Thursday, February 3, 2011
Conditioning Theries Ch. 2
Hi Classmates, as I was reading through this chapter I found that I have either done this in my classroom or seen teachers do this in their classrooms. For example praising students when they complete an assignment or answer a question in class. I also have rewarded students for positive behavior. Students will perform better if they are rewarded by praise or other positive stimuli. As I was reading about behavioral objectives I saw something that our school district is implementing right now. We have to state what the students are learning in student friendly language and have it written somewhere in our classroom for everyone to read. I find that if the students are told and shown what they are being taught then they will strive to master that objective. It gives the students a goal to aim at. Are any other districts doing this as well?
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That is an excellent idea Juan. Although I am not a teacher, as a parent I wish my son's school would do that. I think positive praise can make all the difference in the world.
ReplyDeleteSometimes students act up because they just want a little attention. Positive praise does wonders. It helps greatly for behaviour, especially giving the students attention when they are not misbehaving instead of when they are, it changes their way of getting attention from the teachers. Yes, stating the objective was a requirement in our lessons. We also had to post it somewhere the students could easily read it so that they would be reminded of our goal. This was when I was teaching, three years ago, I hope teachers in my school district are still doing it.
ReplyDeleteYes, I do this in my classroom, Juan. I post what we will be doing for the week on a board and the students can read it because it's "student friendly". They are very eager to see what they will be learning about. It gets their thinking going and they always want to share anything that they know about the new concept, which is great because the more we connect the lessons to personal experiences, the better students will learn and succeed.
ReplyDeleteI am not a teacher but I too would like to see this type of praise or motivation given to my daughter when she does attend school. I do believe showing that all students in the class are aiming towards the same goal puts some responsibility on the student to also meet the same standards as their classmates. A standard objective to me would seem to keep all students balanced. Allow them to see that the teacher is not expecting any more from them then what they would from anyone in the class.
ReplyDeleteWe tried to implement that in our classrooms. However, in a small school setting where teachers are teaching several different subjects and several levels in one classroom (I have 12 preps) it became too cumbersome. Not to mention there isn't enough space on the board. In our core subjects, many of us have begun requiring journals. The concept objective is part of the title for the notes taken that day. We discuss what we are going to accomplish and the students write it down, making a kinesthetic connection.
ReplyDeleteJuan, our whole school district implements this concept. The use a support system called PBIS: Positive Behavioral Interventions & Support. When I first came to Seguin ISD they provided training on how to implement this style of teaching and praise into our daily teaching styles.
ReplyDeleteJuan, it sounds like your district is using a modified version of Skinner’s “Shaping” theory. Skinner believed that final goals needed to be set with sub-goals and that students needed to advance through the sub-goals and receive timely feedback. I used the shaping model when I taught 4th grade (1991 – 1997). We used The Learning Literacy Model based. This teaching method was a whole-language model adapted from New Zealand. I would provide a checklist of goals for each student in a reading\writing folder. As the students progressed through the sub-goals and mastered each one they would get that goal checked off. This approach worked very well. I could have added to this model by noticing\praising more often when the students would show evidence of working toward each new sub-goal. I could have provided more focus for them to aim for higher goals for themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe first district that I had worked for did something similar to this with a math and reading wall. I took that idea with me to my next district, that did not have it implemented, but was still a valuable resource to have with me students. I was able to review concepts, and enhance the students learning with this.
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