Theory, 1977)

The quote above outlines very simply the basics of the Social Learning Theory implemented by the mastermind none other than Albert Bandura (1925-1952). For Bandura learning has a social element; to learn new behaviours and information individuals may observe others, also called observational learning or modelling.

Bandura in his famous "Bobo doll "studies outlined how children learned and imitated behaviours they had previously observed in other people. The children watched an adult acting aggressively and violently towards a Bobo doll. Later when allowed to play with the Bobo doll alone in a room the children portrayed aggressive actions and imitations of what they had previously observed. (citation of book)

This brings us to an exciting development. Parents can indeed teach their children correct behavioural patterns by following the principles of the social learning theory. By portraying themselves to be righteous individuals their children will follow into