“Student Learning & Behaviorism”
Examining student learning through the lens of behaviorism has revealed to me the pervasiveness of behaviorist learning theory in the simplest of student actions. The West Philadelphia sophomore and junior high school students whom I observe spend their summer days in the classroom studying math, science, writing, and Latin. I spend two afternoons per week with them during science class. The teacher uses a fairly standard lecture style of instruction. The class is small, usually only 6 to 8 students. This smaller class size makes it easy to observe variations in demeanor among students, including different styles of note taking, test taking, question asking, and interactions with other students.
Despite the many differences I have observed among the students, I also have noticed that the teacher often interacts with different students in the same manner and, surprisingly, this seems to elicit very similar responses from almost all students. For example, as soon as the teacher begins the daily lesson (usually a PowerPoint presentation containing bulleted notes as well as instructional images and videos), the students almost simultaneously take out a clean piece of paper and begin writing. I believe this is an example of B.F. Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning with chaining. Immediate note taking is a learned response because it is not inborn; children do not innately know to write down important information when an adult displays it. In early childhood, students first must have learned the very basic response of following directions, possibly via reinforcements such as receiving candy for following directions and consequences such as shortened play time for not following directions. Next in the chain, teachers direct students to take notes in class daily during the early years of schooling, again probably using a system of reinforcements and consequences as well as positive feedback. Eventually, students ‘know the drill’ for taking notes as soon as class begins, without having to be reminded of all the steps involved. Also, at the end of some class periods, I noted that the teacher walked around to look at the notes that students wrote. If the students were expecting this, they also may have taken notes in order to avoid a publically verbal reprimand (punishment).
Despite the many differences I have observed among the students, I also have noticed that the teacher often interacts with different students in the same manner and, surprisingly, this seems to elicit very similar responses from almost all students. For example, as soon as the teacher begins the daily lesson (usually a PowerPoint presentation containing bulleted notes as well as instructional images and videos), the students almost simultaneously take out a clean piece of paper and begin writing. I believe this is an example of B.F. Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning with chaining. Immediate note taking is a learned response because it is not inborn; children do not innately know to write down important information when an adult displays it. In early childhood, students first must have learned the very basic response of following directions, possibly via reinforcements such as receiving candy for following directions and consequences such as shortened play time for not following directions. Next in the chain, teachers direct students to take notes in class daily during the early years of schooling, again probably using a system of reinforcements and consequences as well as positive feedback. Eventually, students ‘know the drill’ for taking notes as soon as class begins, without having to be reminded of all the steps involved. Also, at the end of some class periods, I noted that the teacher walked around to look at the notes that students wrote. If the students were expecting this, they also may have taken notes in order to avoid a publically verbal reprimand (punishment).
In conclusion, I would like to point out that I do not believe the analysis provided here tells the whole story; the indescribable 'black box' of students' different experiences and environments also influence student responses. Just because a student has difficulty in or resists learning about a subject or does not follow directions does not immediately mean that the student is “dumb,” “a rebel,” or has a “learning disability”. Behaviorist theory does not take into consideration the distinctly human mental processes occurring as the student is responding to stimuli, but teachers should consider this abstraction in conjunction with student behavior.