Oklahoma Social Studies PS.4.5
The Standard
- PS.4
- Describe physical, cognitive, and social development across the lifespan, including processes of human learning.
Identify and explain the major theories of learning including classical conditioning, operant conditioning, social learning theory, and insight learning.
Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies (2026) · PS.4
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students recognize learning through a paired cue, a consequence, watching someone else, or a sudden solution. They explain which detail in an example shows how the learning happened.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given a new situation, students can name the learning theory and point to the clue that supports their choice. They can explain why a reward for studying differs from a bell paired with food.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may call any reward classical conditioning, even when the reward changes future behavior. They may confuse copying someone with insight, or think insight requires repeated trial and error.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: A dog salivates at a bell paired with food; a student studies more after earning a break; a child copies a friend's dance; a person suddenly solves a puzzle. Name the theory behind each and circle the clue that proves it.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Have pairs match four cards showing bell plus food, a reward for studying, a copied gesture, and a sudden puzzle solution to theory labels.
Ask students to write why a child copying a dance from a video is social learning, not insight learning.
Play four corners using the four cards; students stand by a theory label, then name the clue that guided them.
Have students sort a phone alert linked to exciting messages, a streak badge, a copied study habit, and a sudden math shortcut by theory.
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Printable PS.4.5 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- PS.1.1
Analyze the context and origins of psychology including the major approaches to psychology (e.g., cognitive-behavioral, psychoanalytic, cognitive) and major his...
- PS.4.2
Examine major theories of human development.
- PS.4.4
Explain the social, cognitive and neurological factors in learning.
- S.1.2
Identify, differentiate among, and apply the major sociological paradigms (e.g., functional analysis, conflict theory, symbolic interactionism).
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