Behaviorism at Work

As I reflect on this week's readings, I must consider the variety strategies in technology that relate to the behaviorist learning theory. Behaviorism teaches that desired behaviors can be learned and undesired behaviors can be unlearned. Two strategies that help to accomplish this would be the practice of homework and reinforcing effort.

Many students do not see the relationship between their effort and achievement. Effort is the most important factor in achievement(2007). There are lots of resources a teacher can use to help demonstrate this point. Rubrics(something I personally use quite often) are great for showing the relationship between effort and achievement. This can easily be done using a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel. Rubrics give students a clear idea of what achievement looks like. The Effort/Achievement Spreadsheet is also an excellent tool that allows students to see the relationship between their effort and their grade.

The practice of homework can be enriched by a number of technology tools. I was interested to know that Word Processing Applications have a number of resources most people do not know of. I think my fifth graders will be excited to use the Flesch-Kincaid grade level rating tool which will tell them the grade level of their writing. Also no longer do they need to open a web browser for simple research that can be done with Microsoft Word's Research tools. Multimedia can also be an excellent learning tool. One challenge with using technology with homework however is accessibility. Over time I think this challenge will diminish. More and more students have computers in their home and some schools enjoy the benefits of one-to-one laptop programs in which students have a laptop assigned to them for the entire school year.