A Portrait of the Student as a Young Wolf
Darby Lewis
This presentation was about Behaviorism in the context of class behavior. I’d like to point out that there are two things for students to learn: (1)how to behave in class & (2)content. I am not the biggest fan of Behaviorism, but I can see how it’d be useful for the “how to behave in class” part.
- Dog training & class
- Game 1: motivate the student
- friendly, articulate, willing to perform manageable tasks
- How? rewards + praise
- Reinforcers: timing is information
- Reinforcing one student reinforces the whole class
- She uses quarters (rather than candy, etc) because they have real value… students can say “it’s not that I want to answer… I have to do laundry”
- Grades aren’t the best reinforcement (unfocused, nagging/scolding, see it like weather)
- Can loose impact, can cause students to focus on quarters
- 1st: rewards for any answer, 2nd: rewards for good answers, 3rd: rewards for only outstanding answers
- Longer you make people wait for reward, the more they want one
- Game 2: Find the glove
- Jackpot: ex. shy student, no talk all semester, 10 dollars
- students still talk about it
- can use also when outstanding answer
- must overcome natural aversives? adversaries
- Negative reinforcement (quiz example, put ball in their court)
- Game 3: Train the dog
- Behavior shaping: performance without pain
- large goal into smaller tasks with selective reinforcement
- Game 4: Beat the Dog
- Get alphas on your side, if they seem into it, everyone will be. if alphas aren’t they’ll show people it’s not worth their time (and no one will think it’s worth their time)
- alpha spots in the classroom: front on sides, back center (see whole classroom)
- lecture is like a pack with alpha (teacher)
- how create a class of alphas/peer learning: circle with one min each, regular speaking, groups with different leader