Wednesday, January 13, 2010
STRATEGIES that work for THE BEHAVIORIST THEORY
Behaviorist learning theory is based on the measurable behaviors of students. The Behaviorist Theory focuses on the importance of student behaviors and how it impacts their academic growth. Therefore, since their Behavior plays a huge part in their success as a learner, the Behaviorist Theory should be taken into account when planning the routines of a classroom. One of the most vital elements of a classroom is reinforcement. Reinforcement creates a positive learner who feels competent and understands what is expected of them because of the constant 'reinforcement.' The learner can believe in him or herself if the reinforcement allows success. In other words, if a teacher reinforces the child when he or she does the right thing, that child will then have experienced success which leads to self -esteem ( competence.) This notion of self-esteem correlates with a sense of effort because if a child experiences success, he or she will feel motivated to put effort to once again feel rewarded. The goal for a teacher is to reinforce positive behavior and effort. In this week's text, I came across a fabulous method to encourage students to put effort in all their work, "a rubric and spreadsheet that is designed for students to self evaluate their effort"(Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007.) Immediately I created a duplicate to start using Monday of next week because I think it is going to allow students to understand and track their effort clearly. In addition , this spreadsheet and rubric will hopefully increase achievement because students will see what areas they will need to polish. Overall, I believe that when students are given clear instructions and reinforcement they will be able to improve in certain areas while feeling proud of the things they are good at. Effort is within the student therefore he or she needs to try but teachers can help increase their effort by using technology during classwork and homework. It is a very smart idea to give students homework through the use of technology because it will increase their behavior towards education by turning lessons, practice, and studying into a game where the student is interactive. For example, iknowthat.com is a sight where students can play while reviewing their division facts. Using technology during homework time is almost necessary because some students do not have a guardian at home who speaks English or etc therefore including technology gives the child an opportunity to have support. Integrating technology into homework and having students become independent by self evaluating their effort can show students that we believe in them by reinforcing compliments through the behaviorist model.
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I definitely like your idea of having the students track their behavior on the computer. I too wish the behavior sheets my students carry around could be posted online with our share drive so while in my room a student can log on to their own spreadsheet and log their behavior. I also think they should be able to do some reflecting on their behavior, perhaps not daily but at least weekly, to see if they haved a trend for behavior choices. Maybe they are worse on Monday, but they see that they hadn't gotten the rest, or on test or quiz days they are more stressed and tend to make more poor choices on behavior. It would be interesting to see what they thought of their behavior and maybe help with setting consequences for themselves.
ReplyDeleteI am so thrilled you also liked the idea of tracking the student's progress. After rereading my post and reading yours I thought of an additional idea. What do you think about making the spreadsheet simply for students to track without being graded at first? For example just to use it as a tool for students to comprehend why or why they are not succeeding in certain areas or specific days. The only reason why I am suggesting this is because I do not want students to cheat themselves points because they are afraid of their overall grade, I would rather they use it as a way to improve their behavior. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteI also am very receptive of having students track their effort and continue to log it on the computer. I currently have students use the computer to follow stocks that they have selected so they can monitor their progress throughout the term. Also, student grades are online so when they come into my computer lab I make them check their grades to see their status and make sure they have turned in their required work. While this type of "effort tracking" will require honesty from the student, it will provide good insight for the student's on how their effort relates to their academic performance. In the likely cases, poor effort will result in poor performance and we can show the student how the two are directly related.
ReplyDeleteGreat point, "Poor effort will result in poor performance" because that is exactly what I was wondering.I thought, what if the child is trusted to give him or herself their grades on effort but your response made me realize that if they are lying on their effort chart, then they will see it in their performance grades. Great point!
ReplyDeleteI too like the idea of the students using spread sheets to track their progress. As a P.E. teacher I have thought about doing this for my students so they can see their steps in a day, or their actual minutes of exercising, this would be recorded by a pedometer. Having the students report this data would show that students and my self how much exercise they are really doing. They will need to show this to me befor they record thier scores. Also this would be evidence of their moving in accordance to what we recommend for them to be physically active. If they are under what is expected they will understand what needs to change.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that it is a smart idea to incorporate the use of technology into homework. All of today's teachers have incorporated technology into a regular classroom setting, but many overlook the benefits that can come incorporating that technology at home. There are so many programs today that can turn the necessary "drill and practice" work into enjoyable activities. You also stated that incorporating technology into homework can provide students with an opportunity for support that might not have normally been there. This holds true to more than just guardians who don't speak English. In my case, few of the band parents have had any training in music and are unable to assist their child in their studies, but sending them home with multimedia software for their practice gives them the opportunity for support that they normally wouldn't of had.
ReplyDeleteThese posts have made me create two new goals for me as a teacher. One is to use a spreadsheet effort report with students so that they can observe their improvements and what is expected of them. My second goal is to include technology in my student's homework assignments. Both these goals will improve student achievement and expose them even more to technology.
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