This week’s coaching session I looked at theories of learning. This blog will be focusing around behaviourism and how me as a coach incorporated this within my session.
The learning theory behaviourism is defined by many theorists as, the behaviour of a person can be based on the impact of environmental conditions which are observed through the mind. Many theorists who focus on behaviourism have identified conditioning to be a universal learning process. Different types of conditioning have been identified; as classic conditioning; operant conditioning and Connectionism (Law and effect). Operant conditioning is where an individual learns through the consequence of their behaviour whereas Classical conditioning is where associations are developed between events. (Phillips and Soltis, 2009).
The first theory I will talk about is Operant conditioning. A theory was devised in the 1930s by a theorist named, B.F Skinner, who introduced the idea of operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is explained as a learning process whereby a behaviour is rewarded or punished to control someone’s behaviour or learning, (McLeod,2007). For example, in football a three/four-year-old footballer learning about the basics of playing football, may learn to kick a football into a goal and receive praise from their football coach, or the young footballer may learn to avoid dribbling the ball out side the red coned area of the pitch. In operant conditioning terms, the goal and the red cones act as a discriminative stimulus. The operant idea is said to be voluntary, so when going back to the example used earlier, the young footballer may face a choice between scoring a goal and receiving praise or dribbling the ball outside the red coned area and possibly getting told off. Skinner explains that positive reinforcement will strengthen an individual’s behaviour and actions as the person finds it rewarding (McLeod, 2007).

Moreover, I also came across a Theorist Edward Thorndike whom is famous for his learning theory work which then lead to operant conditioning in regard to behaviourism. Thorndike came up with the law and effect/ trial and error principle. This suggested that behaviour that follows a pleasant consequence is more than likely to then be done again. However, if the behaviour is followed with a negative consequence then this will be stopped. He came up with putting a cat in a puzzle for it to figure out how to get out itself .(Thorndike, 1905). When putting this to the test within my session, I would give the instructions to the participants and to see how they could do by themselves this would also be known as trial and error. After observing the individuals, I would then be able to assess their needs and what they need help and improvement on.
Another theory with behaviourism is classical conditioning. The first theorist to look in depth at classical conditioning was Ivan Pavlov, who conducted famous research into the area of study. The classical idea is done through repeated association. For example, in football coaching, a coach may not even talk during a session coaching under 6s but could hold up a red cone in the air to tell the participants to stop and stand still and then hold up a green cone to commence the session again. This theory is still used today in coaching with many football coaches using whilst to stop the session. Through repeated association of a whistle players over time have come to understand that this usually means to stop and pay attention.
John Watson took to Ivan Pavlov’s work and decided to extend the idea of classical conditioning by conducting his own experiment. This was called the ‘The case of little Albert’. The study that was conducted was to show that fear could be visible and introduced through the theory of classical conditioning. It showed that associating a loud noise with an animal created fear towards whenever the infant would see that specific animal (Watson and Rayner, 2013). Linking this to behaviours in coaching, when a player scores a goal, the crowd start cheering therefore they learn that kicking the ball in the goal is an achievement.
My coaching session required me to coach football for an under 6s team. During the session I tried to involve the operant theory. For example, praising participants for doing something well whereas if participants had been disruptive during the session then they would have to help collect equipment at the end of the session. When using this theory, I found that when praised, a participant seemed to put more effort into the session, increasing the intensity and concentration levels, helping them develop further.
However, if a participant did begin to misbehave during the session, as a way to say their behaviour was unacceptable they would be told that they would have to help tidy away the equipment at the end. The thought of having to help tidy away equipment at the end made them soon behave and helped them concentrate on the task helping them develop their skills.
Reference

Phillips, D. and Soltis, J. (2009). Perspectives on learning. New York: Teachers College Press, p.chapter 3.

McLeod, S. A. (2007). BF Skinner: Operant conditioning.

Watson, J. and Rayner, R. (2013). The case of little Albert. [S.l.]: All About Psychology.com.

Thorndike, E. L. (1905). The elements of psychology. New York: A. G. Seiler.