It’s another opportunity to celebrate the birthday of B. F. Skinner. Professor Skinner was born on this day in 1904, so he’d've finished his 105 trip around the sun this today. I’m going to take the time today to revisit the Web site devoted to him.
Monthly Archive for March, 2009
Sometime back, I posted an entry about songs that I used to make some basic rules of behavior modification memorable for students in my classes. This post reprises that post and updates it.
Please note that the songs associated with each “rule” are not meant to convey exactly the same sentiment as the rule; the songs’ messages are often more about individual relationships, so the lyrics do not conform precisely to the concepts behind the rules.
I’ve re-ordered some items and modified some of them. This is the version for this (the spring) semester of 2009.
Continue reading ‘Songs revised’
There’s bound to be more to this story: “Teacher Accused of Taping Kids’ Mouths: Students Say Teacher Taped Their Mouths Shut.” Roz Plater of My Fox DC posted a story under this headline about a counsellor who encountered a third-grader with tape over his mouth. When the principal investigated, he allegedly found seven students with tape over their mouths.
Ms. Plater has video of John White, spokesman for Prince George’s County Schools, saying “Teachers are trained on classroom management and there are better ways to handle these situations, and our teachers are held to higher standards.” Well, putting tape over students’ mouths is a classroom management strategy, but it’s just flat unnecessary, let alone wrong. I don’t know what was happening in that classroom, but I do know that there are humane and effective methods for managing classroom behavior, and this isn’t one of them.
Can anyone think of a legitimate reason for putting tape over students’ mouths?
Link to Ms. Plater’s story. Matthew Stable of NBC Washington also covered the story. NBC Washington and First Coast News reported on an earlier incident in which a teachers’ aide was accused of putting tape on students’ mouths in a school cafeteria.
Over on Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL Larry Ferlazzo, a teacher of high school students who are learning English, reports that he adopted what sounds like a response-cost system for managing behavior and found it quite successful. Under the title “Have You Ever Taught A Class That Got ‘Out Of Control’?,” Mr. Ferlazzo explained that he awarded 50 points to sub-groups of students and then deducted points for misbehavior.
What’s interesting about that? Isn’t this a bit like the Good Behavior Game? Don’t lots of teachers use response-cost systems successfully? True. True.
One particularly interesting feature of the story, though, is Mr. Felazzo’s disarmingly honest assessment of his own views about employing such a system. Mr. Felazzo explains that, after several of his usual strategies proved ineffective, he found that he had to move beyond building relationships with students. That’s when he adopted the response-cost system.
Yes, I know some of you are thinking, as I initially thought, what is a progressive educator like me doing considering a classroom management system that sounds like behavior modification and operant conditioning? Why am I not continuing my focus on positive strategies to help students develop their own intrinsic motivation?
After Mr. Felazzo thinned the schedule of reinforcement (though he doesn’t report it that way), he discovered that the students were still behaving appropriately. He inferred that they developed intrinsic motivation. That’s possible. Alternatively, perhaps there is a behavioral trap operating in his situation: When they behaved appropriately, less-obvious reinforcers (e.g., success in class?) began to control the students’ behavior. For whatever reason they continued to display student-like behavior, and for that we should all be glad.
Thanks for the good example, Mr. Felazzo!
Link to Mr. Ferlazzo’s blog post.