Behaviorism in Practice

In an effort to recognize the use of behaviorism in classrooms today we will look at two important instructional strategies that embed both the use of technology and the theory of behaviorism. The idea of reinforcing effort in your classroom is a major factor in creating strong independent learners. Also, the use of homework and practice,although not nearly as obvious, also allows the student and teachers the opportunity to enhance the potential of learning and success.

With the idea of reinforcing effort we establish the simple approach of behaviorism, that students will understand the positive gains of good effort and continue to approach their work in a similar fashion or they will see the negative effects of poor effort and choose to change their approach in order to reverse the effects. It is fairly east to recognize and prove the effort of your students through the use of simple spreadsheets that track everything from attendance to returned homework to test scores and even the amount of times they acted out in class. Using this data you can easily show a student or parent an resourceful use of information and the efforts the student is putting forth. Perhaps use of information will not always make the difference but the use of incentives to change the direction of their effort may lead to changes in the information and then, when revisited you con compare how effort, even based on rewards, leads to a much more productive and successful learning experience.

"Homework and Practice give students a chance to review and apply what they have learned" (Pitler et al., 2007). With the use of basic drill and practice techniques we find that many students gain understanding (with the use of effort) quicker than simply getting a single dose of information from a lesson. Many students require the use of repeated of information in order to maintain their levels of understanding in a subject area. Although many theories on homework and practice maintain numerous uses of technology that can further the strategy we will concentrate on the use of multimedia as our technological facet. Multimedia Software allows teachers to instill the use of technology as a reward, thus creating a behaviorist approach using a simple drill and practice technique. Along with this use an educator in present-day education has the ability to supply their students with websites and applications through their own school/personal websites to focus on certain areas at home as many of today's students have personal computers available. The gains from such websites as www.starfall.com, www.primarygames.com, or even www.sesamestreet.org supply many games that students can use at home to further the use of this strategy and create a positive view of education.

In short, the next time you hear that behaviorism is dead in education or you tell someone you don't believe in the theory, remember that not only is it alive and well, it could be that little something your own classroom or home needs to increase the desire for your student's to learn.

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