Social Cognitivism Case Study - Elementary

Questions:

1. The strategies that Mr. Corbet uses to teach his students appropriate school behavior are most consistent with which two theories/theorists that we have learned about so far this semester? Justify your response.
Mr. Corbet most closely associated with Bandura's theory by using reinforcement techniques to facilitate observational learning. Mr. Corbet recognized students to the entire class for walking instead of running.  He also used the whistle as a punishment that other students tend to want to avoid, though it is unclear of the reason for the blowing of the whistle to Mindy now, it will become most likely more clear with future observance. By coming right over to Jonathan when he raised his hand, and not immediately heeding to Mindy's way of getting his attention by going up to him, he reinforced the behavior of raising your hand when you would like the teacher to respond. All of these behaviors can be observed by the students, like Mindy, so they can adapt to the environment and the expectations therein.

2. Describe one incident in the case study that represents vicarious reinforcement.
 Mindy remembered to walk while lining up for recess because one of the students and the entire yellow table was positively recognized for their obedient walking skills.
Mindy's obedience to walking occurred because she imitated the behavior of someone who had been reinforced for that behavior.

3. Describe one incident in the case study that represents vicarious punishment.
When Mr. Corbet held Jonathan's hand and told him not to point because it wasn't nice, he was punished for that particular behavior, not so much the tattling part. Mindy picked up on not pointing because she experienced the tendency not to repeat behaviors that she observed others being punished for. Before she tattled on the girl in the yellow dress, she remembered not to point her finger at her.

4. Do you think Mindy has low or high self-efficacy with regard to appropriate kindergarten behavior? Justify your response with examples from the case. I think Mindy has high self-efficacy of being able to adapt to a new situation by following the lead of others and the reinforcers being recognized or punished around her. I think Mindy showed high self-efficacy in adapting to a new environment by using the childrens excited emotions about recess to understand that it was a good thing, and she used the body language of the other students poor emotions to conclude the whistle was not a good thing.

Behaviorism.

1. Is Haley's fear of men most likely due to classical or operant conditioning? Justify your response (yes, it will all be hypothetical as we do not have enough information in this case) using terminology, definitions, and examples.

Haley's fear of men could most likely be due to classical conditioning. According to the text, "When stimuli produce negative emotional responses, they are called aversive stimuli." The neutral stimuli in Haley's case could have been all males. Assuming she had a very negative experience with one male, like her father, her fearful, traumatizing, negatively emotional experience with that one male created an aversive stimuli that was then generalized to all males. This generalization could explain why she refused to go to violin lessons with the male teacher. She paired those negative automatic responses to new similar stimuli.

2. How might you explain Meredith's aggressive behaviors from the perspective of operant conditioning?

According to the text, "behavior is controlled by its consequences; therefore operant conditioning is learning in which behavior changes in frequency or duration as the result of a consequence." Because Meredith had no undesirable consequence for her behavior, she continued it. The consequence she received was that she always got what she wanted after hitting or hurting the other person involved in each situation. "When consequences are rewarding, the likelihood that the organism will repeat the behavior in the future increases." Meredith will continue to repeat the behavior as she has because the rewards fulfill what she was originally setting out to do. She originally set out to wear rock star clothes to school, and when her mother opposed, she still wanted to wear them, so she hit her and was instantly rewarded with her desire being met. Also, Haley is helping in this conditioning process because every time Meredith wants something from Haley, she just pokes her or hurts her, and Meredith's reward is always satisfying what she originally desired.

3. What strategies from Behavioral theory might a teacher use in working with Haley? Be specific and describe how each strategy could be used.

Some behavioral strategies the teacher might use with Haley could be the following:

A Contingency Contract that is solely between the teacher and Haley. This will give her responsibility for her own actions and no one elses. This might help her be more aware of herself and have better self-esteem and maybe even self-efficacy in behaving well in the classroom or not being swayed by others desires.

Use intermittent reinforcement to allow Haley to come up with things that she likes to do. Previous to this type of reinforcement, there would need to be noticed by the teacher an activity or subject that Haley has high self-efficacy in and really enjoys doing. Then, after behaving well, according to the contingency contract, she would be allotted the thing that she personally enjoys doing the most. This may help her develop a more accurate sense of self.

A self-evaluating journal may be a great daily tool to help Haley recognize her behavior and improve.

She would need further help from maybe the school psychologist or counselors for the fear she has of men.

4. What strategies from Behavioral theory might a teacher use in working with Meredith? Be specific and describe how each strategy could be used.

Removal Punishment may be a good tool to use with Meredith if the teacher can find something Meredith really enjoys doing. If Meredith enjoys the token economy, her privileges of participating may be removed until she resumes a desirable behavior that would be clearly understood to Meredith from the teacher by a contract.

Logical Consequences may be the best way to help Meredith's behavior at school. When she wears inappropriate clothing to school that does not abide by the dress code, then she must change into clothes provided by the school that do agree with the dress code standards. If she is pushing or shoving children at recess, than she is no longer able to play with children at recess. If she is pushing Haley around and being bossy, than she can have her desk moved away from Haley and not be assigned to any of the same groups as Haley. I think these logical consequences will most likely be effective in the classroom because there will be a negative consequence to match the negative behavior. There will be a clear cause and effect relationship she will better be able to see.

Constructivism Case Study Analysis

Questions:

1. Describe two similarities between the traditional lesson and the constructivist one as described above.

a) They both used familiar visual lengths to understand the length of their objects. The traditional approach used a measured length of the hallway to visualize how long the whale was. The constructivist used the familiar lengths found in different parts of the human body and the whole human body.

b) Both teachers transitioned to their measuring activities with the students interest and attention.

What are two differences?

a) The traditional approach started with a stated fact about whales (whales are 100 ft. long). The constructivist approach started with a problem (given by an edict on a scroll).
b) The traditional approach jumped to the obvious conclusion of how to measure the length of a whale by giving the students directions to use a yard stick. The constructivist approach allowed the students to come up with whatever ways they thought would work to measure the ship to solve the problem set forth by the King. They experimented with each idea and discovered the pros and cons to each and their effectiveness in solving the dilemma with the King's condition.
2. What are two benefits of the constructivist approach as described above?

a) The students activated their minds to come up with ways to solve a problem. They were critically thinking.

b) The students were able to use a few different approaches and compare and contrast the successes of each and the differences between them all. They also learned the relationships between cause and effect, which is another critical thinking skill.

What are two drawbacks of the constructivist approach as described above?

a) It took a lot longer to learn the math skill of measuring and even went through the entire next day.

b) Some students may have been bored, knowing the answer all along, like the girl with the ruler in her hand could have been.

In your opinion, are the benefits worth the costs? Yes, the benefits are worth the costs because they are discovering the answer, which will stick with them. This method will allow them to use the skill they learned in any problem solving situation they face later on that allows it to be a solution option. One cost is the teacher having to spend more time allowing them to come up with the answers and the wait time to the questions that promote their critical thinking skills. Another cost would be that the students are apt to misconceptions if the ideas aren't proven in a way that the students understand why that couldn't work and why something else works better. There would have to be many examples provided, but it would be worth it to the students who successfully experimented with measuring by coming up with the best solution.

3. How does the constructivist lesson described above promote critical thinking?

Critical Thinking: The process of systematically examining available information and coming up with conclusions that are based on evidence.

Examples of Critical Thinking:

They came up with multiple options to measure the ship, which promoted critical thinking because they were curious how each of their ideas would work out. Tom, Mark, and Sue are guaranteed not to forget the material they discovered and explored with this activity.

The simple fact that the class was silent for a long wait time after the question proves that the problem and question probed at their critical thinking abilities.

4. Would the constructivist activity be considered an authentic activity? Yes, the constructivist activity would be considered an authentic activity because it involves problem solving and critical thinking. The children are learning through approaching a problem hands on, coming up with ideas and testing them out with trial and error, and understanding their ideas full capacity in the situation with cause and effect. Real life is filled with constant problems that must be solved in either a moments notice, a couple hours, weeks, or in a daily routine. Helping to develop the skills to face real life problems is an authentic way to learn, rather than multiple choice questions that are never provided in the real world.

Course Contract Review

1. What are you doing well? I am putting a lot of time into studying for the exams. I am completing all my assignments on time. I am participating in class. I am on time to class and I have no absences. I am making and keeping good relationships with family, friends, and new friends. I am doing well, emotionally and spiritually. I am moving forward with big decisions in my life rather than being at the stagnant stage I was before.
2. What are you not doing well? I am struggling with doing all the assigned reading before the class where we discuss that material. I am not eating that well or working out that often. I am not getting all the sleep I need during the week. I haven't been as prompt with work lately because of all the study groups and homework projects.
3. Are you making sufficient progress on your goals? I have A's or A-'s in all my classes, which is great. I am tired, but I'm not slacking. I am continually adding to individual class folders and notebooks the important ideas and thoughts I can use in the future.
4. List specific things you need to change in order to meet your goals. I need to read, read, read in order to do better on the exams, understand the material in class and outside of class, and be able to answer application problems/apply what I'm learning. I need to exercise a reasonable amount every week (three times). I need to make good use of my time and eat healthy. I have been trying to finish term assignments before field so that I don't have to be so stressed while I am in the role of a teacher at my field work school. It is stressful now, but it will be great to focus on the kids and my teaching responsibility during field.
5. How is your motivation? My motivation isn't focused on my ultimate goal, but the A's are my target in sight. It is only because it is drawing closer to field and classes and work have been very time consuming and draining that I have to rely on the performance goals. But I think that's why I set the performance goals... for times when I was too tired or too caught up to remember the deep intrinsic reason/motivation behind it all. Reaching those performance goals will keep me on track to obtaining my mastery goals, even if it is dragging me along for a little while.
6. Are you focusing on mastery or performance goals? I am focusing more on the performance goals at this moment because I am tired. But my overall mindset when I get down to the reasons why I am set on completing my assignments on time and attending all my classes is really a mastery goal of becoming an excellently prepared teacher.
7. Does anything need to change? Yes, there are always things I should change if I really want to be progressing. I could be getting better sleep, getting ready in the mornings instead of rolling out of bed and going to school looking like a zombie, and I need to change the negativity that has crept up on me lately with my social life and school work. If I can change my attitude to be more positive, things will run a lot more smooth.