A Study on Behaviorism

This week I read two chapters in the text Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works about reinforcement and practice (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007).  I found that sometimes, students aren't aware that it's important to give your best effort in classes of use excuses form outside contributors as reasons to be a potential failure.  As an educator, it's important to me that my students succeed.  If they come to class with an attitude that they've already failed, it will be much harder for them to give their best effort on class projects.  Even though my art and music classes run on a constructivism/constructionism combination of educational theories, there are aspects of behaviorism I did not consider that can be used to encourage my students to succeed.

If you take a quick look at my previous post, you fill find the new classroom management scale that I found through some blog searching, and I am implementing in my classroom next week.  This chart is designed with a behaviorist strategy in mind rewarding students for positive behavior, but still warning students with consequences for their actions.  After watching Dr. Orey's video (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011) this week and his discussion on how his son's classroom used a "clip chart" to manage behavior, I realized how much more important it is to reinforce the positive behaviors, which is exactly what the new chart has in place.  There are consequences, but I believe students need to know the realism of consequences for their actions for their real-world application.


Behaviorism can also be found in drills and practices for homework purposes or remediation.  Tutorials are also considered to fall into this category, and an excellent online tutorial that can be used in the elementary art classroom comes from Eric Carle's website showing how he makes his artwork.  This tutorial is doubly useful at my school as students read a story by Eric Carle in their regular education classrooms in second grade, so I can reinforce what they are learning in my art classes at that time as we create his style of artwork.



For music, drills are a traditional way to practice.  There are some excellent iPad apps to do just this, and one is Musicroom: Music Theory for Beginners which can be found on the app store for $2.99.  It provides students with quick lessons followed by quizzes over that skill, but it throws in cute and colorful music and characters that keeps students more engaged than many books I have tried.

References:

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Program four: Behaviorist learning theory [Video webcast]. Bridging learning theory, instruction and technology. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5700267&CPURL=laureate.ecollege.com&Survey=1&47=2594577&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=0&bhcp=1

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