Chapter 9 Learning Log

What? A great way to learn about human learning is by examining stimulus-response principles. Antecedent stimuli tend to evoke certain kinds of responses, either in classical conditioning or operant conditioning. It is these responses that lead to changes in the learner’s environment. For example, they may lead to reinforcement or punishment. By altering any part of the chain of events, whether by changing the classroom environment or teaching a more effective way of responding to the environment, we can help our students acquire more productive school behaviors. Also, we can help them gain the attention of their peers by teaching effective social skills through reinforcement.
So what? It is important to know this information because it was all about how children respond to different stimuli. This is a huge part of understanding human learning. In the classroom, it is important to know how students will respond to what and why they respond in the way they do. This lesson also teaches about reinforcement, both positive and negative. It is very important to understand the difference between positive and negative reinforcement: positive reinforcement is where you reward someone with something that they see as positive. An example of this is, if the all the students read over winter break and write about the book they read, they will have a pizza party when they come back. This is positive reinforcement because you are rewarding the students with something positive (pizza). Negative reinforcement IS NOT punishment. The word negative in this context is very misunderstood. Negative reinforcement is rewarding someone by taking away something that is negative in their eyes. An example of this is, if the students score an 80% or higher on their spelling test, they won't have any homework that weekend. This is an example of negative reinforcement because you are taking away something negative (homework) as a reward, because the students won't have to do homework that weekend and that is a reward to them. It is so important to know these terms because I will use them in my class a lot and I will be able to distinguish the difference between what kind of reinforcement I am dishing out.
Now what? In the classroom, I will be able to apply everything I've learned in Chapter 9. I especially look forward to testing out different kinds of stimulus-response principles. I'll be able to experiment in my classroom to see what different cues work better than others, and that way I will be able to run a more effective classroom. Chance are, different cues will work better for different classes, seeing as every child is different and one year will differ from the previous year. I will also be able to see which stimulus students respond better to. If students are more motivated if they are rewarded by a pizza party than extra recess, I will know what to use as positive reinforcement from then on if I want a result that I am not seeing in my students. I will also see examples of operant conditioning in my classroom, as well as possible results from past classical conditioning. The classical conditioning includes phobias the students may have, and it is important to be sensitive to these.