As seen in the child’s reaction after the teacher’s social reinforce, this observation provides much instruction in education. Instead of consistently demanding children to be quiet and punishing them for any disruptive behavior, teachers need to provide children the small gestures of approval and attention. All children require attention and love, and usually, the most disruptive children are the most neglected ones. To provide children the attention they demand, a teacher can show them appraisal through smiles, winks, and praises. This observation validated the theory of social reinforcements increasing a child’s behavioral frequency. I was surprised to see how well a simple smile affected the child’s behavior, and the change of behavior …show more content…
According to the Law of Effect, individuals will repeat the behavior that includes good effects and avoid those with bad effects. This theory explains why reinforcers work, and it provides insight on how to utilize reinforcers for learning. Learning refers to the process of permanently changed behavior because of experience. Reinforcers provide children the experiences needed to understand the information to learn. Reinforcers’ effectiveness depend on children’s cultures, ages, and genders. Social reinforcers are the easiest and most encouraging reinforcers to children, enhancing their learning. Activity and tangible reinforcers can teach kids that sucessful performances are directly associated with rewards and to only perform a task for that reward. Mrs. Walden agreed that she does not approve of tangible reinforcers, and she strongly believes that social reinforcers are the most effective reinforcers when dealing with children. Although goal-oriented behavior is one milestone in the stages of cognitive development, educators need to adjust the goal to the correct motivator. In the beginning, children make decisions that serve them best, but educators need to stamp on their students the ability to perform a task for self-improvement and obedience. As learned in this course, two groups of children were given the same test. The first group of students were encouraged for their effort while the second group were praised for their performance. Then, both groups were assigned a more difficult test, and the difference in behavior underlines an important theme. The first group was more inspired to attempt the test while the second group felt discouraged, because they could not perform as well as they previously did. This study substantiated the importance of correct social reinforcers. The performance praise (social reinforcer), activity, and tangible
teach new skills and decrease challenging behaviors” (pg. 24). Based on my own observation, I’ve seen teachers implement a token economy (e.g., happy faces, stars, and stickers of different forms) to shape and reinforce positive behavior in the classroom. To maintain instructional control, tokens would be delivered immediately to a student when following simple instructions (e.g., following circle time, cleaning
...l behavior by educating youth, and youth are more likely to respond positively when being taught by other youth (Strobel, p.1).
Behavior modification is based on the principles of operant conditioning, which were developed by American behaviorist B.F. Skinner. In his research, he put a rat in a cage later known as the Skinner Box, in which the rat could receive a food pellet by pressing on a bar. The food reward acted as a reinforcement by strengthening the rat's bar-pressing behavior. Skinner studied how the rat's behavior changed in response to differing patterns of reinforcement. By studying the way the rats operated on their environment, Skinner formulated the concept of operant conditioning, through which behavior could be shaped by reinforcement or lack of it. Skinner considered his discovery applicable to a wide range of both human and animal behaviors(“Behavior,” 2001).
The ideas of this article intrigued me because of the information presented in the beginning paragraphs. This article elaborates upon how important the ability of being able to distinguish between positive and negative emotions is. Through the faces presented in the start of the article, I learned that affective development “generally precedes cognitive and behavioral development, as children experience emotions and react to them long before they are able to verbalize or cope. However, social and emotional competencies do not unfold automatically; rather they are strongly influenced by the child’s early learning environment” (Kramer, Caldarella, Christensen & Shatzer 2010). As an educator, I feel as though this is a pertinent piece of important information. Oftentimes students will view school as their safe-haven, and, with all the struggles that they are facing at home, emotions are let loose in the wrong ways. This social-emotional learning program reportedly help...
In this paper I will be discussing the information I have learned from the article “From Positive Reinforcement to Positive Behaviors”, by Ellen A. Sigler and Shirley Aamidor. The authors stress the importance of positive reinforcement. The belief is that teachers and adults should be rewarding appropriate behaviors and ignoring the inappropriate ones. The authors’ beliefs are expressed by answering the following questions: Why use positive reinforcement?, Are we judging children’s behaviors?, Why do children behave in a certain way?, Do we teach children what to feel?, Does positive reinforcement really work?, and How does positive reinforcement work?. The following work is a summary of "Positive Reinforcement to Positive Behaviors" with my thoughts and reflection of the work in the end.
First of all, I was highly interested in the concept and various factors that together make up positive reinforcement. I had a premise that I could do some experimental work on the three children for whom I baby-sit during the week after school. They leave school full of energy and it is my job to get them to complete a series of tasks before the end of the evening. I imagined that some positive reinforcement might get them on their way to handling their responsibilities in a timelier manner. My first step was to come up with a specific instrumental response that would produce reinforcement. This took no time at all because by far the most painfully difficult thing for me to do is get the children to sit down and do their homework. I then spoke specifically to each child and asked them what they would rather choose as an after school activity. They named video games, television, and going to play with other neighborhood children. I had expected these types of answers from the children and made them into the positive reinforcers that would be contingent on the children’s performance of the instrumental response; namely completing their homework. I explained to the children that if they behaved and finished their homework, then directly following they could spend an hour doing an activity of their choice.
Offering specific praise for a job well done on a particular assignment, chore, or activity encourages a greater feeling of positive moral. Awards are acceptable as encouragement and rewards for jobs well done, but not as bribes to complete required activities (Wright, 2012). These methods are suitable for early training of children in activities such as good behavior, self-control, and the completion of daily chores and responsibilities. As the child learns to repeat the behavior over and over, the need for reinforcement by praise and treats become less. The child will learn that it actually feels good and right to complete the task under their own motivation; “I did it!”
Behavior and social learning are two theories that are inherently intertwined. Behavior to some extent is taught for social reasons, and social learning can very much shape and create behaviors. While behavior is something intentionally taught, social learning can teach and reinforce many unintentional behaviors, such as dishonesty or aggression. In order to adequately discuss these two interrelated topics, theory exploration is in order.
B.F. Skinner is a major contributor to the Behavioral Theory of personality, a theory that states that our learning is shaped by positive and negative reinforcement, punishment, modeling, and observation. An individual acts in a certain way, a.k.a. gives a response, and then something happens after the response. In order for an action to be repeated in the future, what happens after the response either encourages the response by offering a reward that brings pleasure or allows an escape from a negative situation. The former is known as positive reinforcement, the latter known as negative reinforcement (Sincero, 2012). A teenager who received money for getting an “A” is being positively reinforced, while an individual who skips a class presentation is being negatively reinforced by escaping from the intense fear and anxiety that would have occurred during the presentation.
It is crucial for us to understand the fundamentals of the development of a child as there are countless ways to conduct lessons and to understand why children would react differently at this time to another time when they are completing a certain task. Furthermore, children develop uniquely and their development milestones differ from one another. Thus, a teacher must be cognizant of each child’s progress before conducting the class. This will help the teacher to plan and organize the lesson materials and the lesson time appropriately. There are two theories I would like to share in regards to child development: peer social interaction and cognitive development.
How to Use Positive Reinforcement to Address Child Behavior Problems - Ways to Effectively Promote Good Behavior By Amy Morin
The reward system is a beneficial behavioral modification teaching method, which promotes more positive behaviors in the classroom (Charles & Barr, 2014). Many teachers generally use the reward method of praise within their classrooms for a variety of reasons. The first advantage of using praise within the classroom is because it encourages students do repeat positive behaviors in the classroom. Many children are simply looking for attention and enjoy it, which makes it a great technique to use in the classroom (Charles & Barr, 2014). Another advantage for this reward type is that due to the encouragement, the students are able to perform at a better rate; students excel academically. A final advantage to using praise is that it is easily implemented into the classroom and requires little to no preparation. This makes the reward method a great addition for teachers as well as students because students get instant feedback without
Mcleod (2015) in examining the use of operant conditioning explained that token economy is a system in which targeted behaviours are reinforced with tokens which are considered secondary reinforcers and later exchanged for rewards which is classified as the primary reinforcers. Token economy is one of the most commonly used behaviour management interventions, especially in settings where students have learning or behavioural challenges. A token economy involves giving tokens, chips, stickers, points, stars, or other items to students who demonstrate desired behaviours identified by the teacher. These tokens are then exchanged periodically for rewards, which are usually items or activities that the student desires (McIntyre, n.d). Alberto
Levine, A. (1999). What is negative reinforcement? Negative Reinforcement University. Retrieved on November 14, 2003 from http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/proj/nru/index.html
Social facilitation refers to the tendency one has to perform better at a simple task when they are being observed by an authority figure or an audience. However, when the task is not simple or easy, they may perform worse because they become nervous or feel as though they are under too much pressure. A great example of social facilitation can be described using a study performed by Norman Triplett in 1898 in which he did a research study on cyclists. When the cyclists were racing against one another, rather than against a clock, their speed increased because they were competing with each other. This also explains the co-action effect, in which people will have an increase in their performance on a task when they are around others who are performing the same task. Another explanation could be the audience effect, wh...