Hamidullah Tokhi’s Updates
Behaviorism and its relevance today's school
The Operant Conditioning theory of B F Skinner, especially the positive feedback, has been prevalent in our school of language learning. An example of positive feedback that I have been using is called e-portfolio which involves four key elements, such as students work, efforts, achievements and self-reflection. This is purely student driven work with timely feedback by the teachers. The purpose of the e-portfolio is to boost students’ confidence by encouraging them to showcase their achievements in a conference which is attended by academic specialists, diagnostic assessment specialists, teachers and other students from lower levels. The key element is the self-reflection where students take a moment and reflect on their own learning strategies and subsequently make necessary adjustments for improvement. By sharing their stories, the students allow the teachers and academic specialists to provide materials that are tailored to the specific need of the students. The lower level students also benefit by learning strategies that will help them gain mastery of their learning. Students’ e-portfolios get evaluated and graded which counts toward their overall GPA. By providing positive feedback and encouragement for good behavior, the school reinforces the good behavior in students. It is also ties in with the notion of the self-fulfilling, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior which makes the original false conception come true. If you hold people to high standards they will live up to them, but if the expectation are low they will also live up to them. Hence, positive feedback can encourage people to live up to their true potentials.
Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) studied self-fulfilling prophecy in a classroom: Pygmalion in the classroom. Teachers were allowed to overhear a conversation at the beginning of the year that identified 20 children in the class as ‘late developers’ about to ‘spurt’. The teachers believed this was based on an IQ test done, but it was random. At the end of the year, those 20 children did indeed have improved IQ scores, and continued to for 2 years.
The ‘prophecy’ came true because the teachers responded differently to them (more feedback etc).
[Image result for self fulfilling prophecy ppt]
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/200503/self-fulfilling-prophecies
The link below sheds further light on the use of e-portfolio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh1s6cXxcYY
Mr.Tokhi,
Thank you for describing e-portfolio and linking it to Operant Conditioning and positive feedback. Besides the element of positive feedback, e-portfolio could also result in self control of behavior after the self reflection and assessment. Meaning, when they find out about their metacognition ability, some students continue building upon their achievement. However, other students may get discouraged and feel behind when they see their peers have progressed to a very higher level of learning. Overall, I like the concept of e-portfolio and how e-portfolio create enable students to self assess and reflect on their challenges and achievements. I am looking forward to reading your future posts.
Mr. Tokhi, I enjoyed reading your post, you have had some very strong points in relation to the Operant Conditioning. I totally support you point as you said If you hold people to high standards, they will live up to them, but if the expectation are low they will also live up to them. Hence, positive feedback can encourage people to live up to their true potentials.
The only problem I see with the Operant Conditioning is, that It does not offer anything for the slow learners, or the people who experiment in a field. As we know experiments are prone to failures and the only thing Operant Conditioning offers is punishment or a title that you have failed your task and you are not qualified for any type of rewards. I am not sure how Operant Conditioning would be able to support or motivate the people who already knew that their experiment was not successful.