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.