Blog: Behaviorist Learning Theory, Instructional Strategies, and Technology Tools
April 1, 2021
The relationship between behaviorism, instructional strategies, and technology tools within the 21st century is that they are all part of an interwoven process of learning and instruction. Behaviorism focus on the learned or conditioned response. All this centers around rewards and or punishment system. “Behaviorist learning theories emphasize changes in behavior that result from stimulus-response associations made by the learner. Behavior is directed by stimuli. An individual selects one response instead of another because of prior conditioning and psychological drives existing at the moment of the action.” (Orey, M. (Ed.), 2010, pg 271). Teachers normally take on the behaviorist approach as they look for the ideal environment for their classroom environment that welcomes all learners. Teachers model what they believe is a naturing environment and therefore set boundaries and or norms for that learning environment. If these norms met or not met then there is a form of a consequence. Consequences can either be positive or negative. Behaviorism in the realm of education always focuses on the reinforcement and or reward side of the learning theory. In child development and child rearing parents use a reward system for “good” behavior and the child will work towards that reward. The aspect however that we can not measure is the emotional or mental state of the child. These factors also play a role in how a person will work towards a reward. The instructional strategies that educators use to empower the student or to illicit a positive response is tied with the behaviorist approach in teaching. In my classroom practice, I normally will conduct a wellness check to see where my students are mentally on a scale of 1 to 5.
The students efforts to learn is not always a distraction tactic for some but a necessity for others. Using technology within the classroom also impacts the student to use alternative means to learn. The days of the pencil and paper and or typed term papers is a thing of the past in many school districts, though still important to know those basic skills. The ISTE Standards for students highlights that “students understand the fundamental concepts of technology operations, demonstrate the ability to choose, use and troubleshoot current technologies and are able to transfer their knowledge to explore emerging technologies.” ( ISTE, 2016). In this current pandemic and prior to it , teachers and students must prepare to use other means to teach, collaborate, and learn different methods. As a lifelong learner I realized that as a behaviorist approach , stressing mini successes with praise to the learner or the class of learners brings forth success.” Recognition and praise may have a more direct impact on socio- emotional indicators such as self-efficacy, effort, persistence, and motivation than on learning. As a result, teachers may not see immediate academic improvements from the effective use of recognition and praise; however, the link between positive socio-emotional indicators and learning suggests that fostering the former will have positive effects on the latter over time “ (Pitler, H., Hubbell, 2012 pg. 63)
Technology embedded within instructional practices is one of the ways to empower students. Students have the tendency to not ask questions within a mathematics environment upon which I teach. One of the reasons is the fear of being vulnerable or being wrong. Many students feel that mathematics is a subject that they can take on. The difficulty associated with math anxiety is a serious one. “Math anxiety, a math stressor activates the stimulus-driven system, which then undermines the goal-directed system of completing the math task (Eysenck et al., 2007). Fur-ther more, negative cognitive biases, such as tendencies to attend to specific stimuli and interpret them as threatening, are thought to be part of the initial processing components that enable the distrac-tion, making it difficult for an individual to focus on the details of a math problem and causing them to instead fixate on the negative thoughts.” ( Barroso, C., Ganley, 2021).
One of the strategies that I am incorporating in my unit is the GH. In one lesson I told students to think “outside of the box “ and to think of topics that truly interest them. Students showed a strong interests in movies, video games, anime, sports, and music to name a few. In order to spark further interest in movies. I played a short excerpt from a scene from “ The Hunger Games” and asked students to reference any areas of the film where they saw mathematics in “action” from any topic covered in the entire year. I gave students the opportunity to complete a google form with guided questions as a form of an exit ticket. What was great about that class was students were intrigued or interested in seeing a film and also challenged them to find answers to a questions that did not necessarily have to be wrong as long as they were able to defend their reasoning. This helped with those with math anxiety. As an educator, I want to create more lessons like this in order to “ design authentic, learner-driven activities and environments that recognize and accommodate learner variability.” ( ISTE, 2002). I want to spark more student interest and conversation . After, I read through the exit tickets many students were more interested in not only the subject , but socio economic concerns, rules of ethics, and discussion of race, gender, and ethnicity. I will follow up that class with a break out session discussing some of those questions. Other methods to be used will be blog posts but microblogging using outlets such as Twitter gives students a very wide range of access to unlimited resources.
The GH follows a similar style where the student would complete an exit ticket of their own where they inform the teacher of what they have worked on, questions they have, and new discoveries. Giving students choice over their learning also will incorporate another ISTE student standard. ”Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others. “ (ISTE 2016) I may be limited by the timeframe that my supervisors allow me to have in that regard, I believe I will gather more responses from my students and more of intrinsic value and effort from them than following a strict adhered curriculum. “When students see that others have faced many of the same difficulties they face and have overcome these obstacles and achieved goals with strong effort and good attitude, they too can see the connection between effort and achievement.” (Pitler, H., Hubbell, 2012 pg. 60)
References
Barroso, C., Ganley, C. M., McGraw, A. L., Geer, E. A., Hart, S. A., & Daucourt, M. C. (2021). A meta-analysis of the relation between math anxiety and math achievement. Psychological Bulletin, 147(2), 134–168. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1037/bul0000307.supp (Supplemental)
Genius Hour. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.geniushour.com/
International Society for Technology in Education. (2016). ISTE standards for students. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards/standards-for[1]students
International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). ISTE standards for teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards/standards-for[1]teachers
Laureate Education (Producer). (2015a). Behaviorist learning theory [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Laureate Education (Producer). (2016e). Integrating technology tools for instruction and learning [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Orey, M. (Ed.). (2010). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://textbookequity.org/Textbooks/Orey_Emergin_Perspectives_Learning.pdf
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD
Schrock, K. (2016). Kathy Schrock’s guide to everything. Retrieved from http://www.schrockguide.net/
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