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.
I love the treasure chest idea! That would have been the most exciting part about my week as a kid. However, would 2nd graders respond to toys well or would they be more inclined to respond to candy? I forget what I liked in second grade. What would Mr. Gates be taking away with the example of negative punishment? Is the raffle for the treasure chest? I definitely dig all of your ideas.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you break down each example in terms of the type of punishment and reinforcement, or the pieces that are being associated. Nice job.
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