Thursday, March 11, 2010

Correlation of Instructional Strategy and Behaviorist Learning Theories

According the the authors of the book Using Technology in the Classroom, they indicate that, Instructional strategy of reinforcing efforts enhances students' understanding of the relationship between effort and achievement by addressing their attitudes and belief about learning. (Hubell, Kuhn, Malenoski, 2007).
On the other hand Judy and Jean in their book Theoretical Foundations, suggested that according to behaviorist, the learner acquires behaviours, skills, and knowledge in response to the rewards, and punishments, or withheld responses associated to a behaviour. (Lever-Duffy, MC Donald 2008)
I strongly believe that students need a clear understanding of what is expected of them within a classroom environment. When expectations are realized students can begin to associate effort with achievement. When student have understood the importance of success, their behaviousr are changed for the better, and rewards are expected.
In order for student to develop the effects of effort and achievement, they need to have a scale on which they can align themselves. This can be introduce with the use of technology. Students may even get involved into the decision making process of rewards for efforts and achievement.
The collection of their data is essential for reflection and and can be used as a tools for future experiments of students behaviour as it relates to effort and achievement.
References:
Lever-Duffy,J,
MC Donald J, 2008 Theoretical Foundations (Laureate Education Inc)
Pitler H Hubbell, E,Kuhn M, Malenoski, 2007, Understanding Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, Alexandria, VA

4 comments:

  1. Diana,
    Have you incorporated a student-created Microsoft Excel spreadhsheet yet into your content area? Prior to this week's readings, I have never had student track their porgress with the help of technology. I will be incorporating it during the last quarter of this school year to give students the opportunity visually see their progress. Although some theorists suggest that behaviorism is becoming obsolete in modern school programs, this behaviorist-approach to instilling a love for learning within students seems quite effective and useful.
    I'm interested in seeing who has involved such progress monitoring strategies through the use of technology into their classrooms, and how beneficial it is for their students.
    Thank you,
    Josh

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  2. You make an interesting comment about students needing to a clear understanding of the expectations. The referenced book discusses the importance of immediate feedback and how technology can address this need. Your comment made me question this. As a teacher, we define the expectations and achievement levels based on the individual student. Technology assesses without the individual child in mind. We need to remember that it is still the responsibility of the educator to help the child set reasonable goals and verify that the student is achieving appropriately.

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  3. A program such as Microsoft Excel works great to track progress in behavior and/or grades. However, the goals students set must clear and specific in order to be measurable. The program would not work with a goal such as "I want to get better grades". A child would need to write "I want to earn at least an 85% by the end of this nine week period". Then, he/she could tally his/her progress on a weekly basis. Another important point that Kathleen made is that the goals must be reasonable and attainable. It they are out of reach for a student, he/she will end up getting frustrated and runs the risk of giving up completely. If the teacher fears that having the student adjust his/her goal will make him/her feel as if they can never succeed, the teacher could simply phrase it in a way that tells the student that this is only the first of many goals, or the first step towards achieving the final goal.

    Nancy

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  4. In the past I have used excel for students performance, but now i use a website called "engrade", where students are able to see their grades and track performance, it works better than excel because they are able to see their grade once they are connected to the internet, and parents also have a password and login for them to see their children proformance.

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