Theory of Learning

JR Brandhoefer

School of Music, DePauw University

MUS170: Foundation of Music Education

Dr. Ryan

December 7, 2020
 When thinking about the profession of teaching, not many people consider all the work

that goes into making sure children learn. There are many different theories of learning that have

been created over time as the understanding of the brain has expanded. For this theory of

learning, both Bandura’s Social Learning Theory and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs will be

drawn from in order to explain how a student learns, the conditions that are required, and

possible ways that music teachers can implement these theories into their own teaching.

To start off, I believe that learning can be considered the gaining of new knowledge. This

can be as simple as learning someone’s reaction to you acting a certain way or as complicated as

learning an entirely new skill. Learning is as easy and simple as that. But when it comes to how I

believe learning works and what it depends on, Bandura’s Social Learning Theory and Maslow’s

Hierarchy of Needs are what I draw from. Bandura’s theory works to explain how humans learn;

and though it’s only one-way humans learn, it is one of the most influential. Bandura’s Social

Learning Theory follows a simple path. First off, the learner encounters a stimulus and sees how

it is responded to and how it is accepted. Then, the learner takes a mediational phase in which

they consider whether the outcome/response is good or bad and if the response is worth the

effort. Finally, if the learner decides that the outcome is positive and is worth the work to achieve

it, they begin to copy or imitate it (McLeod, 2016).

While this doesn’t seem to show how a human learns a language or an instrument, it’s the

application of the Social Learning Theory that explains how this happens. McLeod’s example

provided on Operant Conditioning can also be formatted to the Social Learning Theory; a student

sees that the other kids in class are being praised for answering so they begin to answer questions

themselves. When the teacher begins to only provide praise to the students with the right answer,

it convinces the others to learn the right answer to earn the praise (McLeod, 2018). This response
to the action doesn’t always have to be praised to convince the learner to imitate that action.

Response can range from praise to respect to the emotions a person shows. The response to a

person’s actions convinces a learner that what they are learning to do is worth their effort and

motivates them to continue to learn in order to continue to receive the positive response.

When considering the question of what conditions are required in order for humans to

learn, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs provides a solid starting point. In his theory, Maslow claims

that there are needs that are required, and without them a person cannot learn. Maslow’s

hierarchy starts with a person’s physiological needs; they have food, water, shelter, clothing, and

many of the items human’s consider basic needs. The next tier includes different forms of

security including health, employment, property, and personal. This is followed by the need of

friends and family which are included under the love and belonging tier. Finally, there is the

esteem tier which includes respect, freedom, status, recognition, and more. Once a person has

satisfied these needs, they can move onto satisfying growth needs which include cognitive needs

such as knowledge, curiosity, and understanding (McLeod, 2020).

Fulfilling these conditions or needs provide a person with the motivation to strive for

more and makes it easier for them to do so. For example, before a big test, teachers encourage

their students to eat breakfast in the mornings; and when it comes to standardized test, some

schools offer free breakfast in order to make sure students succeed. If a student is starving,

dehydrated, suffocating, freezing, or burning, they will be distracted and unable to learn because

their body is diverting all power to sustaining itself. If a student is placed into an environment in

which they don’t feel safe or welcomed, they will shy away from participating or involving

themselves with their learning because they are too focused on how it will affect others opinions

of them. If a student doesn’t have a home environment in which they feel secure, they won’t be
able to focus due to worrying about what they have to go home to. If a student doesn’t have any

friends to support them at school, they’ll most likely retreat into themselves and once again not

involve themselves. Finally, if a student doesn’t have the respect of their peers or teachers or

doesn’t get recognized for their work, they will not be motivated to continue and eventually may

back away from their studies. It is vital for the conditions to be met in order for a person to learn,

but unlike Maslow, I don’t believe that one must be done before the other. A student needs for

these conditions to be met in order to fully learn, but they may be only lacking in the area of

security or friends while all others are supported.

Based on these beliefs, it is clear to see that the people in a learner’s life as well as the

environments that the student is in influence their learning. While these influences are broad,

they are true. It is the people in a learner’s life that they watch and, based on responses and

outcomes, decide whether they want to imitate their actions. And it is both the people in a

learner’s life and the environments that a learner is in that provide the conditions needed for

learning. These people form their friends and family circles and, in some cases, provided them

with their physiological needs. And it is the environment that a learner is in that will provide

them with respect, shelter, as well as safety and security.

Both of these theories provide guidance in creating the theory I will apply to teaching in

the classroom. Starting with the influence from Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, this requires

the teacher to understand that students evaluate how others act and based on the response

provided by classmates and the teacher, they may begin to act the same way. With this in mind

the teacher needs to keep in mind to always act in a positive and acceptable manner, whether it is

professional or more friendly. This is important when taking into consideration students within

an elementary music class. People believe it is at this age that the brain is molded immensely; the
brain is taking in all it can because it is growing and strives to know more of the world around it.

Because of this, the teacher needs to realize that every student in the room is watching them and

taking in what they say and how they act. With this realization the teacher needs to be kind,

compassionate, understanding, and positive. If a student sees a teacher being harsh and heartless

to their students or colleagues, there’s a chance that the student will begin acting that way to their

fellow peers or to their parents at home. This attitude affects the hierarchy of needs for other

students; they’ll feel unsafe in their classroom environment and shy away from being active in

class due to a fear of how this student will respond. On the other hand, if the teacher is

understanding and caring towards the students, a student will begin to act this way to their peers,

creating a supportive environment.

The influence of the Social Learning Theory can also affect how a band or choir director

may address getting their students to perform by themselves in class. Speaking from experience,

high schoolers are either nervous to play in front of their peers or they just don’t care enough.

With this in mind, the director should at first praise any student who is willing to play a passage

when the director ask, giving them positive feedback for being willing to take that step. Then, as

more and more of the class offer to play a passage when the band director asks, the director’s job

becomes offering positive feedback for those who play the passage correctly and offering

constructive feedback to those who mess up along the way. With this reinforcement from the

director and seeing that those who are playing correctly are being awarded praise, it encourages

other students not only to play by themselves in class, but also encourages them to study and

practice the material outside of class to do it correctly.

Another factor that the teacher must keep in mind is that it is not only themselves who the

students will evaluate the actions of and begin to act that way themselves, it is also their peers. If
a student sees another student bullying someone and being supported by their friend group while

also getting away with it, they may begin to think it’s acceptable to act that way. That’s why, no

matter what the teacher is teaching – elementary general music, high school band, middle school

choir – they must not allow for negative or offensive behavior to happen in the classroom

without consequence. If a teacher sees a student bullying another student, they cannot only tell

the students to quiet/calm down; it becomes the teacher’s responsibility to then step in and stop it

while also negatively responding to the offender.

Moving to the influences from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the responsibility of the

music teacher becomes vital to the students’ abilities to learn. When thinking of what the teacher

must do to meet these needs, it’s quite hard for them to meet a student’s physiological needs. A

teacher may be able to meet these needs on a one-by-one basis, but it would be difficult for a

teacher to meet all students’ physiological needs. But if the teacher sees that a student is hungry

and it’s because they aren’t fed at home and don’t have money in their account for lunch, the

teacher could offer the student a snack or go as far as buying their meal for them. In my

experience at school, physiological needs typically are met for most students making it easier for

a teacher to be able to help out students who don’t have those needs satisfied.

Another responsibility for the teacher is to make sure that the students feel safe in their

environment. It is the teacher’s duty to create a warm and welcoming environment in which

students are able to learn and grow. In an elementary music classroom, this may result with the

teacher coming up with a theme for the year to decorate the class under. Choosing a theme

allows for fun and creativity to enter the room making the students' time more enjoyable while

they are in class. These themes may allow competition within classes or between classes of the

same grade level, once again creating a fun environment for students to be a part of. But when
implementing competition in the classroom, the teacher must make sure that it isn’t taken out of

hand and that it doesn’t become a way for students to bully other students based on how they

performed or their upbringing, ethnicity, social standing, and more. At a high school or middle

school level, the classroom may start out as a basic design, but still welcoming to the students.

Throughout the year the room would change as the interests of the students and class in general

are discovered. Students could possibly bring in artwork that is then put up in the room, really

anything in general that takes into consideration the students and their interest.

No matter what level of education the teacher is working with, it is important that the

teacher makes sure to promote and keep a positive, caring, and cohesive environment. As

discussed earlier, the teacher must be responsible for stopping students from bullying and

harassing one another and respond to it with a response that makes it clear that actions like that

will not be tolerated in the classroom. If these actions are allowed, it threatens the security of the

environment making it hard for them to learn.

This focus on the environment can also help a teacher fulfill their students’ relationship

needs. By creating a safe and welcoming environment that focuses on care and compassion, it

also creates an area in which friendship can form. But the teacher can do more to further these

relationships. In a middle school or high school environment, a teacher can plan out of school

social activities where students from different choir or band classes have a chance to meet and

connect with each other. There could be holiday parties: Halloween parties where students can

dress up, Christmas parties where a secret Santa or white elephant could take place. Events like

these take a step back from the performance and even musical aspects of the class and allow for

students to get to know each other. At the elementary level, the teacher could plan field trips to

different music performances. These allow for students to not only see live performances and
perhaps deepen their interest in music, but once again allows for them to connect with one

another and form friendships. Teachers could also focus on group work when creating their

lesson plans for certain topics and changing the groups each time it happens. This allows for

students to work together and still meet new people that they may not have talked to or don’t talk

to that often.

Speaking on this matter also requires consideration of the relationship between teacher

and student. While it is important that students don’t lose the authority figure in the teacher, it is

also important for the teacher to form relationships with their students. Teachers need to check in

with their students in order to make sure that they are understanding the material, but also to see

how they are doing both in school and out of school. This once again teaches students

compassion and kindness; and because of it, the student may do the same for their peers.

The final need that the teacher is responsible for fulfilling is the students’ esteem needs.

These needs go hand in hand with previous needs that have been discussed, such as the

environment that the students are in. If the teacher promotes a positive environment within the

classroom, it will include making sure that the students are respected and taken seriously. But a

more focused example of how the teacher may fulfill this need is when it comes to choosing

music in high school and middle school. The teacher could ask students opinion on how they

think the pieces performed at their recent concert went. This shows that the teacher respects their

input and would like to include them in the decision-making process. Another possibility could

be the teacher providing the students with the freedom to pick one piece that they will perform at

the next concert. Through this, the teacher recognizes that the students may have different tastes

than standard repertoire and respects those tastes allowing them to express what they like.
 In the end, there are many responsibilities that are placed on the teacher’s shoulders just

to make sure that they can allow their students to learn. Teachers must make sure that they and

their students act properly, because the students are learning based off how others act. Teachers

must also make sure that the needs of the students are satisfied before they can even focus on

teaching. There are many ways in which a teacher can solve these issues, but the important part

is that the teacher sees them and makes sure that their students have the best possible experience

and education.
 Works Cited

McLeod, S. (2016). Albert Bandura – Social Learning Theory. SimplePsychology.

https://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html.

McLeod, S. (2018). B.F. Skinner – Operant Conditioning. SimplePsychology.

https://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html#class.

McLeod, S. (2020, March 20). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. SimplePsychology.

https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html.