Week 10 reflection

Time is ticking away on the semester here and I am behind 2 posts! My trip to California put me about behind but I am back up to speed now so I will be posting weeks 10 & 11 back to back. I don't remember what the exact questions were for this reflection butiwould like to discuss my social learning kb so I'm sure that's somewhat in sync with some of the questions. I felt that the social learning kb tied together all of what I think about learning. Serving an apprenticeship in my younger years has made me see the value in the social aspect of learning and how it's much more than simply behavioral or cognitive. That was an important part of my life and I see now that it helped me to better understand this learning theory. Observation and modeling are integral to the learning process of becoming a steamfitter and also a welder. There is really no other way to learn than throu observation and modeling for either of those. But the social aspect really comes into light here as well because you learn what is accepted based on the social cues that you learn while you're not the job. That's actually a really important part of it all too, especially in a trade such as that because one wrong move could get you into trouble.
I think that social learning theory encompasses so much of behaviorism and cognitivism and I wonder how the behaviorists make sense of that. Because we are human beings and we are all social beings as well, how do the behaviorists justify the belief that cognitive processes are not involved? I know the Smith & Ragan book states that behaviorism really isn't even used in instructional design anymore and for that I'm thankful because I feel that its shelf life is used up what with all the technology and differences in learning styles these days. It just doesnt seem to offer the practicality that it once did. Behaviorism seems to be stuck in the dark ages a bit. And it's hard to believe that the only way to learn is to see a behavior change. I guess my post about social learning was just a cover to bash behaviorism!