In this new fast paced society we live in, the echnology all around us causes us to go and think at a faster pace than years past. When it comes to education, during the next eight weeks I will be exploring theoretical foundations for technology use in the classroom and ways to incorporate technology with instructional strategies to support and facilitate learning.
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The Basics of Behaviorism as it relates to Technology
This week, in our course text, my class explored two instructional strategies that embed technology: “Reinforcing Effort” and “Homework and Practice.” We were then asked to reflect on those strategies and how they relate to behaviorist learning theory.
Behaviorist learning theory concentrates on the study of overt behaviors that can be observed and measured (Good & Brophy, 1990). It views the mind as a "black box" in the sense that response to stimulus can be observed quantitatively, totally ignoring the possibility of thought processes occurring in the mind. Some key players in the development of the behaviorist theory were Pavlov, Watson, Thorndike and Skinner. Simply put behavior is directed by stimuli. How can the behavioral learning theory be embedded with technology? Is there even a place in today's classrooms for behaviorism?
My first response to these questions was no. I thought, who wants to be linked to Pavlov's dogs in this day and age? The theory seemed a bit antiquated an obsolete. But after exploring this weeks learning resources, I realize that behaviorism is alive and well in today's classrooms despite technological advances. In education, advocates of behaviorism have effectively adopted this system of rewards and punishments in their classrooms by rewarding desired behaviors and punishing inappropriate ones. (Orey, 2001)
I used behaviorism to support classroom management in my 1st grade classroom last year. For enrichment I incorporate literacy centers in my lesson plans. These 10 literacy centers were a combination of computer learning games and manipulatives. Centers were done towards the end of the day, if I had students that were not adhering to the classroom rules, they were not allowed to participate in certain centers. My five centers where I used technology were very popular and no one wanted to miss that. The behavior of my students were directly impacted by the fact that they wanted to use the computer based learning games I set up in my centers. I guess Pavlov had it right after all.
"Excellence is not an act but a habit. The things you do the most are the things you will do the best" Marva Collins
Resources
Good, T. L., Brophy, J. E. (1990). Educational psychology: A realistic approach. (4th ed.).White Plains, NY: Longman
Orey, R. (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/