Atlas, Week 6

[Anonymous]

This week, the video I was most interested in was video 783. It showed a teacher working one-on-one with a Kindergarten student who had some exceptional needs. The goal was to teach him “proper” behavior for the classroom, and they worked on practicing how to sit + stand + then worked together to determine what volume (level 0-4) would be appropriate in a variety of situations. She was extremely positive with him, regularly referring to him as “a rockstar”, describing his ideas as “great” or “excellent” and incorporating his ideas into their story. While in the teacher comments, she notes that this student often had difficulty following instructions both at home and at school, he was engaged and well-behaved in this particular video. Additionally, while they discussed the use of both negative and positive reinforcement (for example, smiley face stickers for good behavior and frowny faces for bad behavior), this particular teacher used only positive reinforcement with the student. In general, I think positive reinforcement should be prioritized, but I do think this video seemed to suggest that some negative reinforcement can be helpful for certain students (for example, it seemed like this student, in other environments, needed both positive reinforcement and some occasional negative reinforcement).

In the below image, you can see them working together on the story modeling proper behavior. He is in the main character in the story, and discussing incorporating one of his classmates “Ashley” into the video. The teacher is typing what he is dictating to her and adding commentary/positive reinforcement as appropriate.

Additionally, this video reinforced my belief that cognitivism is stronger than behaviorism. In this particular video, while they did spend some time working on how to properly sit or stand, most of the time was spent making up a story about correct behavior; for example, be at a level 0 noise in the computer lab, a level 1 noise when speaking to peers, and a level 3 noise if you are a teacher trying to make sure all students can hear. This showed that the student understood cognitively the reason for the behavior, thus making it more effective. Thus, in a classroom, a teacher should strive to ensure that the students understand the task and are not just blindly doing something.

I would also be interested to know what others think about negative reinforcement. Prior to watching this week’s videos, I was fairly confident that positive reinforcement was much more effective than negative reinforcement (it certainly was with me). However, in this particular scenario, the student did not seem obviously upset by the notion that negative reinforcement would be used if a student did not properly follow directions (although the teacher in practice only used positive reinforcement). On the other hand, I was also not sure if the student would be more upset by negative reinforcement and find it shaming in practice. How do you all think negative reinforcement should be used? Do you think certain students or certain behaviors will respond well to negative reinforcement, while other students will find it shaming and ineffective?

I was also curious about how people linked behaviorism and negative/positive reinforcement. Oftentimes, it seems that students subscribe to an early level of moral reasoning in which they say “I’m going to do X or Y because I’ll get a reward/ I’ll get punished”. Additionally, this seems particularly true with regards to negative reinforcement in my own personal experience (although I would be curious what others think). Particularly if you believe in cognitivism, what do you think the most effective way to reward/punish children is so that they understand the reason why and not just the end result?

Finally, I was also curious about people’s opinion regarding the Watson behaviorism statement of give me the baby and I’ll make it into whatever. I do think there is some individual ability inherent in people (although certainly environment also plays a huge role). Additionally, switching to the example of dogs, I have a 4 year old french bulldog and while I’m sure he could have learned some of the tricks that Dash knows, I think Baguette under similar circumstances would probably know fewer tricks than Dash does. Considering this example, to what extent do you buy this theory that men (or dogs) are built, not borne?

Also, just for fun, here’s Baguette:

• This topic was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by Tonja Clay.

[Author]

Posts