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From his experiments with animals, Thorndike found that the animals could only learn by direct experience. Although human beings can learn by imitation, he asserted that the best way teachers could teach certain skills to students is to get them to participate in them directly, even if the students do not understand what they are doing. For example, in teaching fractions in algebra, the only way for the children to learn is "to get the pupils to do, do, do".15 His idea plays a large part in the way mathematics is taught in school. Very often, students are taught to solve equations by constant practice without understanding the applicability of these principles.16
According to Watson, the observation of the behavior is framed within the context of "stimulus and response." Stimulus refers to objects in the environment and the response refers to the person's reaction to the stimulus. Human beings can be conditioned to behave or respond to certain stimuli.17 For example, an infant can be conditioned to be afraid of a dog, even though
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