For the student, the very act of coming to the Student Service Center is both extrinsically and intrinsically reinforced. The extrinsic reinforcement comes from getting an opportunity to complete the student’s assignments, pass the class, and eventually graduate from high school. The intrinsic reinforcement, I believe, lies in the student’s desire to complete the class simply for the completion’s sake and to feel the gratification of receiving credit for their work. In fact, I think even the extrinsic reinforcement has intrinsic undertones because the students understand that the chain of “do the work-pass the class-graduate” will open a lot more doors to them in the future. Additionally, I have heard from Ms. Battaglia that some teachers offer extra credit if the students go to the Student Service Center; this is another form of extrinsic reinforcement because the act of going to the Center leads to an improvement in the student’s grade. However, this particular reinforcement, I believe, is ill-informed since it does not emphasize doing the work, but rather it rewards simply being at a place where one could do work (but may choose not to).

An example of what I believe is operant conditioning that I have seen at the Center itself typically occurs between the promise fellow, Sebastian, and one of the students. Sebastian is extremely knowledgeable about American history (he was an American studies major in college) and this student loves discussing controversial issues in American history with Sebastian. However, Sebastian always says to this student that first he needs to complete at least one assignment before they can chat. Therefore, the student’s behavior of doing homework at the SSC is reinforced by getting to have an exciting conversation with Sebastian once the work is done. In this model, the student comes to the center and sees Sebastian (his cue) and responds by doing his homework (response), which is later reinforced by chatting with Sebastian (positive reinforcement). I am not sure of Sebastian himself is aware of this type of conditioning going on, but it certainly seems to work.

I am not sure where on the behaviorist/cognitivist spectrum I would fall. I would say that I agree with most of the neobehaviorist ideas (as formulated by Bandura), but I also like the idea of cognitive processes (i.e. thinking and decision-making) playing a central role in my behavior. In other words, I find it a little disheartening to think of humans as machines that are simply programmed by certain reinforcements and/or observations to carry out particular actions. However, I cannot deny that observing other people exhibit certain behaviors makes the occurrence of that behavior in ourselves more likely. I guess I would say that I am neither behaviorist nor cognitivist but something in-between the two.

A bit of a random observation that may be relevant to Bandura’s theory is that whenever I share my own academic struggles with the students at the Center, they seem to be more at ease and are more comfortable asking me for help or telling me what they don’t understand about the assignment. I guess seeing me as just another student (similar to themselves) who goes through similar issues, makes me a better model for them. In their mind, it may be that if this girl can struggle but still do okay in the end, so can I. I believe that making myself look more like a real, complete person to my students makes them less intimidated and therefore more likely to seek out the help they need because they learn that everyone (including the more “successful” ones of us) sometimes need help, too.