Peduncle!

[Alec Kotler]

During this week of observing a class as well as the prior weeks in which I have observed class, I have noticed many kinds of reinforcers that are used to help motivate and shape the students’ behavior. The clear reinforcer that is heavily utilized by Mr. Johnson in the classroom is primarily his response to student participation. Whenever students give an insightful answer, especially during a dull part of the class when there is not much student contribution or activity, Mr. Johnson reacts with excitement and pleasure. For example, today in the class the students were watching a video on cellular respiration and Mr. Johnson would pause the video to ask questions every so often. At first, the students were hesitant to respond but then when the first student responded to a question and Mr. Johnson replied emphatically “exactly. Great answer!”, more students would answer subsequent questions. Mr. Johnson’s reaction was clear and consistent. His reaction is always immediate. He is conditioning his students to participate through positive reinforcement. This encourages students to participate more because they feel that their responses are meaningful and important. This motivates and facilitates learning because more students will pay attention and participate in order to get this positive result from a teacher they respect. This sort of exchange, which I have watched unfold many times, mirrors the reading’s example of respondent conditioning with the new smiling teacher in the classroom and the cautious student. The students in Mr. Johnson’s class seem to have “learned” to like engaging with him and participating. Their behavior becomes both generalized and intrinsic.

Mr. Johnson does not only include positive reinforcement in his teaching to facilitate certain behaviors. He also incorporates negative reinforcement and some use of punishment as well. A couple kids that I have observed in his classes seem to enjoy the attention of responding in class, but have not entirely embraced the protocols of participation or due so in a bit of a disruptive and impulsive way. This leads to a lot of blurting out and forgetting to raise their hand. Mr. Johnson, I have noticed as this year progresses, is tacitly ignoring their more disruptive habits. He simply ignores them when they answer out of turn. This has effectively reinforced an idea that they won’t get their answer in to the teacher/or attention from the teacher unless they raise their hand. By ignoring the students, they are more inclined to raise their hand so they can achieve the attention they are seeking from the teacher and their classmates. Further, often when this happens other students in the class will make a face or shake their head in a way that communicates they too are annoyed by their peer calling out. The peers here are participating in the reinforcement along with the teacher.

Mr. Johnson also incorporates some punishment. Normally, this has to do with taking away phones as I have alluded to in previous blogs. Phones are distracting to the students as well as their classmates and Mr. Johnson does not tolerate it, reasonably so. He takes away phones with the goal in mind that his students will behave and focus so they can learn. After reading about Skinner, I have considered if this is the most effective way to handle this issue. Would Mr. Johnson be better off if he, for example, offered some sort of positive reinforcement to students who stay off their phones or offered 5 minute “phone time” in class for those who have completed work? I certainly think Mr. Johnson should be doing something about the phone problem but not sure if taking them away is exactly what I would do. For one thing, students have other devices as well – most of which can probably do whatever is on the phone. For high schoolers, taking the phone away I would think feels to students like parental type punishment as well. A positive reinforcer might work better here.

An example of a more cognitive approaches that the class participated in this week was a particular video assignment. The students watched a video regarding cellular respiration and had to take copious notes about specific aspects. I say specific because their notes were guided by this worksheet they filled out so it was a guided notes activity with a clear direction that Mr. Johnson wanted to take. The exercise involved, individually, focus and attention, thinking, connecting, retention and internal motivation in order to get through and complete the assignment. It was a more classic example of a cognitive approach to learning.

When it comes to student learning, I am a cognitivist at heart. There is only so much you can achieve through behaviorism, and it should be used, but learning progression is capped when there is no internal motivation and it seems as though genuine intrinsic motivation is hard to achieve through behaviorism. I think teachers can encourage behaviors that may push the students towards obtaining internal motivation for learning, but it may not on its own be sufficient. I think most students develop the thirst to know more and solve more and understand more as their own depth of knowledge grows. It’s almost like how growing bodies require more food. As students know more, they want to know more. Behaviors can certainly assist in skills or approaches that more readily move this growth along, but it seems like a cognitive approach must sit at the center of learning. Remember also, students are away from the classroom for the majority of their day. If they want to learn more, they are going to need to utilize the rest of the day to push themselves to think, make connections, think in abstract ways without any external influence. It is up to them and using just behaviorism concepts limits students.

A couple interesting observations I would like to include involve Mr. Johnson’s specific interactions with the students. First off, their quarter ends next Wednesday and a lot of students had many assignments to complete in order to catch up. Mr. Johnson freed up a lot of his afternoon for these students and said he would stay after school on this particular Friday so the students could use him as a resource. This is a very powerful message as a teacher to send to his class. He understands that life happens, especially in the midst of a pandemic, and that makes it hard to complete everything right away. Being available in a time of need builds trust within the classroom and will make Mr. Johnson’s use of behaviorism even more impactful. When our teachers at Carleton provide more office hours than others do we have more respect for those more willing to help? Do you ever think about this or do you not care about office hours? Do office hours hinder individual growth? Do we become too reliant on our teachers?

Some final, fun notes to end off the blog. PEDUNCLE! That is the name of the pumpkin’s stem that Mr. Johnson was strongly encouraging his students to remember. That was his version of immersing in the Halloween spirit. Some students were dressed up on this Halloween weekend. Mr. Johnson brought in a carved pumpkin. This was his way of having fun with the students and being part of their culture, a strategy that Vygotsky would support. Next Friday we are doing a lab which I am so excited for. We are making root beer! This is a concept that utilizes cellular respiration in a unique way through taking away oxygen which means cells will survive through fermentation–a way to produce ATP without energy. This fermentation is how root beer gets its carbonation. I am really excited and think this is a great idea to get the students excited to do a lab that is both fun and very applicable to the current academic topic!

[Paul Fairchild]

You ask an intriguing question regarding how the issue of cell phones should be handled in schools. I don’t think I’m necessarily in your teacher’s camp. I know when I was in high school, I got my phone taken away a good amount and it still never really deterred me. However, I think there may be something to using phone time as a reward, rather than punishing students too harshly. Because, let’s be honest- with the way people act toward there phones now, there’s nothing much harsher than forcibly taking that away.

I think simply a positive attitude toward phone usage, acknowledging that they’re enjoyable to use, and providing time for it as a reward is pretty brilliant. If you’re not holding punishment over their heads, and they know they’ll have time if they complete their work, they don’t have to sneak around. Win-win.

Thanks for including the peduncle tidbit. Sounds like a cool guy? Is peduncle an actual word?

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