Broad Topic: Psychology In Education
Narrowed Topic: The Effects of Operant Conditioning on Learning

William Glasser states “If you want to change attitudes, start with a change in behaviour.” A change in behaviour to get desirable learning outcomes has been the focus of much attention. Undoubtedly, it has its role in the education system. A child’s success and development is based on how disciplined they are. In order for this to be accomplished their behaviour has to be altered. Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning encourages reinforcement which can be utilized in the classroom environment to acquire desirable behaviour from students and deter unwanted behaviour. Skinner (1953) asserts that “Operant conditioning can be described as a process that attempts to modify behaviour through the use of positive and negative reinforcements. Through operant conditioning an individual makes an association between a particular behaviour and consequence.” This theory is applicable in the conventional learning situation since it is tool educators can utilize to manage the classroom effectively and shape skill performance by pairing behaviours with rewards and punishment, even though it might have its limitations. Operant conditioning theory is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishment of behaviour. Edward Thorndike was the first to relate this in his psychological principle of Law and Effect. It stated that “any behaviour that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, and any behaviour followed by an unpleasant consequence is likely to be stopped.”(Thorndike,1998). Being mesmerized by Thorndike’s idea Skinner became the pioneer of operant conditioning theory. He theorized that “if a behaviour is followed by reinforcement, the behaviour will be repeated but if followed by punishment the behaviour will not be