This week we compared and contrasted Behavior Learning Theory and Cognitive Learning Theory. Skinner, the king of BLT, believes that if we want to affect the behavior of our students then we need to be consistent in our responses because learning is the process of acquiring accumulative consequences of behavior. As a teacher, this means I need to have a stable, safe, consistent classroom in which my expectations for behavior and deliverables are reinforced through positive reinforcement. Bad behavior will be ignored.
Cognitive Learning Theorists believe that if we want learners to succeed, we need to assist learners in their quest to make meaning of new information because learners make meaning of new ideas and experiences through connection to their current conceptual framework. As a teacher, this means I will need to confirm my student's zone of proximal development and level of understanding/misunderstanding regularly. This will likely play out via short jeapardy-style questions at the beginning of class and flash cards they fill out with "something I learned today" and "questions I still have".
Sue,
ReplyDeleteYou wrote: Bad behavior will be ignored.
Not doing assignments, being disruptive in class, tardiness, cheating, violent outbursts, etc. all arguably "bad behavior" will be ignored by you?
Please explain a bit how you intend to ignore behaviors that disrupt the learning environment.
What is the definition of ZPD? And how do you indend do "confirm it?"
GNA
Hi GNA,
ReplyDeleteYour comments certainly bring up realities of "bad behavior" that I had not considered. First, as a pedagogy, I believe that when dealing with students one really needs to make an effort to see the student and consider if there is a context for the bad behavior which I (as a concerned teacher) need to be aware of. I believe that according to BLT, extinguishing bad behavior at the level you are describing would require a consistent, possibly increasingly negative response. For example, being disruptive in class or being tardy results in a "check": three checks results in a detention. Subsequent disruptions and tardies requires parental involvement. Cheating results in a zero for the assignment. Subsequent cheating requires possibly essays of the importance of having a good character and parental involvement. Responses to violent outbursts will be based on context. I am not committed to these ideas, but I will keep them in my toy box of teaching ideas.
The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is the range of student’s understanding that extends from that which students can accomplish on their own to that which they can achieve with a more knowledgeable other. I intend to confirm this by constantly asking questions related to the student's understanding; hopefully using assessment questions that include both lower and higher levels of "understanding"