Reinforcement Analysis

My classroom management approach will be a positive one.  By using positive reinforcement and by creating positive relationships with my students, it will again eliminate many behavior issues before they occur.  While student teaching, I tried a new classroom management technique focusing on positive reinforcement for good behavior with the first graders.  I placed a jar in the front of the classroom, and explained that every time I caught the students being good, I would drop a marble into the jar.  Once the jar was completely full, the students could choose a reward for their good behavior.  Immediately after implementing this new plan, I

Reinforcement that occurs directly because of the students actions. No one else is needed to get the reinforcement.

My teachers in lower grades used punishments more than rewards to influence my behaviors. Starting from kindergarten the punishment system was introduced to me. Whenever I misbehaved, I had to move the clothespin with my name on it, up the next paper plate which symbolized a higher tier of punishment. The three levels were green, yellow, and red. The first tier, green, symbolized freedom to play during recess, the second tier, yellow, symbolized a penalty of time that had to be sat on a bench, and the final tier, red, symbolized a trip to the principal’s office. The fear of having to go see the principal or having to sit on the bench for a period of time was my motivation to not misbehave.

Interventions are tools teachers use when students are not responding to Tier 1 interventions. The first intervention is providing small group instruction for students who are not understanding concepts taught during whole group instruction. Another Tier 2 intervention is called proximity which is a surface management techniques. According to Brown and Sayeski (2011) surface management techniques “can be extremely effective for dealing with minor behavioral infractions that arise in day-to-day classroom activities” (p. 12). When teachers use proximity, students usually respond by changing their behavior. Sometimes a reinforcement system is necessary when students are not responding to tier 1 interventions. I prefer using a point system on the whiteboard for groups or a money system

To make sure students are grasping the lesson, Ms. Boerema will call on every student, during instruction, to observe the level of performance to make sure students understand the lesson. If students do not understand a question or direction, Ms. Boerema will answer their questions to allow students to understand the

Skinner believed that behaviour is shaped and maintained by a reinforcing stimulus and that schedules of reinforcement are important factors in the learning process. There are many situations in the classroom where a behaviourist approach is likely to work well. For example, when I teach, I have started to pick out students who are making the right choices throughout the lesson. I call attention to the student who is doing the right thing and use verbal praise, which is quite an effective way to let other students realise what the expected learning behaviour is. The Year 6 students in the class are aware of the school’s reward system; ten credits lead to one merit, which is recorded in their merit book. They are also aware that bad behaviour in the class or on the playground will be followed by negative consequences. To warn against unwanted behaviour, I have seen teachers use negative reinforcers such as verbal warnings, timeouts and losing privileges.

Differential Reinforcement is defined to occur when behavior is reinforced by being either rewarded or punished while interacting with others (Siegel, 2003). With this said, the theory was developed as a way of labeling both positive, as well as negative aspects of individual action. This idea of reinforcement is a branch of the infamous Differential Association theory presented by Edwin H. Sutherland in 1939. Another commonly used term for this theory of reinforcement is called differential conditioning (Siegel, 2003). As mentioned, the types of reinforcement are either positive or negative, and operate on the results of specific crimes or random acts. Rewarding behaviors plainly urges such action to be repeated, while punishment

Although this project included a variety of assessment methods, there were some potential limitations. First, there were no ongoing preference assessments before conducting the reinforcement assessment in different days. Kennedy and Haring (1993) indicated that individuals with profound intellectual disabilities could change not over time, even within the course of one day. In addition, these individuals also demonstrated habituations and novelty effects which may influence the validity of further reinforcing testing or assessments (Logan et al., 2001). Therefore, it is important to reassess participant’s preferences frequently to ensure the experimenter is always using the preferred items. However, it is relatively time-consuming to conduct

Mrs. Johnson says that she uses positive discipline describing the behaviors she wants to manage her classroom. When I asked her to expand on this she said that basically she lest the students know what she expects and they feel trusted to reach those expectations. They know what consequences will be and decide for themselves if they want to suffer those consequences or not. She has the words free time taped to each student desk and when they break the rules they mark off a

The punishment system could involve being detained after class, minimizing class activity time, negative points and letters to parents. I feel that students need to be kept in check at all times and that the reward and punishment systems would help the students stay on track because they would want to receive the reward and try to stay away from the punishment. The subjects in school that should be offered to students are several levels of math and science courses, philosophy, language arts including an intensive writing class, mandatory foreign language classes with a range of language preferences and electives such as art, theater, music/voice lessons and other creative forms of expression. Also schools should have a mandatory fitness class, ethics classes and optional cooking classes or other various electives. I believe these classes are a good balance to the student and would provide an enriching and rewarding learning experience.

I feel like automatic reinforcement is a widely accepted today. I don’t think people see the large spread of behaviors that can function as automatic reinforcement i.e. brushing your hair because you want it to be neat, ddressing yourself, or watching a movie because you enjoy it. Automatic reinforcement does not only occur when a person interacts with their environment; as is the case when someone turns on their TV. Any behavior that occurs without the involvement of another person and creates an internal state of pleasure or removes an internal state of displeasure (pain) can also be maintained by automatic reinforcement. Most people think of automatic reinforcement as “stereotypical” behavior that is not maintained by social reinforcement

According to openstax, our behavior is the result of conditioned response. In this case you get excited and go down memory lane with the ice cream truck song. You are conditioned response is to become happy when the song is heard.

Interventions may include behavioral and cognitive strategies. “Behavioral interventions are means making certain that rewarding consequence follows desirable behavior and that either no consequence or punishing consequences follow undesirable behavior” (Kauffman 2005). Other intervention may include token reinforcement, response cost, and time out. Giving students choices in assignment can also be helpful.

Teachers should maintain a secure, humanitarian, and productive classroom through the use of congruent communication and appropriate use of praise.

This is a method where you split the class into learning groups to learn about a particular aspect of a general topic. Once the children master their aspect, the groups get shuffled up so that there is a master from each aspect to teach the others in the group they have been assigned to. Everyone’s knowledge is compiled together to gain a full understanding of the general topic. This also shows the students that they can learn from their peers and use them as resources. Another way of minimizing pressure is to put less emphasis on grades. One way of doing this could be to create a folder for each student where they will put what they see as being their best work. When going through their folder, “Focus on progress and demonstrated learning in their work” (Specific Classroom Management Methods). Show the student how much they have improved with time.