Thorndike’s Law of learning: 10 Laws for fruitful growth in education

Thorndike’s Law of Learning Educational Utility

Thorndike’s Law of learning is an important part of educational development as it gives an idea of how a teacher can make her class fruitful. The following rules are used by the teacher:

1. Major Laws of Learning: Thorndike has given three major laws of learning. The rules are given below:

(a) Law of Readiness:

Readiness refers to the physical and mental capacity of a person. This rule tells us in which situations a person feels satisfied and gets irritated.

(1) When a person is willing to do a task and is allowed to do it, he gets satisfaction and learns the most.

When a person is willing to do a task and is not allowed to do it, irritation arises.

(2) Forcing a person to do something even if he is not willing to do it causes irritation.

Whether a person gets irritated or satisfied depends on his readiness to learn.

Educational Importance:

(i) To know the interest and aptitude of the child for determining readiness.

(ii) Teaching should be based on readiness. That is, more emphasis should be given to those subjects towards which there is more readiness.

(iii) Children are more satisfied with subjects that require readiness and their grasp on the subject is better.

(b) Law of Exercise:

The law of exercise is based on the fact that practice leads to perfection in a person.

This law states that practice strengthens the relationship between stimulus and response.

When we repeat a lesson or subject again and again, we learn it.

Thorndike has called it the law of use.

Educational Importance:

(i) Encourage students to keep revising the material.

(ii) Making students aware that not repeating the lesson will lead to forgetting the lesson or topic.

Flaws of the rule of practice: –

(1) Learning a subject requires practice as well as insight and understanding.

(ii) The law of practice fails to explain why there are differences in learning levels even with the same amount of practice?

(iii) This law is effective for infants but does not adequately explain learning by adolescents and adults because adults learn the subject on the basis of interest, aptitude, inclination and motivation.

(c) Law of Effect: –

Thorndike’s Law of Effect is the most important law of learning. According to this law, a person learns an action or response based on its effect. If the effect is satisfactory, the person learns that action and if irritation arises, the person does not want to repeat that action.

Reward creates satisfaction in a person and punishment creates annoyance.

In 1930, Thorndike presented some modifications of the law of effect. This is called the Truncated Law of Effect. According to him, reward strengthens the relationship between stimulus and response but it is not necessary that punishment weakens this relationship.

Educational utility of Law of Effect: –

(i) According to thorndike’s Law of learning, to provide such situation or environment in which children experience happiness and satisfaction during and after learning.

(ii) Teachers should keep boosting the morale of students during teaching.

(iii) Present and teach the subject in such a way that students develop interest in the teaching process.

(iv) The teacher should use reward and not punishment because punishment is not an effective technique.

Subordinate Laws of Learning:-

Thorndike has mentioned 5 subsidiary laws of learning apart from the three major laws:

(i) Law of Multiple Response:-

According to this law, in any learning situation, a person makes multiple responses. Those responses which do not help in achieving the goal are forgotten by the person, and those which help in learning or achieving the goal are learned by him.

In the class, children should be encouraged to learn by doing things themselves, so that the children will perform various kinds of activities and they will have different kinds of experiences which will help them in learning.

(ii) Law of Mental Set or Attitude

Attitude means the mental state or readiness to do a task. That is, a person wants to learn a task. The teacher should develop a positive attitude in the child.

(iii) Law of Partial Activity:

According to this law, a person identifies relevant and irrelevant elements in the learning process and responds only to the relevant elements. During class teaching, the teacher should arrange the important elements of the subject in such a way that the child’s attention remains more on the important elements.

(iv) Law of Similarity or Analogy:

According to this law, a person responds in a new situation in the same way as he had learned earlier. The more similar the new situation is to the previous situation, the greater will be the transfer. This is called the general principle of transfer.

Educational Importance:

According to thorndike’s Law of learning, Teaching should be done by linking previous knowledge to new situations. For example, teaching historical events by linking them to current situations.

(v) Law of Associative Shifting:-

If the same response is continuously produced in the same situation with some changes, then eventually the same response is produced by a completely new stimulus. This was later called classical conditioning.

Educational Importance:

Based on this rule, in the educational process, good habits and academic interest should be developed in the students so that they can benefit in other situations also.

Another important laws

The Law of Primacy:

What children learn first, they remember best. This is why their early school years, like pre-primary and primary classes, are considered very important. They form the base of a student’s education.

The Law of Recency:

We tend to remember best what we learned last. For example, you’ll recall the last chapter you read better than the one you read before it. This shows that recent learning is retained more effectively.

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