The instruction strategies described in the resources this week correlate with the principles of behaviorist learning theory because they discuss ways to increase a desired behavior by reinforcing it and punishing undesired behaviors. According to behaviorists, the learner acquires behaviors, skills, and knowledge in response to the rewards, punishments, or withheld responses associated with them. In the chapter that discussed homework, it talks about using different websites that allow students to practice certain skills and are reward for correct answers and punished for wrong answers by not being allowed to move on to the next level.
In the chapter that discusses reinforcing effort, all of the strategies that are provided to improve student effort are based on the behaviorist learning theory. Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski stated (2007), “Spreadsheet software and data collection tools support the instructional strategy of reinforcing effort by helping students to chart the relationship between effort and achievement one of the classroom recommendations” (pp 156). A powerful way to show students that their hard work is paying off is to not only show them the data but combined data on groups that they associate themselves with. This strategy is built on the principal that the students will continue to work hard because they will be rewarded by seeing their data on the chart improve.
Ashley,
ReplyDeleteDo you currently use a data wall in your classroom? That has been a been push in my school this year. I have a data chart for class averages on major assessments and class assessments. We are posting with the goal of reaching a class average of 90%. They are posted by class period to evaluate each class seperately. The only downfall I can see is how do you encourage that class that consistently lags behind the other classes... how do you encourage them to continue to strive to improve. I am trying to emphasize more personal class improvement versus comparing the scores between different classes. What do you do in your classroom?
I work in an elementary school so I do not have to keep a data wall. I think it would be hard to motivated a class that is lagging behind even though they are improving. My suggestion is to reward them inside your classroom. Give the all a homework pass if they all hit a certain percentage on a test, or free bonus points on an assignment of their choosing. Those were my favorites rewards when I was in high school.
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