Wednesday, September 15, 2010

6 Behaviorism in Practice

In the text, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, the authors discuss two topics: “reinforcing effort” and “homework and practice” (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007). In both of these chapters, technology is embedded in the instructional strategies, and the behaviorist learning theory is reinforced.

In the chapter “Reinforcing Effort”, the authors discuss how it is important for students to realize that their success is directly related to the amount of effort they put into each assignment. They suggest that teachers reinforce this idea until students recognize it as a norm and automatically put effort into their work. This is a prime example of Behaviorism, repeating an activity until you get the desire result. The chapter on “Homework and Practice” again reinforces the theory of behaviorism, in that students should continue to strengthen their abilities through repeated practice (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007).

However, the book does not simply leave students with boring practice as an option. They include numerous techniques that involve technology to achieve the goal. Students can monitor their effort through spreadsheets and graphs made with computer software. They will visually see the results of their efforts and how it correlates with their success in the classroom. Also, students can participate in online games as a form of remediation. They may be practicing the same math skills over and over, but are using a different medium to obtain their goal. So although the students are repeating certain skills until they are embedded in their minds (Behaviorism), they are doing it in creative ways that should keep their interest.


Resources:
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

6 comments:

kspeed said...

Great post! I like the idea too about using spreadsheets and graphs to achieve a goal. I think that using various on-line educational games is a great way for students to use as a skills practice and most students enjoy this compared to writing down flashcards or traditional studying. I agree with Dr. Orey in the video when he discussed that technology can be used wrongfully if not carefully planned. For example, if a student is struggling to learn nouns you would not be an effective teacher if you stuck him on a nouns game for thirty minutes. A better way is to re-teach in a different way; maybe in a smaller setting or context, and once he is starting to understand it, allow him time to practice a game on the computer, write a silly story using mad libs, or create a powerpoint using nouns. Technology can be a great tool if it is used correctly.

Ms. Shafer's Big Backyard said...

When you mentioned keeping the activity fresh and exciting, I agree. Any type of activity, no matter how effective at the onset, will lose its effectiveness if it used for repetitive learning. In this way,technology offers so many different options and alternatives to reinforcing the same thing while keeping the externals surrounding the content fresh and new.

Anonymous said...

I agree that keeping a student's interest is the key to learning success! It is exciting to see how technology is playing such a major role in many of our classrooms. There are areas where repetition and practice are vital. But, with the use of technology, we can help to keep the students interested and engaged in learning.

Kim said...

As I've stated before, I teach keyboarding, and the students become tired quickly of the repetition involved. Although I still require them to go through each lesson, I try to break up their practice with other online games or a completely different lesson to lessen the monotony of it all. No matter how much fun it seems at the beginning, anything can become an overkill.

Ms. Simmons said...

This is a wonderful post. Technology used to keep the students interested is a positive impact for the classroom setting. It is always important to keep your students engaged and alert. Creativity is important in the classroom.

Charina said...

I like the idea of effort relating to the success of a student. This is so true. You are only successful by the amount of time and effort that you put into an assignment.

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