As part of my masters program I have been asked to look at two instructional strategies and correlate these with the principles of behaviorist learning theory. B.F.Skinner developed behaviorist learning theory stating that learning is a manifestation of behavior and that behaviors can be programmed into students by reinforcing desirable behaviors with rewards and eliminating undesirable behaviors by punishing. The two instructional strategies that I am correlating with the principles of this learning theory are ‘reinforcing effort’, and ‘homework and practice’ detailed in the classes resources.
The reinforcing effort strategy stresses the importance of making students realize the importance of putting effort into any work that they undertake by having them document and compare their efforts against their achievements. To do this, it is important to first create a rubric so that students know what different levels of effort look like, students then self assess the amount of effort they put into tasks and chart this with the grade obtained from completing the task. This strategy is designed to allow the students to clearly see how their efforts correlate with their grades and will thus spur them on to put greater effort into work they complete in the future. The reinforcing effort theory also stresses that it is important for students to see the successes of other student’s hard work and efforts and this can be done with the use of bulletin boards and online postings that celebrate the achievements and success stories of other students at the school (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). This type of strategy goes hand in hand with behaviorist learning theory whereby desirable behaviors are reinforced with rewards and recognition to encourage similar behaviors in the future.
The homework and practice strategy is about giving students an opportunity to extend and reinforce the knowledge and skills and understanding that they developed in class. The theory stresses that if homework is set it should be clear about its purpose and expected outcome, feedback should be given to the students and it should try to focus on giving students the practice they need to develop and master skills in specific areas stating that “multiple exposures to material help students deepen their understanding of content and become proficient with skills.” Technology is now an integral part of most of our students’ lives and setting homework to be completed online is a reasonable expectation, collaborative homework assignments can be completed on wikis with discussions also taking place on skype and other chat forums. Technology can also be used to create ‘drill and practice’ quizzes and games that students can complete online to reinforce their classroom learning. This type of drill and practice activity is also an integral part of behaviorist learning theory where desirable behaviors (e.g. answering all the questions correctly) are rewarded by allowing the student to progress to the next question or level of the game or puzzle. I teach a mechanisms unit in one of my classes and in the resources I found a website that is a nice example of where I could use this type of drill and practice type of online questionnaire can be found at the following website where students could again read a recap about the three types of lever that they had previously learned about in my class, they would then go on to answer a series of questions about the three classes of lever. The website link is: www.elizrosshubbell.com/levertutorial (Hubbell, 2004).
References
Hubbell, E. (2004). Lever Tutorial. Www.elizrosshubbell.com. Retrieved from http://www.elizrosshubbell.com/levertutorial/Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Tom-
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the connections you made in your post. I realized that we had pretty similar opinions in our blog posts. I also enjoyed how you mentioned using wikis and Skype for online collaboration for homework. It really shows a shift in philosophy from rote memorization to collaboration. I also agree with you that under certain circumstances, both are appropriate. The skills that can be repeated and practiced through homework should be, and collaboration also has its benefits. To integrate both philosophies uses the best of both worlds.
Tom,
ReplyDeleteI like how you discuss online homework assignments. I cannot assign them, however, because not all my students have internet access at home. I have assigned long-term homework assignments through a wiki and provided time after school and during lunch for students to complete the assignment in my computer lab, though. Also, I have used wikis for collaborative projects starting this year. I introduced Google Docs to some students and they found it a helpful, easy-to-use way to work collaboratively on a project both in and out of school. If you have not used it, I think you may find Google Docs a good option to give students. You can find it by going to www.docs.google.com.
Sarah