According to author Melissa Standridge, "using behaviorist theory in the classroom can be rewarding for both students and teachers" (Orey, 2001). As educators, our role is to create a classroom where appropriate behaviors and skills are learned. Since "students work for things that bring them positive feelings, and for approval from people they admire," (Orey 2001) using behaviorist techniques can be quite powerful. Whether using stimuli to promote certain types of behavior to maintain a classroom environment, or to reinforce certain skills, we know that rewards and consequences can enhance operant conditioning and earn desired results.
In terms of gaining desired results in the area of learning, technology can play a large role. Some believe that the connection that children make with the effort they put into an activity and their success in that activity, is very important. "Research tells us that not all students realize the importance of effort. Many attribute their success or failure to external factors" (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007, p. 156). Therefore, they recommend that we use technology such as spreadsheets and rubrics to allow students to keep track of their effort and then match their success with that effort. When the students see the connection, effort is reinforced, and students start taking more responsibility for their actions and their success. Since behaviorist theory relies so much on stimuli to control behavior, having students be able to track their effort and success will give them both internal and external reasons to do better.
Homework and practice is another intregal piece of the behaviorist theory. In order for positive change to occur, one must know what he/she is doing right or wrong. Homework allows for feedback from a teacher, and then the student can do more practice to work on the areas of weakness. Once again, this allows a child to get external stimuli and a chance to see effort pay off. Technology, however, can make this practice and drill a lot more fun. For example, one of the suggestions given by the authors Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski, was a website called BrainPOP. This particular site has short movies that a child can watch to revisit a topic and then can take a quiz. The response for the quiz is immediate, so the child knows whether or not they understand the information. It is also done in a non threatening way, so that it is fun. Students are more likely to practice and drill when they are having fun.
Already I have my students use the textbook website, Algebra2.com to take self quizzes and tests to prepare for assessments, and I look forward to learning even more about ways that technology can enhance learning in the classroom.
References:
Orey, M. (Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from htt://projects.coe.uga.edu/epitt/index.php?title=Main_Page on Nov. 11, 2009.
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
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Using technology does make learning fun for students. It also helps relate new knowledge to previous experiences. Today’s student constantly multi-tasks, while using at least one form of technology almost every minute of the day. Rather than trying to ‘force-feed’ knowledge through boring practice worksheets, teachers can create positive learning experiences that help students understand the given topic. Even though students should track their own effort, they need to learn how to assess themselves. What steps do you take in order to have students independently assess themselves?
ReplyDeleteI like to have the students check the answers for their work as they are doing the problems. For example, I usually give the odd problems for an assignment since the odd answers are in the back of the book. Since they need to show their work anyways, I am not worried about them "getting the answers" from the back, but instead using it as a guide to how they are doing. When they come into class the next day, they already know which problems they struggled with. I love it when the students tell me that they used the answer to work backwards, or the answer told them that they had done it wrong so they refered to their notes to get it right. This really encourages them to put in the effort needed to do well and get the problems done right.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of using a site like BrainPop to help students review information. They can watch movies the specific topics that they need to review, then take the quiz. This allows students to spend their time reviewing the topics that they need the most help with. If students could not tailor the review to their needs, they would be spending time reviewing topics that they already understand instead of focusing on the information with which they need the most help.
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