At Northfield High’s Student Service Center, motivating students to complete their work is a challenge, so effective reinforcement has been necessary to help students with homework. The types of reinforcement I use and are used by others are largely positive. I make sure to always praise students for the work they do with me, even if their answers or approaches aren’t always correct. Of course, this reinforcement does not always look the same. For example, I won’t hand out the same praise to a student who incorrectly answers a math assignment and a student who does it perfectly. Rather, for the first student, my praise/positive reinforcement aims to increase their likelihood to try again. According to Skinner’s theory, reinforcement is most effective when it is directly linked to a specific behavior and actually reinforces that behavior. In other words, how a teacher reinforces a student is highly contextual.

Doing this in practice, however, is easier said than done. On Friday I helped a male student write an essay with which he was struggling. His troubles with the essay were largely in terms of motivation and writing-ability. Keeping him working on the essay thus became a process of finding what things to praise him on and what directions to push him. I tried to praise him in specific ways like “that is a great idea” or “what a smart things to think.” But when he would write these ideas down on the page  using blatantly incorrect grammar and punctuation it was difficult to know what to fix and what to let go. I realize that fixing certain mistakes is essential to teach this student helpful grammar for later use, but too much correction could end up feeling more like punishment than help. These types of considerations seem to connect with Vygotsky’s theory of ZPD. In order to help a student make progress in a certain skill, the student must not be pushed beyond what they can do. It is interesting to think about the ways cognitive and behavioral approaches to learning can support one another rather than simply thinking about their differences. In sum, classroom applications of Skinner’s theory are not always straightforward.

Another kind of behavioral reinforcement at the SSC is observational. Role modeling is one of the most important roles of the college tutors who work there. For example, last Monday I was placed at a table where two students were playing video games on their phones instead of doing homework. Ms. Bataglia went up to them and told them they could finish their games, but that once they were done they needed to start working, and that I was there to help them. My help never grew beyond my presence. For the rest of the hour, I did homework of my own while they followed my lead and worked individually.

At heart, I believe I am a cognitivist when it comes to student learning. I clearly recognize how essential behavioral aspects of learning are to the functioning of a school and classroom. However, when it comes to learning important concepts and theories, I understand it best in terms of schema, the concepts and categories we use to organize information in our heads. Behavioral learning, to me, sometimes feels most relevant in schools to set up the proper conditions for cognitive learning. In other words, certain attitudes and behaviors are conditioned in students to make them susceptible to the learning that will eventually take place in their heads, not their behaviors. Of course, the line is not always so clear, so my opinion relies more upon my general intuition than a rational reasoning.

My other observations from the week:

On Friday I worked with two students closely on essays. The first student is a girl who has come to me now three times for assistance on one specific essay. The fact that a student would actively seek out my help on an assignment (she only comes on the days I am there) makes me feel like a useful and effective tutor. Sometimes, I definitely do not feel this way, but this student has certainly boosted my confidence. I feel like I am starting to get a good understanding of effective tutoring strategies, especially for writing essays. In my opinion, writing is one of the most important skills a student can learn in school, so helping these students with essays feels bigger than writing a good thesis. I am enjoying my time in the SSC!

A picture of the SSC: