Chpt. 6: Reinforcement and Learning

There were a couple of things I felt were interesting in Chapter six. I enjoyed reading about the different forms of reinforcement. I know I used positive reinforcement many times with my student, but I quickly found out that when it is new, it is exciting, but it soon gets old. He quickly decided that it wasn’t too important to him so some days he would try for the reward and other days he just didn’t care. I think this just shows that you need something more than just a reward system to change a child’s behavior.

The other thing I found interesting with the topic of reinforcement was reprimands. All of the teachers in the grade I worked in used public reprimands regularly. It was interesting to read that those are not as effective. As a shy girl, I was always mortified when I got reprimanded publicly. However, I was not in trouble frequently and I was usually on task.

I was intrigued with the concept of observational learning. I understand how this would be effective for students, but one of the key elements to this is attention. With the amount of young kids diagnosed with ADHD, I think it is harder for them to stay focused long enough to learn much. That is why I think it is crucial for teachers to be creative and to capture their audience/students. I had a staff assistant tell me once that when she stood in the front of the class to explain something, half of the class wasn’t even focused and the other half appeared to be day dreaming. I think this is one of the greatest challenges as a teacher and one I will think about a lot. Hopefully, my students will be interested in what I have to say and hopefully that thought won’t keep me up at night.

Going back to school after not being in it for a little while has been hard. That is one reason the self-management section intrigued me. I think for anyone to be successful in school, not just pass classes, but actually learn from them, they need to have well established self management skills. I know I set a goal for each one of my days on how much work to do and what I need to get done. I then monitor and evaluate my progress by either crossing something off of my list or by picking up my study pace and finally I reward myself by relaxing. I think all three of these steps are vital to any student being successful. It is important for students to have a goal and slowly work up to this goal. As a teacher, it is my job to help a student set a reasonable goal. I can then show them how to monitor their progress and let them know they have done a job well done.

I think this informal education is sometimes lacking in classrooms and I think it would be hugely beneficial for it to be a necessity in a classroom. It directly impacts a student’s self-esteem. If they feel they are making progress, even if they didn’t ace the test, then they will keep trying and work harder to complete their next goal. More importantly, they will feel good about what they have done.