Behaviorism – Educational Implications

1. Behaviorism – Educational Implications CHALLENGE • SPAN 3030 (Introduction to Spanish Literature) is a class offered from the Department of Romance Languages at the University of Georgia. At the beginning of the semester all the students do their readings. However, after the first weeks, there are some students in this class who start neglecting their daily readings, so they can not participate in the discussions during the class.

2. Behaviorism – Educational Implications APPLICATION • Among the methods derived from behaviorist theory for practical classroom application are: contracts, consequences, reinforcement, extinction, and behavior modification.

3. Behaviorism – Educational Implications • There are two different types of reinforcements: positive and negative. • Positive reinforcement is presentation of a stimulus that increases the probability of a response. • Negative reinforcement increases the probability of a response that removes or prevents an adverse condition. • The problem in SPAN 3030 is occurring because there is no any positive or negative reinforcement in the classroom.

4. Behaviorism – Educational Implications • In order to fix or ameliorate this educational problem, the teacher has to provide positive or negative reinforcement. • After the teacher realized that some students did not participate in the discussions, he decided to do different things: • He announced that some days they would have pop quizzes about the readings. • He announced that if they do not participate their score in participation would be lower.

5. Behaviorism – Educational Implications • After this negative reinforcement, the professor realized that all the students did their readings and participated more often in the class discussions.