Blog Post 2

Mr. Gates is a 3rd grade teacher and he is giving his students a lesson about grammar. The topic is noun and verbs and how we use them together in sentences. Later on they will talk about the past tense of these verbs. One thing that one could observe in his classroom is that he uses a positive reinforcement strategy to get students to participate in the activity. When Sally answers a question correctly, she got a gold star on the classroom chart. This is Mr. Gates giving Sally something to increase her behavior. A second thing one could observe is that when David talked rudely to another student who had the wrong answer, Mr. Gates looked at him sternly and David immediately sat in the chair in the back of the classroom without being told. This is an example of operant conditioning because Mr. Gates has repeatedly preformed this punishment for the students' bad behavior. David automatically knew the punishment for his behavior. A third thing one could observe is that Mr. Gates implements negative punishment as well. During this activity all of the students started with three animal erasers. If they misbehaved in any way he would take away one piece of candy to decrease the behavior.

Blog Post 1

Behaviorism is the theory of both learning and motivation. The big ideas of this chapter were classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and strategies for obtaining desired behavior. Classical conditioning discusses an unconditioned stimulus, and an unconditioned response for behavior. The unconditioned stimulus is the behavior or event that evokes an automatic response. The unconditioned response refers to the automatic behavior caused by the stimulus. Classical conditioning has to do with the the unconscious response and emotions that cannot be controlled. The example given that was talked about in class and in the book was "Little Albert" and his fear of the noise that was produced when he saw the white rabbit. Operant conditioning is about getting feedback or a consequence for a certain behavior. Antecedent--Behavior--Response. Behaviors associated with good consequences are likely to happen again and behaviors associated with bad consequences will most likely stop. Strategies for obtaining desired behavior are listed as positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment. Positive reinforcement is giving something good to make the behavior increase. Negative reinforcement is taking away something bad to make the behavior increase. Positive punishment is giving something bad to make the punishment decrease. And negative punishment is giving something bad to make the behavior decrease.

One question that I had was about extinction of behavior that is associated with classical conditioning. I didn't understand how one would get to the point of having the behavior become extinct when the whole point was to ge a response to the stimulus. I know it explains it in the text that once you don't have the unconditioned stimulus anymore then the unconditioned response would no longer occur, I just don't understand how that's possible. Once you create the unconditioned response doesn't it stay with you?

“Change the environment, change the behavior” This sounds simple enough. When one is put into a new environment they become a new person. Their surroundings change so they would change as well. I both agree and disagree with this to an extent. I do believe that everyone is born with a certain set of talents. Certain people are genetically programmed to be great athletes or chemists or pianists or artists. The way that they reach their full potential is by practice. If great basketball players practice when they are younger and perfect their skills, they have a chance to become pro athletes. If someone who enjoys science and exceeds in their classes starts to challenge themselves and do more work and more experiments, they have the potential to win a nobel prize. However, if these people are put into different settings they would never reach their full potential. If someone who is meant to play basketball wants to paint instead, they may never learn how to use their natural talent. When you place children in different environments, their behavior changes. For instance, if you take a child who excels at reading and put them in a lower level reading group, you may see that their grades start to decrease or that they no longer enjoy reading. This is important to remember as a teacher because we have to cater to the needs of our students. If we create an environment that is not well suited for their learning needs we can potentially direct them to a different path. It is very important to find a way to create an environment that is comfortable for all of our students. This will create better behavior and less problems down the road. It will also help students find what they are passionate about. 

Blog 2

Mr. Gates classroom will automatically give a warm,positive,cheerful feeling right as you walk into it. He will greet every student with a positive hello as they walk into the classroom everyday. He will have a reading rug with enough mini ottomans for each student to store their favorite books for silent reading time. The students all will have jobs throughout the classroom. Clean the chalkboard, straighten the desks, pick up any pieces of trash on the floor etc. They will have these jobs one week. After their week of jobs the students are paid with fake classroom money. On every Friday Mr. Gates will hold a classroom auction where the students can buy items that students have brought in. During this time the students can buy items that they want with the money they have earned or save it till they have enough for a bigger prize they desire. This will give the students a chance to deal with money management. If the students do a poor job on their jobs or act up while doing them then their money pay will decline till they turn their act around.

Blog 1

This chapter is dealing with behaviorism and methods to eliminate undesirable behavior in the classroom. It gives advice and multiple classroom examples and shows you the positive and negatives for almost every situation. It talks to teachers about  positive and negative reinforcements inside the classroom. Module nine also talks heavenly on positive and negative punishment inside the classroom.

The one thing that I was wondering about is knowing the developmental level of the individual. On the guideline 9.1 on the bottom of page 164 it gives you tips on knowing the developmental level of the students. Younger children may like pencils and candy while older students would prefer time to socialize with others. How would you address the those middle grades where pencils and candy are too childish, but giving them time to socialize with other would get out of hand too quickly due to their lack of maturity?

If you change an environment to something positive then your behavior will reflect the environment,so your behavior would become positive. I could use this in multiple ways as a teacher. The main one would be to create my classroom into a warm welcoming positive environment. Whatever the child's problems are outside the classroom I can change that negative behavior by the giving them a positive behavior right when they walk into the classroom. I would have positive uplifting quotes all around the classroom. A comfortable relaxing reading area in the room so they wont see the classroom as a negative place to be. My attitude must be warm and uplifting everyday I walk in as well. If I give off a negative vibe then they will follow my attitude.

Blog Post 2

Mr. Gates third grade classroom has a positive vibe on a Monday morning. Before class starts, he shows his positive energy and thanks all the students for great behavior before the day starts. He wants to develop a paired relation of a great start of the day to school before a fun productive environment. Once Mr. Gates starts teaching math, Sally volunteers to answer the question by raising her hand. He compliments her in positive reinforcement to continue the behavior. As the students are working in groups, Bobby decides to throw a pencil across Mr. Gates classroom. Mr. Gates decides to punish Bobby by adding a positive punishment by having to sharpen the extra pencils in the class and gets a note sent home to his parents, which are both undesirable. 

Blog Post 1

Through reading this chapter, I like how theories that I have learned in early psychology classes are being put in place in a classroom and where it is directly used and observed. In middle school, I developed a strong dislike for math due to a specific teacher and those emotions as a conditioned response. I think the main point of the module is to learn how to use basic psychology in the classroom to make conscious decisions to make the best atmosphere possible for the children to learn and behave. 

Blog Post 2

     Over the summer, fourth grade teacher Mr. Gates, has been studying up on his psychology. He takes a particular interest in the area of behaviorism, and decides to make a few adjustments to his classroom. On the first day of school, the students notice several things that, though they do not recognize it, stand as evidence of behaviorism.

On the first day of the school year, the students all notice a big jar with candy in it. When Laura answers a question correctly, Mr. Gates gives her a piece of candy. The next time Mr. Gates asks a question, every student raises his or her hang high in the air.

In the back of the classroom, there are three pieces of paper on a bulletin board: one red, one yellow, and one green. Each student finds his name neatly written in black marker on one of twenty-three clothespins. All of the clothespins are on the green paper. Mr. Gates explains that if a student misbehaves, her pin will be moved to the yellow paper, as a warning. If the behavior continues, the pin will move to red, and the student will walk down the hall to the principal’s office.

The students line up for lunch quickly and quietly, and Mr. Gates drops a marble in a small jar. After they come back from music class with the praise of the teacher, he drops another marble into the jar. Coming back from recess, the students were loud in the hallways by the second grade classes, so Mr. Gates takes one of the marbles out of the jar. When the jar is full of marbles, the class will have a party, complete with pajamas and pizza. 

Blog Post 1

 This chapter gives an overview of behavioral learning theories. Two ways that behaviorists explain learning are through classical conditioning, which works with involuntary behaviors, and through operant conditioning, which emphasizes voluntary behaviors. Both of these learning types use connections to enforce learning. In conditioning, behavior is encouraged to either increase or decrease, by reinforcement or punishment, respectively. It is important, as educators, to correctly apply reinforcement and punishment in a compassionate way that enforces learning.

In studying behaviorism, I am often confused as to whether a consequence is positive or negative. This may be an issue of perspective. In any consequence, there is a give and take, be it physical or emotional. For example, when we talked in class about suspending students, and how that can serve as reinforcement for undesired behavior, I have to think whether it is negative reinforcement in taking away the time in school that the student dislikes or positive reinforcement in giving the student a vacation from school.

The phrase “change the environment, change the behavior,” should be applied carefully in teaching. Environment undeniably plays a role in shaping behavior. However, we should not be so ignorant as to think that we can change all things about every student’s behavior by manipulating their learning environment. We also need to take notice that the possibility of modifying a student’s behavior through environmental changes does not automatically justify that alteration. For example, altering a class environment to be more conversation oriented could help students reinforce positive social behavior in their interactions. On the other hand, adding more rules to an environment may only make students frustrated and cause further behavioral issues. It is important to interact with students as people, and not as problems to be fixed.

Blog Post 2

Mr. Gates teaches a third grade classroom. It is obvious that he is a behaviorist because the evidence shown in his room. Mr. Gates uses a system of "currency" in his classroom. Whenever a student does something exceptional worth praise, they are rewarded a "dollar" that they can save up in order to trade in for a prize from the prize table. The trade dollars act as a positive reinforcement for the appropriate behavior. Whenever a student misbehaves, one of the consequences is that they have to pay him in trade dollars. This is a good example of a negative punishment in order to decrease an unwanted behavior. The third piece of evidence in his room is a corner desk that is facing away from the rest of the students. When a child misbehaves, they must spend the rest of the lesson sitting at the desk far away from their friends. This is an example of negative reinforcement.

Blog Post 1

This chapter focuses on behaviorism. The main points include different methods to increase appropriate behavior decrease undesirable behavior in children. It discusses topics such classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is a method of pairing a response with a stimulus that does not usually evoke a reaction. In classical conditioning, a natural response such as a physical response or an anxious feeling is paired with a conditioned stimulus by simultaneously presenting the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus. After a while, the conditioned stimulus is paired with the conditioned response even when the unconditioned stimulus is not presented.

Operant conditioning also includes the pairing of a stimulus and a response, but instead of focusing on involuntary responses, it conditions voluntary behaviors. This type of conditioning usually includes reinforcement and punishment. Positive reinforcement refers to when a child is given something in order to increase a behavior. Positive punishment is when something is given in order to decrease the behavior. In the same ways, negative reinforcement is when something is taken away in order to increase a behavior and negative punishment is when something is taken away to decrease a behavior.

A question that arose while I was reading this chapter was regarding the method of satiation. I don't understand how allowing the student to repeat the inappropriate behavior over and over again really teaches the child that it is inappropriate. I understand that the reward from doing the action would wear off after time,  but it seems to me that the student would not have actually learned that the behavior was bad. All the student has learned was that his teacher was accepting of the behavior. It also seems that other students would start to think that the behavior was acceptable for them to mimic as well.

Behaviorists would describe learning as a process where the teacher manipulates the environment in order to change a behavior. They would say that the learning has occurred when a change in behavior is present.

Blog Post 2

Mr. Gate's 5th grade classroom would show certain signs of his ideas about behaviorism.  There would be an area in the corner for reading, with big bean bags and maybe a "cool" chair for the students to sit in as a reward.  There would be a candy/prize jar on his desk for other rewards.  There would be some sort of reward tracking system on the wall (i.e. monopoly money, green/yellow/red cards, clip strips).  There would also be a chart showing the "teacher's helper" for the week.  The teacher's helper is allowed many privileges throughout the week, along with responsibility.  Therefore, making chores and helping look fun and exciting.

Blog Post 1

The big picture of this chapter is classical and operant conditioning, and strategies to increase appropriate behavior and decrease inappropriate behavior.  Classical conditioning contains an unconditioned stimulus (creates response) and an unconditioned response (caused by stimulus).  In this case, the student/child does not intentionally produce the response.  Next, when a neutral stimulus (does not produce a reaction) is introduced, and associated with the unconditioned stimulus, it creates the same amount of response.  Now, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus (causes same response as unconditioned stimulus), and the reaction becomes a conditioned reaction.  This is an example of behavior change, or learning.  Relatedly, operant conditioning causes a change in behavior. Operant conditioning uses a give more/take away system.  For example, in a classroom, your students are reading their books silently during free reading time.  To show your students that you approve of their behavior, you award them some socializing time.  Oppositely, your students are talking much too loudly during free reading time.  Therefore, you assign these students detention.  Both of these responses are positive.  More socializing time is positive reinforcement, detention is positive punishment.  Another example, your children are at the dinner table, and do not want to eat their dinner of chicken, broccoli, and carrots.  You tell your kids if they eat their chicken and carrots, you will take away their broccoli.  This is an example of negative reinforcement.  Negative punishment in a situation such as this one, would be taking away TV time for not eating their dinner.

One question about this chapter that I had were about some of the strategies.  Such as: the shaping technique.  How can you bring a response out of a child that does not originally show it?

A behaviorist defines learning by a change in behavior.  There has to be a change in behavior to show what any student has learned.

Module 9 Post 2

Mr. Gates is a 2^nd grade teacher.  He can tell that many of his students are not putting a lot of effort towards learning their multiplication tables.  So, he decided to reward the students that got all of the multiplication problems correct on their time sheets.  This will hopefully motivate those students that are doing good to continue and hopefully motivate the rest of the class.  The second thing is that he will give students a sticker if they do not get in any trouble during the day, and if they get 5 stickers at the end of the week they will be able to get a sucker.  He also will give the students extra English homework if the students do not raise their hands to answer questions in class.

Module 9 Post 1

Behaviorism is the main idea of module 9.  This learning process is considered to be focusing more on the behaviors of the student and the teacher controlling those behaviors through the environment of the classroom.  There are two different theories that explain how learning occurs, classical conditioning and operant conditioning.  Classical conditioning is about how a student responds to a stimulus.  So people have certain stimulus’ that in turn make a response, but in classical conditioning a stimulus is conditioned over a series of events which make a conditioned response.  An example is someone might be scared of a certain slide because while it is fun at one point another student pushed him down the slide when he was not ready so he was scared.  Therefore the result is that the student is scared of that slide.  Operant conditioning has to do with voluntary behaviors.  This one is more apparent in a classroom because it is easier to have students learn to settle down when the teacher raises her hand or to take their seats whenever she is at the front board.  This conditioning uses reinforcement and punishment to do this.  Reinforcement is when you want the student to continue that behavior and punishment is when you want them to stop that behavior.  You can do this by taking away something or giving something in return.  There are many different ways in order for a teacher to give positive reinforcement or any of the other strategies.

I was wondering if there is only one way to handle a certain situation such as a form of positive reinforcement instead of using negative reinforcement or does it just depend on the resources available whether you are able to give something instead of taking something away.

 How does a behaviorist define learning?

A behaviorist defines learning as by having a structured classroom with set rules.  All the students will learn the same way because they need to all have the same behavior as all the other students no matter their differences.  Behaviorists do not believe that different students need a different type of learning strategy because they do not look at students as individuals, but as a whole.

Module 9 Post 2

Mr. Gates is a fifth grade teacher and he has designed his classroom with a behaviorist view. Recently, they began a simulation of a city to learn about the different positions citizens can/may have and how to go about making money. To earn "money" or advance in the community, children are expected to participate and answer questions pertaining to the lesson correctly. If a child participates and especially answers correctly, they advance in their imaginative community. This is an example of positive reinforcement. The children want the reward of the community so they will continue to participate. The "money" the children earn can be exchanged for tangible awards too, such as stickers, cards, candy, pencils, etc. This furthers their desired behaviors because they will want to keep receiving awards. However, Mr. Gates uses group consequences since the class is working together not only in the classroom, but also in their imaginative community. When the group as a whole is improving or steadily performing well, the group receives a collective reward at the end of the week. This reward is usually recess or a candy snack. Mr. Gates also punishes as a group to teach accountability and responsibility. This is a form of negative punishment because the students are expected to do well every week and when they don't, they lose the possibility of recess or candy. Mr. Gates' holds a strong view of behaviorism and successfully practices it in his classroom.

Behaviorism Post 2 - Module 9

When observing Mr. Gates in his 2nd grade classroom we can tell that he has chosen behaviorism as a way to think about his teaching. This is because of a few things I have seen him do in his classroom. One of them being a reward system for when the students do something good in the classroom. This reward system is like a classroom store. The kids earn money (i.e. Monopoly money) to buy prizes by doing good things in the classroom. For example, when a child sits quietly in his seat waiting for the teacher to begin class for the day that student may get a dollar for this good action. This is a way to reinforce good behaviors that occur in the classroom. Mr. Gates also may reward the students as a class by giving them time to play games, color, read, etc. when they have all done well in class. This would be in accordance with the Premack Principle. I also noticed that Mr. Gates used positive punishment in his classroom. An example of this would be that the students know if they misbehave more than two times in a day Mr. Gates may call their parents and inform them of this misbehavior. So, if they do not misbehave in the classroom then they will not receive a call to their parents.

Behaviorism Post 1 - Module 9

I believe that the big picture in this module is that there are many different strategies that can be used when it comes to getting students to behave appropriately in the classroom. The module begins by presenting and explaining the basic assumptions of traditional behavioral learning theories. A few of these are: learning must include a change in behavior, learning must include an association between a stimulus and a response where the stimulus and response occur clost together in time, and learning processes are similar across different species. When you look at the theory that learning must include a change in behavior, these theorists believe that once a person learns something new that if their behavior does not change then they have not learned that new piece of information. The other theory is that learning must include an association between a stimulus and a response. Not only this, but the stimulus and the response must occur close together in time for the information to be learned. So, for example, if a child does his homework but does it incorrectly then he must know as soon as possible that his work was incorrect or he will not learn why what he did was wrong or how to fix his work. One other theory is that learning processes are similar across different species. This basically meaning that no matter what gender, race, ethnicity, etc. a person is everyone learns in almost the same way. The module then continues to discuss classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is when something that causes an involuntary behavior is paired with something that does not cause a response at all. So, for example, when a student is constantly reading during class even when it is not time to read and the student gets yelled at by the teacher to stop reading, then the student may eventually stop reading altogether because he then associates reading with being yelled at. This module then begins to talk about reinforcement and punishment. Reinforcement is when a student is rewarded in some way for doing something good in class. For example, when a student raises his hand in class and waits patiently to be called on he receives a piece of candy and therefore increases this behavior. On the other hand, punishment is when a student does something bad in class and is given a concequence in attempt to decrease this behavior. For example, if a student disrupts the class by talking out of turn then he will be punished by having to remove his green card from his pouch then giving him a yellow card. When speaking of punishment, we, as teachers, need to be sure we are punishing the students after every single infraction rather than only every once in a while. Although this is true for punishment this is not necessarily true for reinforcement. Reinforcement is better used in a schedule so that the students will not expect a reward after every single good thing they do in class.

I am a little confused on positive punishment. For example, when reading through this module I was confused that the book said that a reprimand was a positive punishment. Why would this be?

How does a behaviorist define learning?
I would say that a behaviorist defines learning through classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is when something that causes an involuntary behavior is paired with something that does not cause any response from the person. Then when the unconditioned stimulus is taken away but the neutral stimulus still remains the involuntary behavior still occurs. There is also operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is when a behavior that may be new to the student is paired with something good that happens when they complete this good behavior. Like the example above, when a student has raised his hand and waits patiently to be called on to answer then he receives a piece of candy. This then would cause the students to raise their hands and wait patiently more often.

Blog Post 2 Module 9

Blog Post 2

 Mr. Gates teaches math in a first grade classroom.  He uses a sticker chart to give positive reinforcement to students that turn in their homework everyday for the week.  The chart is a positive way in which students will increase the behavior of turning in their homework each week.  Once a student receives a certain amount of stickers they get a prize for their positive behavior.  Mr. Gates uses negative reinforcement to increase student’s positive behaviors.  When students actively participate and listen during class time, he awards them with less homework since he understands that they listened during class and participated they will be more likely to understand the concepts.  Mr. Gates uses positive punishment in his classroom to decrease negative behaviors.  Mr. Gates might add on a homework assignment to students that are not listening during class time.  This added on homework assignment will hopefully eventually decrease the negative behaviors of students not listening or participating during class because they wont want to have extra assignments. 

Blog Post 1 Module 9

Blog Post 1

·      The big picture is for teachers to learn how to use different strategies to reinforce positive behaviors while decreasing the negative behaviors.  Operant conditioning is most commonly used in schools in which good consequences make the behavior more likely to occur while bad consequences are more likely to decrease the behavior. It’s all about understanding which behaviors to reinforce or punish, and how and when to use these punishments and reinforcements. 

·      

I I think that the most challenging thing about the concepts in this chapter is learning how to understand how to read your students.  On the first day of class you will have a lot less knowledge of the students in your classroom and the punishments and reinforcements that may work on certain kids but not on other students.

It’s more effective to use positive consequences than negative consequences in many instances.  When teachers continue to yell to get their students to quiet down, eventually it becomes something normal that doesn’t surprise or change the behavior of the students.  While when the teacher awards students with less homework, stickers, or other positive consequences students are more likely to increase positive behaviors. 

·      Behaviorists suggest that learning must include an association between a stimulus and a response, it also must include a change in behavior (that way we know the new behavior as learned)

·      By changing the environment, the behavior may change for a specific individual.  If a student who is acting up is quietly removed from the classroom, he will no longer receive the attention from the other students for acting up, and then his negative behaviors will decrease.

Module 9 Post 2

Mr. Gates is a second grade English teacher.  He is clearly a behaviorist because of three examples in his classroom:

First, Mr. Gates clearly has a behaviorist attitude because he has a "treasure chest" of small toys that students can earn at the end of each week if they have behaved properly all week.  This is an example of positive reinforcement.

Another exaple of behaviorism in Mr. Gates' classroom is that he runs his classroom on a "green-yellow-red" basis.  This means that every student begins each day on "green" having done nothing wrong.  If a student behaves inappropriately, Mr. Gates will move that student down to "yellow", and if that student misbehaves again, he or she will be put on "red".  Students who end the day on "red" will have their name taken out of the oreviously-mentioned weekly raffle.  This is an example of negative punishment.

Finally, Mr. Gates conditions his students operantly because he associates side talk at inappropriate times (for example, if two students are having a side conversation duing Mr. Gates' lecture, he will send them to the principal's office.  The students eventually associated inappropriate side conversations with trips to the principal's office.