My understanding of behaviorism is that everything that a human does is their behavior. Their behavior is influenced by their experiences and environment, but it can be altered through conditioning.
When I was a child I was required to say “Yes Mama or Sir,” “No Mama or Sir,” “Please,” “Thank You,” etc. If I did say them there would usually be a reward or if I didn’t there would always be punishment. For example, whenever I asked for something if I didn’t say please I wasn’t going to get it or at least until I did say please. It was the same for thank you, if I didn’t say thank you to my mom or dad then they would take away whatever they gave me. I learned quickly because I enjoyed the rewards much more than the punishments. Another example is whenever my family went into a store. It almost always started with, “When we go in here we are not going to have any whining or crying, are we?” “No, Mama or Sir.” If my brother or I didn’t answer my mom or dad would wait until we both answered before we would go inside. Now once inside if we didn’t whine or cry we would sometimes be able to pick out a toy, but if we did whine or cry we usually left the store and were not able to get anything the next time, even if we didn’t whine or cry. So my parents conditioned our behavior through punishment and rewards.
It is hard for me to believe, at least at the beginning stages of life, that we are able to learn what is expected of us without the use of rewards and punishment. I am unsure if I feel this way because I was raised on punishments and rewards or if we truly are unable to learn without them. I believe that rewards are good but I think we need to be careful in how we use them and sometimes they can actually work against us. In the article The Rewards of Learning, Chance believes rewards are good but even he believes we need to be cautious when using them. He gives some guidelines to follow when using rewards on page 120-121, which I found very interesting. They are as follows: 1. Use the weakest reward required to strengthen a behavior; 2. When possible, avoid using rewards as incentives; 3. Reward at a high rate in the early stages of learning, and reduce the frequency of rewards as learning progress; 4. Reward only the behavior you want repeated; 5. Remember that what is an effective reward for one student may not work well for another. 6. Reward success is within the student’s grasp; and 7. Bring attention to the rewards (both intrinsic and extrinsic) that are available for behavior from sources other than the teacher.
I don’t know about anyone else but I am a people watcher. I like, no matter where I am, to watch people. I like to watch their mannerisms, the way they sit, stand, walk, talk, eat, discipline, etc. I find it interesting. I even find myself at times making up stories about them. Next time you are sitting or waiting anywhere just for a moment, start watching the people around you. I believe you too will find it remarkable. One thing that never ceases to amaze me is when out of nowhere you hear someone says, “Mom” and almost every woman within hearing range turns to look. I am talking about older women, young girls, women with kids, women without kids, some men, and even myself will turn to look at the child or young adult. I am unsure if we are condition to look at the person because they are yelling or because they said “Mom.” Which one do you think?
In the article The Shame of American Education Skinner said, “When students move through well-constructed programs at their own pace, the so-called problem of motivation is automatically solved.” (Skinner, 1984, pg. 951) Also, after watching the video about School of One I feel this could be a great way to teach students. In my brothers case this would have been wonderful. He learned at a faster pace than most children. It wasn’t until middle school that my brother lost his motivation to be in class or learn. He didn’t see any point in being there because he understood what the teacher said the first time. He didn’t need them to spend a week teaching him. Unfortunately, instead of getting put into advanced classes he got in with the wrong crowd. By the time he got into 10th grade he started skipping school. He would wait until there was a few months left in school and he would make up all his work in those few months. What frustrated me even more is he would get no lower than a B. It wasn’t until his senior year that two of his teachers would not allow him to make up the work. They told him he had missed too much school and would have to take their classes over but this time he was able to work at his own pace. He had both of the classes done in 3 months, which was suppose to take him an entire year. I sometimes wonder what he would have done and where he would have been if he were able to move at his own pace in school.
I don’t know if I will ever be able to say, “Yes that is it. That right there is the only way we can teach children.” I strongly believe that everyone is different and we learn in completely different ways. To say there is only one way, for me, it is like you are saying everyone must have blonde hair, blue eyes, and olive colored skin. Well, that is not possible. So, how can we expect or believe children only learn in one particular way?
References:
Chance, P. (1992). The rewards of learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 74, 200-207.
Skinner, B. F. (1984). The Shame of American Education. American Psychologist, 39, 947-954.
No comments:
Post a Comment