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.
I was also confused with the punishments and reinforcements. After going through class and looking at the comments on my own blog, I was able to understand some differences. First, positive punishment would mean adding something in order to decrease a behavior. So reprimanding someone would be something like scolding. You're adding something, scolding, in order to make the child stop doing something. The idea would be that scolding more will cause the child to stop the behavior because he doesn't want to hear the scolding. Hope this helps!
ReplyDeleteYou have quite a detailed big ideas description! Look at the next blog prompt for a couple tips in getting to the main big ideas in a more concise way. It may help? Toward the end, I wanted to point out that reinforcement doesn't necessarily mean giving something and punishment does not necessarily mean being GIVEN something. I think this is something that confuses you based on your question--which Zahra answered nicely. Reinforcement just means it's a behavior you're trying to increase. You could do this by adding a stimulus (positive reinforcement) or taking something away (negative reinforcement). Punishment happens when you address a behavior you want to decrease. You can give something (positive punishment) or take something away (negative punishment) to decrease the behavior.
ReplyDeleteLast, in that section, is the thought on punishment needing to have consequences every time, and not on a schedule, something you gathered from the book or your own opinion? Why do you think this is true? Why couldn't a schedule work for punishment?
For your definition of learning, you say it has something to do with operant and classical conditioning.... but how would a behaviorist determine if learning happened? Here you list the topics that were covered, but I'm not sure I see an answer to the original question. Would a behaviorist say, perhaps.... learning is simply a change in behavior? ;)