{"id":9571,"date":"2022-04-04T16:45:44","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T14:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nllanguagep-bali.savviihq.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/social-learning-what-and-why\/"},"modified":"2025-06-19T13:15:02","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T11:15:02","slug":"social-learning-what-and-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagepartners.nl\/en\/blog\/learning\/social-learning-what-and-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Learning: The What and the Why"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What comes to mind when you see Social Learning? Is it learning with others? Learning via social media? Over 50 years ago the psychologist <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Albert_Bandura\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Albert Bandura<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> first proposed the social learning theory (SLT). Built upon theories of behavioural learning, the SLT posits that behaviour is learned via reinforcement and modelling of others.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Watching, listening, <\/b><b><i>and doing<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bandura later re-established the SLT, adding a recognition for the importance of observation. In a nutshell, the SLT states that we learn by watching, listening and doing. This process of obtaining knowledge and understanding through <\/span><b>thought<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>experience<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and our <\/span><b>senses<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, allows for nuanced education reproduction or reinforcement. However, this is not to say that the learner is passive. The learner influences and is influenced by, their environment and behaviour. For example, a friend who enjoys playing a game will encourage others to play as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>The Foundation of social learning<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Social Learning is further impacted by Bandura\u2019s <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Four Principles of Social Learning<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which are the necessary conditions under which any sort of observing and modelling behaviour takes place. The four principles are:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Attention <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8211; The environment in which the student is learning and its influence on their attention span<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Retention<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; the ability of the participant to retain an observed event or behaviour.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Reproduction<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; the ability to imitate behaviour<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Motivation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; the level of willingness to practise a newly observed behaviour.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Feedback, feedback, feedback<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every directed attempt at learning has the attainment of <em>something<\/em> as its goal. Feedback is the metric used to measure progress towards and achievement of, the established goal. Constructive and effective feedback will provide the student with a confidence boost, encouraging them to keep learning. Another reason external feedback is important is that when a student attempts to do something <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">alone<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, their ability to retain an observed event or behaviour is limited. Making use of feedback allows the student to self-correct, creating space for adjustments, as needed. Engaging the students in monitoring their own progress in a socially supportive atmosphere also works to increase their motivation. When an individual is given control over their learning it often creates a positive impact on their attitude.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Social learning produces better results than traditional methods<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why is this important? Traditional education encourages students to memorise their material in order to regurgitate it for an exam. But how effective is this really? When thinking of your own experiences, how much did you retain afterwards? This approach does not allow people to get the most out of their education, and more and more research demonstrates that it is increasingly outdated. The research goes on to show\u00a0 that watching, listening <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and doing<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is the best way to retain information. Understanding this allows us to leverage the style of learning to create an atmosphere in which students can get the most out of their education.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Social Learning, the quick, <\/b><b><i>and cheap,<\/i><\/b><b> approach to creating lasting behavioural change<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At Language Partners, the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/languagepartners.nl\/en\/our-vision-for-learning\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Social Learning Exchange<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has been developed. This involves a combination of lessons with a trainer, e-learning assignments, engagement with others in a guided forum, and repeated opportunities for feedback. By offering an interactive and engaging education, the Social Learning Exchange allows for a deeper saturation of the material. This approach saves time and money while offering a wide variety of activities, assignments and conversations, allowing for the interactions that are desperately needed to truly develop new skills. If you&#8217;d like to the courses we teach in this way, you can take a look at both our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/languagepartners.nl\/en\/language-courses\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">language<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/languagepartners.nl\/en\/cultural-training\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">culture<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> trainings.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What comes to mind when you see Social Learning? Is it learning with others? Learning via social media? Over 50 years ago the psychologist Albert Bandura first proposed the social learning theory (SLT). Built upon theories of behavioural learning, the SLT posits that behaviour is learned via reinforcement and modelling&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":9567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[322],"tags":[179,238,239,240,241],"class_list":["post-9571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learning","tag-culture-en","tag-feedback-en","tag-language-en","tag-social-learning-en","tag-social-learning-theory-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Social Learning: The What and the Why - Language Partners<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/languagepartners.nl\/en\/blog\/learning\/social-learning-what-and-why\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Social Learning: The What and the Why - Language Partners\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What comes to mind when you see Social Learning? 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