Broadly speaking, my
understanding of the implications of behavioral approach to classroom learning
are (1) learning is passive (2) learning requires external rewards (3) and
teacher must direct the learning process.
In the readings, much
of the criticism was on the application of rewards in the teaching and learning
process as a motivator for positive behavior. The Behaviorists hold the notion
that ‘consequences of one’s actions influence the choice of future behavior.
Thus if a child behaves positively, it is necessary to be rewarded or otherwise
recognized in order to encourage the child to repeat the desired behavior.
Whilst behaviorists emphasis on the benefit of reward and recognition, the
critics are adamant on denying the use of external reward as it is detrimental
to the intrinsic motive of doing something for its own sake. According to the
critics, the external reward makes the children behave on a particular way only
for the sake of the reward, and such a behavior will not be continued in the
absence of the reward which triggered the behavior initially. They also hold
the view that verbal recognition of a child’s achievement may make the child
feel bad in the future, if he or she fails to maintain the status-quo or do
better in the next attempt.
From my experience, I
hold a neutral stance, without taking the side of any extreme in this respect.
As far as my experience is concerned, reward and recognition is critically
important. However, reward may also have a negative implication depending on
how it is applied.
It is also important to
note that, parents and teachers often fail to recognize the good behavior of
the children. Almost 90% of good things go unnoticed. On the contrary,
misbehavior gets noticed most of the time. According to behaviorists the adult
attention is one of the most influential factors in shaping the behavior of
children. If this is the case, we are unknowingly reinforcing the negative
behavior by attending to misbehaviors most of the time. In order to avoid these
fatal mistakes, we have to focus on noticing the positive things the children
do, while ignoring the petty undesirable things they do, which is also an easy
strategy to put them into extinction naturally.
In my opinion, a reward
may be any positive consequence, be it a word, a smile, a nod, a pat on the
shoulder or any other positive gesture. Moreover, we don’t have to reward the
child every time the child repeats the desired behavior. The reasons are
manifold, firstly, it’s impractical, secondly it undermines the significance of
the reward and it also becomes predictable. The best way of rewarding as I see
it, is to reward intermittently, that is once in a while. Further, we don’t
have to make lengthy statements or give certificates to reward a child every
time he or she behaves well. Rewards are effective if it carries variety and
unpredictability. I also believe that buying toys or giving pizza is not a good
approach to reward the child’s behavior on a daily basis.
I believe that human
being is a product of both nature and nurture, and the responsibility of the
teachers and parents is to provide an environment which is conducive for the
child to grow according to the expectations we set for them in the first
place. We as adults must set an example
for the children who are yet low on the scale of civility and maturity.
Moreover, no matter how positive the environment may be, the children will
misbehave. The important point here is
not how children behave, rather how we behave when they misbehave. Ironically, we are always tempted to exercise
control over the situation, often by resorting to coercive means to make the
child comply. For an example, if a child bites, the adult also bites back to
punish the child. In this situation, it’s the child who is shaping the behavior
of the adult and the adult has failed to behave like a mature and a civilized
person. In such a situation, if adult could behave maturely, it’s likely that
the child will passively learn it and behave that way later on .
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