M6D1 Operant Applications: Understanding of the Braaksma Rijlaarsdam

Observational Learning
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Observational Learning
Observational learning: Braaksma, M., Rijlaarsdam, G., van den Bergh, H., and van Hout-Wolters, B. (2004). Observational Learning and its Effects on the Orchestration of Writing Processes. Cognition and Instruction, 22(1), pp.1-36.
The authors in the article investigate the impact of observational learning on both the organization of the writing process and also on the text quality. The researchers subjected one group to observational learning and the control group to performing to learn new writing tasks. They utilize a considerable sample with consideration of diversity as the participants, hence enhancing the results credibility. They conclude that observational learning enhances the student’s orchestration of the writing process, unlike learning through performing. Those who underwent the observational learning could perform more metacognitive activities such as analyzing, planning, and goal orientation than those learning through performing.
The study is a demonstration of how one learns through observation; the participants were able to write tasks through watching others. First, attention was involved in the learning exposures that were done before the post-test session, in which the abilities of the students were tested. Secondly, since the participants managed to remember what they were observed, there was retention of the knowledge, which is another aspect of observational learning. Thirdly, the participants under the observational learning conditions managed to internalize and replicate the information learned through watching the models. The authors explain that observational learning influenced orchestration positively, indicating the ability to remember and employ the knowledge later.
One of the variables that affected observational learning is the model competence. In the study, the researchers ask the participants to select the models that performed the best, and they find out that the weaker writers tended to learn more from the weaker models. On the other hand, the better writers concentrated on the competent model when confronted with the new task. In this case, learners...