EdPsych Blog Post 5: A

a)         Perhaps the most obvious principle of behaviorist learning theory that would help inform me of whether or not my students are successfully mastering lesson objectives is instrumental conditioning.  In instrumental conditioning, a student will steadily increase behavior or decrease behavior depending on the reinforcement each behavior receives (Ormrod, 2011).  In a classroom setting, a child’s mastering a lesson objective can be seen as academic behavior.  Let’s say that on a particular day, my lesson objective is to get my students to understand the appropriate punctuation that needs to be used in writing dialogue.  Let’s say I lecture the students for a few minutes about the correct uses of punctuation in dialogue.  Then I write this sentence on the whiteboard: Marsha said “I want a new pair of shoes.”  I then ask for someone to raise their hand and tell me what punctuation mark to put between “said” and “I.”  One of my students raises his hand and says, “A period.”  The student answered the question incorrectly, an academic behavior that I do not want him to display, so I gently tell him that he did not answer the question correctly (a form of punishment), and that there is a different punctuation mark that should be used.  Another student then raises her hand and says, “You should use a comma.”  This student displayed the academic behavior I do want to see, so I reinforce her answer by saying “Good job” in hopes of increasing this behavior.  Next, I would pass out worksheets in which students will be provided various examples of dialogue that are missing the punctuations, and their job will be to insert the correct punctuation marks into each sentence.  The students will complete this task, I will take the worksheets up, and I will grade them either by providing gentle punishment in the form of X’s and corrections for each missed question, or reinforcement in the form of check marks and “Good jobs” for each correct answer given.  Slowly, through this steady process of reinforcing good academic behavior and punishing undesirable academic behavior, the students will eventually master the lesson objective, which is to understand the appropriate punctuation marks used in dialogue.

         The main principle of the social cognitive theory of learning that I would help inform me of my students’ mastery of lesson objectives is modeling.  Let’s continue to use the lesson in which my objective is to get my students to understand how to correctly use punctuation in sentences with dialogue.  If I am abiding by the social cognitive theory, the first thing I do is lecture for a minute about the different ways to punctuate sentences with dialogue.  Next, I write this example sentence on the white board: Tom asked, “Can I ride the bicycle after you” This time, instead of asking students what punctuation mark should be used and where, I am going to model the correct academic skills I want to see from my students by inserting a question mark between “you” and the final quotation mark myself.  By seeing me model this behavior, the students will know that this is the correct answer and they will be more likely to imitate it on their own.  I would not have to stop there, though.  I could go on to provide cognitive modeling.  After inserting the question mark between “you” and the final quotation mark, I could explain the cognitive process I went through to determine what the correct answer was.  “Well,” I could say out loud, “first we know that this is a sentence with dialogue, so really there are two people speaking in this sentence: the narrator, and Tom.  Now, I tell myself that it sounds like Tom is asking a question, as signaled by the question-marker word ‘Can.’  So, since Tom is asking the question, the question mark should go inside the final quotation mark, because if it was outside the final quotation mark it would be like the narrator was asking a question, when we know that the narrator is actually simply telling us what Tom asked.”  Hopefully, as I do this, my students will pay attention, retain the information and demonstration I am providing, and, after I have passed out the worksheets with the sentences that need punctuation, reproduce the correct behavior I modeled on their own worksheet.  Perhaps on their worksheet I could require my students, as they complete the worksheet, to elaborate on each answer by explaining the cognitive process they went through to determine the correct answer, as I did in front of the class.  In abiding by the social cognitive theory of learning, I will know that the students have mastered my lesson objective when they are able to observe my modeling of the academic skill and successfully demonstrate these academic skills themselves, possibly providing an explanation of the cognitive process they went through to get to their answer as well.

         Another way to make sure my students master my lesson objectives when using the social cognitive theory is teaching them self-monitoring techniques.  In self-monitoring, a student is able to observe oneself in terms of how well they are progressing toward a certain goal (Ormrod, 2011).  As Friend and Bursuck (2012) posit, teaching self-monitoring is especially important when dealing with children with special needs, as it fosters a sense of independent learning and self-reliance in the student.  Friend and Bursuck lay down a clear, three-step process educators can take when teaching students with disabilities self-monitoring.  The authors suggest educators discuss with the student an effective strategy the student can take in order to display an appropriate behavior or academic skill, model for the student what behaviors you expect him or her to display, and reward the student when he or she successfully displays the desired behavior or academic skill (Friend and Bursuck, 2012, p. 400-401).  So, taking my punctuation lesson as an example, I could foster self-monitoring in a student with disabilities (or any student, really) by discussing what strategies they can take to determine which punctuation mark to use and where, modeling for the student the correct use of punctuation marks, and rewarding the student when they correctly imitate the behavior and demonstrate an understanding of the academic skill.

Ormrod, J. (2011). Educational psychology: Developing learners (7^th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

Friend, M, & Bursuck, W. (2012). Including students with special needs: A practical guide for classroom teachers (6^th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.