How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer (be specific/give examples)?-Week2-Behaviorism

As teachers we are constantly trying to teach our students new behaviors in thinking, learning, and reacting in an educational environment. We try to instill in them how to behave generally in the classroom, with their peers, and in settings where they are faced with taking a test, writing a paper, or working on a group project. As teachers we can effectuate this by creating stimuli that will effectively reinforce desired behavior. We also need to make clear to our students what the consequences will be based upon their actions. These consequences should be both negative and positive depending on the situation.

I had an experience with this in my classroom today. I want my students to display good citizenship and attentiveness in my classroom. I have a rule in my classroom that if a student leaves the classroom without my permission for any reason, I mark them absent, which in turn results in a call to their parents. I had two students leave early without my permission and I marked them absent. These students' parents had seen that they were marked absent, and the students were negatively reinforced for their actions. These students were aware of this consequence, they chose to react and test it out, and they received the consequence that was expected. I hope that I effectuated learning of classroom citizenship in the situation and that these two students will learn a new behavior that will be desirable for our classroom environment.

What is Learning?-Week 2-Behaviorism

In my post from week one, I discussed how learning is the connection of prior knowledge and skills with new knowledge and skills. After reading and contemplating the topic of behaviorism, I have come to the realization that learning would also involve the connection of existing behaviors and attitudes with ones that are foreign or new to us. As teachers, we are constantly trying to teach our students new behaviors and expose them to new ideas and perspectives in hopes of developing their attitudes of people, places, and ideas. We try to accomplish this by considering what stimuli our students may have been exposed to in the past and how they may have responded to that stimuli. Based on this information, we can create effective stimuli that will result our students learning and developing new desired behaviors and attitudes.

How can learning be best effectuated by a teacher/trainer (be specific/give examples)?

A teacher can effectuate learning best by simply being there for the students. "Being there" would include providing unique learning opportunities, constantly evaluating the students, providing feedback, and guiding the students to their end goal. For example, I teach multimedia classes and often have certain projects for my students to complete. If I am going to be there for my students, I need to provide them with a unique project that will allow them the opportunity to use prior knowledge to discover new information or to develop a new skill. As they are working on this project, I need to evaluate the progress of each student and provide them with feedback where necessary. By doing so, hopefully I can successfully guide them to the end goal in mind. If I omit any of the above mentioned elements of my "being there, " my students may not be able to connect the beginning with the end and could easily get off course from getting to that goal.

What is learning?

I define learning as a process where existing knowledge is met with new information to create further understanding of an idea, concept, or skill.