| Subject: Re: Assignment #2 |
Author:
Angelica Woods
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Date Posted: 15:54:26 06/15/10 Tue
In reply to:
Sean Collins
's message, "Re: Assignment #2" on 13:05:37 06/15/10 Tue
>In many ways, behavior and social learning theories
>consumed most of my thoughts as a first year teacher.
>At Fairley High School, we did not have a strong
>administration or school culture of compliance so
>simply getting students to show up to class and behave
>was exhausting at times. It often made me wonder
>about their previous learning experiences similar to
>social learning theory. A lot of the kids that
>struggled, probably grew tired of receiving poor
>grades constantly and hearing about how bad they were
>relative to the rest of the country. A perfect
>example of this idea was proctoring state exams. Many
>of the kids in inner city high schools are way over
>tested especially with the integration of the NCLB
>act. Their scores are so low relative to other normal
>high schools that they have to take more and more
>tests to constantly assess if they are on pace with
>AYP goals. I assume that it is probably disheartening
>to constantly receive results in the bottom 10-25%.
>As a result of being over-tested and receiving poor
>grades, the students do not put great effort into
>these exams. I specifically remember proctoring the
>ACT exam and having students that would put their
>heads down halfway through the exam. When I took
>these high stakes types of exams, I remember rushing
>through the exam till the very end. These students on
>the other hand, become so discouraged by the whole
>process that they decide not to emotionally invest.
>
>In terms of social learning theory, it is easy to see
>why some of these students would not try hard on
>exams. Why would they want to put forth great effort
>when they will only receive disappointment in return?
>I do not want this response to sound like a sweeping
>generalization of students in that particular high
>school, because there are clearly some good students
>that will go on to succeed in college. The
>overwhelming majority, however, do not succeed on
>these types of exams.
>
>Another part of this lecture that I found interesting
>was the behaviorist chart about removing baddies,
>adding goodies and vice versa. This is a constant
>battle as a teacher, deciding on the best course of
>action. For the most part, I have seen effective
>teachers that use both all types of rewards and
>punishments. Some authoritarian types lean more
>towards the punishment style while other focus more on
>positive reinforcement. In my first year as a
>teacher, I regretted that I did not have enough time
>for more reward types of activities. Most of my
>behavior focused classroom management was focused on
>negative reinforcement, either taking away or giving
>baddies. I am not saying that this is the best way to
>do things, but I noticed this tendency. In the
>beginning of the year, I was trying to do more reward
>types of activities but it became exhausting. I am
>not particularly outgoing so talking constantly was
>difficult enough, but I was often too tired to worry
>about giving compliments. I think that positive
>reinforcement in the classroom does not give you the
>same type of immediate results as negative
>reinforcement. I could call a student's parents and I
>would normally see immediate improvement in that
>child's behavior. I normally struggled with calling
>parents if I had something positive to say because I
>was so focused on changing the negative behaviors
>instead of reinforcing the positive ones. I think
>that more positive reinforcement would have more long
>term positive effects on the classroom, but I spent
>most of my energy on eliminating the negative
>behaviors.
REPLY: The media does not help either with airing the scores on television and the newspapers. Not to say that there aren't any needs of improvements, but it bothers me that they do a comparison with the schools systems outside the city leaving this idea that inner city students are not as smart as those in Shelby and DeSoto Co, so it automatically gives some students an expectancy of failure.
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