Learning Theories and Their Role in Explaining and Overcoming School Indiscipline

Abstract

Unravelling the causes of school indiscipline so as to resolve them, continue to be a concern of educational stakeholders. This study, therefore, utilized documentary literature review and narrative reflective discourse to draw linkages between learning theories and school indiscipline. The study underscored that indiscipline can be explained and understood from the perspectives of the various learning theories namely Classical Conditioning Theory, Operant Conditioning Theory, Social-Cognitive Theory and Cognitive Theories. The Classical Conditioning Theory attributes indiscipline to an association of behaviour with an unconditioned stimulus in the environment. The Operant Conditioning Theory associates it with a reinforcer in the environment. The Social-Cognitive Theory, on the other hand, links indiscipline to an observation and imitating of a reinforcing model in the environment. The Cognitive Theories allude that maturation, social interactions, and active experience, affect our mental structures and are responsible for indiscipline. These theories, therefore, serve to give a guide to the understanding and management of indiscipline in school and society in general. It is recommended that stakeholders of education reflect on these theories, to get an understanding of the causes and management of indiscipline in school.