Reflection on Social Learning Theory

Learning nowadays is very much different from what we normally went through decades ago. There are many aspects in learning which have evolved and emerged to make learning more effective and meaningful to the learner. Learners’ role emerged from passively receiving information to actively participating in their own learning. Teachers’ role from delivering direct instruction to facilitating one’s learning. Learning theories evolved from behaviourism to social constructivism. Learning environment has change from a traditional four wall classroom to virtual online environment. Despite of the change, social and cultural dimensions has always been a very crucial element to take into account to promote better learning in any context at any period of time.
In this reflection paper, I would discuss on the social dimensions of learning. The social learning theory, the learning approaches in line with this dimension and learning in the social context will be deliberated. Besides, I would relate the topics with my own experiences as a learner as well as a teacher, specifically special education teacher.
Social learning theory as proposed by Albert Bandura argued that people learn through observation, imitation and modelling. He proposed that the internal mental processes play important role in learning. He opposed behaviourism that learning must incur change in behaviour whereby he argued that learning does not necessary lead to behavioural change. These three main ideas of Bandura have great impact on the education field nowadays. In order for imitation, observation and modelling to happen, there must be two or more people involved. For example, children imitate family members, their peers and the teacher. This participation leads to interaction in which each individual responses to cues or stimuli according to a particular context. It is a dynamic process as participants need to constantly adopt and adapt own knowledge to response in the particular learning context. Mental