BehaviorismBy: Megan McDonald

Behaviorism the theory:

What is behavioris

m?

Who has helped the theory to develop?

How is it used?

How I plan to use it in

my classroom.

What is behaviorism?

• Behaviorism is primarily concerned with observable and measurable aspects of human behavior.

• Behavior is directed by stimuli.

• Behaviorists assert that the only behaviors worthy of study are those that can be directly observed; thus, it is actions, rather than thoughts or emotions, which are the legitimate object of study.

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More about behaviorism…

• In education, advocates of behaviorism have effectively adopted this system of rewards and punishments in their classrooms by rewarding desired behaviors and punishing inappropriate ones.

• For example, if a teacher wishes to teach the behavior of remaining seated during the class period, the successful student's reward might be checking the teacher's mailbox, running an errand, or being allowed to go to the library to do homework at the end of the class period.

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Who has advocated this theory:

• Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) was studying the digestive process and the interaction of salivation and stomach function when he realized that reflexes in the autonomic nervous system closely linked these phenomena.

• To determine whether external stimuli had an affect on this process, Pavlov rang a bell when he gave food to the experimental dogs.

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More contributors: • Skinner developed a more

comprehensive view of conditioning, known as operant conditioning.

• His model was based on the premise that satisfying responses are conditioned, while unsatisfying ones are not.

• Operant conditioning is the rewarding of part of a desired behavior or a random act that approaches it.

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How it would be used in the classroom:

• By teachers:

• The teachers could use rewards and punishment in the classroom to follow operant conditioning.• For example if a student answers a question right they get

candy, or a gold star. • Or if they get 3 A’s in a row on quizzes they get extra free

time.

• If the teachers wanted to use classical conditioning they could correlate an activity with a desired response.• For example they could turn the lights off and ask the students

to be silent. After I few times when the teacher turns the lights off the students will become silent without being asked.

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Behaviorism in the classroom

• By students:

• On the students end they will be responding to the stimuli.

• They will receive reinforcement for the actions and either chose to repeat them or stop.• For example if they answer correctly

and receive a reward they will be more likely to repeat this action.

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How I plan to use this in my classroom:

• I plan to use operant conditioning in my classroom by positive and negative reinforcement.• I want to have a point system in the class room where

you receive a certain number of points for an assignment based on your grade.

• The points will be used for things like; a homework pass (an excuse for one homework assignment), an extra bathroom pass, extra credit, and so on.

• The students can chose to use their points whenever they want to or let them all add up and use them later on. Each item they can “purchase” with their points will be worth a different amount, so if they chose to save the points they can “buy” different things.• For example the extra credit option will be worth more

points than the bathroom pass.1 of 2

More about my classroom

• The negative will be that if they receive less than a C on the assignment or quiz they will not receive points, and if they miss an assignment or quiz they will lose points. • This will make the students want to turn in

every assignment and do well on them, as well as study for the quizzes and come to class to take them.

• I also plan to allow any students who never lost any points, to receive extra points added to their mid term and final exam.

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