Trend of Albert

Albert Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory provides a conceptual framework for analyzing how
teachers learn to teach and for designing more effective teacher education programs. Major
premises of the theory include mutual influence among a person, his/her behavior, and the
environment; cognitive processing of information, including self-referent thought; the centrality
of self-efficacy in motivating and predicting behavior; and the relative power of various sources
of efficacy information.
Bandura’s states that learning is a cognitive process that takes place in a social context and can
occur purely through observation or direct instruction, even in the absence of motor reproduction
or direct reinforcement. In addition to the observation of behavior, learning also occurs through
the observation of rewards and punishments, a process known as vicarious reinforcement. When
a particular behavior is rewarded regularly, it will most likely persist; conversely, if a particular
behavior is constantly punished, it will most likely desist, Rantzetti, Curran and Maier
(2012). The theory expands on traditional behavioral theories, in which behavior is governed
solely by reinforcements, by placing emphasis on the important roles of various internal
processes in the learning individual, Bandura, (1971) retrieved in (2013).
Concisely, the trend in development of this theory is examined in the light of the explosion of
new knowledge and ideas in the past years in the biological, behavioral, and social sciences. The
findings of early childhood research and long-term longitudinal studies are emphasized. Old
theories are reevaluated and new approaches suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017
APA, all rights reserved).