Chapter 7: Behavioral Views of Learning

In Chapter 7 as we learn about Behavioral Views of Learning I find myself a little lost. I’ve been reading and rereading to get a better understanding. While trying to piece together and teach myself the understanding of operant conditioning ( is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior) and the understanding of respondent . While reading and researching I get a clearer understanding and find it interesting that, “ Many human behaviors are operants, not respondents (p.256).” A reinforcer is any consequence that strengthens the behavior it follows (pg.257) so to understand that a consequence followed by an effect gives the order of Behavior - Reinforcer- Strengthened or repeated behavior. Before reading on, I stopped and was thinking about my day to day students we deal with. Some might use activities such as eating with the teacher, going to play in another room, get to earn a homework pass, and so etc. but then I started to think about how many of our students use food. Whether we as staff us candy, pretzels, chips, crackers, or chocolate I have noticed that food in general is our reinforcement. As I continue to read, I think about what we also talked about in the past and that is how well as a teacher we know our students in a diverse classroom. A lot of our students are on medications that are not always taken correctly so for a majority of them the medication not only affects their behavior but affects their appetite. They are always thirsty and hungry so then I thought is food really then a reinforcement???? The children may come from underprivileged homes and maybe they aren’t on medication but just don’t have the access to food at home. I think when then also looking at reinforcers we should know our students and know each one will have a different need. Reading on about effective instructional delivery, cueing, and prompting all sounded so familiar. In our settings on a daily basis we have very effective instruction for our students so that they know what their expectations are and allows them not to have down-time to eliminate them to get into trouble. We have a lot of visuals for prompting so not only do students hear us prompt us they see their color change on a board in front of them. Using this gives them time to reflect and see what we are asking of them without screaming and yelling but giving them a time to reflect and do what needs to be done. For the most part this is very efficient for a majority of the students. Knowing each student different IEP goals helps us put together different techniques to keep them motivated to want to not only behave but to learn. Though it’s tough handling undesirable behaviors it is something you as a teacher will have to do whether in a general education school or a therapeutic school. Knowing how to handle it will allow all to succeed. Before negative reinforcement, “If an action stops or avoids something unpleasant, then that action is likely to occur again in similar situations (pg.270). In my school we try to use supportive responses to problem behavior before it escalades. Some supportive responses can be a simple break, a self, a two minute, a talk with the social worker, or even a resource room. All these steps that we use on a daily basis gives our students the chance to succeed and learn. I found chapter seven to be very interesting because it is a lot of what is in front of me on a daily basis.