Reflection of Chapter 5, Week 3 Discussion
Description
The focus of the readings and discussions for EDAT 6115 this week were on the concepts of Behavioral Theories of learning and the discussion question of possible benefits and positives of being sent to the principal’s office. Within a classroom all teachers can benefit from the use of understanding behavioral theories of learning to better understand how to redirect and reinforce the good behaviors and canceling the unneeded ones. By understanding that different methods of behavioral learning can allow a student to prosper to the best of their abilities by simply modeling the correct behavior or eventually getting a student to develop self-regulated learning can make a classroom more than a learning environment. It can allow a teacher to focus more on their students education and learning than classroom management and discipline.
Analysis
Chapter 5
According to Slavin, “all children are great learners, what they learn however, might not always be what we intend to teach” (Slavin, pp.115, 2012). This is a great explanation for all children of any age. I have always argued that children will constantly be in the “monkey see, monkey do” stage for the rest of their lives. Many children grow and learn by simply mimicking and watching what is around them. These behaviors that are mimicked can sometimes lead to bad behaviors or bad habits. When a teacher or parent can better understand how behaviors are formed and what to do about them once they are we can grasp a better understanding on how to fix and redirect them so they are no longer hindering the child.
Learning is defined by Slavin as “a change in an individual caused by change” (Slavin, pp. 116, 2012). This again is sometimes intentional or unintentional. Within behavioral theories you have multiple realms. You have social learning theories, cognitive learning theories and behavioral learning theories. Social learning theories are when an action focuses on a thought or visa versa. Cognitive learning theories deal with mental processes that are not observed by the naked eye, but how people learn or memorize a new skill or information set. Lastly behavioral learning theories focus how pleasure or un-pleasurable consequences change the course of behavior over time within a person or subject (Slavin, 2012).
Two pioneers within the behavioral learning theories were B. F. SKinner and Ivan Pavlov. These men allowed for others to see how humans and animals not only learn but how they respond to different stimuli. Pavlov studied how different stimuli affected dogs, primarily what behaviors dogs had control of and what they did not. Stimuli that has no prior training or knowledge to the subject that would provoke any kind of reaction automatically would become known as an “unconditioned stimulus”, and the automatic response to that stimuli would become an “unconditioned response” (Slavin, pp. 117). After testing these unconditioned responses and stimuli Pavlov set off to see if he could control them, to which he did. His theory of classical conditioning allowed researchers to see that learning could affect responses once though involuntary (Slavin, pp. 117, 2012). B. F. Skinner worked closer with seeing how different reward prompts affected behavior within animals. Skinner proposed that operant behaviors that appear outside of any unconditioned stimuli operate solely on the environment that the subject is placed in. His work focused more on the correlation between consequences and behaviors (Slavin, 2012).
Within a classroom setting a teacher can learn a great deal from Skinner and Pavlov’s work. Skinner’s work boils down to something teachers use every day, consequences. Good consequences strengthened a behavior and bad ones are supposed to deter them. In most cases that does work but children today are more in tune than what we give them credit for. Teachers need to understand on a mental level why the child is exhibiting the behavior, is it appropriate or not and then how can the inappropriate behavior be redirected and hopefully eliminated. According to Pedrini and Pedrini “materials build upon past experiences so as to capitalize on student preferences for associative rather than cognitive learning and that ” (Pedrini and Pedrini 1972). Operant conditioning techniques can be used to build upon good behaviors that are needed in the classroom. When a teacher models the appropriate behavior, uses reinforcers for the good such as praise, privileges, or even grades at a timely and organized manner the child becomes more aware of what they should be doing. This in turn can lead to students being able to self guide and self regulate their own behavior and already know and understand what is expected of them without having to have a teacher guide them (Slavin, 2012).
One of the best reinforcers and consequences for a student can be that of the principal's office. For the most part, students look at the principal of a school as an authoritative figure. This is the person that is in charge of all of their teachers as well as every other aspect of the school itself. Many principals walk a line of fear and fairness and those who are able to do both run a great educational institution. However, many students do fear ever been called into the principal’s office. If a child ends up within those office walls they can usually attribute that to misbehaving consequences or a meeting with the parents or guardians. Sadly, when a student misbehaves a natural response for a teacher is to send them to a higher authority, doing nothing to resolve and redirect the said misbehavior. Slavin argues that a “punishment should always be used as part of a careful plan that is thought out carefully and never out of frustration” (Slavin, pp. 125, 2012). This can lead to a child not understanding what they did wrong or even reinforcing the bad behavior because they know by doing it they can get out of class because then, according to Slavin, it becomes a reinforcement, not a punishment (Slavin, pp. 124, 2012).
There can be great reinforcing attributes to being sent to the office for a child. According to Slavin a reinforcer is defined as “as consequence that strengthens or increases the frequency of a behavior” (Slavin, pp.119, 2012). Slavin argues within the chapter that feedback can be used as a wonderful reinforcer for students to understand their behavior if wrong or right as well as make the information given more valuable to the student (Slavin, 2012). Furthermore, according to Robin and Alvy a main job of a principal is “communication, communication and communication” to both teachers and especially students (Robins and Alvy, 2014). A huge benefit for a child going to the office can be illustrated when that administrator gives good constructive and positive feedback that lets that student understand that he or she is doing a great job, or that he or she has improved from a possible unwanted visit. Being in such a power position a principal office visit needs to have some positives for a student to not discourage the student at an early age and for them to realize that yes, you misbehave in class and you could possibly end up in the office, but you do what is expected of you and you can get praised by the highest authority.
Reflection
These concepts were not new to me, however I did not understand how to use them within a classroom environment. I feel that these concepts can be used a great deal within a classroom to showcase to students the proper procedures and behaviors needed for the learning environment. Within the context of my classroom I can use these concepts to model the proper behaviors and reinforce the once I want with positive consequences and those that i do not with negative or ignoring ones. There are some positives and negatives to the concepts. There will be children that just do not respond to any type of stimuli or consequence good or bad so a teacher has to learn what works and what does not and sometimes that does involve the worst of all consequences with the child being removed from the classroom for periods of time. I learned that there are better ways of getting your students to focus in on the good behaviors and redirecting those who are not following procedures by doing simple things such as a tap on the shoulder or a look rather than calling the student out. Based on this information I can handle situations more effectively now because I will be able to notice if a child is doing a behavior for attention or not and how to redirect that child into doing to correct behavior for the classroom.
Reference
Slavin,
R. E. (2012). Educational psychology: a foundation for teaching. Educational
psychology: Theory and practice. Chapter 5: Behavioral learning theories.
Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
Robbins,
P., & Alvy, H. B. (2014). The principal's companion: Strategies to lead
schools for student and teacher success. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication.
Pedrini, B. C., & Pedrini, D. T. (1972).
The Educational Philosophy of the Three Legged Stool: Psychologically and
Educationally Sound Materials, Operant Conditioning Procedures, Structured
Classroom.
Principles
of Instruction and Learning image - Web Quest.
(n.d.). Retrieved May 21, 2016, from
http://erincunia.com/portfolio/MSportfolio/ide621/ide621f03production/learningtheory.htm
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