Behaviorism in Practice

The instructional strategy of “reinforcing effort” has the potential to make a considerable difference with student achievement. When students are able to make connections from their own data input and see the results it should have a greater impact on them. I think this is important because what we are really talking about it changing their perception or beliefs. The realization that they can actually have some control can be powerful encouragement to buy in. I teach in an inner city high school where 100% of students qualify for free or reduced meals. There is not much in their lives that students have power or control over. They often feel hopeless and that NOTHING they do matters. If we can use spread sheets to show them the effort they make can change the outcome, they may feel empowered. The only problem I see with this is that they may not be honest about how much effort they actually put toward their work. Or their perception of great effort may not be realistic.

I have had some experience with Brainpop.com (mentioned in chapter 10). My students like to do the quizzes after watching a short video on the site. They like the review quiz because it gives them immediate feedback on whether they have chosen correctly. I use a laptop and projector and we do the quiz as a group. Before we click on a choice we sometimes have lively debate and discussion on which choice is the correct response. The students are usually pretty engaged during these quizzes. The immediate reinforcement is there when they get the right answer. If they choose incorrectly they go back and choose again. This seems to me to be in line with the behaviorist theory.