4: Psychology of Learning Environments: Behavioral, Structural, or Perceptual?

Before overviewing the purpose and parts of this chapter, it may be helpful to mention the general features of the three models of learning process that are contrasted in the discussion (Figure 1). In the behavioral model the teacher presents stimuli to the student, observes or psychometrically assesses the responses, and selectively reinforces them by reward and punishment. In the structural model, the preprogrammed development of internal mechanisms mainly determines the course of learning; the teacher stimulates the matura-tion of these mechanisms, draws them out, or provides the environment in which they can be acted upon or be concretized. The perceptual model allows for behavioral and structural mechanisms but holds that the students con-scious perception of internal and external stimuli and his choices are the proximate, mediating determinants of learning. Because behaviorism has increasingly dominated psychological thought about education since John B. Watsons (1913) famous paper, it should be KEVIN MARJORIBANKS, University of Adelaide, and RUDOLF H. Moos, Stanford University,