Behaviourism: Alive and Clicking in the Classroom?

Teachers have a lot to do in a day. There are attendance records to maintain; assignments to collect and grade; behaviours to keep in check; character and esteem to build; and of course; there is the curriculum to teach. Now with all of these things, let’s throw in how teachers need to ensure their lessons, activities and assessments must churn out 21^st century skilled students. This means students need to be taught in the context of a technological world so they have relevant and useful skills upon graduation.

Sound like a tall order?

I say it sounds like a job that strikes fear in the hearts of the meek, but ignites a blaze of excitement in the rest of us; the teachers.

Now I admit that I am a bit of an odd duck. I was a self-taught techie who trained to be a teacher, then turned back to techie and now again to teacher; a rare situation, I think. I have bounced back and forth between technology positions (systems analyst, software support, desktop support, etc.) and educational positions (K-12 teacher, special needs teacher, ESL teacher, post-secondary instructor) for nearly twenty years. Although each of my numerous positions has been unique, there has always been a common thread: I have taught users something new through the use of technology. 

As far as I’m concerned, technology and teaching are the perfect marriage and this relationship is even more crucial today than ever before.

But what about teachers who do not hail from a background rich in technology? What are they to do? Keeping up on curriculum, educational theory, and students’ lives is a full time job in itself. Learning to incorporate technology to produce engaging lessons that truly support learning can seem an insurmountable task.

In an effort to ease this burden, I offer two instructional strategies/ways in which one might use technology to reinforce and support learning. I have been reading “Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works” (Pitler, Hubbel, Kuhn and Malenoski, 2007) and was particularly interested in what they had to share regarding reinforcing effort and homework practice in the K-12 classroom.

Reinforcing Effort

According to Pitler et al., in order to ensure students buy into the notion that effort pays off, two things must occur. The first is that students must be overtly taught that this is true and second, students must assume the responsibility of monitoring their own efforts (Pitler, et al., 2007). Their text offers a behaviouristic approach to using technology to accomplish this task. Their recommendation is for students to use a spreadsheet to monitor their progress. The trick here is to quantify effort and compare that data with ensuing grades. This particular task serves students in a number of ways as seen in the chart below.

See enlarged image here

Homework and Practice

Homework provides an opportunity for practice, but it should be a planned and purposeful part of school work. Pitler et al. address this in their book, “Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works” (Pitler, Hubbel, Kuhn and Malenoski, 2007). They recommend that once students have been given adequate time to understand a concept, homework can be assigned to target that same skill/concept. They also recommend students chart their own progress. This can be done in the same manner as noted above.

Have a look at this chart to see the similarities in how a behaviouristic approach can be applied to homework and practice.

See enlarged image here

I used MyWebSpiration for the chart. Check it out – it’s pretty cool!

Behaviourism certainly has a place in managing classroom discipline, but I think it is still relevant in teaching students certain skills and supporting the practice of those skills.

What do you think?