Chapter 9

From a behaviorist viewpoint, I believe successful mastery of a lesson's objectives could mean many things from an academic viewpoint. Students that have mastered your objectives could have used behaviorism to apply what they have learned to what they see on their paper. If a student does a a grammar worksheet and writes down right or wrong answers and gets the paper back corrected, they will notice the check marks and X's. If a teacher puts a sticker on the paper for a 100, then they will know that good grades mean a sticker, therefore if a student wants a sticker, they learn they must make a one hundred. Therefore, when a student sees a particular type of problem, it acts as a stimulus and recalls the information they know, and urges them to put the correct answer, in order for a reward. This is much like classical conditioning. While behaviorism could be applied to this type of academic standard, it also works perhaps much better for objectives in the behavior of the classroom. If a student is not making good grades, or successfully learning the material, it could be related to his or her behavior in the classroom setting. Attention seeking or restless students are often not focused solely on the schoolwork at hand, therefore in order to redirect their focus, behaviorist methods, like applied behavior analysis or positive behavior support could be applied to the situation. Once teachers have identified the root cause of behavior, and effectively learned how to best help that student in terms of appropriate classroom behavior, then they may focus on the learning aspect of that student's work. This could also include adapting lesson plans to that student's interests, so that they are reaching their full learning potential.
For my CSEL class, this class could probably benefit most from positive behavioral support. It is a class of seniors who essentially do not take the class seriously because they are ready to get out and are over school. Students are roughhousing and passing notes and texting. First off, it would be beneficial to conduct a functional analysis to determine if there is any overriding reason any students are behaving this way, other than they see music class as a joke, or easy grade. If there deeper root causes, I would suggest finding individual projects for those who need it, however, in this class it seems that most of these seniors would simply rather be having social hour because graduation is near. Therefore, the best route would be to eliminate the undesirable behaviors, by creating activities and projects that let students interact with each other, while still getting work done. If students feel they cannot socialize or communicate in class, to a point where they will be disruptive to do it, I would try to redirect their focus by having them work together towards a certain task. This could include group work or competitions, and a system of perhaps rewards for those who are willing to try, while those who slack off would not get the opportunity to work with others.