Activity: An effective way to use these concepts in the classroom would be to positive reinforcement. Encouraging a student or rewarding them when they show good behavior in the classroom is a good way. As a teacher, we can use other students to demonstrate what good behavior is. Saying things like "Look how nicely Susy raised her hand and waited for me to call on her to speak." This shows those who are blurting things out that they will get praised for raising their hand verses blurting out, therefore causing them to raise their hand instead (behavior change). According to the reading, reinforcement can occur on an intermittent schedule; ratio which would be like every 3rd time a student raises their hand, interval which would be like after a certain period of time (every 5 minutes), fixed which would be at a fixed time that the students can expect such as rewarding every Monday, or variable which would be a combination of all where the students know they will be rewarded but do not know when because it is different each time.
Reflection: From my experience in working in a daycare, this is something that I do often in the classroom. Young children love attention and by pointing out what another student is doing brings attention to that student, so others are going to want to follow to gain the attention. The student who is being praised may feel good about themselves as well because they are gaining attention and are going to repeat that behavior so that they can continue to get attention. Though this is a great method, it is important to be cautious about students who may not want the attention and may withdraw because of the praise. The teacher should understand the function of attention for each student. My new model shows this because the student sees the people in the classroom raising their hand and sees that another student is being rewarded for this. The student then sees that by raising their hand or doing a good behavior, he/she will get rewarded so he/she raises their hand. This model is an example of positive reinforcement; however, I believe that positive punishment, negative reinforcement, and negative punishment are also equally effective ways to learn.
I do agree that your description of using students to set a good example for other students is very helpful and may result in a behavior change. However, I think that there are some other activities that may give students an incentive to work on their behavior and can build a friendly competition in a classroom. For instance, let's say one thing a certain class is struggling with is getting packed up at the end of the day. One activity that uses positive reinforcement would be to make a contest out of packing up to go home. The three students that packed up and lined up at the door first would earn a reward. This could be something as simple as picking the book read during the read-aloud time or being the first kids let out for recess. This way, the end result will probably be that the class, as a whole, would speed up the packing process (behavior change) because they are being rewarded for their good behavior.
ReplyDeleteI think that you did a great job applying module 9 to this model. The parallels you drew from the reading are clear and you used great examples to show this. The main points of the chapter are shown in your model. I would say the one thing I would be mindful of is using students as examples for positive reinforcement. I agree with you that it can sometimes be beneficial, but I think it can be as harmful as beneficial at times. It is risky. Students will begin to associate positive reinforcement with attention from the teacher. This could also lead to misbehavior to get attention from the teacher because the attention has now been learned as a positive thing. Also, the chapter explained it is important for students to understand why their behavior causes the consequence it does, not just what the consequence will be. So when a student raises his/her hand and then does not receive the attention every time, they may have a hard time understanding why it is still important and good to do so. This would require the teacher to carefully explain why he/she is giving positive attention to a student when they are behaving correctly. The last thing I would say to be mindful about using attention as positive reinforcement is making sure your students do not think you are playing favorites. This also applies to making sure you explain carefully why you are giving a certain student attention, so they do not just think it is because you like the student more than someone else.
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