How Social Learning Theory Works

Remember when you learned to ride a bike by reading an instruction manual? Or mastered public speaking by studying a textbook alone in your office?

Of course not. Despite our obsession with formal education and structured learning, the most powerful learning doesn’t happen in isolation but through observation. 

Social learning happens naturally without formal instruction. You don’t need someone explicitly teaching you. You can learn simply by being in an environment where you can watch and interact with others who demonstrate effective behaviors.

Ahead, you’ll learn how the social learning theory (SLT) works and how to implement it in your organization. 

What is the social learning theory?

The social learning theory suggests that we learn by watching others. Developed by Albert Bandura in the 1960s, it shows that we absorb new behaviors just by observing the people around us and what happens to them.

Bandura demonstrated this through his famous Bobo Doll experiment in 1961. In this study, children watched adults behave aggressively or non-aggressively toward a large inflatable doll. Children who had observed aggressive behavior were likelier to imitate those actions when given the chance to play with the doll themselves.

Think of SLT as learning through a social lens. When someone sees a behavior and its consequences, they file that information away mentally. Later, they might use what they learned based on what they saw happen to the other person.

For professionals focused on learning and development, it means that while formal training matters, people constantly learn from their peers, leaders, and overall company culture. A new employee might pick up problem-solving approaches from training manuals and watch how their experienced colleagues handle challenges. 

How Bandura’s social learning theory works 

Social learning starts with paying attention to someone else’s behavior, similar to “learning by watching”. 

You might notice how a skilled manager handles a tense client meeting. Their calm tone, thoughtful word choice, and confident body language tell a story about effective communication.

Principles of social learning theory include:

Observation

Individuals actively observe the behaviors of others, particularly those they perceive as role models or authority figures. This might mean watching how experienced colleagues handle challenging situations or how leaders navigate complex decisions in workplace settings.

Recent research has shown how well social learning theory adapts to digital environments. Online learning platforms now allow people to learn through collaboration and observation, just as they would in person.

When it comes to work environments, this means employees can effectively:

• Watch and learn from their peers
• Get feedback from leaders
• Share knowledge with their team
• Practice new skills together

This happens through various digital tools and spaces. For instance, social networking features built into learning platforms let employees see how others solve problems and share their experiences. 

Modeling

Learning occurs by mimicking the observed behaviors, forming a mental representation of how to act. Your brain stores these observations like a mental playbook, ready to be referenced when you face similar situations.

Vicarious reinforcement

People learn from observing others’ actions and the consequences they bring to the model, meaning they are more likely to imitate rewarded behaviors and less likely to copy those punished. If you see a coworker receive praise for their innovative problem-solving approach, you’re more likely to adopt similar strategies.

Research on reinforcement learning shows a fascinating pattern: both people and AI systems naturally learn by copying what works for others. Scientists studying this found that when AI programs were allowed to observe other successful programs, they automatically started copying the winning strategies.

This mirrors exactly what happens in workplaces. When researchers looked at how employees learn, they found that people naturally pick up successful behaviors by watching their high-performing coworkers and leaders. You don’t need to tell them to do this, it happens naturally.

Stages of social learning

According to Bandura, understanding how we move from observation to action involves four distinct stages that work together seamlessly. 

Each stage builds upon the last, creating a comprehensive learning process that shapes how we adopt new behaviors and skills.

Attention

Paying close attention to the model’s behavior is the foundation of observational learning. It’s an active process where we focus on specific details, techniques, and approaches. When watching a seasoned professional handle a complex situation, we’re tuned in to their words, actions, and strategies that make them effective.

Retention

Remembering the observed behavior through mental processing and encoding is crucial for learning. Our brain acts like a sophisticated filing system, storing away the patterns and approaches we’ve observed. We process these observations, connect them to our existing knowledge, and prepare them for future use.

Reproduction

Physically replicating the observed behavior is where learning becomes action. This stage is about putting knowledge into practice by taking those stored observations and turning them into our behaviors. It might not be perfect initially, but each attempt helps refine our ability to perform the learned behavior effectively.

Motivation

The desire and incentive to perform the learned behavior powers the entire process. Without motivation, even perfectly observed and remembered behaviors might never be put into practice. 

Applications of social learning theory

Online learning

Social learning happens constantly through virtual channels. Employees learn from watching recorded presentations, participating in live webinars, and engaging in online discussions. 

When a team member shares their screen during a virtual meeting to demonstrate a new software tool, others actively engage in social learning—observing, retaining, and reproducing those same techniques.

Learning Management Systems (LMS)

Platforms like WorkRamp facilitate social learning by creating structured environments for knowledge sharing. Managers can record best practices for sales calls, experienced team members can create tutorials for common processes, and employees can engage with this content at their own pace. 

An LMSs ability to combine formal training with peer-to-peer learning makes it particularly effective for social learning—employees can watch how their colleagues tackle real-world challenges and learn from their approaches.

📚 Read: 14 Best Learning Management Systems & Software

In-person professional development

Traditional workplace settings are excellent venues for social learning. 

Whether shadowing a senior colleague during client meetings, participating in role-playing exercises during training sessions, or simply observing how successful team members navigate workplace challenges. The immediate feedback and real-time modeling in these situations create rich professional development opportunities.

Mentorship programs

Structured mentorship programs create intentional spaces for social learning. 

When junior employees are paired with experienced mentors, they gain direct access to observe and learn from someone who has mastered the skills they’re trying to develop. They can watch how their mentor: 

• Handles difficult situations
• Makes decisions
• Navigates workplace relationships

Education

The classroom is the most natural setting for social learning. Students learn from their teachers and watching their peers tackle problems, present projects, and navigate group work. When one student successfully explains their math problem-solving approach, others observe and often adopt similar strategies.

Communities

Whether online or in-person, these groups bring together people with shared professional interests to learn from each other. 

They include regular meetups, discussion forums, or collaborative projects where members can observe and learn from peers facing similar challenges.

WorkRamp’s social learning features 

Collaborative guides

WorkRamp helps teams to collaboratively create, manage, and share training materials. Our intuitive interface and drag-and-drop editor facilitate seamless content creation and editing.

A sales team can jointly develop a comprehensive training guide on new product features, with SMEs and content editors working together in real-time to make sure the guide is accurate and relevant.

⚡Need help creating L&D content? Find all the ready-to-go LMS content and resources in WorkRamp’s Employee LMS.

Virtual role-play

WorkRamp has a practice tool where you can role-play work situations. With WorkRamp’s AI Practice, you can get customizable, real-time sales simulations from an AI-powered persona while getting immediate feedback. 

For example, if you’re in sales, you can practice handling common objections and pitches. Here’s how it works:

• You record yourself responding to a simulated prospect objection
• The AI analyzes your pitch and provides detailed feedback
• Your sales team can watch and share winning techniques
• You can refine your approach using their proven strategies

It’s like having a virtual sales coach available 24/7, letting you perfect your pitch before getting in front of real prospects.

Comment features

The platform lets everyone leave comments on training materials. Think of it like commenting on social media, but for learning. This means:

• Learners can ask questions
• Teachers can give answers
• Everyone can share their thoughts
• Training gets better over time based on feedback

Say someone’s taking a training course about company policies. If they’re confused about a rule, they can leave a comment right there asking about it. Others can jump in to help explain, and teachers can clarify things. All these comments help make the training better for the next group.

WorkRamp Communities

WorkRamp Communities brings social learning to life by turning your learning platform into a vibrant knowledge hub. Instead of just taking courses, learners can now jump into discussions, share their wins, and learn from each other’s experiences, all in the same place they access their training. 

It helps organizations: 

• Create a centralized one-stop shop for customer and partner learning needs by combining the Customer LMS with Communities features
• Foster collaborative customer experiences through discussion forums and peer-to-peer learning opportunities
• Scale knowledge sharing while reducing support costs through user-driven discussions and solutions
• Share important product updates and company announcements directly with the community
• Gather valuable customer feedback to shape product roadmaps and improvements

WorkRamp helps teams learn together, not just alone. This means they can share what they know and solve problems together, just like they do in their actual jobs. 

With seamless SSO integration and an intuitive interface for both administrators and learners, organizations can quickly establish and grow their learning communities.

Certifications and badges

WorkRamp gives out digital badges and certificates when you finish training. It’s like earning achievements in a game, but for work skills. You can show these off to your team and on LinkedIn.

Say you finish a course on being a better team leader:

• You get a special badge to show you passed
• Your coworkers can see what you’ve learned
• You can put it on your LinkedIn profile
• Other people see your badge and get motivated to earn their own

These badges help people feel proud of what they’ve learned and encourage others to keep learning, too.

Criticisms of social learning theory

While SLT is a popular social cognitive theory, it does have critiques from the community:

1. Limited emphasis on biological factors: It focuses too much on environment over genetics. It ignores how our innate traits shape how and what we learn.
2. Oversimplification of cognitive processes: It reduces learning to simple observation and copying. This misses how people actively think about and choose which behaviors to adopt.
3. Insufficient attention to emotions: It overlooks how feelings impact behavior. It focuses on external actions while ignoring internal emotional states.
4. Lack of developmental perspective: It treats learning the same across all ages, and doesn’t account for how children learn differently than adults.
5. Cultural blindness: It assumes learning works the same way in all cultures. It overlooks how different societies might learn and teach in unique ways.

Implement social learning to your L&D programs with WorkRamp

Social learning taps into how humans naturally learn and grow. It only makes sense to find ways to include it in your L&D programs. 

With WorkRamp, you can create an environment where knowledge flows freely, skills are shared organically, and learning becomes a natural part of daily work. By embracing social learning, you can build a continuous learning culture that improves employee development and engagement. 

Social learning theory FAQ

What are the 5 stages of social learning theory?

The five stages are attention (focusing on the model), retention (remembering what was observed), reproduction (ability to perform the behavior), motivation (having a reason to perform the behavior), and vicarious positive reinforcement (seeing others rewarded for the behavior). 

How does social learning theory involve learning?

Social learning theory involves people learning by watching others’ behaviors, attitudes, and outcomes of those behaviors. Learning happens through observing, imitating, and modeling others’ actions and consequences.

How is social learning theory applied in the classroom?

Teachers use social learning theory by modeling human behaviors and creating opportunities for students to learn from each other through group work and peer teaching. Students also learn through observing their classmates’ successes and mistakes, which helps them understand what behaviors lead to positive outcomes.

How is Bandura’s theory used in practice?

Bandura’s theory is applied through structured modeling, where learners observe expert skills performance before attempting them themselves. The theory is also used in behavior modification programs where desired behaviors are demonstrated and reinforced while learners observe and practice these behaviors.