Thorndike’s Laws of Learning: Thorndike propounded the following laws of learning based on his theoretical assumption about the learning process.
The Law of readiness
According to Thorndike, readiness is readiness for action. This is necessary for learning. If the child is ready to learn, he learns more quickly, effectively and with greater satisfaction. This tells us that if the child is not ready then he should not be forced to learn, but if the child is ready to learn then no opportunity should be left to provide him with learning experiences.
The right activities related to the learning situation and the mental state of the learner should be identified and this knowledge should be used to the maximum by the teacher. They should also try to motivate students by increasing their attention, interest and curiosity.
The Law of Exercise
This law has two sub-parts. The law of use and the law of disuse which may be stated as the Law of use:
(b) The law of use: The law of use states that the more accompanied by or frequently modifiable connection between stimulus- response (S-R) is made stronger
(a) The Law of disuse: When a modifiable connection is not made between a situation and response, during a length of time, that connection’s strength is decreased.
The Law of Effect
In other words, it can be said that learning has taken place properly when its outcome is gratifying and the learner derives pleasure from it. In a situation when the child faces failure or is dissatisfied, the learning progress gets blocked.
All pleasant experiences have a lasting effect and are remembered for a long time, whereas unpleasant experiences are soon forgotten, therefore, the satisfaction and dissatisfaction, pleasure or displeasure generated by the learning experience decides the degree of its effectiveness. This law emphasizes the role of rewards and punishments in the learning process.
