PLE Post #8

Consider your CSEL intervention case study. Are there tools from a behaviorist view for either encouraging productive behaviors or discouraging undesirable behaviors that you could apply to the case? What are they? 
Now, compare the interventions that you have identified above with what you think might work from a cognitive or constructivist viewpoint. How do they compare to behaviorist tools? What are the benefits of each theory, and what are the deficits? Which theory might play a larger role in how you determine classroom management? 

Elementary Education Case Study

You engage your third grade students in cooperative learning activities at least twice a day, changing heterogeneous group members once every four weeks. You have agreed upon routine procedures that your classroom community uses within their small groups, including the roles and responsibilities of group members. Lately you have noticed that one small group always seems to have difficulty grasping material and completing their project in an acceptable manner.  You observe this group carefully and find that Lisa seems to be the catalyst for their problems.  She gets angry with others if she does not get the job she wants and refuses to do her part in contributing to the group’s learning.  She constantly interrupts others in her group.  She does not pay attention when her group prepares for class presentations. 

Regarding the case study above, there are tools I could use from a behaviorist view for both encouraging productive behaviors and discouraging undesirable behaviors that I could apply. To encourage productive behaviors, one strategy I would use is creating a contingency contract with Lisa. Lisa and I would meet and discuss the behaviors that she is demonstrating in her small group and how those behaviors go against the routine procedures that our class agreed upon regarding small groups. Lisa and I would then discuss desired behaviors for working in small groups that I expect Lisa to demonstrate and agree upon a reinforcer when Lisa demonstrates this behavior. The reinforcers would be positive reinforcers that increase the occurrence of the desired behavior. Reinforcers could be both primary and secondary depending on what Lisa decides motivates her to behave more. Primary reinforcement could be candy whenever Lisa appropriately behaves and cooperates with her group. Secondary reinforcements could be praise, extra recess time, a homework pass, a ticket or token, etc. Another positive reinforcement I could use to increase a desired behavior would be the use of a behavior chart and a work habits chart. For this strategy, every time Lisa demonstrated good behavior in her small group and stayed on task and participated, Lisa would get to put a star next to her name on both the work habit chart and the behavior chart. When Lisa fills up an entire row on either chart, Lisa will receive a reward. The reward could be candy, getting to take her shoes off in class, getting to eat lunch in the classroom with a friend, etc. On the other hand, there are behaviorist tools I can use to discourage undesirable behaviors. One tool I could use is presentation punishment. When Lisa misbehaves in her small group and does not participate I will scold Lisa in front of her peers and Lisa will relate her behavior with an undesirable response from me. Other punishment strategies would be taking away recess time, adding work for Lisa to complete, removing Lisa from the small group and having her work alone, moving Lisa's desk to the front of the room or by my desk, etc. All of these forms of punishment would seek to decrease the occurrence of Lisa's undesirable behavior. 

From a constructivist viewpoint, I would not use reinforcers or punishments to encourage good behavior or discourage bad behavior. I would understand that it is important for Lisa to build her own understanding of why her behavior in her small group is not the correct behavior because currently it is apparent that she sees no issue in the way she acts. For instance, I would offer Lisa an opportunity for restitution when she misbehaves in her group. For this strategy let's say I see Lisa constantly interrupting her group, I would then call Lisa over and ask her if she knows what just happened in her group that might not make me happy, I would then tell her that she was interrupting her group members and it was making it hard for me and her peers to concentrate on what we are trying to do, then I would tell her that I do not like when she interrupts her group members and ask her if she can please do something to fix this problem, Lisa should say yes and I would ask her what she thinks the best thing for her to do to fix this problem is. This strategy allows Lisa to form her own understanding of why her interrupting others is not the correct behavior and also allows her to form her own understanding of how to correctly fix this problem. In theory, this constructivist strategy would decrease the occurrence of Lisa interrupting her small group members because she formed her own understanding of why it is an incorrect behavior and associates it with the fact that it upsets the teacher. 

A constructivist viewpoint focuses more on the cognitive processes of Lisa and how she as an individual has formed her own understanding of how one should act in a small group. A behaviorist viewpoint creates associations between reinforcers and punishments and the student's behavior. Behaviorism does not focus on the student's cognitive processes. Instead, it focuses more on the environmental stimuli and how they influence a change in the student's behavior. 

The benefits of using a constructivist approach for behavioral management is that it requires students to own their actions and be held accountable by their peers. In addition, it allows for them to gain confidence, self-respect, and the ability to express themselves as they build an understanding of appropriate behavior through their experiences. A downfall to using this approach is that learners do not always construct an appropriate meaning or understanding despite our efforts to promote conceptual change. The benefits of using a behaviorist approach for behavioral management is that it is very helpful in dealing with challenging behaviors through the use of reinforcers and punishment. A child is more likely, in my opinion, to decrease or increase a behavior if they are receiving something enjoyable, having something enjoyable taken away, or having something undesirable presented to them. A downfall to using this approach is that it completely ignores cognitive factors that take part in how a child behaves. In addition, reinforcers and punishments might not always be the best way to handle a situation and reinforcers might influence a child to pick up a bad behavior like rushing to get their work done just to get the reward. 

While I would like for constructivism to be how I structure my classroom behavior management, I feel that behaviorism will play a larger role in my classroom environment especially since I will be dealing with younger students. I feel that students will react more to the occurrence of reinforcers and punishments in terms of their behavior than they would having to take ownership for their actions and create an understanding of why their behavior is correct or incorrect. That being said, I won't give up on the idea of implementing constructivism but behaviorism is just a more familiar strategy to me when it comes to behavior management. 

This article discusses the effectiveness of implementing a constructivist approach to education. One section specifically deals with social and moral education where it discusses that children benefit from making mistakes, experiencing the consequences, and developing their own reasons for following the rules. I recommend you take a look at that section!

http://www.education.uiowa.edu/html/iae/iae-z-op-devries-1-5.pdf