As far as constructivism vs. behaviorism goes, I tend to be in the middle. For example, in the yellow marker example, it is true that everyone sees a yellow marker and knows that that's a yellow marker. However, the meaning behind the yellow marker is slightly different for everyone. For such concrete objects, the difference may be slight, but for other objects they may vary a lot more. In regards to teaching, I tend to lean towards the constructivism idea. I'd rather teach a class thinking that everyone was seeing something slightly differently, and try to cover each student's view, than assume everyone sees the same thing and teach from that standpoint. I'm also a firm believer that environment plays an important role in learning, so those with different environments perceive, and therefore learn, differently. It's a tough debate, though, because I think both theories have a lot to offer about learning.
Wednesday, September 21
Blog Post 1, Behaviorism
One concept I was wondering about was time outs. In a camp I worked at this summer, we utilized the "minute for every year of age" strategy. Why is that accurate? A lot of kids complained that younger kids got shorter time outs, even if they did something worse than the older kids. Is it due to attention span, or some other reason? Also, what about group time outs? Should they be utilized, or are they not a good strategy for a classroom setting?
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I actually learned about the "minute for every year of age" from when I used to watch Super Nanny in high school (don't make fun of me, it was addictive!!!) And even then I thought it was an interesting method. I do think it is because of attention span. I remember when I was 6 or 7 and I would get in trouble and be sent to my room for 5 or 10 minutes. It would seem like eternity. So for younger children, this seems like a good idea. However, I think when a child is over maybe the age of 10, a different method should be used. This could eliminate part of the complaining of unfairness and turn out to be more effective.
ReplyDeleteI think there's no 'right answer' for your questions (perhaps the people to made the rule did it for no particular reason.... this is an example of why it's important to make intentional (on purpose) choices about these things as teachers!), but both COULD be addressed through behaviorism.
ReplyDeleteIt seems the amount of time needs to be long enough to be an 'effective' punishment (to decrease the behavior). So, perhaps they tried varying times with younger and older children and found that those times most commonly decreased the behavior. Group time outs may be using guilt (of getting everyone else in trouble) or group pressure (hey! don't do that again, because we got in trouble!) as additional punishment to decrease a particular behavior.