Behaviorist Learning Theories

After reading about behaviorism, critical instructional strategies, and the technical tools we have available to us in our classroom, I realized their relationship is intertwined with a secure connection to student success or failure. We, as human beings, desire attention for things we are working on or towards; this attention can through negative/positive reinforcement or punishment. Our goal as teachers is to use reinforcement to increase the chances of approved reaction or behavior, where our instructional strategies come into play to make sure the students are successful. We want to be able to reward our students for working collaboratively (Alberta Learning, 2002) and effectively with positive recognition or something as simple as a “homework pass” (Orey 2010, p. 274). Technology, if used as a data collection tool, can be used to keep students aware of their process where they can show and get praise from their parents. The outcomes of our students will depend on how the teacher uses behaviorism, instructional strategies, and technology.

An example of how instructional strategies and technology support student learning would be how rubrics work during a cooperative learning assignment. Having a rubric with clear and precise expectations that the students use throughout the task, will give the students a feeling of being able to control the outcome by improving their self-drive to succeed (Pitler, Hubbell, and Kuhn, 2012).

            In my gymnasium, I use both Pavlovian conditioning (as a conditioned stimulus) and operant conditioning (punisher) in hopes of getting the behaviors I expect from my students. I use music daily as my conditioned stimulus. Depending on the type of music played and its volume, my students know the speed and amount of control they should have. The louder and fast the tempo of the music means a free expression of how they feel, where softer slower music means moving in controlled space at slower speeds. At the beginning of each class, I use the first five minutes to let the kids ‘Burn the Crazy’ before I start the intro of my class. It gives the students five minutes to act and move as crazy as they wish, using select equipment. However, if I do not see the appropriate behaviors as they enter the gymnasium or anytime, I need to explain directions; they lose that five minutes. I hope that this punishment will decrease these unwanted behaviors in the future (Orey, 2010). I feel by using these strategies, I am advocating for an equitable learning environment for all my students (ISTE, 2008).

The sources I have read and researched for this module’s assignment have taught me strategies to increase the effort of my students as they journey through their project-based learning project of becoming and staying physically active. Having read Pitler, Hubbell, and Kuhn’s (2012) chapter on reinforcing effort has made me realize that I need to make all feedback “task- or process-oriented” (p.62). With feedback set up, that way will hopefully have positive effects on their self-motivation to succeed. I have also learned that having stronger connections with my students and how they handle success and failure will depend on which reinforcement strategy used when they are struggling. Each student may handle positive or negative reinforcements differently, and I need to connect deeper with them to pinpoint which approach will work best.

References

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works (2^nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Orey, M. (Ed.). (2010). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from http://textbookequity.org/Textbooks/Orey_Emergin_Perspectives_Learning.pdf

Alberta Learning. (2002). Instructional strategies. Retrieved from https://education.alberta.ca/media/482311/is.pdf

My students and I used a graphic organizer, from www.lucidchart.com, as a brainstorming session before attending the virtual field trip presented by the NFL’s Play60. We brainstormed ideas to the question of How can we get moving for 60min/day? Their plans for activities are dark pink circles. Once we had the activities, we labeled (blue circles) were those activities can take place. Then we participated in the six segments of Huddle Up and Get Moving. Once our virtual field trip was over, we went back to our mind map and labeled each activity based on the categories (muscle strength, bone strength, and endurance) presented to us on the field trip (cloud spaced circles). The link to the map is https://www.lucidchart.com/documents/view/9805a47c-cec2-4d14-8d67-8b81eacdb298/0_0

and a visual of our mind map is below:

References:

American Heart Association & NFL Play 60. (2020). Huddle Up and Get Moving. Retrieved from https://aha-nflplay60.discoveryeducation.com/field-trip

Lucid Chart. (2020). Mind Map. Retrieved from www.lucidchart.com

During this course, everything we have done has expanded my view of what is possible with the limited technologies I have available to me in my gymnasium. I have become aware that I have turned into the type of teacher that was afraid of setting out my comfort box. But having learned through both the video segments and readings by Will Richardson that it is beneficial for my students to see me attempt new strategies, whether they are successful or not, has changed my viewpoint. Having set up a Twitter account for the first time and have only used for professional resources has opened my eyes to a much broader world of technology-specific to Physical Education. Without that professional use of Twitter, I would have never known of www.connectedpe.com, and it’s a wealth of resources along with professional development opportunities. Another lasting result of this course has been the use of collaboration with other teachers inside my school. Since I have extremely limited resources to use in my gymnasium, while the classroom teacher as extensive use of, through collaboration between the two of us, we shared ideas and resources for student engagement and improvement (ISTE, 2008). If not for this class, I would not have ventured out of my comfort zone and collaborated with fellow teachers, having the students miss the successful lesson created because of it.

The knowledge that I have gained, which will help me facilitate changing my classroom, is the realization that my students can learn just as much outside of my gymnasium as they can while participating in activities in it. With the creation of Web 2.0 tools, Will Richardson (2015) stresses to his readers that we need to be just as comfortable to be learners as we are as educators. Our student’s exposure to various types of technology from birth is far greater than any adults, and we need to teach them to navigate those technologies safely more than telling them what they can and cannot do. “All around us, kids are creating content in ways that most adults haven’t yet tried” (Richardson, 2010, p.7). By using Twitter and staying connected with my students outside of school, we can keep up to date with what everyone in the class is doing outside of school to stay active. Making it okay to learn and explore ideas we find out about in school outside of school.

With the goal of increasing my student’s activity levels outside of school, a classroom Twitter account may help in achieving this goal. After reading the article, Inspiring Learning Outcomes with Twitter in the Kindergarten Classroom by K. Walsh (2011), I realized using Twitter as the modern pen pal template for my students to learn what other children their ages are doing for fun. The only roadblock I have is having my district allow the use of twitter in my classroom, so as a class, we can keep up to date with the other classes. If I can get through this roadblock, where I advocate for this educational technology (ISTE, 2008), the benefits for my students are limitless. From becoming a digital citizen (ISTE, 2016) to collaborating and creating activities with other students from around the world becoming keen 21st-century learners.

Using smart goals will help me stay on task and specific while improving my chances of reaching each goal. I have come up with two SMART goals to prepare my students for their futures in society and their workplaces. First is, I want my students to increase their weekly physical activity levels 15% each school year for the next two years.  This SMART goal will be accomplished two ways, first by exposing them to as many different types of activities possible during their Physical Education class and having them document activity outside of school. The second way this goal will be accomplished is by implementing a Family Fun Fitness night at school to increase parental awareness of the importance of increasing activity time. My second goal is, I want to replace 10% of my current curriculum activities in each of the next two school years with student-driven ideas derived from student surveys. This goal will be completed through quick surveys at the end of units to finding enjoyment levels, the possibilities of out of school use, and games/activities suggestions they feel would meet the objectives and goals of the unit. I think these two SMART goals will help transition my Physical Education program into a 21st-century learning environment.

With my experience within this course of the last two months, I have learned that technology has weaved itself into every facet of our lives. Technology has become something in our personal and professional lives to take advantage of to work smarter not harder. This holds true even in Physical Education, from the interactive video games that our students play to the overabundance of wearable fitness monitors you see on many adult and children’s wrists. The challenge with the amount of usable technology to make our lives healthier is narrowing down the options to make sure we are reaching goals we set for ourselves to improve physical activity levels, along with using the technology correctly.

References
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Richardson, W. (2015). From master teacher to master learner. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
International Socitey for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2008). Standards for teachers. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers

The PE Geek. 100 Ways to use technology in physical education. Online Professional development retrieved from www.connectedpe.com.

Walsh, K. (2011). Inspiring learning outcomes with Twitter in the kindergarten classroom. Retrieved from http://www.emergingedtech.com/2011/04/inspiring-learning-outcomes-with-twitter-in-the-kindergarten-classroom/

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2016). Standards for students. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students-2016.