Module 3

Chapter 7 Behavioral Views of Learning 

and 

Chapter 13 Managing Learning Environments

Highlight Review

This weeks reading about behavior views of learning and how to manage learning environments are two chapters that pretty much seemed to go hand in hand-- in fact to manage a classroom I would think it is important to understand behavioral views and how to enforce them in a classroom, so I'll get right to my highlight take away from each chapter. 

This week in chapter 7, we cover what is positive and negative reinforcement in relation to punishment. We define punishment, we also discover types of consequences, antecedents and behavior change as well as methods for encouraging behaviors. The highlight of this chapter for me was understanding what punishment is-- and by definition is defined as a process by which a consequence immediately follows a behavior which is meant to decrease its frequency over time. In understanding punishment is was then important to understand how positive punishment and positive reinforcement works as well as negative punishment and negative reinforcement works. In reading about these important terms, I learned that positive reinforcement and positive punishment a stimulus is always given to get the desired behavior. For example with positive punishment If you touch a hot stove you will be burned. Touching the stove is the behavior, getting burned is the stimulus-- the outcome is getting this response will diminish this behavior.  where as in negative punishment and negative reinforcement something is taken away in order to achieve desired behavior. As the chapter goes on Woolfolk ties the importance of these terms and what they mean into how they are used in the classroom by methods of acknowledging positive behavior. 

      "...to encourage behavior is to reinforce it. There are several specific ways to encourage existing behaviors or teach new ones. These include teacher attention and praise, the Premack principle, shaping, and positive practice (Woolfolk 273)." 

as the chapter goes on Woolfolk compares the effectiveness of praise and ignore approach to that of the Premack Principle. I've seen both done, in fact depending on the student I am dealing with I choose which method to use in my current line of work, as a paraprofessional. I relate most to this portion of the chapter because I relate first hand dealing with students on a daily basis. It provides me with a little more incite on how and why students respond to different stimulus. There are some students that respond well to praise and ignore, I find because of the attention from the teacher that they desire. Students that seem to look for attention of any kind from the teacher tend to respond more to praise and ignore tactics versus the student that responds to the premack or the "first, then" method. First-- then, students are motivated by their own interests and activities they prefer do over the attention of the teacher. So in reading this chapter I think it is important to know your student in order to understand which form of reinforcement they will respond better to. 

Moving into chapter 13 I focused in on the basic tasks of a teacher in the classroom and the goals of classroom management. Woolfolk quotes Doyle in the start of the chapter with " The basic management task for teachers is to achieve order and harmony by gaining and maintaining student cooperation in class activities (Woolfolk 510)." In reading this chapter it is mentioned that there are 4 specific goals of classroom management:

• Access to learning, or making sure that everyone knows how to participate in class activities. Now, initially reading this goal, I thought that was pretty trivial, but as I read on I realized that is not so true. Just because its a classroom does not mean that everyone knows how to participate or that everyone knows the rule in the classroom. Ideas like are the rules of the room explicit, are the listed, did the teacher verbally go over them with the students, how do the students know what is appropriate in the classroom if we do not tell them and reiterate them when needed. 
• More time for learning, or making sure that students are having adequate amounts of time for academic learning and instruction. 
• Management and relationships or establishing teacher student relationships that are positive and conducive to a positive learning environment. When teachers establish high-quality, trusting relationships with students, they are less likely to be defiant, and too seek proper help in areas needed. 
• Lastly management for self-management or helping students learn to manage themselves. Of the four goals I found this one to be one of the most important. I think students learn better independently when there is a great foundation of self control. In using self control, students use things like time management, manage their behaviors and relationships with their peers. 

Reading about these important classroom management goals tied into my personal experience is that because I aspire to be a ED/ BD teacher it is important for use these as motivation for how I run my classroom. I want to create a classroom of inclusion for my students. I want student to learn tools to self regulate, to promote a positive learning environment. And as their teacher I want to find methods of reinforcement that are conducive to establishing positive relationships with students.