Learning Log (Chapter 9)

What?
Today in class we talked about Chapter 9, which is Behaviorism. We talked about all types of punishment and all types of reinforcements. A lot was clarified in today's discussion. We talked about positive and negative reinforcement and the way that is relates to a hot air balloon. Positive reinforcement is the fire being pumped into the hot air balloon making it go higher. Negative reinforcement is the sand bags that hold the balloon down and as you let them drop they make the balloon go higher. So both the fire and the sand bags make the balloon go higher, but with positive you are adding something and negative is taking something away. We also talked about contiguity which means the reinforcement happens right after the behavior occurs. We also talked about operant conditioning which is voluntary. Classical conditioning is involuntary, it is the experiment that was done with the dogs and saliva.

So What?
Learning what we learned today is important because behaviorism is used everyday in so many ways. I will have the opportunity to use behaviorism in my classroom and I need to know what that entails and how that is going to effect my students. I am not a strong believer in behaviorism because I believe that it promotes students to do things for the wrong reasons.

Now What?
Now that I know this information about behaviorism I can implement this in my classroom. Behaviorism can be a good thing, but for me I will not use it as much as some think is necessary. My cooperating teacher hardly ever if she did ever use behaviorism in her classroom. And yet the class was well structured and well behaved. But I still need to know about it so if I do need to use it I can.