Praise and Punishment

[Hannah Piper]

 

Unfortunately due to the Carleton Plague, I only had the chance to observe a single class period this week.

From what I saw, Jaclyn’s approach to motivating students seems to have been improving in its effectiveness. In general, with a class of 27, her interaction with students is somewhat minimal during the actual class period.  She addresses the class when they arrive, gives them their lecture, establishes the day’s goals for their projects and/or papers, and then does circuits of the classroom to observe and correct the students in their work.

For the first couple of weeks in my observation, the students didn’t seem entirely motivated in engaging in their work when they weren’t experiencing “correction.”  They didn’t appear to have rooted themselves firmly enough into the “industry vs inferiority” stage to have a drive all of their own; Jaclyn had her work cut out for her in administering correction to a group of students who were so fully out of academic shape from Covid that it seemed to be extremely difficult to move outside of the verbal “punishment” stage to one that motivated through reward.

It seems that what these students in class need is operant conditioning in order to motivate themselves into productive behavior.  Whenever students ask me a question, I make an attempt to make the interaction pleasant and encouraging for the student.  I try to make it a goal for them to approach me again, so that I can see that they are engaging with the material and learning.  I am already copying Jaclyn’s lead, but I think that she could try to reward students more with her attention when they answer her questions.

I believe that I am personally much more closely aligned with behaviorists.  I have seen firsthand how students have changed in the classroom from external correction.

Currently, in their final Lord of the Flies projects, the students seem more engaged than ever in their learning.  Just like with a dog, after Jaclyn has appeared to have gotten her bearings with managing the class’ immediate behavior problems (blatantly not working, yelling across the tables, teasing each other, speaking during lectures, etc.), she now has the freedom to reward students for properly working.  Jaclyn and I make circuits of the classroom and praise the students for their artwork or ideas.  Unlike the papers they write on their computers, the students seem actively engaged and not attempting to hide their screens of whatever movie they’re watching during class.  I think that now that students have realized that they can be rewarded for doing their work, that this means that good work isn’t impossible, and that this attention is motivation enough to continue.

 

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