When talking about Behaviorist Learning I personally do not see it as a negative Learning Theory as many educational psychologists do. Dr. Michael Orey really reinforced what I had always thought about behaviorism in his video “Behaviorist Learning Theory”, that it is used in many educational setting whether people like to admit it or not.
For the specific learning strategy of Reinforcing Effort I feel that I found some aspects to be very similar to Behaviorist Learning Theory and other aspect very dissimilar. First for the similar aspects, Dr. Orey talked about how this 5th grade sons’ teacher kept a chart on the board for each student’s behavior. When that student did something that was undesirable they were to move a clip down a notch and there was a consequence associated with a downward move. I found this very similar to using excel to track progress (such as taking of class notes, attention, participation, homework, and studying) for each student independently. Students are able to see the amount of effort they put in and what grade they should receive based on their effort and then the actual grade they received. This is a great visual representation of what you put in and what you got out. Instead of receiving a consequence or punishment the student sees why they are not achieving and hopefully makes changes that are desirable for the next weeks progress (a high grade). The way in which I feel that this is dissimilar from Behaviorist Learning Theory is the way in which the operant conditioning (the reinforcement or punishment) is being administered. I mainly see that in behaviorism there is not as much internalization of why something happened the way it did, where in Reinforcing Effort the student must make connections on their own to why their grade is the way it is.
For the specific strategy of Homework & Practice I see fewer similarities to the Behaviorist Learning Theory then I did with Reinforcing Effort. One example that our book talks about are Spreadsheet Software used specifically in physical education and math. Where students or a teacher can input data and then the computer shows a graph or chart. This is definitely a form of practice however the operant conditioning (the reinforcement or punishment) is not personal to the individual student, unless you attach parameters that allow for it. The same with Communication Software and Multimedia resources, they are all great ways of incorporating educational technology into the classroom, however I do not see the correlation between them and Behaviorist Learning Theories.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
I strongly agree with you about visualation because students need to see the final outcome of their work. The correlation between behaviorist learning is that operant condtioning begins with response(behavior) and to reinforced stimulus is the reward. This is when the bond happens because it causes the final outcome-learning. It is like a lighbulb because you are establishing the student to learn by practicing (reinforcement) and communication (behavior).
ReplyDeleteWhen we can change a student's behavior or attitude about learning than we can truly see learning begin to take place. Behaviorists focus on studying behaviors that can be directly observed (Standridge, 2002). Thus teachers need to see a measurable result from their efforts for behaviorism to occur. When students can track their effort and teachers can observe a change in behavior than the strategy is effective. If we cannot measure the results than it is not truly behaviorism. Being able to use skill and drill techniques as Pitler et al suggests for homework can be effective for students to learn facts and reinforces objectives already taught in school.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteErin,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that showing students a visual representation of how his or her grade relates to the effort he or she puts in is very important and good for the student to see this correlation. The student will either not care or make efforts to improve. Do you show your students how their grade correlates with the effort they put in? If so, in what way do you show them this correlation?
Becky DePuy
Shearsology - Thanks for all of your responses, after reading other responses and other blog posts this week I really feel that visualizations is a way that really hits home for some students. If we do not show that there is a correlation between input and output then it is no wonder why students choose certain behaviors or do not feel that by putting more effort into their work will help them.
ReplyDeleteMegan - as a science and math teacher I like what you said about measurable results. Teachers and students can both benefit from seeing the results in a graph I think works great for all types of learners not just visual learners.
Rebecca - In the grading program that I use I make different sections for homework, warm-ups, participation, labs (for science) and then quizzes and exams. I print them out in categories and go over with my students individually every month. I really like our program because I can have it print graphs of each section also. I have my students look at each set and have them predict how they will do on the last section quizzes and exams. It holds true for most students that if they are not putting effort into participating, warm-ups, homework and labs then most will not do well on quizzes or exams (which are worth the most for my classes). I plan to change this a bit next year still using the printouts however I want to incorporate this as we go. Possibly at the end of each week I will have them rate (1-10) how well they did on homework, ... and so on.