Behaviorist Theory, Instructional Strategies, and Technology

In simple terms behaviorists believe that all human behavior is learned and that behavior can be changed based on specific stimulus and response, that is to say that a subject chooses one response over another based on their own motivations (Orey, 2010).  The type of behaviorism that appears in the classrooms is operant conditioning, where desirable behaviors are rewarded, therefore reinforced and undesirable behaviors are punished (Laureate, 2015). According to behaviorist theory humans will seek out rewards and try to avoid punishments.  As teachers we know that it is the rewarding and reinforcing of desirable behaviors that have the most impact on our students, rather than punishments.

A powerful way that teachers can affect a positive change in student learning is through encouraging improvement to student effort (Pitler, Hubbell & Kuhn, 2012).  As students learn to put increased effort into their learning activities they will begin to see an improvement in their achievement (2012).  For teachers, students’ lack of effort is always one of our top concerns because we know that if students were to try harder they would be more successful.  The questions always falls back to how do we get them to work harder so they too can experience the thrill of the success that comes with hard work? The answer can be found in behaviorist strategies.  Teachers can place students in charge of monitoring their own effort by using spreadsheets and rubrics to track and evaluate their effort.  This allows them to see the correlation between effort and achievement (2012).  This information can be digitized and used to help other students see the benefits of effort as well.    Many teachers choose to recognize students’ efforts and reward them.  It is important to remember however, that these rewards should be specific to the task and appropriate to the situation.  Some ways that technology can assist with this is through the use of online portfolios, badges, stickers, and galleries.  All of these can demonstrate recognition for exceptional work, improvement or effort.  Teachers can also use other technological tools such as recordings, videos and messages to provide recognition for effort and achievement (2012).  These tools work with behaviorist strategies because they are reinforcing the desirable behaviors which help encourage positive performance thus creating an effective learning environment for all of the students in our classrooms. This has always been the goal of educators; we now have new technology to assist in achieving it.  As technology has become intertwined with all aspects of our daily lives it is an important tool to use in our teaching.            

In my classroom I demonstrate behaviorist principles through the way I manage my classroom.  Students are rewarded for specific appropriate behaviors, whether they are related to attitude, effort, or achievement.  Very rarely do I even acknowledge undesirable behaviors, but I am quick to respond with positive reinforcement to behaviors that are desired.  When students demonstrate effort I always try to celebrate it as a step in the right direction.  Another strategy I employ is that of reflection. After some lessons and every unit I ask students to reflect on what they learned and how well they worked to learn the content.  I am attempting to change the mindset from “you gave me this grade” to “I earned this grade because…”.  By having students reflect on their effort they are beginning to recognize patterns to their successes and failures.  They are also beginning to understand what strategies work best for their style of learning.  My goal is to empower my students to be responsible for their own learning and education. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Standards for Students reflects behaviorist strategies as they encourage students to become “empowered learners” (Standard 1, 2016).  I believe that if we empower our students to see themselves as learners and as having the ability to take charge of their own learning and we reward their efforts for doing so, everything that we are trying to teach them will come more easily.  I am always telling my students that I am trying to teach them how to learn, because once they know how to learn and manage their own learning, they can learn anything.  One way for students to become empowered to learn is through figuring out what tools and devices will help them.  By becoming empowered learners students are setting goals, customizing their learning environment, and demonstrate their knowledge using technology (ISTE, 2016).  As students use technology to set and meet their educational goals they are rewarded both intrinsically and extrinsically and will therefore be more motivated to continue to challenge themselves.  In the future I plan to utilize more technology in celebrating my students efforts.  I liked the idea of providing recognition in unique ways that will have more impact on the students.  As I do this I am also meeting ISTE Standards for Teachers 3 (2008).  I am using new ways to communicate with both my students and their families and also demonstrating my ability to use different types of media. 

            One scholarly source that I found this week that demonstrates behaviorist strategy discussed how positive reinforcement helped students improve their self-monitoring of on-task behavior in the classroom (Davis et al., 2014).  In this study a student who wished to improve his ability to stay on task in his classes began a self-monitoring regimen designed to assist him with his goal.  The results of the study demonstrated that the student improve his attention overall when a plan was implemented and followed and he had the tools necessary to self -monitor but his ability to stay on task was much higher when that behavior was positively reinforced. Another popular source I found discussed how having a Positive Behavior Support system (PBS) can help improve student behavior in the classroom (Johnson-Gerard n.d.).  In the PBS model students are taught to observe desired classroom behaviors and when they fail to demonstrate the appropriate behavior they are encouraged to try again in order to meet with success.  Using these methods students are taught to self monitor their behaviors and their successes and failures. I feel that these strategies could be implemented easily into the Hour of Code lesson I chose in Module 2.  Anytime students are working on their own, especially with technology, it is easy for them to become sidetracked and off task. Using these strategies will help students monitor their own efforts and progress to stay on task and complete the goal.    Providing positive feedback, modeling appropriate behavior, and highlighting students who demonstrate desired behaviors as well as having students reflect upon their own progress will assist students in meeting their goals and give them insight as to what behaviors are necessary to achieve success. 

References

Davis, T. N., Dacus, S., Bankhead, J., Haupert, M., Fuentes, L., Zoch, T., & ... Lang, R. (2014). A Comparison of Self-Monitoring With and Without Reinforcement to Improve On-Task Classroom Behavior. Journal Of School Counseling, 12(12), 1-23.

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2016). Standards for
students. Retrieved March 27, 2018 from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students2016

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2008). Standards for
teachers. Retrieved March 27, 2018 from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-forteachers

Johnson-Gerard,, Mary. (n.d.). Advantages of Behaviorism in Teaching. Synonym. Retrieved March 29, 2018 from http://classroom.synonym.com/advantages-behaviorism-teaching-8692831.html

Laureate Education (Producer). (2015). Behaviorist learning theory [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

 Orey, M. (Ed.). (2010). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved March 25, 2018 from http://textbookequity.org/Textbooks/Orey_Emergin_Perspectives_Learning.pdf

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.