Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Behaviorist Theory

Student motivation is often at the forefront of what we are trying to accomplish as educators. Behaviorist theory can help us achieve that by directing a student's behavior in such a manner that they are able to channel themselves into a routine that will encourage and foster academic success. This can be seen in two different ways, at least from the perspective of the teacher, reinforcement and punishment. Old school thought might lean itself towards the punishment ranks to redirect behavior, but over the years educators have become more and more adopting of the reinforcement ideals. It is just another way to foster encouraged behavior in an effective way.
DC Physics allows for a constant flow of information and tutorial simulations. Both of these supplements will allow students to achieve a higher level of comprehension. The fact that these are on the web might actually help as well. In addition to placing them in a forum that many students conduct much of their free time, it also has an ease of access. Students will be able to freely come and go as they please. This sense of accomplishment and freedom gives them a level of instant gratification, whcih can be considered a reinforcement of behavior. A teacher can also place additional activities that correlate with this website to get them initially engaged in the process of online tutorials.
This goes along the lines of giving a certain level of homework and practice for a student, whcih can also increase desired behavior (Pitler, et al., 2007). By allowing for the continuation of the skill, students will have the opportunity to increase their level of performance. They will also be able to achieve a level of immediate feedback in such online forums. This will allow for the reinforcement that a student feeds on and will ultimately lead to a higher level of work completion and continuation of the skill. These two achievements will then lead to a deeper understanding of the material, which is what educators are ultimately trying to do.


References
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Program four. Behaviorist learning theory [Webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

5 comments:

  1. Mr. Fitch,
    I agree with you that the multimedia games to practice skills benefit the students greatly. I had not thought about how the behaviorist learning theory relates to the use of these games, until this week's reading on homework and practice. This is definitely a way to get the students that are not typically into homework, motivated to try it.

    Colleen Davis

    Reference

    Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You bring up a few interesting points. First off, I like the comparison you make between past and present classroom management strategies. I agree that many teachers now use more of a reinforcement system in my classroom, rather than one that results in punishment. I, myself, use a few different classroom reward initiatives to promote good behavior, rather than focus on the bad.

    Also, I like the mention of feedback on online forums. I do not know why I did not give more thought to this concept earlier, but blogs are the perfect place for positive reinforcement. Richardson (2010) asserts that blogs are a collaborative tool, because readers can work with writers to create a piece of work. With this in mind, students will become more of the reinforcement for each other, rather than it primarily being the teacher reinforcing desired behavior.

    Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You bring up a few interesting points. First off, I like the comparison you make between past and present classroom management strategies. I agree that many teachers now use more of a reinforcement system in my classroom, rather than one that results in punishment. I, myself, use a few different classroom reward initiatives to promote good behavior, rather than focus on the bad.
    Also, I like the mention of feedback on online forums. I do not know why I did not give more thought to this concept earlier, but blogs are the perfect place for positive reinforcement. Richardson (2010) asserts that blogs are a collaborative tool, because readers can work with writers to create a piece of work. With this in mind, students will become more of the reinforcement for each other, rather than it primarily being the teacher reinforcing desired behavior.
    Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Technology has become one of the positive reinforcements teachers use today. I find that we are using more positive reinforcement. Since there is limited computer use at home with my students, I use school computer time to reinforce skill and reward for great work with a running record kept by each student.

    I noticed bad behavior has decreased because there is more focus on positive feedback reward because my students are looking for positive comments from me and their parents.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I like the idea of using technology as a reinforcement tool. Being positive with students is a very important attribute as a teacher. Who knows what is going on in some of our students lives and if we are overly negative students will eventually zone us out. Finding small positives in every situation and then being able to deliver what the student can perceive as negative is a very important attribute for teachers.

    ReplyDelete