The role of behaviorist learning theory is present in many of today’s classroom in the form of a behavior management system. At Adena Elementary School, students are given disciplinary points when they demonstrate an inappropriate behavior. There is a set of rules that govern the disciplinary points. As the student acquires more disciplinary points the punishment increases in its intensity. After each quarter the disciplinary points are “wipe out” and the students start with a “clean slate”.
As teachers we use reinforcement to increase desired behaviors both academically and behaviorally. According to Miller (1997) there are four main factors that cause reinforcements to be more or less effective. These four factors are as follows: a) the reinforcement must be delivered only when the desired behavior occurs, b) the reinforcement must be delivered immediately after the behavior occurs, c) the reinforcement is worthwhile, and d) a reinforcer that the person hasn’t had too much of.
In looking at the four main factors, I think about what Dr. Orey mentioned in the video. It seems that he was speaking of our school. Our school district determined at the beginning of the school year those students who did not performing well on the Ohio Achievement Assessment and decided that they would be assigned to the math lab for 30 minutes a day. During this time the students are assigned to a computer and must work on Study Island, which is a grade level content standard driven program which mirrors our Ohio Achievement Assessment. This program provides interactive games for the students to play once they have received a correct answer. The games, many times, motivates the students to work toward a correct answer.
I worry about Student Island’s role in ensuring students have a passion for learning. Many of the students do not have the basic skills needed to accomplish the standards at grade level and this program does not allow for closing the gap between the student’s present level of performance and content standards. This causes frustration from teachers as well as students. Plus, this type of drill and practice does not cause students to learn the skills in a global context and thus it has no meaning to them. Some students tend to “play the game” by clicking on choices until they have the correct answer. So what meaning does this technology have for the students who need the most intervention?
Lever-Duffy, J., & McDonald, J. (2008). Theoretical foundations (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
Miller, L. M. (1997). Principles of everyday behavior analysis. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Co.
I completely agree with your concerns about Study Island. The game aspect, while having the potential to make learning fun, more often than not is going to lend itself to fast clicking and guessing. I think this is mostly due to other aspects of the internet where changes are instantaneous and require little thought. I also worry about the lack of personal feedback for the students - it is too easy for them to disregard the site's messages to get to the next part of the game and try again.
ReplyDeleteUsed sparingly, I think Study Island is a great idea... I am just not so sure about using it on a daily basis.
Jeremie,
ReplyDeleteI am so glad I read your blog. I too have problems at my school with the remediation programs we use and my students getting the understanding they need out of it. Our program doesn't offer re-teaching in different contexts so when students do not understand something they are just given more meaningless problems, and forget about using the concept in a real life, meaningful situation. We do have a great math program that does the opposite of the above and I love it- the only problem is it is not being used for remediation- I don't always understand our administration.
I have to say I really like your schools approach to behavior management and think it is a great idea to start with a "clean slate" each quarter. This way students don't just give up and they realize there are more opportunities to change their actions thus their situation.
Michelle Epstein :)
Hi Jeremie,
ReplyDeleteI have had the same experience you describe with Study Island with other drill games. I find that a well developed, carefully planned game or interactive computer based activity can have enormous benefits, but many times, pedagogical issues have not been carefully considered--the games or activities don't differentiate for different ability levels or learning styles. I so agree--if the drill isn't situated--if it is out of context of the big picture, students often become disengaged--bored--and quickly figure out how to get around the skill development aspect of the activity and just guess until a satisfactory answer is achieved.
Thanks for sharing about this.
Jeremie,
ReplyDeleteI just recently learned that our school has been using the Student Island program to remediate students who are struggling in Math. It seems that they are going to use it also for English. I am going to share with my collegues your thoughts about the program. Based on your observations, I may be able to give them some advice on how to make this program worth while to the students that need help.
Thanks!