Keely Weinberger Professor John McGall Educational Psychology 29 March 2012 Educational Psychology Journal 6 Please provide an example

of the following behavioral approach/techniques utilized in: 1. Classical conditioning is the association of automatic responses with new stimuli.

Conditioned stimulus (formerly neural stimulus) and Conditioned response (how they involuntarily feel about) Conditioned Stimulus Mrs. Sees Conditioned Response Involuntarily feel The students really like Mrs. Sees because she is really nice, and it is clear that she truly cares about her students Involuntarily feel I think the students really like this class because they do fun labs that are hands-on. They dont have to sit through a bunch of boring lectures. Involuntarily feel Even though Im sure the students dont love doing assignments, they dont mind completing Mrs. Sees work. Just like Mc Gall, she usually assigns worksheets, and students can work together to finish them in class. The assignments arent usually too difficult, so the students usually feel good about the work in her class because the students do well.

Teacher

Subject

Physical Science

Assignments

Worksheets, labs, & group work

Identify any of the classical conditioning teacher guidelines from page 202 found in you classroom. Mrs. Sees definitely associates positive, pleasant events with learning tasks. She always lets students work together on in-class assignments, so they can discuss ideas and bounce them off of someone. She conducts a lot

of hands-on activities to help students learn by doing. These activities often allow students to express their creative side. She assigns posters and has students diagram different processes they are learning about. Unfortunately, Mrs. Sees does not always help students to risk anxiety-producing situations voluntarily and successfully. A few weeks ago, the environmental biology class had to do oral presentations about an ecological hotspot. Almost every student stood in front of the class and gave their own presentation. However, there was a situation where one of the students was feeling really upset, and the teacher allowed her friend to get in front of the class for her. I thought this was not a wise decision of Mrs. Sees. She did not help the student take a risk or learn a new skill. Mrs. Sees inadvertently taught the student that she could get out of doing work by pretending to be sick. Mrs. Sees helps students recognize differences and similarities among situations so they can discriminate and generalize appropriately. Since science is so interdisciplinary, Mrs. Sees can help students make connections with the material they are learning in class to real life. 2. Operant conditioning is learning in which voluntary behavior is strengthened or weakened by consequences or antecedents. Please complete with examples and include the following chart in your journal. a. Positive reinforcement Behavior: Students work hard to get their assignments done and to do them correctly. Reinforcer/Rewards: Mrs. Sees praises her students for doing their work or achieving academic excellence. Effects: Because students like to be appreciated for their hard work and because they earn rewards, the students are more likely to continue to work diligently at their studies. b. Negative reinforcement Behavior: Students talk during class time or act inappropriately. Reinforcer/Rewards: Mrs. Sees will give them the infamous teacher look, which acts as a buzzer. When the students start to behave and perform appropriately, she will stop giving them the look. Effects: From years of being in school, students know what the look is. Well behaved students will take the hint and get back to their studies. c. Presentation Behavior: Students have conversations while Mrs. Sees is talking Punishment: Although, I have never seen Mrs. Sees give a detention for talking, an afterschool detention is an example of a presentation punishment. Effect: In order to avoid further punishments (I know at my high school after you served 3 detentions in a row, you had to go to an in-school detention), the students will not be so talkative in class. d. Removal Behavior: Students carrying on incessantly during class after several warnings. Punishment: Mrs. Sees will assign extra homework. Assigning homework will in effect take away valuable afterschool time from the students. Effect: The next time Mrs. Sees has to reprimand students, they may think twice about carrying on again. They might get extra assignments.

e. Variable - Interval example: A pop quiz is the classic example of a variable-interval. Response pattern: If students know that pop quizzes are possible in the class, the effect would be that students learn the information and review it steadily throughout the semester. They will have a greater persistence with work and a slow decline response rate. Variable ratio example: An example of a variable-ratio is a slot machine. Response pattern: The response pattern associated with variable-ratio is a very high response rate with little pause after reinforcement. This method yields the greatest persistence and the response rate stays high then gradually drops. I know from experience that variable reinforcement schedules work. The class that I learned the most information of any class Ive ever taken was my Dendrology class. My teacher quizzed us every single week, and he quizzed us on anything from information we learned the first week to information we learned the last week of the semester. It forced you to review your notes thoroughly every week. I really learned valuable things in that class. f. Praise and ignore Behavior praised: Praise and ignore is definitely the method that Mrs. Sees uses the most to control her classroom. She always praises students who are doing work. She compliments them and encourages them. Behavior ignored: Mrs. Sees ignores students who are talking and carrying on. Sometimes, I think she ignores them too much because they get rowdy and curse. She should probably implement stricter classroom management procedures. g. Pre mack Desired behavior: Students need to sit quietly at their desks and complete their individual assignments. Reward: Once students have finished their class work, the class can watch their favorite video series Planet Earth. h. Positive practice Positive practice is practicing the correct responses immediately after errors. This ensures that practice the correct response, so they will know how to do it on their own the next time. When Mrs. Sees was teaching how to balance chemical equations, she would walk around the room to check for understanding. If she noticed that they were changing the subscripts to balance the equation, she would kindly explain that you cannot change subscripts. She would stand there while they balanced the equation by adding different coefficients. She made sure they did the problem correctly before she went to check on the other students. Discuss you teachers use of Praise Guidelines p. 209. Praise is a huge part of Mrs. Sees classroom management strategy. She reinforces positive behaviors by praising students who work diligently. She truly makes praise reinforcing. She is always clear and systematic in giving praise. She will only praise students who are doing their work and practicing appropriate behavior. She would never praise a student that didnt deserve it. Additionally, Mrs. Sees offers praise on an individual basis. She doesnt compare the accomplishments of her students. She recognizes each students individual abilities and limitations and offers praise for individual progress in the academic field of study. Furthermore, she recognizes genuine accomplishments, and she celebrates it! Although she appreciates participation, she rewards students who attain specified goals. Then, she encourages them to keep up the great work! Handling undesirable behavior Mrs. Sees is definitely not the strictest teacher in the world, but if behavior is undesirable enough, she will react accordingly. If students are simply talking while they are not supposed to,

she might just shoot them the look. In one situation, she was very firm with one of her students who was cursing and gossiping with the other students. After a good five minutes of listening to stories about the students personal life, Mrs. Sees finally reacted by firmly stating that her behavior was inappropriate for the class. You need to focus on doing your work and not chatting with your friends! Of course, the students replied by saying she was finished all her work. Luckily, Mrs. Sees responded by saying that she was missing several assignments from the student. The student quickly went back to work after that. Please provide examples of: Response cost: Teacher took away a fun activity, such as a lab. Because of the students behavior, Mrs. Sees postponed a lab where the students made solar heaters to cook hotdogs for weeks. The students thought they would never get a chance to do the activity. She gave the students time to reflect on the behavior, and when their behavior improved, she surprised them by finally doing the lab. Reprimand behavior: Students were using foul language and being disruptive. Reprimand: That is not appropriate behavior! You should know by now what is appropriate for school. Im not going to tell you again! Effect: Overall, most students are receptive to this type of reprimand. Problem students may continue to act out, so they may need harsher punishments, such as detentions. Social isolation: I have never seen Mrs. Sees use social isolation to punish a student. In fact, I dont even know if there is an empty, isolated room in the high school that could accommodate this type of punishment. I dont think this method is used very frequently in schools any more. Social isolation is controversial method. Discuss the impacts of these practices used and the guidelines found on p. 213 Punishment may not always be the best tactic to achieve positive behavior in the classroom. Sometimes, it makes students retaliate, and it also encourages students to focus on the negative behavior rather than the desired behavior. If you do use punishment in the classroom to promote positive behavior, it is important to follow some of the guidelines described on page 213. Teachers should keep punishments mild and brief and pair it with doing the right thing. Teachers should be consistent in their application of punishment, and they should focus on the students actions, not the students personal qualities. Lastly, teachers should adapt punishment to in the infraction. Group consequences: type and effect Rewards and punishments When I first heard the words group consequences, I immediately associated it with negative consequences that a whole class has to suffer because of a few students. In grammar school, our entire class lost recess for months because someone stole a valuable Pokemon card from another student. I resented this treatment so much because I was not part of the situation at all, and yet, I still had to suffer. This is an example of group consequences that is a punishment, and it does not encourage positive behavior in the correct way.

Positive group consequences can however, be very helpful in promoting appropriate behavior. I have seen Mrs. Sees offer rewards in the form of fun laboratories and other activities if the entire class is on their best behavior. This encourages the class to practice good behavior skills. Peer pressure (one example of positive and negative) Usually, when we hear the word peer pressure, we associate it with a negative action, such as a group of students encouraging someone to smoke a cigarette. I have never seen a student be pressured into illegal substances, but I have seen students make fun of a misfit and others succumb to peer pressure and join in the teasing. Fortunately, however, peer pressure can be a positive influence as well. I have seen students in Mrs. Thornes class encourage each other to perform well in school, so that they can participate in extracurricular field trips and other fun (yet educational) activities. Contingency contract if not used, create one or suggest a students behavior that would be improved/ increased Neither of my teachers use a formal contingency contract to improve students behavior; however, I have seen both teachers pull a student aside to speak with them individually. Usually, the Mrs. Sees and Mrs. Thorne were more concerned about the student than mad. They wanted to get to the root of the bad behavior, i.e. troubling home life, etc. If I was to use a contingency contract in my classroom, I would definitely have the students suggest behaviors to be reinforced and the rewards gained from good behavior. I think by allowing the students to have options and personal input, they will feel a sense of ownership. Subsequently, I feel that they will work harder to achieve the goals and rewards of the contract. Have any of your students had a Functional Behavioral Analysis? None of my students have had a Functional Behavioral Analysis that I am aware of. Observational Learning: Please identify all four elements p.221 Attention, Retention, Production, Motivation, and Reinforcement. The four elements of observational learning include: paying attention, retaining information, retaining information or impressions, producing behaviors, and being motivated to repeat behaviors (reinforcement).

Attention An important part of learning through observation is paying attention. Teachers can keep students attention by making the lessons clear and highlighting important points. When demonstrating a skill for small children, you may have to move your body so that the students can see your hands from their perspective. It is also important to make all lessons relevant to students. This will create a clear, meaningful connection for students so they really learn and retain the information. Retention In order to imitate the behavior of a model, your students have to remember it. This will involve representing the actions either in verbal steps or as visual images, or both. Additionally, retention can be improves by mental rehearsal or by actual practice. Production Even though students may know and understand a behavior or the elements of a task, they may still not be able to perform it perfectly smoothly. Sometimes, students need a great deal of practice, feedback, and coaching about subtle points before they can successfully reproduce the behavior. You know what they say, Practice makes perfect! Motivation and Reinforcement Motivation is important to performing behaviors because it provides incentives for students to practice the behavior. Just because students have acquired a skill, it does not mean they will just practice it instinctually. They may need motivation. Reinforcement plays a huge role in observational learning. If students anticipate being reinforced for imitating the actions of a model, they may be more motivated to pay attention, remember, and reproduce the behaviors. In addition, reinforcement is important in maintaining learning. A person who tries a new behavior is unlikely to persist without reinforcement. Please identify any examples of Self-Management p.222

Self-management is the use of behavioral learning principles to change your own behavior. One important goal of teaching is to teach students how to plan, direct, and manage their own activities toward the achievement of goals. Students have to learn how to be lifelong learners. I have been impressed time and time again by Mrs. Thornes students who are involved in FFA. They participate in Career Development Events that prepare them for their careers. They set goals and achieve them, and they even have to work as a team frequently to achieve goals.

Keely Weinberger Professor John McGall Educational Psychology 4 April 2012 Educational Psychology Journal 7 Using a lesson you have observed (see guidelines on P. 260) identify the Elements of Information Processes. Make sure you have the students attention: During her lesson about homogenous mixtures, Mrs. Sees got her students attention by saying, Hello class! How are you? Please turn in your worksheets from yesterday, and open up your notebook. Help students separate essential from nonessential details focus on the most important information: She helped the students separate nonessential details with important information by assigning class work. She will ask the students to define the vocabulary words on the SmartBoard. The vocabulary words are usually the meat and potatoes of the chapter. This also gives students the chance to process the information again by rewriting the definitions. Help students make connections between new information and what they already know: The class had already learned about compounds, colloids, and mixtures in previous classes. Mrs. Sees used this basis to introduce homogenous mixtures. What is a mixture? Homogenous mixtures are the same throughout. Is water a homogenous mixture? Provide for repetition and review of information: Mrs. Sees definitely provides for the review of the information by assigning group work in class. She is a strong believer in group work. She wants to students to talk together and help each other finish the worksheet or project. Mrs. Sees may also assign homework as a review of the information learned in class. Present material in a clear, organized way: Mrs. Sees always presents information in a clear, organized way. She has the agenda on the SmartBoard, and she follows the lesson to a tee. She often shows videos in class, and she always has them available on a tab on her computer. Mrs. Sees is very efficient in her classroom. Focus on meaning, not memorization. Mrs. Sees focuses on the meaning of the lesson not memorizing small facts and statistics. During her lesson, she made the definition of a homogenous mixture meaningful by making it an experience. Mrs. Sees had several liquids in the front of her class. She asked while demonstrating, If I assed some green dye to the water, is it a homogenous or heterogeneous mixture? Homogenous! What if I added vinegar, also called acetic acid, to water? Its also homogenous. How about if I added salt? Its still homogenous because the ions dissolve into the water.

She put all the liquids under the overhead, which projected onto the blackboard. Now, what if I added sand, which does not dissolve? Thats right, its heterogeneous. What about milk? Even though it look homogenous, it is actually heterogeneous. If you look at milk under a microscope, you would see a bunch of different particles. Instead of just making students memorize definitions from a textbook, she made the definitions come to life in the classroom. Im willing to bet that the students would be able to define homogenous and heterogeneous on a test after experiencing the differences in class. Gaining Attention p. 239 (i.e. Remember what we did yesterday?) Every day, Mrs. Sees opens her class with the greeting, Good morning class. How are you doing today? After her salutation, she goes straight into the lesson. She will ask them to open their textbooks and notebooks. Additionally, she posts the agenda for each class period on the SmartBoard in the front of the classroom. They know from the beginning of the class what is expected of them. The book explains that eye-catching and startling displays or actions can draw attention at the beginning of a lesson. Additionally, bright colors, underlining or highlighting of written or spoken words, calling on a student by name, surprise events, intriguing questions (Mrs. Sees uses this method frequently in her classes), variety in tasks and teaching methods, and changes in voice level can all be used to gain a students attention. The students will need to stay focused in order to learn the information at hand. Working Memory was the information chunked? Working memory is the information that you are focusing on at a given moment. It is the interface where new information is held temporarily and combined with knowledge from the long term memory. Mrs. Sees uses information that should already be in the students long term memory bank to introduce and elaborate on new information. I havent seen Mrs. Sees utilize chunking in her classes, but it might be hard to incorporate into a science class. Maintenance Rehearsal Maintenance rehearsal is keeping information in working memory by repeating it to yourself in your mind. Maintenance rehearsal can be helpful in retaining information that you plan to use and forget, such as a telephone number. Since you dont want a student to forget your lessons, maintenance rehearsal should only be a part of how your students study and learn. Teachers should strive to make information relevant to students, so they can deeply process the information and transfer the knowledge into their long term memory bank. Elaborate Rehearsal Elaborative rehearsal involves connecting the information you are trying to remember with something you already know. This kind of rehearsal is really useful because is not only retains information in the working memory, but it also helps move the information to long term memory. If students can integrate new information with old knowledge to make meaningful connections, they are more likely to remember the information long term.

Discuss Cognitive Load Cognitive load refers to the volume of cognitive resources, including perception, attention and memory, necessary to perform a task. These resources must be devoted not only to organizing and understanding the task, but also to analyzing the solution and ignoring irrelevant stimuli. If cognitive load is too high, it can decrease or even inhibit ones ability to perform a task. Occasionally, Mrs. Sees introduces a new concept that requires students to draw conclusions from information in their long term memory and integrate it with the new ideas at hand. Sometimes, if the concept is really challenging, the students become stressed, and they all have a perplexed look on their face. In such instances, the cognitive load is too high, and Mrs. Sees must use scaffolding to help bridge the gap between what the students already know and connect it to the new material. She usually reminds the students of what they know (i.e. vocabulary, concepts, etc.), and she tries to break the concept down into smaller pieces, so that the task is easier to digest. After Mrs. Sees breaks down the elephant, the students realize that they have the skills and knowledge to conquer the task. Long Term Memory How was it stored? Long term memory is a permanent store of knowledge. All information starts in the working memory, which can be kept activated through maintenance rehearsal. This information can be processed and transferred into long term memory by being connected with information in the long term memory bank (elaborative rehearsal). Processes and storing information may take time; however, once information is successfully stored in long term memory, it can remain there permanently. Identify Elaborations; Organized Elaboration and organization are important factors that help us process information, which can then be converted and stored in long term memory. Elaboration is adding meaning to new information by connecting with already existing knowledge. Elaboration allows us to apply schemas and draw on already existing knowledge to construct an understanding. This process is often done automatically in our mind; we simply use the old knowledge to understand the new. Organization is an element of information processing that improves learning. Material that is well organized is easier to learn and to remember than bits and pieces of information. Additionally, placing a concept in a structure will help you learn and remember both general definitions and specific examples. Content and how was retrieved spreading activation? (Identify starting lesson Rememberand assessments) Spreading activation is the retrieval of different pieces of information based on their relatedness to one another. Remembering one bit of information activates (stimulates) recall of associated information. When a teacher opens a lesson by stating what they discussed yesterday in class, the teacher is in effect encouraging the students retrieve the information from the previous class. The activation of information already learned will allow students to process and learn new information more easily. How does your teacher make declarative knowledge meaningful? p.253 Declarative knowledge is knowledge that can be declared through words and symbol systems, such as Braille, sign language, mathematical symbols, and so on. Since Mrs. Sees teaches science, the declarative knowledge that she primarily uses include facts and scientific laws. When she was teaching how to balance chemical

equations, she listed specific rules on the board. You cannot change subscripts in a compound. If an equation is not balanced, you can only change the coefficients. She then explained that changing the subscripts actually changes the compound. Is CO and CO2 the same element? You have to balance the equation while still keeping the original components. Her lecture made the declarative knowledge relevant and meaningful by using specific examples and by guiding her students through the scientific process. Please provide examples of any mnemonics utilized. In Mrs. Sees biology classes, the students are learning about the taxonomy of plants and animals. The hierarchy includes Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. To help the students remember the specific order of these elements, she gave them a mnemonic. She wrote the words, King Paul Cried Out for Good Soup on the blackboard. The first letter of every word on the board is also the first letter of the taxonomic ranks. Mnemonics, such as the one Mrs. Sees used for her biology class, help students break down and remember complex words or concepts. Does your teacher encourage distributed or mass practice? I have seen Mrs. Thorne, the agriculture teacher, encourage distributed practice when her students memorized the FFA Creed. In order to obtain your Greenhand FFA Degree, all FFA members must memorize and present the FFA Creed by E.M. Tiffany. Instead of assigning the memorization of the entire speech over a short period of time (massed practice), Mrs. Thorne asked students to memorize one paragraph a week. Each week, students memorized and presented each paragraph. After five weeks, she asked the students to combine all the paragraphs and present the entire speech from start to finish. Memorizing the speech utilizing distributed practice rather than massed practice made the assignment manageable and less stressful for the students. What learning strategies and tactics have you observed p. 272 and how are they used with general and SPED populations?

How does your teacher encourage creativity p.291? Mrs. Thornes agriculture students participate in several flower shows throughout the year. Students can are allowed to let their creativity flourish when creating a floral arrangement. Students are encouraged to use basic design elements, such as color and texture, when designing their arrangement. Mrs. Thorne How does the teacher develop critical thinking p.292?

How does your teacher teach for transfer p.297?

Please provide an example of each other the elements of the constructivist student centered teaching founded in your classroom p.314

Has your teacher used any of the following? Inquiry Problem Cognitive apprenticeship Reciprocal teaching Cooperative learning p. 332 Reciprocal questioning Structured controversies How does your teacher encourage self-efficacy p.356?

How does your teacher encourage self-regulation p. 367?