Showing papers in "Educational Technology Research and Development in 1974"

Imitation and Identification: Two Compatible Approaches to Social Learning From the Electronic Media

Abstract: CONCEPTUAL DIFFERENCES In the field of social learning there is currently a significant controversy that has direct bearing on mass communication research. The major theorists involved in this controversy are Albert Bandura and Jacob L. Gewirtz, whose explanations of how people learn through observation differ. And, although social learning theory can be discussed and understood apart from the mass media, the modeling effects of the media cannot be fully discussed and understood apart from social learning theory. This paper, then, compares the major social learning theories expressed by Bandura and Gewirtz, discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each, argues for a synthesis of the two, and examines the importance of this synthesis for the practitioner in the field of educational technology and for mass communication research in general. Bandura's social learning theory (best stated in Bandura, 1971) maintains that modeling influences operate principally through their informative functions, and that the observer (0) acquires mainly symbolic representations of the observed