Thought Paper #1

Paige McClelland
 I believe that measuring and observing student behaviour can help educators

structure a learning environment that is conducive to the needs of the individual learner

and community of learners. Providing students with specific expectations as well as

reinforcements and punishments for behaviour can also help to facilitate deep learning.

However, behaviourism has certain limitations that make it difficult to explain how or

why actual learning takes place, especially when faced with unpredictable behaviours or

unobservable processes (e.g., brain functioning). Even a self-proclaimed strong

experimental design study has difficulty ascertaining how (or if) behaviourist strategies

influence academic skill (Fudge et al., 2008, p. 590). When no change in behaviour is

observed, it does not necessarily mean that no learning has taken place; in fact, some

students are not affected by behaviourist strategies. Although Melinda White’s strategies

to use individual- and group-based rewards and verbal praise to motivate her students and

track their progress is commendable, they don’t provide evidence for how or why students

constructed their knowledge about the writing process. When prompted, students may be

able to provide thoughtful feedback; however, this doesn’t tell us much about how the

learning occurred or what, specifically, led to students’ knowledge construction.

Interestingly, focusing exclusively on students’ behaviour can minimize other important

factors that led to students’ knowledge acquisition and achievement of learning

(Robinson, 2013). Educators should use behaviourist strategies if and when they are

appropriate for the learning context; in addition, they should note that behaviourism

theory is likely not the only theory that can help them understand how and why learning

occurred. We must turn to other theories in order to bridge our understanding of student

behaviour with our understanding of knowledge acquisition.

 References

Fudge, D. L., Skinner, C. H., Williams, J. L., Cowden, D., Clark, J., & Bliss, S. L.

(2008). “Increasing on-task behavior in every student in a second-grade classroom

during transitions: Validating the color wheel system. Journal of School

Psychology, 45(5), 575-592.

Robinson, K. (2013). “How to escape education’s death valley” [YouTube Video].

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX78iKhInsc

White, E. (n.d.). “Classroom observation” [YouTube video]. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY3t2sijb4M&feature=related