Education Psychology Additional Notes

Authentic learning says that...we should learn what happens in the "real world", and become "cognitive apprentices" to the experts.  When we learn about math, we learn to think like mathematicians.  When we learn about the weather, we learn to use tools that a meteorologist would use.  When we learn to draw, we are taught techniques that real artists use.  But how is this possible?  How can everyone have access to experts at all times? 

Instructional scaffolding is a learning process designed to promote a deeper learning. Scaffolding is the support given during the learning process which is tailored to the needs of the student with the intention of helping the student achieve his/her learning goals (Sawyer, 2006).The support includes

  resources

  a compelling task

  templates and guides

  guidance on the development

The notion of scaffolding is increasingly being used to describe the support provided for students to learn successfully in classrooms, especially the use of project- or design-based activities to teach math and science

Reciprocal teaching refers to an instructional activity in which students become the teacher in small group reading sessions. Teachers model, then help students learn to guide group discussions using four strategies: summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting. Once students have learned the strategies, they take turns assuming the role of teacher in leading a dialogue about what has been read.

A stimulus or combination of stimuli that is followed by a particular response will, upon its reoccurrence tend to be followed by the same response again. Thus, S-R connections gain its full strength on one-trail (Ormrod, 1999) or on the first pairing of the S-R connection: “contiguity, and not frequency!

It typically consists of self-teaching with the aid of a specialized textbook or teaching machine that presents material structured in a logical and empirically developed sequence or sequences. Programmed instruction may be presented by a teacher as well, and it has been argued that the principles of programmed instruction can improve classic lectures and textbooks.^[Programmed instruction allows students to progress through a unit of study at their own rate, checking their own answers and advancing only after answering correctly. In one simplified form of PI, after each step, they are presented with a question to test their comprehension, then are immediately shown the correct answer or given additional information. However the objective of the instructional programming is to present the material in very small increments. The more sophisticated forms of programmed instruction may have the questions or tasks programmed well enough that the presentation and test model—an extrapolation from traditional and classical instruction—is not necessarily utilized.

computer-assisted instruction (CAI), a program of instructional material presented by means of a computer or computer systems.

The use of computers in education started in the 1960s. With the advent of convenient microcomputers in the 1970s, computer use in schools has become widespread from primary education through the university level and even in some preschool programs. Instructional computers are basically used in one of two ways: either they provide a straightforward presentation of data or they fill a tutorial role in which the student is tested on comprehension.

There is a school of thought that presumes all children can learn if they are provided with the appropriate learning conditions. Learning for mastery or mastery learning, are terms coined by Benjamin Bloom in 1968 and 1971 respectively. Bloom hypothesized that a classroom with a mastery learning focus as opposed to the traditional form of instruction would reduce the achievement gaps between varying groups of students (Guskey 2007). In Mastery learning, "the students are helped to master each learning unit before proceeding to a more advanced learning task"  in contrast to "conventional instruction".

Precision teaching is a precise and systematic method of evaluating instructional tactics and curricula. It is one of the few quantitative analyses of behavior forms of applied behavior analysis. It comes from a very strong quantitative scientific basis and was pioneered by Ogden Lindsley in the 1960s based largely on Skinner's operant conditioning. Precision teaching is a type of programmed instruction that focuses heavily on frequency as its main datum. By focusing on fluency, the teacher can then adjust the curricula for each learner to maximize the learning based on the learner's personal fluency measurements. The instruction can be by any method or approach. For example, the most effective applications of Precision Teaching have been when it is combined with Direct Instruction. Children as young as five have charted their fluency measurements and utilized precision teaching to increase their learning. According to Owen White,Precision Teaching "has been used successfully to teach the progress of learners ranging from the severely handicapped to university graduate students, from the very young to the very old."

Applied behavior analysis (ABA), previously known as behavior modification, is a type of behavior analysis based on the traditional theory of behaviorism to modify human behaviors as part of a learning or treatment process. Behavior analysts focus on the observable relationship of behavior to the environment to the exclusion of what they call "hypothetical constructs". By functionally assessing the relationship between a targeted behavior and the environment, the methods of ABA can be used to change that behavior.

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Chapter 6 Final Notes

HOW DO METACOGNITIVE SKILLS HELP STUDENTS LEARN

Metacognition is Knowledge about one's own learning or about how to learn (thinking about thinking) Thinking skills and study skills are examples of metacognitive skills. Ss can be taught assessing their own understanding, figuring out how much time they will need to study something. Self-questioning strategies are learning strategies that call on students to ask themselves who, what, where, and how questions as they read material. 

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WHAT STUDY STRATEGIES HELP STUDENTS LEARN?

Research on effective study strategies is confusing at best. Few forms of studying are found to be always effective, and fewer still are never effective.

·         Note-taking: A study strategy that requires decisions about what to write.

·         Underlining

·         Summarizing: Writing brief statements that represent the main idea of the information being read.

·         Writing to learn: Ss writing the content they are learning.

·         Outlining and Mapping: Outlining is representing the main points of material in hierarchical format. Mapping Diagramming main ideas and the connections between them.

·         PQ4R Method: A study strategy that has students preview, question, read, reflect, recite, and review material.

HOW DO COGNITIVE TEACHING STRATEGIES HELP STUDENTS LEARN?

Making Learning Relevant and Activating Prior Knowledge (propose a  strategy for stimulating the prior knowledge of students described in a particular)

Advance Organizers: David Ausubel (1963) developed a method called advance organizers to orient students to material they were about to learn and to help them recall related information that could assist them in incorporating the new information. An advance organizer is an initial statement about a subject to be learned that provides a structure for the new information and relates it to information students already possess.

Analogies: Images, concepts, or narratives that compare new information to information students already understand.

Elaboration: Cognitive psychologists use the term elaboration to refer to the process of thinking about material to be learned in a way that connects the material to information or ideas that are already in the learner’s mind. The process of connecting new material to information or ideas already in the learner's mind

Organizing Information

Using Questioning Techniques: One strategy that helps students learn from written texts, lectures, and other sources of information is the insertion of questions requiring students to stop from time to time to assess their own understanding of what the text or teacher is saying.

Using conceptual Models: Another means that teachers can use to help students complex topics is the introduction of conceptual models, or diagrams showing how elements of a process relate to one another. Graphs, charts, tables, matrices, and other means of organizing information into a comprehensible, visual form, have all been found to aid comprehension, memory, and transfer.

Summary

What Is an Information-Processing Model?

The three major components of memory are the sensory register, short-term or working memory, and long-term memory. The sensory registers are very short-term memories linked to the senses. Information that is received by the senses but not attended to will be quickly forgotten. Once information is received, it is processed by the mind in accord with our experiences and mental states. This activity is called perception.

Short-term or working memory is a storage system that holds five to line bits of information at any one time. Information enters working memory from both the sensory register and the long-term memory. Rehearsal is the process of repeating information in order to hold it in working memory.

Long-term memory is the part of the memory system in which a large amount of information is stored for an indefinite time period. Cognitive theories of learning stress the importance of helping students relate information being learned to existing information in long- term memory.

The three parts of long-term memory are episodic memory, which stores our memories of personal experiences; semantic memory, which stores facts and generalized knowledge in the form of schemata; and procedural memory, which stores knowledge; of how to do things. Schemata are networks of related ideas that guide our understanding and action. Information that fits into a well-developed schema is easier to learn than information that cannot be so accommodated. Levels-of-processing theory suggests that learners will remember only the things that they process. Students are processing information when they manipulate it, look at it from different perspectives, and analyze it. Dual code theory further suggests the importance of using both visual and verbal coding to learn bits of information. Other elaborations of the information-processing model are parallel distributed processing, and connectionist models.

Technology that enables scientists to observe the brain in action has led to rapid advances in brain science. Findings have shown how specific parts of the brain process specific types of information in concert with other specific brain sites. As individuals gain expertise, their brain function becomes more efficient. Early brain development is a process of adding neural connections and then sloughing off those that are not used.

What Causes People to Remember or Forget?

Interference theory helps explain why people forget. It suggests that students can forget information when it gets mixed up with, or pushed aside by, other information. Interference theory states that two situations cause forgetting: retroactive inhibition, when learning a second task makes a person forget something that was learned previously, and proactive inhibition, when learning one thing interferes with the retention  of things learned later. The primacy and recency effects state that people best remember information that is presented first and last in a series. Automaticity is gained by practicing information or skills far beyond the amount needed to establish them in t long-term memory so that using such skills requires little or no mental effort. Practice strengthens associations of newly learned information in memory. Distributed practice, I which involves practicing parts of a task over a period of time, is usually more effective than massed practice. Enactment also helps students to remember information.

How Can Memory Strategies Be Taught?

Teachers can help students remember facts by presenting lessons in an organized way and by teaching students to use memory strategies called mnemonics. Three types of verbal learning are paired-associate learning, serial learning, and free-recall learning. Paired-associate learning is learning to respond with one member of a pair when given the other member. Students can improve their learning of paired associates by using imagery techniques such as the keyword method. Serial learning involves recalling a list of items in a specified order. Free-recall learning involves recalling the list in any order. Helpful strategies are the loci method, the pegword method, rhyming, and initial-letter strategies.

What Makes information Meaningful?

Information that makes sense and has significance to students is more meaningful ma1 inert knowledge and information learned by rote. According to schema theory, individuals’ meaningful knowledge is constructed of networks and hierarchies of schemata.

How Do Metacognitive Skills Help Students Learn?

Metacognition helps students learn by thinking about, controlling, and effectively using their own thinking processes.

What Study Strategies Help Students Learn?

Note-taking, selective directed underlining, summarizing, writing to learn, outlining, and mapping call effectively promote learning. The PQ4R method is an example of a strategy that focuses on the meaningful organization of information.

How Do Cognitive Teaching Strategies Help Students Learn?

Advance organizers help students process new information by activating background knowledge.  Analogies, information elaboration, organizational schemes, questioning techniques, and conceptual models are other examples of teaching strategies that are based on cognitive learning theories.

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WHAT CAUSES PEOPLE TO REMEMBER OR FORGET?

Most forgetting occurs because information in working memory was never transferred to long-term memory. However, it can also occur because we have lost our access to information that is in long-term memory.

Interference: Inhibition of recall of certain information by the presence of other information in memory. Interference happens when information gets mixed up with, or pushed aside by, other information. One form of interference occurs when people are prevented from mentally rehearsing newly learned information. Retroactive inhibition:  Decreased ability to recall previously learned information, caused by learning of new information.

Reducing Retroactive Inhibition

There are two ways to help reduce retroactive inhibition for students. The first is by not teaching similar and confusing concepts too closely in time. The second is to use different methods to teach similar concepts.

Proactive inhibition: Decreased ability to learn new information, caused by interference from existing knowledge. (Driving left-right)

Proactive facilitation: Increased ability to learn new information due to the presence of previously acquired information. Learning Spanish first may help an English speaking student later learn Italian, a similar language.

Primacy and Recency Effects

The tendency to learn the first things presented is called the primacy effect; the tendency to learn the last things is called the recency effect. The most common explanation for the primacy effect is that we pay more attention and devote more mental effort to items presented first.

Automaticy: A level of rapidty and ease such that tasks can be performed or skills utilized with little mental effort. (Readin

Practice

The most common method for committing information to memory is also the most mundane: Practice

·         Massed practice: Technique in which facts or skills to be learned are repeated often over a concentrated period of time.

·         Distributed practice: Technique in which items to be learned are repeated at intervals over a period of time.

·         Enactment: A learning process in which individuals physically  carry out tasks

HOW CAN MEMORY STRATEGIES BE TAUGHT?

Many of the things that students learn in school are facts that must be remembered. These form the framework on which more complex concepts depend. Factual material must be learned as efficiently and effectively as possible to leave time and mental energy for meaningful learning, such as problem-solving, conceptual, and creative activities.

Verbal Learning

Learning of words (or facts expressed in words). There are three types of verbal learning;

1.       Paired-associate learning: Learning of items in linked pairs so that when one member of a pair is presented, the other can be recalled.( e learning the states' capitals) In paired-associate learning, the student must associate a response with each stimulus. Techniques;

·         Imagery Mental:  visualization of images to improve memory.

·         Mnemonics:  Devices or strategies for aiding the memory. 

·         One of the most extensively studied methods of using imagery and mnemonics (memory devices) to help paired-associate learning is the keyword method,  which was originally developed for teaching foreign language vocabulary  but was later applied to many other areas

2.       Serial learning involves learning a list of terms in a-particular order. (Memorization of the notes on the musical staff). Techniques;

·    Loci Method A mnemonic device for serial learning that was used by the ancient  Greeks employs imagery associated with a list of locations

·    Pegword Method: Another imagery method useful for serial learning. . To use this mnemonic, the student might memorize a list of pegwords that rhyme with the numbers 1 to 10. To use this the student creates mental images relating to items on the list to be learned with particular pegwords. (first 10 U.S. presidents, you might picture George Washington eating a bun (1) with his wooden teeth, John Adams tying his shoe (2), Thomas Jefferson hanging by his knees from a branch of a tree (3), and so on.)

· Initial-letter strategies: Strategies for learning in which initial letters of items to be memorized are made into a more easily remembered word or phrase

3. Free-recall learning tasks also involve memorizing a list, but not in a special order. Recalling the names of the 50 states

Rote versus Meaningful Learning

Rote learning refers to the memorization of facts or associations, such as the multiplication table. Meaningful learning is mental processing of new information that relates to previously learned knowledge.

Inert Knowledge: This is knowledge that could and should be applicable to a wide range of situations but is applied only to a restricted set of circumstances. Usually, inert knowledge consists of information or skills learned in school that we cannot apply in life. For example, you may know people who could pass an advanced French test but would be unable to communicate in Paris.

Schema Theory

Theory stating that information is stored in long- term memory in schemata (networks of connected facts and concepts), which provide a structure for making sense of new information.

Hierarchies of Knowledge It is thought that most well-developed schemata are organized in hierarchies similar to outlines, with specific information grouped under general categories, which are grouped under still more general categories.

The Importance of Background Knowledge one of the most important determinants of how much you can learn about something is how much you already know about it.

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Memory

Short-Term or Working Memory

Short term memory is a storage system that can hold a limited amount of information for a few seconds. It is the part of memory in which information that is currently being thought about is stored. When we stop thinking about something, it disappears from our short-term memory. Another term for short term memory is working memory.

Rehearsal

One way to hold information in working memory is to think about it or say it over and over. You have probably used this strategy to remember a phone number short time. This process of maintaining an item in working memory by repetition is called rehearsal. . Without rehearsal, items will probably not stay in working memory for more than about 30 second. Teachers must allocate time for rehearsal during classroom lessons. Teaching too much information too rapidly is likely to be ineffective, because unless students are given time to mentally rehearse each new piece of information, later information is likely to drive it out of their working memory.

Facilitating Memory: organizing material into familiar patterns can help students remember, concepts and vocabulary. For example, to help young students remember the names of different animals you could help students to categorize them into pets, zoo animals and farm animals.

Individuals differ, of course, in the capacity of their working memories to accomplish a given learning task. One of the main factors in enhancing this capacity is the background knowledge. The more a person knows about something, the better able the person is to organize and absorb new information.

Long-term memory: The components of memory in which large amounts of information can be stored for long periods of time. We may never forget information on long term memory, so it is also called as permanent memory.

Parts of Long Term Memory

· Episodic memory: stores images of our personal experiences.

o   Flashbulb memory: Important events that are fixed mainly in visual and auditory memory. Who were you with on 9/11

· Semantic memory: stores facts and general knowledge.

o   Schema and schemata is used to describe networks of concepts that individuals have in their memories that enable them to understand and incorporate new information. A schema is like an outline, with different concepts or ideas grouped under larger categories.

·Procedural memory: stores information about how to do things. Exp: even if you have not ridden a bicycle for a long time, as soon as you get on one, the stimuli begin to evoke response.

Instructional strategies that actively involve students in lessons contribute to long- term retention

Information Processing Models

Levels-of-processing theory: Explanation of memory that links recall of a stimulus with the amount of mental processing it receives

Dual Code Theory:  A concept that is related to levels-of-processing theory is Paivio's dual code theory of memory, which hypothesizes that information is retained in long-term memory in two forms: visual and verbal. . This theory predicts that information represented both visually and verbally is recalled better than information represented only one way. For example, you remember a face better if you also know a name, and you remember a name better if you can connect it to a face.

Parallel distributed processing model based on the idea that information is processed simultaneously in the three parts of the memory system, each part operating on the same information at the same time. For example, when reading this paragraph, you are not looking at individual letters, forming them into words and meanings, and then working with them in short-term memory to file them in long-term memory. Instead, you are immediately using information in your long-term memory to interpret the words and meanings.

Connectionist models Theories proposing that knowledge is stored in the brain in a network of connections, not in systems of rules or in individual bits of information

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Information Processing and Cognitive Theories of Learning

This chapter describes how information is received and processed in the mind, how memory and loss of memory work, and how teachers can help students understand and remember critical information, skills, and ideas. This chapter also presents cognitive theories of learning, theories that relate to processes that go on within the minds of learners, and means of helping students use their minds more effectively to learn, remember, and use knowledge.

Information constantly enters our minds through our senses. Most of this information is almost immediately discarded, and we may never even be aware of much of it. Some is held in our memories for a short time and then forgotten.

Information processing theory: Cognitive theory of learning that describes the processing, storage, and retrieval of knowledge in the mind. Sensory register: Component of the memory system in which information is received and held for very short periods of time. The first component of the memory system that incoming information meets is the sensory register. . Sensory registers receive large amounts of information from each of the senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste)  and hold it for a very short time, no more than a couple of seconds. If nothing happens to information held in a sensory register, it is rapidly lost

The existence of sensory registers has two important educational implications. First, people must pay attention to information if they are to retain it. Second, it takes time to bring all the information seen in a moment into consciousness. For example, if students are bombarded with too much information at once and are not told which aspects of the information they should pay attention to, they may have difficulty learning any of the information at all.

Perception: A person's interpretation of stimuli. Perception of stimuli is not as straightforward as reception of stimuli. Instead, it involves mental interpretation and is influenced by our mental state, past experience, knowledge, motivations, and many other factors.

Attention: Active focus on certain stimuli to the exclusion of others. When teachers say to students, "Pay attention" or "Lend me your ears," they are using the words pay and lend appropriately. Like money, attention is a limited resource

There are several ways to gain students' attention, all of which go under the general heading of arousing student interest. One way is to use cues that indicate "This is important." Some teachers raise or lower their voices to signal that they are about to impart critical information. Others use gestures, repetition, or body position to communicate the same message. Increase the emotional content of material. Some publications accomplish this by choosing very emotional words. Unusual, inconsistent, or surprising stimuli also attract attention. For example, science teachers often introduce lessons with a demonstration or magic trick to engage student curiosity. Informing students that what follows is important to them will catch their attention. "This will be on tomorrow’s test.”

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HOW HAS SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY CONTRIBUTED TO OUR UNDERSTANDING OF HUMAN LEARNING?

Learning theory that emphasizes not only reinforcement but also the effects of cues on thought and of thought on action.

Modeling: Imitation of others' behavior.

Observational learning: Learning by observation and imitation of others. 

1. Attentional Phase: The first phase in observational learning is paying attention students pay attention to role models who are attractive popular. Ss pay attention to successful, ideal models.
2.  Retention Phase: Once the Ts have Ss’ attention, it’s time to model the behavior that they want Ss to imitate. Exp: T show how to write A, and Ss imitate T while writing A themselves. 
3. Reproduction Phase: Ss try to match their behavior to match to the model’s.  
4. Motivational Phase: Ss will imitate the model because doing so will increase their own chances to be reinforced. Ss pay attention to the model, practice it, reproduce it because they have learned that this is what the teacher likes and they want to please the teacher. When the Ss make a recognizable A, the teacher says; “nice work”

Vicarious learning

Learning based on observation of the consequences of others' behavior. Classroom teachers use the principle of vicarious learning all the time. When one student is fooling around, teachers often single out others who are working well

Self-Regulated Learning

Bandura (1997) hypothesized that people observing their own behavior, judge it against their own standards, and reinforce or punish themselves self-regulation Rewarding or punishing one's own behavior themselves. Students can be taught to use self-regulation strategies, and they can be reminded to do so in a variety of contexts so that self-regulation becomes a habit. For example students might be asked to set goals for the amount of time they expect to study each evening and to record whether or not they meet their goals.

Meichenbaum's Model of Self-Regulated Learning

Ss can be taught to monitor and regulate their own behavior. Self-regulated learning strategies of this kind are often called cognitive behavior modification. For example, Meichenbaum (1977) developed a strategy in which students are trained to say to themselves, "What is my problem? What is my plan? Am I using my plan? How did I do?"

Cognitive Behavior Modification

Procedures based on both behavioral and cognitive principles for changing one's own behavior by means of self-talk and self-instruction.

The steps involved in self-instruction are described by Meichenbaum (1977) as follows;

1. An  adult model performs a task while talking  to self out loud  (cognitive modeling). 
2. The child performs the same task under the direction of the model's instructions (overt external guidance) 
3. The child performs the task while instructing self aloud (overt self-guidance). 
4. Child whispers the instructions to self as he or she goes through the task. (faded, overt self-guidance). 
5. The child performs the tasks while guiding his or her performance via private speech (covert self-instruction).

Self-Reinforcement Drabman, Spitalnik, and O'Leary (1973) designed and evaluated a classic procedure to teach students to regulate their own behavior. They asked teachers to rate student behaviors each day and reinforce students when they earned high ratings. Then they changed the program: They asked the students to guess what rating the teacher had given them. The students were reinforced for guessing correctly. Finally, the reinforcers were gradually removed. The students' behavior improved under the reinforcement and guessing conditions, and it remained at its improved level long after the program was ended. The authors explained that students who were taught to match the teacher's ratings developed their own standards for appropriate behavior and reinforced themselves for meeting those standards.

Strengths and Limitations of Behavioral Learning Theories

It is important to recognize, however, that behavioral learning theories are limited in scope. With the exception of social learning theorists, behavioral learning theorists focus almost exclusively on observable behavior. Less visible learning processes, such as concept formation, learning from text, problem solving, and thinking, are difficult to observe directly and have therefore been studied less often by behavioral learning theorists. These processes fall more into the domain of cognitive learning. Social learning theory, which is a direct outgrowth of behavioral learning theories, helps to bridge the gap between the behavioral and cognitive perspectives. Behavioral and cognitive theories of learning are often posed as competing, opposite models. There are indeed specific areas in which these theories take contradictory positions. However, it is more accurate to see them as complementary rather than competitive that is, as tackling different problems.

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PRINCIPLES OF BEHAVIORAL LEARNING

• the role of consequences
• rein forcers
• punishers
• immediacy of consequences
• shaping
• Extinction
• schedules of reinforcement
• Maintenance and the role of antecedents

The role of Consequences

Pleasurable consequences strengthen behavior; unpleasant consequences weaken it. In other words, pleasurable consequences increase the frequency with which an individual engages in a behavior, whereas unpleasant consequences reduce the frequency of a behavior. If students enjoy reading books, they will probably read more often. If they find stories boring or are unable to concentrate, they may read less often, choosing other activities instead. "pleasurable consequences are called reinforcers; unpleasant consequences are called punishers.

Reinfcorcers

A reinforcer is defined as any consequence that strengthens (that is, increases the frequency of) a behavior. (Effectiveness of the behavior must be demonstrated). Candy cannot be reinforcer some children since they may not like it. No reward can be assumed to be a reinforcer for everyone under all conditions.

Primary and Secondary Reinforces:

Primary reinforcers satisfy basic human needs. Some examples are food, water, security, warmth, and sex. Secondary reinforcers are reinforcers that acquire their value by being associated with primary reinforcers or other well-established secondary reinforcers. For example, money has no value to a young child until the child learns that money can be used to buy things that are themselves primary or secondary reinforcers. Grades have little value to students unless  their parents notice and value good grades, and parents' praise is of value because it is associated with love, warmth, security, and other reinforcers. Money and grades are examples of secondary reinforcers because they have no value in themselves but have been associated with primary reinforcers or with other well-established secondary reinforcers.

Secondary Reinforcers have three basic categories: 

1. Social reinforcers  (praise, smiles, hugs, or attention)
2. Activity reinforcers (such as access to toys, games, or fun activities)
3. Token (or symbolic) reinforcers(such as money, grades, stars, or points)

Positive and Negative Reinforcers

Positive reinforce is pleasurable consequence given to strengthen behavior. Negative reinforcer is release from an unpleasant situation, given to strengthen behavior When a teacher says, "If you get an A on tomorrow's test you won't have to do home work the rest of the week," she's using negative reinforcement (escape from an unpleasant consequence, assuming homework is)

Premack Principle: Rule stating that enjoyable activities can be used to reinforce participation in less enjoyable activities. "As soon as you finish your work, you may go outside" or "Clean up your art project, and then I will read you a story."

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Reinforcers

Intrinsic reinforcers:  Behaviors that a person  enjoys engaging in for their  own sake, without any  other reward. People like to draw, read, sing, play games, or swim for no reason other than the fun of doing it

Extrinsic reinforcers: Praise or rewards given to motivate people to engage in behavior that they might not engage in without them.

Practical Reinforcers

Self-reinforcement: Students may be taught to praise themselves, give themselves a mental pat on the back, check off progress on a form, give themselves a short break, or otherwise reinforce themselves for completing a task or staying out of trouble.

Praise: Phrases such as "Good job,"  "Way to go," "I knew you could do it,"

Attention: Listening, nodding, or moving closer may provide a child with the positive attention she or he is seeking.

Grades and recognition: Grades and recognition (e. g., certificates of accomplishment)

Call home: Calling home or sending a note to child’s parents to recognize success can be a powerful reinforce.

Privileges:  Children can earn free time, access to special equipment (e.g., soccer balls), or special roles (such as running errands or distributing papers)

Activity reinforcers: On the basis of achieving pre-established standards, students can earn free time, videos, games, or access to other fun activities.

Tangible reinforcers: Children may earn points for achievement or good behavior that they can exchange for small toys, erasers, pencils, marbles, comic books, stickers, and so on.

Food: Raisins, fruit, peanuts, or other healthy snacks  can be used as reinforcers.

Punishers

Punishment: Unpleasant consequences used to weaken behavior.

Presentation punishment: An aversive stimulus following a behavior, used to decrease the chances that the behavior will occur again.

Aversive stimulus: An unpleasant consequence that a person tries to avoid or escape.

Removal punishment: Withdrawal of a pleasant consequence that is reinforcing a behavior, designed to decrease the chances that the behavior will recur. Examples include loss of a privilege, having to stay in during recess, or having to stay after school. One frequently used form of removal punishment in classrooms is time out, in which a student who misbehaves is required to sit in the corner or in the hall for several minutes.

Timeout: Procedure of removing a student from a situation in which misbehavior was being reinforced.

Unless an unpleasant consequence reduces the frequency of the behavior it follows, it may not be a punisher.

Immediacy of Consequences

One very important principle of behavioral learning theories is that consequences that follow behaviors closely in time affect behavior far more than delayed consequences do

Shaping

Immediacy of reinforcement is important to teaching, but so is the decision as to what to reinforce. The teaching of a new skill or behavior by means of reinforcement for small steps toward the desired goal. The term shaping is used in behavioral learning theories to refer to the teaching  of new skills or behaviors by reinforcing learners for approaching the desired final behavior.

Extinction

Reinforcers strengthen behavior but what happens when reinforcers are withdrawn? Eventually, the behavior will be weakened, and ultimately, it will disappear. This process is called extinction of a previously learned behavior.

Extinction burst: The increase in levels of a behavior in the early stages of extinction

Schedules of Reinforcement

The frequency and predictability of reinforcement

Fixed-ratio (FR) schedule: Reinforcement schedule in which desired behavior is rewarded following a fixed number of behaviors. One common schedule of reinforcement is the fixed-ratio (FR) schedule, in which a reinforcer is given after a fixed number of behaviors. For ex-ample, a teacher might say, "As soon as you finish ten problems, you may go outside."

Variable-ratio (VR) schedule Reinforcement schedule in which desired behavior is rewarded following an unpredictable number of behaviors.

Fixed-interval schedule: Reinforcement schedule in which desired behavior is rewarded following a constant amount of time.

 Variable-interval schedule: Reinforcement schedule in which desired behavior is rewarded following an unpredictable amount of time.

Maintenance

Continuation of behavior. Poorly behaved students  may need careful, systematic reinforcement  for doing schoolwork. After a while, however, they will find out that doing school work pays off in grades, in parental approval, in ability to understand what is going on in class, and in knowledge.

Role of Antecedents

The stimuli that precede a behavior also play an important role. Antecedent stimuli, events that precede a behavior, are also known as cues, because they inform us what behavior will be reinforced and/or what behavior will be punished. Discrimination is the use of cues, signals, or information to know when behavior is likely to be reinforced.(Exp: Observing the best time to ask for a raise from your boss).

Generalization:  Carryover of behaviors, skills, or concepts from one setting or task to another. Usually, when a classroom management program is successfully introduced in one setting, students' behaviors do not automatically improve in other settings. Instead, students learn to discriminate among settings.

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