There’s a “world” out there in which there aren’t any professors, there’s no books or instruction manuals; it’s a world where everyone learns specific tasks through observation, remember and repeating. While we may not specifically remember this world, or understand the world in which I speak of, each and every one of us have lived in the world of Observational Learning.
While growing up, every child wants to “fit in” with the other children and most, are willing to put themselves out there in hopes to do so. To better help explain picture the game of kickball. When growing up in Southern California, we would typically play sports such as basketball and soccer, however when my family moved to Connecticut, kickball was the main activity that the children would play. While I was unfamiliar with the game, I went up to the plate and kicked the ball – fouling out each and every time. I didn’t understand why the other children made me go back to the end of the line. While I was in the line, I watched the other children play in order to help me understand the rules. Ultimately, by doing so, I was able to remember how the children played and was able to repeat the tasks throughout the remainder of the game. Although my personal kickball experience was a very specific example of a task, observational learning also comes into play when we learn our basic moral and ethical values.
Observing others throughout your early development typically helps you learn and portray moral and ethical values. If you were to grow up in a household in which the parents used vulgar language or watched violent movies in front of you as a child, chances are you’re going to think that its ok for you to use them as well. Now, when using the vulgar words consistently in front of your friends, they too will start to use them. The Bodo Doll Experiment, an experiment done by Albert Bandura, helps portray this form of observational learning. A Bodo Doll is an inflatable toy in which children would play with either aggressively or passively depending on the group they were within. The children who observed the others in the experiment “beat up” the Bodo doll, would most likely beat the doll up themselves, whereas the others who were in the more passive group, tended to show non-aggressive behavior.
In conclusion, Observational learning is a part of our everyday life and is key to learning the life skills required to become a mature adult. Without observational learning, we would have to “study” or understand absolutely everything we do by listening to an instructor.
This is a great post about observational learning. I agree that observational learning is one of the most important things we do. One example I can relate to is the sport example. I was a big basketball player in high school so I did not know much about wrestling. As i grew up, I would go to some high school wrestling matches and gradually, I began to learn the sport. I don’t know everything about the sport now, but I do have a much better inderstanding of it and I learned just by watching. The other thing I greatly agree with is how observational learning effects children and the growing up process. I believe every child is like their parents in one way shape or form. This is why it is so crucial to be a good parent so you can set a good example for your children, who will then follow in your footsteps through observational learning hopefully.
I agree with your post and like how you point out that observational learning is a big part of childhood and early development. It is extremely true that you really learn how to act/speak/etc. from your environment in your household. I know I do a lot of things the same way my parents do; like the way I speak, talk, act, etc. Even back in high school, I remember a good friend of mine had a few sayings he would always say that he came up with, and then our entire group of friends started saying them because we would hear him use them every day. Then when me and one of my other good friends from that same group both came to Penn State a couple years back, we would still say those sayings because we were so used to them, but no one else here understood what we were saying or talking about so we would always have to explain. Eventually, we stopped using the sayings because we weren’t around people every day that were also using them.
I also really liked how you used the kickball example because that is probably something everyone can relate to back in the recess days. I remember watching people play certain sports and then once I understood, joining in. Sometimes you can’t just learn from explaining, you also have to watch and then it makes more sense. Good job with writing this, you bring up some really interesting points.
I whole heartedly agree with you, I think I learn more through observation, at least initially, than any other way. Weather I am in class observing a professor solve a problem which I may later need to understand on my homework, or learning how to overcome an everyday obstacle, I am always first learning by observing. For instance, I was with a team of people who needed to get up a slippery inclined plane, which was impossible to simply run up. My team and I chose to watch how another group solved the problem, by having people lay down at the bottom and people climb on their shoulders, while another person at the top of the slope helped to pull the person up the rest of the way. My team then replicated this procedure, and it only took us a few minutes to understand how to work it perfectly. All in all, I would say that observational learning is most helpful initially, but it must be followed up by actually doing it.
I’m glad someone brought this up. The vast majority of a human’s knowledge does not come from schooling or books, but from seeing, hearing, and sensing in general. There are so many small things we learned as children that we don’t even realize we know. Generally, the further in education one gets, the more trivial the learning becomes. We learn to walk and talk at around one year old, and we use this knowledge practically every day. How often does one apply differential calculus to everyday life?
This post and the view it takes on observational learning is interesting. Seeing the social interactions of children on the playground as observational learning is different and something I agree with. There are no lesson plans for recess, no grades, and yet rules are placed and children learn. Social grading, such as your position in the kickball line, show that observational learning is occurring. In this instance, social learning and observational learning may be more important and potent than other teaching and learning models; you can explain how to play kickball to a child but they won’t care about it unless it has the ability to make them more popular among their peers. Sometimes social pressures or influences are more motivating and helpful than anything else. Observational learning on the playground is something that will always exist just as long as kickball games are played.
This was a very interesting post! I really enjoyed reading about this. I can definitely relate to this. When I was younger, I had no idea how to water ski, but I would always watch people who were water skiing until one day, I just learned how to do it. This was a very well written blog; way to go!
The idea that we can learn so much just by observing our surroundings is such an interesting thought. There is no need for studying because it comes naturally to us. The mirror neurons which are in our brain, reacts similar when observing something when compared to if we were actually doing the action. As you said, observational learning is such an important part of growing up. My younger sister used to follow me around all the time and literally imitate everything I did. I know now that by doing that, my sister was growing and expanding the knowledge she already had. So many things can be learned from observing other people such as manners or skills. Much of the way we act is learned from others. In order for us to be socially accepted we are expected to act in certain ways which we learn mainly from observational learning.
This was a really good post, i liked your example of a personal experience that accurately portrayed the concept of observational learning. In your post you talk about how as young children we wanted to fit in and will observe how others behave and replicate their behaviors and how we use observational learning as a means to learn our basic moral and ethical values. I think it is interesting how over time this changes in terms of learning moral and ethical beliefs For example if you move from one country to another that practices different beliefs to your previous ones you observe how these people behave and replicate these behaviors in order to adapt to the new society you are living in.
Overall I thought this was a good post and I like the connections you drew between observational learning and an idea that everyone can relate to…childhood. I never thought this way, but after reading the post I can’t believe I haven’t. There are so many things we learn as a child through observational learning. The way talk, our posture, how we eat, even walking and talking. I remember when i was little i thought my dad was superman. I would literally follow him around talking and acting like hime. I remember one time I went with him to grocery store an insisted that I would get my own cart. Everything my dad picked out I grabbed another one and put it in my cart. Obviously, this must ave been extremely annoying for my dad, but it illustrates observational learning perfectly.
Observational learning is actually a very interesting concept. A similar thing happened to me too – except it wasn’t kickball, it was drawing. My dad’s a talented artist, so he would paint, draw, and sketch whenever he was home. As a little kid, I would sit around and watch him and his technique, learning how he did things. I ended up being very interested in art, just like him.
This is a very interesting topic. Everyone has had experience with this form of learning. this topic basically explains how we learn from others. It is a very common form of learning and myself have used the ” watch and learn” method when teaching others.
One time that comes to mind is teaching my cousin how to throw a baseball. I used the method of observational learning to get him to understand the basics mechanics of the throw. I would throw a ball and then i would tell him to watch what I do and try to copy it to get a similar result.
I observed that this method was much more effective then just trying to tell him what to do, but this form of learning is most effective when dealing with some form of physical activity and less effective when dealing with teaching something like mathematics.
In conclusion, observational learning is an important part of human growth, and is more effective in athletics then academics.
I really like your post. Observational learning is something we do everyday without even noticing it. It has become such a common task that we do not even notice we are doing it. The example you used of kickball and how you did not know the rules, that was a very good example. It really helps the reader have a visual image of what you are trying to say. Good job, well written.