Chance vs Kohn

R6

Can it be said that teachers do not use reinforcement because they don't truly understand what it is?

" ....... the child who learns the Pythagorean theorem at the hands of a teacher who provides frequent feedback and praise does not suddenly forget Pythagoras because his next teacher no longer pays attention to his efforts. Nor is there any reason to think that student who are paid to read become illiterate when the money runs out" (Chance 1993, p. 127).

I had the experience of observing an orchestra class at a middle school in Fayette County. There were two teachers instructing the class of 6th graders. One teacher was in the front directing while the other was moving around. Chance stated that teachers infrequently use reinforcement in the classroom and inadvertently reinforce negative behavior. These two teachers were observed for an hour. During this time they were constantly reinforcing behaviors. They were clearly using what Chance called Performance Contingency Reward (Chance 1992,  p. 119). Students were praised for their progress regardless to how small it was. The teachers never used negative words such as "don't" "no" "not" "incorrect" When the students played a note incorrectly they were corrected through modeling and verbal guidance. They were praised for the things that they did correctly. I noticed that the students were smiling when they were given the guidance. These teachers never had to raise their voices and had the full attention of the 27 students.

B. F. Skinner (1984) postulated that teachers need to be taught how to teach. He also stated that the students needed to have immediate feedback to confirm their positive behavior. Chance (1992) stated in his article that teachers shy away from using reinforcement and sometimes believe that reinforcement is the same as punishment. This misunderstanding points out the lack of knowledge that teachers have about reinforcement. The fact that they do not understand what it is makes it difficult for them to implement it effectively. Skinner's belief that teachers should be taught to teach then should include them being taught what reinforcements are and how to effectively use them in the classroom.

Skinner, B. F. (1984). The shame of American education. American Psychologist, 42, 947-954.

Behaviorism Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amj-Z8UoFjA&feature=player_embedded

This short clip is of the new Karate Kid 2010 starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. I want to focus on the jacket off jacket on conditioning. Jackie Chan makes Jaden take his jacket off hang it up and put it back on again over and over again. Without Jaden realizing it, he was being taught karate by Jackie Chan. The movements were later connected to karate moves as well as teaching Jaden to hang up his jacket at home. The associations that Skinner as well as James mentioned can be clearly be recognized in this short clip and in the movie itself Jaden.

B. F. Skinner (1987) Whatever Happened to Psychology as the Science of Behavior & (1984) The Shame of American Education.

If individualized education programs are the key to improving America's education system, do we then dis-ban special education programs in schools of education instead of entire schools of education? or Would both general education and special education programs benefit from a overhaul in terms of teaching teachers to teach?


"There is a conspiracy of silence about teaching as a skill" (Skinner 1987). (p. 947)

Skinner talks about Psychology as a science of behavior. The three obstacles to Psychology as a science of behavior were Humanistic Psychology, Psychotherapy and Cognitive Psychology. He mentioned that these three approaches are more acceptable to us and have a better appeal than the behaviorists approach (p. 785). The behaviorist approach makes connections or causes events to external stimuli. Whereas the other three approaches seem to be about the internal causes. We are less likely to want to believe that we are controlled by something or someone other than ourselves or outside of ourselves. This is so true when we think about things that we are successful or unsuccessful at. For example, when I was learning how to play softball in junior high my coach stated that if a person has rhythm, meaning if they could dance, they are usually good at playing a sport. I had never played softball ever before but I knew that I could dance and I had rhythm. So, I automatically believed that I was good at softball. I never once believed that the verbal instruction given by the assistant coach was the reason why I knew how to catch a fly ball or a ground ball or even how to bat. I was very good at this sport that I had never played before in my life. It made me feel good to know that the fact that I could dance was the very reason I was so good at it. Even if it were not the fact that I could dance, then it had to be innate. The short period that the coaches spent in explaining the techniques in my mind could not have possibly been enough to make me as good as I was. Maybe I was born with it. My expertise in the sport as far as I was concerned was not as a result of outside stimuli.

In B. F. Skinner's (1984) article The Shame of American Education he talks about the role a cognitive psychologist can play in education. He stated that they can help to construct tests that can tell us what a student has learned and how to better teach them what they did not learn. This connection between the cognitive psychologists role in education is very similar to what school psychologists attempt to do through the use of Curriculum Based Assessments. These assessments are used to help us assess what a student knows and what he or she does not know. It gives school psychologists as well as teachers a baseline of where the student is and how to structure instruction or prescribe an intervention that would work to assist the student in the areas of weaknesses.  

Talks to Teacher Ch. 15 & Gladwell MP3

R4

Question(s): Do we then say that the impulsive acts in adolescence are the will of the individual? If this is so, then does the fact that the impulsivity decreases in adulthood mean that the older we get the more likely we are to display the narrower sense of the word will as it relates to volition?

James stated in the text that when a student is faced with a difficult task and does not get it the first time he or she is "inhibited" to it and they have a difficult time understanding it from this point on. He mentioned that the teacher should look at this difficulty as a "neural pathology" and not a "moral culpability". To this end, the only way the teacher can help the child is to divert her attention to another task to help the child forget the inhibition and return to it at a later time by making an association to the new information. The old information is presented without the child's knowledge and she does the task easily and correctly, without thinking about it (p. 89). I can easily connect my task of sewing a garment to this "circuitous" method of teaching mentioned by James. On one occasion I was putting a zipper into a garment that was lined. I read the instructions on the pattern and thought I followed it correctly but the zipper was puckered and it was not hidden as it was supposed to be. I tried reading the instructions three more times and attempted the task three more times. It was still incorrect. I had to take the zipper out four times and in doing so the fabric started to fray. So I left the garment and came back to it two hours later but started on another section. I told myself that if I got everything else done I would be forced to get the zipper correct. I worked o the garment late into the night and early morning moving from one section to the other. When I got to the zipper I could not remember what I was having difficulty with and the task went smoothly and I was able to complete the garment at three in the morning. 

In the text James encourages teachers to teach their student the notion of "good" by only presenting them the good. It would seem that this is his answer to free will. If an individual chooses the good because this is the natural propensity then there is no choice and "will" becomes a moot point and the individual is less stressed because the choice he makes is natural and without negative consequence. Lawrence Kohlberg, on the other hand, believed that children had their own moral judgment development. He called children “moral philosophers” who did not make decisions based on consequences of law or feelings of guilt. He postulated that they developed their own moral judgment based on their social relationships (Walsh 2000). If social relationships were of import then these individuals would try to give the right response as it relates to the teacher. So, in James' response to teaching the truth then it would be very easy for children to make the moral decision based on their relationship with the teacher. However, if the truth is contrary to that of other individuals they have social relationships with, would they then be able to go with the non-truth even though the teacher did not expose them to it?

References

Walsh, C. (2000). The life and legacy of Lawrence Kohlberg. Society, 37(2), 38-41. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier Database.

Talks to Teachers by William James (Chapters 10 -14)

R3

I wonder. Do the advertising agencies use these facts about dramatic effects and associations to create their commercials? I ask this because it seems like the more shocking or more ridiculous the commercial jingle, the more one tends to remember it. Whether this translates to higher sales is another thing but these silly songs or musical notes tend to be ingrained in our minds somehow long after we hear them.

William James’ chapter on memory was very thought provoking. He mentioned that “the secret of a good memory is thus the secret of forming diverse and multiple associations with every fact we care to retain” (p. 61).

In a previous written response I mentioned the fact that we remember things that we may not have realized that we were paying attention to. James stated that the involuntary attention is the most effective in retaining a subject’s interest. He continued on to say that things with dramatic quality are of most interest to students (p. 47). According to the text James believes that teachers should not have to create moments where students can display effort (p. 56). The learning is more effective and is longer lasting when the information is native to the student and he or she is less deliberate in their attention (p. 51). I have observed a student in a classroom setting who seemed to be displaying what James referred to as passive attention. He hardly ever raised his head to look in the direction of the teacher when she was instructing the class and seemed to not be paying attention. The teacher explained that the behavior was typical of the student each day. She explained that he is however her brightest student and that he performs extremely well on all of her assignments.

When reading these chapters I thought about human development as it relates to how one learns. James talks about the teacher presenting object information to students but neglecting the importance of the abstract to the learning process. What was very interesting was that he talks about abstract teaching and learning and the readiness of the individual to successfully receive the information. He postulates that even the very young can benefit from the abstract learning if it is presented at their level (p. 74). Jean Piaget’s stages of cognitive development outlines the capabilities of individuals at four levels of cognitive development. The stages are the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operation, and formal operations. Piaget insisted that we all followed these steps and that there were certain things that we are capable of doing at each stage. He was aware that teaching and experiences could speed up development but he was adamant about the fact that we all went through the stages in the very same order (Vander Zanden, Crandell & Crandell 2007). This order of cognitive development by Piaget can be compared to James’ thought that abstract information has to present at the correct level. In contrast, James believed that even the young can “enjoy abstractions” (p. 74). Piaget however introduced age ranges for which individuals develop certain cognitive abilities. In his stages abstractions only begin to occur in the concrete operational stage when individuals were 7years to 11 years of age. Piaget however stated that these developments can be delayed or sped up but occur in the same order (Vander Zanden et al., 2007). So, in this instance the abstraction readiness that James mentioned is based on where the child is developmentally and not based on the age of the child.

References

Vander Zanden, J. W., Crandell, T. L., &Crandell, C. H.  (2007) . Early childhood: cognitive and

physical development. In E. Barrosse, M. Sugarman & J. Kromm (Eds.), Human

Development (224-261) . New York, NY: McGrawhill.