2012 EDLD 655 Watch 1, Day 1: Empiricist/Behaviorist
2012: Hear teachers and educational leaders discuss observations of learning theories at work. To post, just click on "Post a Comment" below and a screen will come up for typing.
Classical conditioning brings about desired response...according to Pavlov ANY stimulus can be used to bring about ANY desired response an organism is capable of making.I am stepping into the hallway now to observe our kids and see what responses said conditioning dictates. Have a great day!
Thanks, Dave! Will look forward to what you find. Everybody, Suzanne pointed out that I did not have threaded replies turned on for the comments. They are on now so you will be able to reply to any comments you select. Thanks, Suzanne, for the alert --Kathleen
7:05 AM Student walks in building with beanie on. Teachers welcomes student by name, asking them how they are today. Teacher simply points at her head and beanie is removed as if nothing were awry.
7:20 AM Teacher opens double doors from cafeteria leading to the upper hall commons area. All students immediately begin filing out of cafeteria, up the right side of the stairway to their lockers.
7:30 AM Principal walks into classroom. Everybody stops talking.
7:40 AM Students are working in literacy circles on a project. Teacher walks to certain spot at the front of the room. All activity stops and attention directed to the teacher.
This list could easily go on all day, of course. We as educators historically rely on classical conditioning to help students to learn how we want them to behave. In other words, these are all examples of learned behavior. I think one could make a case that most of the desired "responses" we seek are actually "behaviors".
What examples of classical conditioning can you think of that are NOT aimed at soliciting a desired behavior?
My dog can seemingly tell time. She knows that when I am preparing for my day at 5 AM that I will be heading off to work and she will be left alone for most of the day. She mopes. She has been conditioned, though I certainly do not desire the moping behavior (and feel horribly guilty about it).
A school example may be student selection during question and answer sessions. Specifically, many teachers call on the student who raises her hand. The student who wants that affirmation will raise her hand, and the student who wants to remain invisible will not - an undesired behavior but also a learned behavior.
The 7:05 entry sounds like my entire day. I try to use as little vocal instruction as possible for things that could be repeated a thousand times a day. Pointing to hats, pointing to the speaker that a day dreaming child needs to listen too, thanking a student for hanging up their coat in hopes that others follow suit...it happens all day long in throughout the school.
I think my dog has conditioned ME! Every morning I wake up to him standing next to the bed. When he sees my eyes open, he wags his tail (excited that I'm awake and that he'll soon get his breakfast). I let him outside and fill up his bowl with kibble. I have been conditioned to associate waking up with feeding my dog.
I too have a conditioned response with my dog. Every morning when I leave the shower he goes to the back sliding glass door (he sits by the bathroom until I open the door) to be let out. I let him out and then make a simple breakfast for myself. When he barks (after peeing) I let him back in. I then feed him whatever I have not yet finished. After I finish feeding him I go and get dressed. It is the same thing everyday.
After reading the above replies I am thinking differently about our relationship. It is interesting how we have grown to have conditioned responses to each others actions. Each one of us does not move forward until the other one commits to his own action.
Ok. I too have a dog example that is not a desired behavior ;) I have 2 labs that are pretty much outside dogs, but come in for the evening. The stimulus is me grabbing the car keys. The response is two. 100 pound labs sprinting for the front door. They two have conditioned me as anytime I need to go somewhere, or am simply moving the keys, I have to go into "stealth mode."
I can relate to the dog examples! If I put my sneakers on in the living room, Magnus (my dog) will pace back and forth whining for me to hurry up and take him out. Whose conditioning who!
Wow. Dog examples of classical conditioning regarding dogs. I live this one almost everyday. An anecdote to this is that we've been to "dog training" to learn how to use some classical conditioning techniques with our dog. The irony is that the classes are less about teaching the dog, but teaching you - the owner. Our dog clearly learned more from the class than we did. He can give us a look, a bark, a "literal tap with his paw" and we will respond. If we don't respond in the manner he was wanting, he'll either repeat the stimulus or use another prompt to change his "dependent variable" - which would be our actions. I think my dog too Rob Horner's class.
Cats too...every time we open a can one of our cats freaks out. Not surprisingly the cat isn't very discriminating. This conditioning doesn't do him much good since most of the cans we open are for people, not cats.
One of dozens of examples seen in a day: During an observation, a teacher delivered instructions to students for a learning activity; students did not begin until the teacher used a release cue, "go".
This observation is an example of behaviorism (classical conditioning) in that students have been conditioned to respond in a specific manner to a specific stimulus. Students' behavior has been altered by the teacher to fit the environment.
I see this all day too. The whistle blows at recess and all the kids look to see what grade is going in then run to line up. The kids raise their hands to be excused from lunch. The intercom comes on and everyone gets quiet. Kids walk into math class and put the heading on their paper. I didn't realize just how many stimulus responses I see in a day. Many more than I had imagined.
I agree, bringing my awareness to the number of stimulus responses that occur in a day is astounding. I observed a student being asked to 'come sit' and the teacher celebrated/reinforced the students action with a verbal praise. What's interesting about this example of stimulus (verbal command), response (student action) and reinforcement (verbal praise) is that it occurred on a high school level.
I would say that we work hard to condition kids to respond to nonverbal cues in order to be efficient and keep kids safe. It is an expectation that students will respond, for instance, to the fire alarm - we PRACTICE fake fires to make sure their automated response is not the natural flight, but instead as orderly and robot like as possible. I was thinking about how many "classroom management" strategies are actually just automated responses to cues that we have pre-taught and practiced. When I clap three times, you clap three times, and it is quiet.
I agree. I was in a second grade class at the beginning of the day. I watched as the students came in. They had automated responses that ensure order in the classroom. First they hang their bag and coat, then they put their homework folder in the basket and homework in the turn in box. Next, they take down their chair and even the chair of their neighbor if they were not there yet. Several students had what looked like morning jobs including switching the calendar and getting out the daily schedule and posting it. After these tasks were done they went to breakfast, recess or sat quietly with free time tasks at the desk or on the carpet.
It really makes sense that so many of the examples and discussions around learning from this lens in the school setting are related to school/classroom management. Here, it seems, we want students to "just do the right thing" in being safe and responsible, so that we can free up time to engage in much more complex learning around the content.
Observation that I did was in the language classroom here in the university. Teacher did mention that there will a pop quiz at the beginning of the class. Students have to prepare the exam book. First day most of the students took out the exam book (They did have a quiz) As for the second day, almost everyone took out the exam book and wait for the quiz. I found out the sign for this empiricist/behaviorist theory is that students heard the sign "pop quiz" at the beginning of the class, so that they have this reflect action.
Of course, if the quiz doesn't come on a regular basis, then they stop coming to class prepared for one. The stimulus must happen often enough to continue garnering the desired response. Ask any teacher who implemented something new that went great at first, but then dwindled as the teacher failed to occasionally give the necessary stimulus.
My observation took place during our school wide assembly. The kids come in and spend the first few minutes chatting with friends. Our principal made the "quiet coyote" sign and it took about a minute and a half for them to get quite. This was pointed out to the kiddos and the expectation of a quick and quiet response so that everyone gets ready quickly was reiterated. Later in the assembly the same signal was given and the entire gym was quiet in about 30 seconds. Kiddos were praised for their speed increase and thanked for being so quick to get ready. Another quiet coyote towards the end of the assembly got the student's attention in about 9 seconds which was celebrated by the staff and students.
This is almost a model example of the behaviorists theory. A signal is given, a response is elicited, and with increased exposure the reaction time was faster.
I love this example. It reminds of how teaching a basic transition signal along ongoing feedback and reinforcement can help maximize student instructional time in the classroom.
At the high school level, "quiet coyote" isn't a common tool used to gather attention, but I see a variety of techniques used to achieve the same objective. Turning on an overhead, writing on a whiteboard, standing in the front of the room, warm-up activities, and roll call are all things that I see on a regular basis in the classroom.
Desiree Margo While observing in a classroom, I observed a teacher ring a set of chimes. All of the students quickly moved to the carpet area and sat down. The teacher then taught a mini lesson. This group of students has learned that when they hear chimes in the classroom it means it is time to move to the carpet area.
It seems like a position of support for the imbedded model of the strategies that most of our student behavior teachings follow this model. I saw one of our fire drills that have the oxymoronic description of orderly middle school students. 625 middle school students hear the loud buzzing and they don't yell about how loud it is or whine due to their impending exposure to the natural world. Instead they form orderly lines and silently file out of the building to line-up and be accounted for with their peers.
This reminds me of what a kindergarten teacher does to signal it is time for the students to rotate stations. The students love the Smartboard and the teacher puts the timer on it. She has a different kind of buzzer sound for each one of the three station transitions. The last one sounds like the "charge" song and the students clean up their stations and sit down at their desks. When everyone has done so, they all say "charge" and line up for recess. The kids love it. Geoff Wetherell
While watching for conditioned responses from students I noticed in one class I sat in on that as soon as the students entered the classroom all of the students pulled one piece of paper from their notebooks for a quiz they take every time the class meets. As it turns out the students learn on the very first day that there will be one quiz every time the class meets that will be the same format all term long. This response by the students is conditioned from the very first day of class.
It's clear that much of our education system relies on conditioning to promote desired behaviors and efficiency. Behaviorist/empiricist learning theory draws criticism because of our emphasis on students as fairly passive responders. Of course, students are sometimes the source of the stimulus and the adults or peers in school are those with conditioned responses. I wonder if outside observers would perceive the automated response of students pulling out a paper daily as a positive (efficient) or as negative (unvarying, routine, scripted). I sense that some might respond negatively to the management routines in education as being symbolic of lack of original thought or higher-level thinking without regard to the depth of learning that might happen in the saved minutes.
I saw something similar when I was observing a class at the U of O today. A power point was put up and the students automatically pulled out paper and pens and began to copy down what the slides said. It made me wonder if any of the students were actually absorbing what the professor was lecturing about or if it was simply a conditioned response that happened as if the students were on auto-pilot. When the professor tried to engage the students with questions she got little to no response, whereas the power point note taking task got the attention of almost every student in the room, without being asked. Carey's comments about labeling these types of actions as positive or negative intrigues me, especially when dealing with higher education. How do we expect students to accomplish the higher level thinking tasks when even college classes aren't requiring anything more then the routine, automatic processes? I also find it interesting that in the 100 and 200 level classes higher order thinking is often not required (at least not a majority of the time) but once students get to 300 and 400 level classes it is expected that they are able to engage the material, the professor, and their peers consistently and effectively each class period.
These are excellent points, Kelly and Carey. There is a fine line between efficiency and mindlessness. I think the issue is where/when behaviorism is employed. Certain routines (such as an entry or exit routine) can be a great way to get kids ready to jump into higher order learning. For example, a quick warm-up done every day can help kids transition from the hallway chaos to the classroom. But an entire class period of call and response or simple questions is not a good way to accomplish a lot of learning. To link in with your observations at the college level, Kelly, this is especially interesting given that most white-collar jobs nowadays do not have routine tasks. Most high-paying, high-responsiblity jobs in companies now require the ability to handle ambiguity and make sense of complex problems without many guidelines.
While teaching a class, the door opens multiple times as student aides from the office bring notes about appointments. Surprisingly, though, the conditioned response on the part of students and teacher is to not respond, but to continue with their activities. Sure, students perk up a bit thinking the message might be for them, and the teacher reaches out to take the note, but on the whole the class has learned not to skip a beat. It's interesting to wonder whether the students' outward response (no or little reaction) is the same as their inward response or whether the entrance of an aide leads to a lot of mental side trips.
This seems to be an example of both conditioning and cognitive learning. Students deduct from their past experiences that it is better for them to pay more attention to what they are doing than to the event.
Walking through the classrooms this morning, I observed a teacher using the "clap, clap...clap, clap, clap" strategy to get the attention of the students. As soon as she clapped, students repeated the claps and were ready to listen. I am also so conditioned by the clapping stimulus from my repeated exposure to it over the past dozen or so years, that I can't help but clap in response and give attention as well. Just like Pavlov's dogs, the students and I seemingly didn't use our brains to decide on the response but gave an automatic physical response.
I think it is interesting that you still use the "clap" response after so many years. I have tried to use the "clap" method in staff meeting/professional development and it is always a flop. I suppose it will take reteaching it but it does feel a lot like Pavlov's dogs.
This is interesting, because I saw that "clap" response work well between a dance instructor and a group of 9th graders that we hosted on campus. However, it's hard for me to imagine trying this strategy to, say, get our staff to quiet down for a meeting. This got me thinking - I don't see many physical/nonverbal strategies used in my office to elicit a conditioned response of compliance, getting quiet, etc. While the strategies used to elicit a certain response (such as compliance in completing a task) from staff are more subtle (buffered in adult civility) this also introduces more room for misinterpretation of what order or direction is being given. There's something very clear and refreshing about a direct, verbal cue and the certainty and immediacy of the group's response.
I'm not in a school setting and the only class I'm taking this term is Analysis of T&L. I watched the videos and started looking for evidence of the learning theories around my office but I started getting worried when the week ended and I hadn't yet witnessed the theories in action. I came across all three of the theories while watching my boyfriend coach basketball on Saturday. [Disclaimer: I know less than nothing about basketball so I assume I won't be using the proper basketball terms to describe what I saw.]
Evidence of the Empiricist/Behaviorist school of thought was demonstrated when the coach asked the boys to run drills. The boys took turns passing and catching the ball, each time they were supposed to make eye contact before passing the ball. Each boy would catch the ball, make eye contact with the next boy, pass the ball when coach blew the whistle, and then run to the back of the line. They switched to another activity but coach warned the boys that they would still be expected to pass the ball when the whistle blew. By the end of practice, the boys were making eye contact and passing like clockwork each time the whistle blew.
One classical conditioning example I noticed in my office (I don't work in a school setting) is that every time my colleague wipes off the cartoon I draw on the whiteboard, I draw a new one the next morning. So she is expected to see a new cartoon every morning if she has removed the previous one.
I like this observation. There is a 1 1/2 year old kid in my office, he does the same thing almost everyday. Once he took away my phone, he will wait there until i go to chase him for my phone. There were couple times that I did not do it, he still ran away, but eventually he came back and returned my phone :P
While observing a reading class the teacher used the active listening signal that the whole school uses. She raises her hand and the class goes quiet. This is reinforced with the class score sheets that reflect points kids can earn, so if a group doesn't get quiet fast they might not earn as many points as a quicker group. In another class that same day I saw the active listening signal used with a different result. The teacher was not rewarding the groups for getting quiet and had to use the signal multiple times.
I saw an interesting example of conditioned response today. As a teacher asked a question to a classroom of students there were two different responses:
1) Some student immediately raised their hands. They stretched their fingers towards in the sky in hopes that the teacher would call on them. The students had a passionate look on their faces; desiring the teacher's attention.
2) Some students immediately looked down. They attempted to not make eye contact with the teacher. No matter the length of the "think time" they continued to look down, in hopes that they would not be called on.
Each of these actions was a conditioned response. The students that knew the information showed that they knew it by their actions (hands up/confident look on their faces), while other showed that they did not know it (submissive seating position/avoiding eye contact). The students were responding to learned behavior of their many years in the school system.
I have conditioned my students not to raise their hands when I am assessing their learning or understanding . Instead, they know that I will randomly call on people to respond in class. They now expect time to discuss, reflect, or clarify with other students before being called on. If this time is taken away stress levels increase with many studnets, but there is almost always a student who points out that I did not give them time to share and discuss their responses. The students who have the hardest time being reconditioned are the ones who are used to raising their hands and getting to respond.
I would agree with you that these are conditioned responses to a teacher asking questions. But I would add another reason for the avoidance behaviors. These may know the answer but for whatever reason do not want to share. This too is a conditioned response to a teacher asking a question in class.
While at a bowling alley with some friends with young kids, I observed how the parents were teaching their kids about the game. One little girl (3yrs old) knew enough about the process to know to get the ball, where to walk/stop walking, and where to drop the ball. She also knew to watch the ball as it went down the lane. After each of her attempts, everyone in the group cheered and clapped regardless of whether/how many pins fell, and upon seeing this she was happy too. The more interesting observation was when her dad began to tell her how many pins she knocked down after an approach. This evolved to him asking how many pins. At first she looked a little puzzled but copied her dad who was holding up the number, and he provided positive verbal reinforcement. Shortly there after, she would return from the lane, he would ask and she would show him how many without assistance, and receive praise. Finally, once after watching the pins fall, she showed and told her dad without him even asking. Over the course of one game of bowling this 3yr old learned to associate praise with not just going through the motion of picking up the ball, walking, dropping the ball, and watching it, but the addition of keeping track and reporting how many pins fell.
It was interesting to observe the responses that came from adult proximity in a variety of settings:
1. In the hallways and common areas I noticed students talking loudly and being very animated until a teacher or other staff member would get within earshot. The students would stop talking and watch the staff member walk by. When the adult was out of earshot the students would start talking again.
2. As I was supervising our cafeteria, I noticed a similar response. As either the custodian or I approached tables to pick up a milk carton or plate, students would cease conversations and wait to continue until we were on our way somewhere else. Clearly we would engage in side conversations with the students, but were not invited to join in their topics.
3. While observing in a 9th grade English class, the teacher was leading a group discussion on the book Speak. Two students were having a side conversation not on topic. The teacher simply kept talking but moved next to the desk of one of the students. The students immediately reengaged in the lesson.
My take away from this is that I need to hone my stealth listening skills before my own children become teenagers, or find a way to converse with them by standing at least 10 feet away. ;)
I have also noticed the responses of students with adult proximity at our high school and why I remind beginning teachers how powerful of a tool it can be in classroom management. As far as has honing your stealth listening skills, I have found that when I'm in the car with my teenagers, quietly driving them around, they seem to forget I'm in the car and have real dialog with their friends. My suggested is to offer to be their driver as much as possible!
The most interesting form of conditioned response was observed in the cafeteria. While in the cafeteria approximately 250 students were eating. One assistant principal monitors and provides supervision. A student has a milk carton and is going to throw it but first turns to see if the assistant principal is watching. The assistant principal is smiling and student chooses not to throw the milk carton. This happens three more times during the lunch period with other students. In this same setting, a group of six boys is sitting on the cafeteria table. The assistant principal starts to walk towards the boys, nothing is said but before the assistant principal arrives, the students are no longer sitting on the table.
I believe that these are examples of empiricist/behaviorist because the assistant principal was the stimuli that altered the student behavior. In both situations student saw the “stimuli” and because of it changed their response to their initial and potentially customary patterns. One would have to observe longer and more consistently to truly determine if the assistant principal is the stimuli.
I observed a 100 level cinema studies class at the U of O today and I noticed an empiricist behavior almost immediately, although if I hadn't been looking for it I don't know if I would have noticed. The professor did some normal introductions and review for the first 5-7 minutes of class and then she put up a power point with information about the day's class topics. As soon as she put up the power point almost every student in the class (and there were over 100) automatically pulled out a pen and paper and started copying down what was on the screen. Even though it is only the second week of classes this is clearly a behavior that has been required of most of the students before and they seemed to react without even thinking, thus clearly exhibiting an empiricist/behaviorist reaction.
I work in an office setting, and observed several instances of conditioned response today. Most were related to behaviors as a response to the time on the clock. For example, I was walking down the hall and realized how hungry I was. I then went out of my way to back up a few paces to check a clock I'd just passed. While I could have had lunch quite happily at 11:30 or 11:45, it seemed important that the clock read past 12:00 for me to start eating. In my work environment, no one would really care if I "took lunch" early, but I'm conditioned to a lunch time starting at noon, regardless of hunger level.
The best one was at the end of the day. You know the little tune that sounds as a Windows machine is shutting down? Upon hearing that sound come from another office, a co-worker said, "Wow - already?" Without looking at the clock, she heard that tune and automatically knew that it was 5:00 p.m., and time to go home.
An interesting observation occurred this morning when the assistant principal, dean of students, and campus monitor were in the hallway before school talking with each other. As students passed these three adults together, they started walking quickly and began telling other students we were having a tardy sweep so they better hurry to class. However, we were not having a tardy sweep. The adults were actually working on something else. This is an example of behaviorism. The students have been conditioned that when these three individuals, the stimuli, are in the hallway together before school there will be a tardy sweep.
This trimester all my courses are mostly on line, so it is hard for me to come with an observation from a class setting. I can, though, bring an example from my experience. When I arrived in North America I learned that it is polite to ask first “How are you?” when you encounter somebody. In fact, we have a kind of the same habit in my country. At the beginning, when I was asked this question I answered sincerely how I feel and I observed that people change their attitude after my first words. I became aware of the fact that I make people uncomfortable for some reason and when I asked an acquaintance what happens he told me laughing that people don’t ask me how I am because they want to know but because they want to show that they care. I wouldn’t prolong this story, because we much better the reason why people ask “How are you?” but I can tell you that it was hard for me to understand a question should be asked if the expected answer has to be always: “Fain, thank you!” and maybe followed by “What about you?” Nowadays I answer smiling like everybody else “Fain, thank you! What about you?” and everybody is happy. Am I conditioned like Pavlov’s dog for doing this? It is a constructivist learned behavior? I think it is both … if I’m not wrong. But, still today I asked myself if people are lying when they answer “Fain, thank you!” I know I’m lying from time to time. Do they lie? Some of them do, some of them don’t, but with this economical crisis …
Fain - definitely a conditioned response. Great post - it is amazing how some are conditioned to reply in the positive and others with a negative response. Adult behavior - I love it!
I appreciate that the writer of this post used fain instead of fine. It made me think of the word feign which is what most of us have been conditioned to do.
I noticed several examples of what I believe to have been conditioned responses today during lunch and during a classroom observation. Several have already been mentioned above (pointing at hats, physical proximity as a classroom management tool, etc...). I did notice a great deal of adult reinforcement (both positive and negative) in the halls and in the classroom during a discussion. This was specifically noticeable during the classroom discussion that I observed as the teacher worked hard to reinforce positive student participation in the activity by encouraging, rephrasing, and acknowledging correct answers/behaviors. Students who participated were given positive feedback and teacher interaction, as well as reinforcement of correct answers and clarification of incorrect. I also noticed a teacher who quickly got up from behind his desk when I walked into his room....conditioned response?
Classical conditioning can be observed in almost all settings of the school. It is used in some degree to illicit the desired behavior everywhere in the building throughout the day.
I observed behaviorism or classical conditioning in my own classroom. I have reconditioned my students to refrain from raising their hands when I pose a question or problem (something that has been ingrained into them from a young age). Instead, I give them time to think about their response, to share it with another student, and/or to clarify what they are being asked to do and then I randomly call on students to share their learning. What I observed today when I asked a question were the students automatically sitting quietly for the think time and then asking the group if they were ready to discuss. If a student did not know the answer I witnessed them urgently attempting to figure it out with the help of their peers because they have been conditioned to expect that they will be the one I call on to give a response. I did not observe any hands automatically being raised to answer the question.
I observed a middle school classroom that had many examples of the behaviorism theory that included simple practice of the teacher work involving low cognitive demand and repetition. However, the most interesting were the examples involving student and staff behaviors. I observed a class in which the teacher was in the front of the classroom monitoring students working in groups and available to answer questions for students. Students came to the front of the room and formed a line, without being instructed to do so, and waited patiently for their turn to ask their clarifying question. Two other students positioned themselves nearer to the teacher than the students that were in the line. Once the students were close to the teacher, they began to fidget, sigh, and otherwise vocalize drawing attention to themselves. The students that positioned themselves closer were answered before the kids that formed the line.
Clearly this is an example of reinforcing the wrong behavior. It reminds us that even when we are well intentioned, we must be diligent in what the unintended outcomes will be for our students. The multiple examples of students being conditioned only to raise hands when they know the answer, is another instance of positive intent with negative consequences.
During my visit to a 2nd grade classroom a number of conditioned responses were observed. Prior to a transitions students to the carpet area, the teacher said, “Give me 5,” along with her hand raised. Many of the students stopped, raised their hands, and waited for direction from the teacher. At one point while at the carpet, the teacher gave the same command and nonverbally counted down with her fingers from five to zero – most students quieted by zero. At a later time, she simply raised her hand without a verbal command and waited for students to respond as before.
My example was an observation I did today in a band class. Early in the class the teacher said "check your posture and the posture of someone across from you." As she did this she made a clear physical change in her posture. Through the remainder of the class she did this 3 more times, but without the words.... She simply made the physical change and emphasis of posture with her body, and it resulted in students doing the same and checking the posture of others.
As I was wandering through the first grade wing of our school I noticed a student receiving a token for his positive behavior. He is a tier level 2 student who needs additional behavior interventions per his behavior plan. He received this particular token for completing a writing task at his table with his peers in the allotted time. He will use the tokens at the end of the day to “purchase” a low or no cost item at school or he can take the tokens home to purchase a reward with his mom. Definitely a “conditioning” type moment!
I continue to be amazed how small token reinforcements at the elementary school level can have such a positive impact on changing student behavior for the better.
I observed a 9th grade inclusion World History class. While the teacher was verbally communicating bell ringer instructions, a group of students were talking. The teacher stopped instructing and the students responded by discontinuing their disruptive conversation.
I observed an adaptive life skills student who was in a gait trainer. The instructional assistant held out a preferred toy, gained students attention and activated the toy. The student walked toward the toy. When the student reached the toy they were able to play with it.
Day 1: As a coach in the strength and conditioning field there are numerous patterns of behavior that would be Empiricist/Behaviorist behaviors displayed by our student athletes. An initial example would be our warm-up that is conducted by every team and athlete prior to working out. On multiple occasions I observed several athletes simply socializing prior to their respective coach simply walking up and looking at the clock without saying a word. Without having to verbalize any instruction, without fail every team began their workout immediately and all socializing stopped.
I observed a 5/6 classroom today and walked in on the tail end of read aloud. When the teacher closed the book, many students automatically stood up to return to their desks. The teacher actually wanted to give directions, so she prompted them to stop and listen. Once at their desks, the teacher began to give instructions for a science inquiry lesson. Students automatically took out journals and began to record the directions in a particular format without direction. In fact, the teacher gave an unnecessary reminder to do so when the students were already engaged. This made me think about the fact that sometimes automatic response (behaviorist response) is problematic. Students anticipate the next step based on routine and teacher behaviors when in fact, the teacher may desire a different action. Sometimes this is disruptive and actually causes a delay in getting the lesson rolling. The assumptions on the part of the student - even when well intentioned - cause the teacher to have to stop everyone and redirect. Some of the other automatic responses throughout the lesson included raising of hands when they thought the teacher was leading up to a question or a task in which she needed a volunteer. The teacher employed a number of countdowns and verbal cues to get students quiet and focused, which was successful for most as these ten/eleven year olds have been conditioned to respond to these since Kindergarten.
Probably because of my position in special education, I can really relate to your post, Sara, especially thinking about the need for routine for our students with autism. If a teacher develops an established routine, and then deviates from it, this can completely through off the learning for these students. It is interesting to think about the example you gave of the teacher giving the signal even though the students were already engaged with their journals. With the Pavlovian example, this would clearly indicate this artificial signal was no longer needed, and students had made the connection in the routine to begin their journal writing.
I observed a warmup routine being used in a middle school language arts class. Kids came in, grabbed their blue folders, and got to work on a grammar exercise while the teacher took attendance. No directions were posted or given. It was totally silent and everyone knew what to do, leading me to conclude that this was a daily routine that had been practiced. The automatic response was to stop talking and start working with no interruption.
This example is very similar to what I observed in the integrated language arts class. The students went right to the activity without any reminders. Discussing the activity with the instructor I learned that the instructions were repeated on a regular basis, especially for those new to the classroom.
I walked in and observed a Kindergarten teacher during a whole group reading lesson. The teacher began by reviewing letter sounds with students. As she tapped her finger (this is a required cue of how the curriculum is taught) and said “sound”, all of the students responded with the letter sound, in this case it was “cah” for the letter C. She continued to do this tapping (the visual cue) and saying “sound” (the auditory cue) for about 8 different letters.
Because there was no delay from the teacher’s two cues to the student response, I concluded that this was a learned behavior and a conditioned response to the teacher’s cues that had been practiced over-and-over again with the students. The response was automatic, quick and consistently repeated.
The most interesting example of classical conditioning is the way in which an adult gets the attention of a large group of primary students. They all know when they hear the adult clap out the first five beats of "Shave and a Haircut," they respond by answering with the last two claps and putting their finger in the air (the pointer finger). It never ceases to impress me how well this works every time.
We had a fire drill on Tuesday. Everyone filed out of the building with no disruptions and not one verbal command was given. This type of behavior, like most people have already mentioned, is everywhere throughout an elementary school; teachers spend a lot of effort at the beginning of the year building effective procedural routines.
I observed in a Functional Life Skills classroom (a program for students with very severe disabilities) and saw the teachers using a curriculum called STARS. This curriculum was developed particularly for students who are highly impacted by autism, and it is fully a behaviorist approach. Students are taught 1:1, working on signals such as "look at me", "stand up", "sit down" and other functional preskills at the beginning level which I observed. Teacher would give the signal, student would produce the response, and then the student received a positive reinforcement (I saw 2 at the abstract level receiving a penny, and 2 who were receiving primary reinforcers-food) if the desired response was produced or a quick redirection if not. These session were fairly short, 10 minutes at a time, and then the students moved into less structured activities. Very explicit behavioral lens in this example...
I almost forgot to put my own observations versus just commenting on others - Sorry Kathleen for being late. My observation of an example of behavioralist theory in play. In essence I was looking for a conditioned response and learned behaviors associated with a functional relation between the introduction of a manipulated independent variable and a response by the identified dependent variable due to the introduction of the independent variable. In this case, I was looking for a change in behavior by my office mate when he experienced a visual or auditory reference to his academic adviser that has an office across the hall from us. A behavioral change was monitored due to my office mates self reported anxiousness associated with engaging with his adviser due to being behind on completing his concept paper, which is competency requirement to advance to candidacy for his PhD. So, how would I recognize this when I saw it? Well, I should recognize a marked behavioral change in my office mates affect, behavioral manner, focus, and task engagement that differs when his adviser is present (and visible) and when he is not. Baseline data reflected that when my office mate's adviser is not in the office (across the hall), my office mates affect is more relaxed, jovial, and engages in non-academic tasks (e.g., surfing Youtube). However, when the IV is introduced (the presence of the adviser in the office across the hall), my office mate immediately engages in more on-task academic behavior and engages in less jocularity during conversation. I thought about pairing this with bell ringing just to further test my theory :-)
While supervising students, I observe the student response to the bells as they ring to signal getting to class. Prior to the bell sounding, students mill about prior to class beginning. The students visit with one another, sharing any and all type of information. The bell rings and conversations continue only now they are as the students make their way to class. The as the next bell rings and the students are in their respective classes. Very few if any students remain in the halls and on campus outside their assigned classes. If students are out they have received a pass from a teacher or the office giving them permission to be out of class.
I oversee all of the student assessment that occurs in our district. Someone asked me about what is allowable during state testing and whether a potential impropriety occurred. For many years I’ve told those coordinating testing in the schools to contact me immediately if anything occurs that could possibly be a testing impropriety. For the most part thinking is neither encouraged nor required. If there is even the possibility of a testing impropriety, the immediate response is simply to get in touch with me.
I have observed two examples of classical conditioning in my walk around the two campuses. First, I observed students in an integrated language arts course select texts and settle into reading right away. A matter of repeated instruction on expected behaviors. The second example was an elementary classroom where the teacher used a set of wind chimes to gather the attention of students during an active engagement event. Both indicated a series of instruction where conditioning was used to elicit a response from the students.
Last night at a Varsity Basketball game, the electricity went out in 2nd quarter! I observed very startled and "frozen" reactions by the players and adults to the very dark atmosphere. Luckily all remained calm and the generator provided backup, minimal lighting! The conditional response without illumination seemed to clearly be remain passive and calm.
Classical conditioning brings about desired response...according to Pavlov ANY stimulus can be used to bring about ANY desired response an organism is capable of making.I am stepping into the hallway now to observe our kids and see what responses said conditioning dictates. Have a great day!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dave! Will look forward to what you find. Everybody, Suzanne pointed out that I did not have threaded replies turned on for the comments. They are on now so you will be able to reply to any comments you select. Thanks, Suzanne, for the alert --Kathleen
Delete7:05 AM Student walks in building with beanie on. Teachers welcomes student by name, asking them how they are today. Teacher simply points at her head and beanie is removed as if nothing were awry.
ReplyDelete7:20 AM Teacher opens double doors from cafeteria leading to the upper hall commons area. All students immediately begin filing out of cafeteria, up the right side of the stairway to their lockers.
7:30 AM Principal walks into classroom. Everybody stops talking.
7:40 AM Students are working in literacy circles on a project. Teacher walks to certain spot at the front of the room. All activity stops and attention directed to the teacher.
This list could easily go on all day, of course. We as educators historically rely on classical conditioning to help students to learn how we want them to behave. In other words, these are all examples of learned behavior. I think one could make a case that most of the desired "responses" we seek are actually "behaviors".
What examples of classical conditioning can you think of that are NOT aimed at soliciting a desired behavior?
My dog can seemingly tell time. She knows that when I am preparing for my day at 5 AM that I will be heading off to work and she will be left alone for most of the day. She mopes. She has been conditioned, though I certainly do not desire the moping behavior (and feel horribly guilty about it).
DeleteA school example may be student selection during question and answer sessions. Specifically, many teachers call on the student who raises her hand. The student who wants that affirmation will raise her hand, and the student who wants to remain invisible will not - an undesired behavior but also a learned behavior.
The 7:05 entry sounds like my entire day. I try to use as little vocal instruction as possible for things that could be repeated a thousand times a day. Pointing to hats, pointing to the speaker that a day dreaming child needs to listen too, thanking a student for hanging up their coat in hopes that others follow suit...it happens all day long in throughout the school.
DeleteI think my dog has conditioned ME! Every morning I wake up to him standing next to the bed. When he sees my eyes open, he wags his tail (excited that I'm awake and that he'll soon get his breakfast). I let him outside and fill up his bowl with kibble. I have been conditioned to associate waking up with feeding my dog.
DeleteI too have a conditioned response with my dog. Every morning when I leave the shower he goes to the back sliding glass door (he sits by the bathroom until I open the door) to be let out. I let him out and then make a simple breakfast for myself. When he barks (after peeing) I let him back in. I then feed him whatever I have not yet finished. After I finish feeding him I go and get dressed. It is the same thing everyday.
DeleteAfter reading the above replies I am thinking differently about our relationship. It is interesting how we have grown to have conditioned responses to each others actions. Each one of us does not move forward until the other one commits to his own action.
Ok. I too have a dog example that is not a desired behavior ;) I have 2 labs that are pretty much outside dogs, but come in for the evening. The stimulus is me grabbing the car keys. The response is two. 100 pound labs sprinting for the front door. They two have conditioned me as anytime I need to go somewhere, or am simply moving the keys, I have to go into "stealth mode."
DeleteI can relate to the dog examples! If I put my sneakers on in the living room, Magnus (my dog) will pace back and forth whining for me to hurry up and take him out. Whose conditioning who!
DeleteFrank Bender
DeleteWow. Dog examples of classical conditioning regarding dogs. I live this one almost everyday. An anecdote to this is that we've been to "dog training" to learn how to use some classical conditioning techniques with our dog. The irony is that the classes are less about teaching the dog, but teaching you - the owner. Our dog clearly learned more from the class than we did. He can give us a look, a bark, a "literal tap with his paw" and we will respond. If we don't respond in the manner he was wanting, he'll either repeat the stimulus or use another prompt to change his "dependent variable" - which would be our actions. I think my dog too Rob Horner's class.
Cats too...every time we open a can one of our cats freaks out. Not surprisingly the cat isn't very discriminating. This conditioning doesn't do him much good since most of the cans we open are for people, not cats.
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ReplyDeleteOne of dozens of examples seen in a day: During an observation, a teacher delivered instructions to students for a learning activity; students did not begin until the teacher used a release cue, "go".
ReplyDeleteThis observation is an example of behaviorism (classical conditioning) in that students have been conditioned to respond in a specific manner to a specific stimulus. Students' behavior has been altered by the teacher to fit the environment.
I see this all day too. The whistle blows at recess and all the kids look to see what grade is going in then run to line up. The kids raise their hands to be excused from lunch. The intercom comes on and everyone gets quiet. Kids walk into math class and put the heading on their paper. I didn't realize just how many stimulus responses I see in a day. Many more than I had imagined.
DeleteI agree, bringing my awareness to the number of stimulus responses that occur in a day is astounding. I observed a student being asked to 'come sit' and the teacher celebrated/reinforced the students action with a verbal praise. What's interesting about this example of stimulus (verbal command), response (student action) and reinforcement (verbal praise) is that it occurred on a high school level.
DeleteI would say that we work hard to condition kids to respond to nonverbal cues in order to be efficient and keep kids safe. It is an expectation that students will respond, for instance, to the fire alarm - we PRACTICE fake fires to make sure their automated response is not the natural flight, but instead as orderly and robot like as possible. I was thinking about how many "classroom management" strategies are actually just automated responses to cues that we have pre-taught and practiced. When I clap three times, you clap three times, and it is quiet.
DeleteTenneal Wetherell
DeleteI agree. I was in a second grade class at the beginning of the day. I watched as the students came in. They had automated responses that ensure order in the classroom. First they hang their bag and coat, then they put their homework folder in the basket and homework in the turn in box. Next, they take down their chair and even the chair of their neighbor if they were not there yet. Several students had what looked like morning jobs including switching the calendar and getting out the daily schedule and posting it. After these tasks were done they went to breakfast, recess or sat quietly with free time tasks at the desk or on the carpet.
It really makes sense that so many of the examples and discussions around learning from this lens in the school setting are related to school/classroom management. Here, it seems, we want students to "just do the right thing" in being safe and responsible, so that we can free up time to engage in much more complex learning around the content.
DeleteObservation that I did was in the language classroom here in the university. Teacher did mention that there will a pop quiz at the beginning of the class. Students have to prepare the exam book. First day most of the students took out the exam book (They did have a quiz)
ReplyDeleteAs for the second day, almost everyone took out the exam book and wait for the quiz.
I found out the sign for this empiricist/behaviorist theory is that students heard the sign "pop quiz" at the beginning of the class, so that they have this reflect action.
I found a similar thing happened in my classroom sit in but the quiz was not considered a "pop quiz" but rather a daily quiz.
DeleteDid the students in your class have a quiz the second day or were they just conditioned to be prepared for a quiz they didn't have?
@Reham
Deletei think they just somehow conditioned to be prepared for a quiz they did not have.
Of course, if the quiz doesn't come on a regular basis, then they stop coming to class prepared for one. The stimulus must happen often enough to continue garnering the desired response. Ask any teacher who implemented something new that went great at first, but then dwindled as the teacher failed to occasionally give the necessary stimulus.
DeleteMy observation took place during our school wide assembly. The kids come in and spend the first few minutes chatting with friends. Our principal made the "quiet coyote" sign and it took about a minute and a half for them to get quite. This was pointed out to the kiddos and the expectation of a quick and quiet response so that everyone gets ready quickly was reiterated. Later in the assembly the same signal was given and the entire gym was quiet in about 30 seconds. Kiddos were praised for their speed increase and thanked for being so quick to get ready. Another quiet coyote towards the end of the assembly got the student's attention in about 9 seconds which was celebrated by the staff and students.
ReplyDeleteThis is almost a model example of the behaviorists theory. A signal is given, a response is elicited, and with increased exposure the reaction time was faster.
As a principal I also use the "quiet coyote," sign for assemblies. It works great! I guess I have Pavlov to thank for that.
DeleteI love this example. It reminds of how teaching a basic transition signal along ongoing feedback and reinforcement can help maximize student instructional time in the classroom.
DeleteAt the high school level, "quiet coyote" isn't a common tool used to gather attention, but I see a variety of techniques used to achieve the same objective. Turning on an overhead, writing on a whiteboard, standing in the front of the room, warm-up activities, and roll call are all things that I see on a regular basis in the classroom.
DeleteDesiree Margo
ReplyDeleteWhile observing in a classroom, I observed a teacher ring a set of chimes. All of the students quickly moved to the carpet area and sat down. The teacher then taught a mini lesson. This group of students has learned that when they hear chimes in the classroom it means it is time to move to the carpet area.
It seems like a position of support for the imbedded model of the strategies that most of our student behavior teachings follow this model. I saw one of our fire drills that have the oxymoronic description of orderly middle school students. 625 middle school students hear the loud buzzing and they don't yell about how loud it is or whine due to their impending exposure to the natural world. Instead they form orderly lines and silently file out of the building to line-up and be accounted for with their peers.
DeleteThis reminds me of what a kindergarten teacher does to signal it is time for the students to rotate stations. The students love the Smartboard and the teacher puts the timer on it. She has a different kind of buzzer sound for each one of the three station transitions. The last one sounds like the "charge" song and the students clean up their stations and sit down at their desks. When everyone has done so, they all say "charge" and line up for recess. The kids love it.
DeleteGeoff Wetherell
Reham Abdullah
ReplyDeleteWhile watching for conditioned responses from students I noticed in one class I sat in on that as soon as the students entered the classroom all of the students pulled one piece of paper from their notebooks for a quiz they take every time the class meets. As it turns out the students learn on the very first day that there will be one quiz every time the class meets that will be the same format all term long. This response by the students is conditioned from the very first day of class.
It's clear that much of our education system relies on conditioning to promote desired behaviors and efficiency. Behaviorist/empiricist learning theory draws criticism because of our emphasis on students as fairly passive responders. Of course, students are sometimes the source of the stimulus and the adults or peers in school are those with conditioned responses. I wonder if outside observers would perceive the automated response of students pulling out a paper daily as a positive (efficient) or as negative (unvarying, routine, scripted). I sense that some might respond negatively to the management routines in education as being symbolic of lack of original thought or higher-level thinking without regard to the depth of learning that might happen in the saved minutes.
DeleteI saw something similar when I was observing a class at the U of O today. A power point was put up and the students automatically pulled out paper and pens and began to copy down what the slides said. It made me wonder if any of the students were actually absorbing what the professor was lecturing about or if it was simply a conditioned response that happened as if the students were on auto-pilot. When the professor tried to engage the students with questions she got little to no response, whereas the power point note taking task got the attention of almost every student in the room, without being asked. Carey's comments about labeling these types of actions as positive or negative intrigues me, especially when dealing with higher education. How do we expect students to accomplish the higher level thinking tasks when even college classes aren't requiring anything more then the routine, automatic processes? I also find it interesting that in the 100 and 200 level classes higher order thinking is often not required (at least not a majority of the time) but once students get to 300 and 400 level classes it is expected that they are able to engage the material, the professor, and their peers consistently and effectively each class period.
DeleteThese are excellent points, Kelly and Carey. There is a fine line between efficiency and mindlessness. I think the issue is where/when behaviorism is employed. Certain routines (such as an entry or exit routine) can be a great way to get kids ready to jump into higher order learning. For example, a quick warm-up done every day can help kids transition from the hallway chaos to the classroom. But an entire class period of call and response or simple questions is not a good way to accomplish a lot of learning.
DeleteTo link in with your observations at the college level, Kelly, this is especially interesting given that most white-collar jobs nowadays do not have routine tasks. Most high-paying, high-responsiblity jobs in companies now require the ability to handle ambiguity and make sense of complex problems without many guidelines.
While teaching a class, the door opens multiple times as student aides from the office bring notes about appointments. Surprisingly, though, the conditioned response on the part of students and teacher is to not respond, but to continue with their activities. Sure, students perk up a bit thinking the message might be for them, and the teacher reaches out to take the note, but on the whole the class has learned not to skip a beat. It's interesting to wonder whether the students' outward response (no or little reaction) is the same as their inward response or whether the entrance of an aide leads to a lot of mental side trips.
ReplyDeleteHumor for the day. Make the above "While the teacher was teaching the class..." The door wasn't actually teaching.
DeleteThis seems to be an example of both conditioning and cognitive learning. Students deduct from their past experiences that it is better for them to pay more attention to what they are doing than to the event.
DeleteWalking through the classrooms this morning, I observed a teacher using the "clap, clap...clap, clap, clap" strategy to get the attention of the students. As soon as she clapped, students repeated the claps and were ready to listen. I am also so conditioned by the clapping stimulus from my repeated exposure to it over the past dozen or so years, that I can't help but clap in response and give attention as well.
ReplyDeleteJust like Pavlov's dogs, the students and I seemingly didn't use our brains to decide on the response but gave an automatic physical response.
I think it is interesting that you still use the "clap" response after so many years. I have tried to use the "clap" method in staff meeting/professional development and it is always a flop. I suppose it will take reteaching it but it does feel a lot like Pavlov's dogs.
Delete-Lizette
This is interesting, because I saw that "clap" response work well between a dance instructor and a group of 9th graders that we hosted on campus. However, it's hard for me to imagine trying this strategy to, say, get our staff to quiet down for a meeting. This got me thinking - I don't see many physical/nonverbal strategies used in my office to elicit a conditioned response of compliance, getting quiet, etc. While the strategies used to elicit a certain response (such as compliance in completing a task) from staff are more subtle (buffered in adult civility) this also introduces more room for misinterpretation of what order or direction is being given. There's something very clear and refreshing about a direct, verbal cue and the certainty and immediacy of the group's response.
DeleteThe last blog, "Sarah&..." is Sarah Lewenberg. I'll try to fix my name.
ReplyDeleteI'm not in a school setting and the only class I'm taking this term is Analysis of T&L. I watched the videos and started looking for evidence of the learning theories around my office but I started getting worried when the week ended and I hadn't yet witnessed the theories in action. I came across all three of the theories while watching my boyfriend coach basketball on Saturday. [Disclaimer: I know less than nothing about basketball so I assume I won't be using the proper basketball terms to describe what I saw.]
ReplyDeleteEvidence of the Empiricist/Behaviorist school of thought was demonstrated when the coach asked the boys to run drills. The boys took turns passing and catching the ball, each time they were supposed to make eye contact before passing the ball. Each boy would catch the ball, make eye contact with the next boy, pass the ball when coach blew the whistle, and then run to the back of the line. They switched to another activity but coach warned the boys that they would still be expected to pass the ball when the whistle blew. By the end of practice, the boys were making eye contact and passing like clockwork each time the whistle blew.
One classical conditioning example I noticed in my office (I don't work in a school setting) is that every time my colleague wipes off the cartoon I draw on the whiteboard, I draw a new one the next morning. So she is expected to see a new cartoon every morning if she has removed the previous one.
ReplyDeleteI like this observation. There is a 1 1/2 year old kid in my office, he does the same thing almost everyday. Once he took away my phone, he will wait there until i go to chase him for my phone. There were couple times that I did not do it, he still ran away, but eventually he came back and returned my phone :P
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ReplyDeleteWhile observing a reading class the teacher used the active listening signal that the whole school uses. She raises her hand and the class goes quiet. This is reinforced with the class score sheets that reflect points kids can earn, so if a group doesn't get quiet fast they might not earn as many points as a quicker group. In another class that same day I saw the active listening signal used with a different result. The teacher was not rewarding the groups for getting quiet and had to use the signal multiple times.
ReplyDeleteI saw an interesting example of conditioned response today. As a teacher asked a question to a classroom of students there were two different responses:
ReplyDelete1) Some student immediately raised their hands. They stretched their fingers towards in the sky in hopes that the teacher would call on them. The students had a passionate look on their faces; desiring the teacher's attention.
2) Some students immediately looked down. They attempted to not make eye contact with the teacher. No matter the length of the "think time" they continued to look down, in hopes that they would not be called on.
Each of these actions was a conditioned response. The students that knew the information showed that they knew it by their actions (hands up/confident look on their faces), while other showed that they did not know it (submissive seating position/avoiding eye contact). The students were responding to learned behavior of their many years in the school system.
I have conditioned my students not to raise their hands when I am assessing their learning or understanding . Instead, they know that I will randomly call on people to respond in class. They now expect time to discuss, reflect, or clarify with other students before being called on. If this time is taken away stress levels increase with many studnets, but there is almost always a student who points out that I did not give them time to share and discuss their responses.
DeleteThe students who have the hardest time being reconditioned are the ones who are used to raising their hands and getting to respond.
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DeleteDan
DeleteI would agree with you that these are conditioned responses to a teacher asking questions. But I would add another reason for the avoidance behaviors. These may know the answer but for whatever reason do not want to share. This too is a conditioned response to a teacher asking a question in class.
While at a bowling alley with some friends with young kids, I observed how the parents were teaching their kids about the game. One little girl (3yrs old) knew enough about the process to know to get the ball, where to walk/stop walking, and where to drop the ball. She also knew to watch the ball as it went down the lane. After each of her attempts, everyone in the group cheered and clapped regardless of whether/how many pins fell, and upon seeing this she was happy too. The more interesting observation was when her dad began to tell her how many pins she knocked down after an approach. This evolved to him asking how many pins. At first she looked a little puzzled but copied her dad who was holding up the number, and he provided positive verbal reinforcement. Shortly there after, she would return from the lane, he would ask and she would show him how many without assistance, and receive praise. Finally, once after watching the pins fall, she showed and told her dad without him even asking. Over the course of one game of bowling this 3yr old learned to associate praise with not just going through the motion of picking up the ball, walking, dropping the ball, and watching it, but the addition of keeping track and reporting how many pins fell.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to observe the responses that came from adult proximity in a variety of settings:
ReplyDelete1. In the hallways and common areas I noticed students talking loudly and being very animated until a teacher or other staff member would get within earshot. The students would stop talking and watch the staff member walk by. When the adult was out of earshot the students would start talking again.
2. As I was supervising our cafeteria, I noticed a similar response. As either the custodian or I approached tables to pick up a milk carton or plate, students would cease conversations and wait to continue until we were on our way somewhere else. Clearly we would engage in side conversations with the students, but were not invited to join in their topics.
3. While observing in a 9th grade English class, the teacher was leading a group discussion on the book Speak. Two students were having a side conversation not on topic. The teacher simply kept talking but moved next to the desk of one of the students. The students immediately reengaged in the lesson.
My take away from this is that I need to hone my stealth listening skills before my own children become teenagers, or find a way to converse with them by standing at least 10 feet away. ;)
Lesa Haley
DeleteI have also noticed the responses of students with adult proximity at our high school and why I remind beginning teachers how powerful of a tool it can be in classroom management.
As far as has honing your stealth listening skills, I have found that when I'm in the car with my teenagers, quietly driving them around, they seem to forget I'm in the car and have real dialog with their friends. My suggested is to offer to be their driver as much as possible!
Lizette
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting form of conditioned response was observed in the cafeteria. While in the cafeteria approximately 250 students were eating. One assistant principal monitors and provides supervision. A student has a milk carton and is going to throw it but first turns to see if the assistant principal is watching. The assistant principal is smiling and student chooses not to throw the milk carton. This happens three more times during the lunch period with other students. In this same setting, a group of six boys is sitting on the cafeteria table. The assistant principal starts to walk towards the boys, nothing is said but before the assistant principal arrives, the students are no longer sitting on the table.
I believe that these are examples of empiricist/behaviorist because the assistant principal was the stimuli that altered the student behavior. In both situations student saw the “stimuli” and because of it changed their response to their initial and potentially customary patterns. One would have to observe longer and more consistently to truly determine if the assistant principal is the stimuli.
I observed a 100 level cinema studies class at the U of O today and I noticed an empiricist behavior almost immediately, although if I hadn't been looking for it I don't know if I would have noticed. The professor did some normal introductions and review for the first 5-7 minutes of class and then she put up a power point with information about the day's class topics. As soon as she put up the power point almost every student in the class (and there were over 100) automatically pulled out a pen and paper and started copying down what was on the screen. Even though it is only the second week of classes this is clearly a behavior that has been required of most of the students before and they seemed to react without even thinking, thus clearly exhibiting an empiricist/behaviorist reaction.
ReplyDeleteI work in an office setting, and observed several instances of conditioned response today. Most were related to behaviors as a response to the time on the clock. For example, I was walking down the hall and realized how hungry I was. I then went out of my way to back up a few paces to check a clock I'd just passed. While I could have had lunch quite happily at 11:30 or 11:45, it seemed important that the clock read past 12:00 for me to start eating. In my work environment, no one would really care if I "took lunch" early, but I'm conditioned to a lunch time starting at noon, regardless of hunger level.
ReplyDeleteThe best one was at the end of the day. You know the little tune that sounds as a Windows machine is shutting down? Upon hearing that sound come from another office, a co-worker said, "Wow - already?" Without looking at the clock, she heard that tune and automatically knew that it was 5:00 p.m., and time to go home.
Lesa Haley
ReplyDeleteAn interesting observation occurred this morning when the assistant principal, dean of students, and campus monitor were in the hallway before school talking with each other. As students passed these three adults together, they started walking quickly and began telling other students we were having a tardy sweep so they better hurry to class. However, we were not having a tardy sweep. The adults were actually working on something else.
This is an example of behaviorism. The students have been conditioned that when these three individuals, the stimuli, are in the hallway together before school there will be a tardy sweep.
This trimester all my courses are mostly on line, so it is hard for me to come with an observation from a class setting. I can, though, bring an example from my experience. When I arrived in North America I learned that it is polite to ask first “How are you?” when you encounter somebody. In fact, we have a kind of the same habit in my country. At the beginning, when I was asked this question I answered sincerely how I feel and I observed that people change their attitude after my first words. I became aware of the fact that I make people uncomfortable for some reason and when I asked an acquaintance what happens he told me laughing that people don’t ask me how I am because they want to know but because they want to show that they care. I wouldn’t prolong this story, because we much better the reason why people ask “How are you?” but I can tell you that it was hard for me to understand a question should be asked if the expected answer has to be always: “Fain, thank you!” and maybe followed by “What about you?” Nowadays I answer smiling like everybody else “Fain, thank you! What about you?” and everybody is happy. Am I conditioned like Pavlov’s dog for doing this? It is a constructivist learned behavior? I think it is both … if I’m not wrong. But, still today I asked myself if people are lying when they answer “Fain, thank you!” I know I’m lying from time to time. Do they lie? Some of them do, some of them don’t, but with this economical crisis …
ReplyDeleteFain - definitely a conditioned response. Great post - it is amazing how some are conditioned to reply in the positive and others with a negative response. Adult behavior - I love it!
DeleteI appreciate that the writer of this post used fain instead of fine. It made me think of the word feign which is what most of us have been conditioned to do.
DeleteI noticed several examples of what I believe to have been conditioned responses today during lunch and during a classroom observation. Several have already been mentioned above (pointing at hats, physical proximity as a classroom management tool, etc...). I did notice a great deal of adult reinforcement (both positive and negative) in the halls and in the classroom during a discussion. This was specifically noticeable during the classroom discussion that I observed as the teacher worked hard to reinforce positive student participation in the activity by encouraging, rephrasing, and acknowledging correct answers/behaviors. Students who participated were given positive feedback and teacher interaction, as well as reinforcement of correct answers and clarification of incorrect. I also noticed a teacher who quickly got up from behind his desk when I walked into his room....conditioned response?
ReplyDeleteClassical conditioning can be observed in almost all settings of the school. It is used in some degree to illicit the desired behavior everywhere in the building throughout the day.
ReplyDeleteI observed behaviorism or classical conditioning in my own classroom. I have reconditioned my students to refrain from raising their hands when I pose a question or problem (something that has been ingrained into them from a young age). Instead, I give them time to think about their response, to share it with another student, and/or to clarify what they are being asked to do and then I randomly call on students to share their learning. What I observed today when I asked a question were the students automatically sitting quietly for the think time and then asking the group if they were ready to discuss. If a student did not know the answer I witnessed them urgently attempting to figure it out with the help of their peers because they have been conditioned to expect that they will be the one I call on to give a response. I did not observe any hands automatically being raised to answer the question.
I observed a middle school classroom that had many examples of the behaviorism theory that included simple practice of the teacher work involving low cognitive demand and repetition. However, the most interesting were the examples involving student and staff behaviors. I observed a class in which the teacher was in the front of the classroom monitoring students working in groups and available to answer questions for students. Students came to the front of the room and formed a line, without being instructed to do so, and waited patiently for their turn to ask their clarifying question. Two other students positioned themselves nearer to the teacher than the students that were in the line. Once the students were close to the teacher, they began to fidget, sigh, and otherwise vocalize drawing attention to themselves. The students that positioned themselves closer were answered before the kids that formed the line.
ReplyDeleteClearly this is an example of reinforcing the wrong behavior. It reminds us that even when we are well intentioned, we must be diligent in what the unintended outcomes will be for our students. The multiple examples of students being conditioned only to raise hands when they know the answer, is another instance of positive intent with negative consequences.
DeleteDuring my visit to a 2nd grade classroom a number of conditioned responses were observed. Prior to a transitions students to the carpet area, the teacher said, “Give me 5,” along with her hand raised. Many of the students stopped, raised their hands, and waited for direction from the teacher. At one point while at the carpet, the teacher gave the same command and nonverbally counted down with her fingers from five to zero – most students quieted by zero. At a later time, she simply raised her hand without a verbal command and waited for students to respond as before.
ReplyDeleteMy example was an observation I did today in a band class. Early in the class the teacher said "check your posture and the posture of someone across from you." As she did this she made a clear physical change in her posture. Through the remainder of the class she did this 3 more times, but without the words.... She simply made the physical change and emphasis of posture with her body, and it resulted in students doing the same and checking the posture of others.
ReplyDeleteAs I was wandering through the first grade wing of our school I noticed a student receiving a token for his positive behavior. He is a tier level 2 student who needs additional behavior interventions per his behavior plan. He received this particular token for completing a writing task at his table with his peers in the allotted time. He will use the tokens at the end of the day to “purchase” a low or no cost item at school or he can take the tokens home to purchase a reward with his mom. Definitely a “conditioning” type moment!
ReplyDeleteI continue to be amazed how small token reinforcements at the elementary school level can have such a positive impact on changing student behavior for the better.
DeleteI observed a 9th grade inclusion World History class. While the teacher was verbally communicating bell ringer instructions, a group of students were talking. The teacher stopped instructing and the students responded by discontinuing their disruptive conversation.
ReplyDeleteTenneal Wetherell
DeleteI observed an adaptive life skills student who was in a gait trainer. The instructional assistant held out a preferred toy, gained students attention and activated the toy. The student walked toward the toy. When the student reached the toy they were able to play with it.
From Cliff Lohrey:
ReplyDeleteDay 1:
As a coach in the strength and conditioning field there are numerous patterns of behavior that would be Empiricist/Behaviorist behaviors displayed by our student athletes. An initial example would be our warm-up that is conducted by every team and athlete prior to working out. On multiple occasions I observed several athletes simply socializing prior to their respective coach simply walking up and looking at the clock without saying a word. Without having to verbalize any instruction, without fail every team began their workout immediately and all socializing stopped.
I observed a 5/6 classroom today and walked in on the tail end of read aloud. When the teacher closed the book, many students automatically stood up to return to their desks. The teacher actually wanted to give directions, so she prompted them to stop and listen. Once at their desks, the teacher began to give instructions for a science inquiry lesson. Students automatically took out journals and began to record the directions in a particular format without direction. In fact, the teacher gave an unnecessary reminder to do so when the students were already engaged.
ReplyDeleteThis made me think about the fact that sometimes automatic response (behaviorist response) is problematic. Students anticipate the next step based on routine and teacher behaviors when in fact, the teacher may desire a different action. Sometimes this is disruptive and actually causes a delay in getting the lesson rolling. The assumptions on the part of the student - even when well intentioned - cause the teacher to have to stop everyone and redirect.
Some of the other automatic responses throughout the lesson included raising of hands when they thought the teacher was leading up to a question or a task in which she needed a volunteer. The teacher employed a number of countdowns and verbal cues to get students quiet and focused, which was successful for most as these ten/eleven year olds have been conditioned to respond to these since Kindergarten.
Probably because of my position in special education, I can really relate to your post, Sara, especially thinking about the need for routine for our students with autism. If a teacher develops an established routine, and then deviates from it, this can completely through off the learning for these students.
DeleteIt is interesting to think about the example you gave of the teacher giving the signal even though the students were already engaged with their journals. With the Pavlovian example, this would clearly indicate this artificial signal was no longer needed, and students had made the connection in the routine to begin their journal writing.
I observed a warmup routine being used in a middle school language arts class. Kids came in, grabbed their blue folders, and got to work on a grammar exercise while the teacher took attendance. No directions were posted or given. It was totally silent and everyone knew what to do, leading me to conclude that this was a daily routine that had been practiced. The automatic response was to stop talking and start working with no interruption.
ReplyDeleteThis example is very similar to what I observed in the integrated language arts class. The students went right to the activity without any reminders. Discussing the activity with the instructor I learned that the instructions were repeated on a regular basis, especially for those new to the classroom.
DeleteI walked in and observed a Kindergarten teacher during a whole group reading lesson. The teacher began by reviewing letter sounds with students. As she tapped her finger (this is a required cue of how the curriculum is taught) and said “sound”, all of the students responded with the letter sound, in this case it was “cah” for the letter C. She continued to do this tapping (the visual cue) and saying “sound” (the auditory cue) for about 8 different letters.
ReplyDeleteBecause there was no delay from the teacher’s two cues to the student response, I concluded that this was a learned behavior and a conditioned response to the teacher’s cues that had been practiced over-and-over again with the students. The response was automatic, quick and consistently repeated.
The most interesting example of classical conditioning is the way in which an adult gets the attention of a large group of primary students. They all know when they hear the adult clap out the first five beats of "Shave and a Haircut," they respond by answering with the last two claps and putting their finger in the air (the pointer finger). It never ceases to impress me how well this works every time.
ReplyDeleteGeoff Wetherell
We had a fire drill on Tuesday. Everyone filed out of the building with no disruptions and not one verbal command was given. This type of behavior, like most people have already mentioned, is everywhere throughout an elementary school; teachers spend a lot of effort at the beginning of the year building effective procedural routines.
ReplyDeleteI observed in a Functional Life Skills classroom (a program for students with very severe disabilities) and saw the teachers using a curriculum called STARS. This curriculum was developed particularly for students who are highly impacted by autism, and it is fully a behaviorist approach. Students are taught 1:1, working on signals such as "look at me", "stand up", "sit down" and other functional preskills at the beginning level which I observed. Teacher would give the signal, student would produce the response, and then the student received a positive reinforcement (I saw 2 at the abstract level receiving a penny, and 2 who were receiving primary reinforcers-food) if the desired response was produced or a quick redirection if not. These session were fairly short, 10 minutes at a time, and then the students moved into less structured activities. Very explicit behavioral lens in this example...
ReplyDeleteI almost forgot to put my own observations versus just commenting on others - Sorry Kathleen for being late. My observation of an example of behavioralist theory in play. In essence I was looking for a conditioned response and learned behaviors associated with a functional relation between the introduction of a manipulated independent variable and a response by the identified dependent variable due to the introduction of the independent variable. In this case, I was looking for a change in behavior by my office mate when he experienced a visual or auditory reference to his academic adviser that has an office across the hall from us. A behavioral change was monitored due to my office mates self reported anxiousness associated with engaging with his adviser due to being behind on completing his concept paper, which is competency requirement to advance to candidacy for his PhD. So, how would I recognize this when I saw it? Well, I should recognize a marked behavioral change in my office mates affect, behavioral manner, focus, and task engagement that differs when his adviser is present (and visible) and when he is not. Baseline data reflected that when my office mate's adviser is not in the office (across the hall), my office mates affect is more relaxed, jovial, and engages in non-academic tasks (e.g., surfing Youtube). However, when the IV is introduced (the presence of the adviser in the office across the hall), my office mate immediately engages in more on-task academic behavior and engages in less jocularity during conversation. I thought about pairing this with bell ringing just to further test my theory :-)
ReplyDeleteWhile supervising students, I observe the student response to the bells as they ring to signal getting to class. Prior to the bell sounding, students mill about prior to class beginning. The students visit with one another, sharing any and all type of information. The bell rings and conversations continue only now they are as the students make their way to class. The as the next bell rings and the students are in their respective classes. Very few if any students remain in the halls and on campus outside their assigned classes. If students are out they have received a pass from a teacher or the office giving them permission to be out of class.
ReplyDeleteI oversee all of the student assessment that occurs in our district. Someone asked me about what is allowable during state testing and whether a potential impropriety occurred. For many years I’ve told those coordinating testing in the schools to contact me immediately if anything occurs that could possibly be a testing impropriety. For the most part thinking is neither encouraged nor required. If there is even the possibility of a testing impropriety, the immediate response is simply to get in touch with me.
ReplyDeleteI have observed two examples of classical conditioning in my walk around the two campuses. First, I observed students in an integrated language arts course select texts and settle into reading right away. A matter of repeated instruction on expected behaviors. The second example was an elementary classroom where the teacher used a set of wind chimes to gather the attention of students during an active engagement event. Both indicated a series of instruction where conditioning was used to elicit a response from the students.
ReplyDeleteLast night at a Varsity Basketball game, the electricity went out in 2nd quarter! I observed very startled and "frozen" reactions by the players and adults to the very dark atmosphere. Luckily all remained calm and the generator provided backup, minimal lighting! The conditional response without illumination seemed to clearly be remain passive and calm.
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