Behaviorist Learning Reinforcement

This week, Dr. Michael Orey discussed B.F. Skinner's operant conditioning, or Behaviorism in the classroom. Behaviorism has a long history in the classroom. Essentially, Behaviorism is programmed instruction in which desirable behaviors are rewarded, or reinforced while undesirable behavior is punished. Reinforcement is more powerful than punishment, but teachers typically find it easier to punish behavior than reward behavior. We have to actively seek out desirable behavior so that the good students who are well behaved do not feel punished for being successful students. That is what happens when only remedial students are given the opportunity to use technology in the classroom as all students view the use of technology as a reward.

In "Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works," the authors discuss "Reinforcing Effort" in Chapter 8. In this chapter, they say that effort is the only thing a student can control, so we need to push students to put forth more effort by having them see and understand the relationship between effort and success.Teachers need to explicitly teach the relationship between success and effort and then have students record this throughout the year so they can continue to see how their effort affects their work. Continuing to examine this relationship is reinforcing the idea that effort and success are related. In order to show students this relationship, using technology to track their data and then create a graph is a powerful tool. They can then compare themselves to each other and a graph can be made to compare classes to each other and grade levels with each other. A bulletin board idea is "Caught in the Act of Trying Hard." It reinforces the idea of putting forth effort. By viewing the relationship between effort and grades, students are receiving reinforcement on the idea that continued effort will improve their grade.

In chapter 10 of the same book, the authors discuss “Homework and Practice.” In order for students to successfully master a concept (80% competency), they need repetition of about 24 practice sessions. The only real problem with homework is that is needs immediate feedback in order to catch errors. If a student continually practices something incorrectly, that incorrect way of doing something is what gets learned instead of the desirable behavior. Reinforcement shows that you're learning, so we need to reinforce desirables rather than undesirables. Online games is one way to have students practice a concept in which they receive immediate feedback. They also allow students to focus on a particular skill. Something we use at my school is Renaissance Learning. That's the parent program over Accelerated Reading and Accelerated Math. We do not have the Math program, but we do have a math facts practice through Renaissance. The students get to use the computer to practice their math facts and it times their performance on 40 questions. At the end it tells them what facts they missed and whether they had mastered it or not according to both accuracy and speed. Sometimes a student has to repeat the level because s/he was too slow. That is an example of using technology in the classroom for practice. Technology allows for differentiated practice. A similar online tool is freerice.com because students can practice vocabulary and as they get questions correct they advance a level, but if they advance and then get that level's questions wrong, it drops you down a level until you are successful and then tries to advance your level later on. It's immediate feedback and if you get it wrong, it will show you the correct answer so you can learn from your mistakes. As you answer questions correctly, your bowl fills up with rice grains so it is a reinforcement tool.