The big idea of this chapter is
that learning is a change in behavior. Behaviors can be controlled through the
series of events that act upon an individual in a certain instance. For
example, the classical condition happens when an event that evokes an automatic
response is paired with a neutral stimulus. Over time, this neutral stimulus
will then evoke the automatic response even when it is not paired with the
unconditioned stimulus or original event.
A good way to remember this is by a visual representation:
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)--> Automatic/Unconditioned response (UCR)
UCS+ Neutral stimulus (NS)-->UCR
NS--> UCR
Other ways that learning can happen
is through operant conditioning. This occurs when a behavior is reinforced in
either a positive or negative way. A positive reinforcement is when something
is given and a negative reinforcement is when something is taken away. Additionally,
reinforcements include either desirable or undesirable objects.
A few important things to remember
regarding behavior is that in order to influence a person’s behavior, the act
upon it must happen in a timely fashion. Also being conscious of
appropriateness, developmental level, and effectiveness of punishments on
learners.
One question I have is something to
consider. I agree with the reading that recess is important for students and
withdrawal of recess therefore is not an effective punishment, however,
overcorrecting can be an effective punishment. A classic situation is the
withdrawal of recess in order to allow the student to overcorrect their
inappropriate behavior. This typically happens because of the lack of time in a
school day. Recess is the only free time a teacher can spend to supervise the
student in overcorrecting their mistakes. Now the situation becomes the implement
of two punishments, one effective and one ineffective. How can teachers go
about changing situations like this so students’ behaviors are corrected in a
timely, and effective way?
“Change the environment, change the
behavior”. This quote stems from the fact that a behavior is a reaction to an
environment. Therefore if you change the environment, you will get a different
reaction, or a different behavior. As a teacher, you can use this in many ways.
You may not be able to have complete control over all your students all the
time, but you can influence the type of environment they are in. A simple
example would include a teacher turning off the lights to get a classroom’s
attention. I remember in elementary school we had silent reading after recess.
To set the mood, my teachers would turn the lights off. Students would
automatically go from loud and running around, to quite and calm. This simple
change in environment helped us adjust and changed our behavior.
I love your succinct big idea statement "that learning is a change in behavior". You almost could have stopped there! The rest is a nice overview of ways learning can happen.
ReplyDeleteYou point out an interesting contradiction, but I guess this shows the cost and benefits of any choice in managing behavior. If teachers had students stay in from recess, it was probably effective due to overcorrection, but if it happened often, they may suffer effects of lack of recess. Again (THIS should have been the theme of this class!) there is no one right answer, and there are reasons to go each potential method. For this example, keeping a child in once may be the best compromise--it is timely and likely effective, but it's not something that should happen often.
You're right that you do have a lot of control over the environment in which students are placed in, and as you describe that includes cues for when to be quiet, but also things like classroom rules and what students might expect in any given situation (classroom culture is something we might talk about in the future). For example, is talking loudly typically punished, or is it encouraged as part of a lively enthusiastic classroom? (and other ways of creating a particular environment)