The behaviorist ideals are still strong in the learning community and there is evidence to support it. See if these ideas make sense to you and think about whether you have heard these (or something like them) in your past. Maybe you remember softball or football practice and hearing “practice makes perfect” or the even better “perfect practice makes perfect”. This doesn’t sound much different than “frequent practice is necessary for learning to take place” or “skills are not acquired without frequent practice” (Smith, 1999). Could all of our coaches have been wrong? I doubt it.
There is no way around it, our students need a fair amount of practice at specific skills. That means that it is up to us to design assignments that focus on specific skills (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn & Malenoski, 2007). If we are going to invest that much effort into the creation of a product designed to help students learn or perfect a skill then there is no way they can achieve this mastery by performing the task one time. They must perform this task with repetition. We might refer to this as skill and drill which can carry a negative connotation with it. The reality is that it is a very necessary part of learning basic skills in so many areas of life that it seems ridiculous to remove it from education as though it has no place. So this brings us back to the original idea that behaviorism has a place and a role in our classroom.
More than just our classroom of four walls and a ceiling is the much larger classroom of life (or the world) that we prepare our students for everyday we see them. How would they learn the basic skills out in the world or in the workplace? It seems a little contradictory that repetition is such a focus in business and yet again, we fight to keep it out of education. Maybe our coaches had it right in the first place or maybe they just knew better.
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Smith, K. (1999). The behaviourist orientation to learning. In The encyclopedia of informal education. Retrieved from http://www.infed.org/biblio/learning-behavourist.htm
Raymond,
ReplyDeleteYou say that basic skills require repetition. What skills did you have in mind?
Meredith
Raymond,
ReplyDeleteI like your analogy to the coach. I think you are correct that some skills need drill and practice. I find that math skills are best learned by practicing over and over again. Do you agree with this?
How do you feel that reinforcing effort and homework play into this idea?
Stephanie Cunningham
Hi Raymond,
ReplyDeleteWow! Great analogy coach!
I agree with you that there are many basic skills that teachers teach their students on a daily basis. Having to remind or teach these basic skills everyday is a type of drill and practice.
Some basic skills outside of academics that come to mind are organization, time management, manners, social skills, effort and achievement and responsibility. What do you think?
Do you have any ideas on how technology could be used in our classrooms to reinforce basic skills or this drill and practice technique?
HanNa Chung
Meredith,
ReplyDeleteThere are a few skills that come to mind quickly. A more general one is research. Having students practice meaningful and appropriate research practices on a regular basis could be seen as critical to their current success as well as their future success. I think proper use of citations throughout their papers are one of those skills.
I don't teach math but I imagine the ability to do various types of problem solving would be valuable. Practicing addition, multiplication, and PEMDAS might also prove useful.
I'm sure that there are many subject areas that skills are incredibly important and others that do not. I don't believe someone in an art class can ever practice molding clay or painting enough.
I am only suggesting some ideas and I do not claim to be an expert in these areas.
Ray
Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that math is one of these areas. A quick survey of my students has told me that they are not getting this kind of practice in their math classes.
Homework is a great way to accomplish this as long as the students have a basic understanding of the concept and can attempt the homework without too much confusion. The struggle with many of the students in my classes is to get them to actually attempt the homework and then remembering to turn it in. Is this a problem for you or how have you worked to keep this from being a problem.
Ray
HanNa,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that there are many basic skills that we should be working to teach everyday. The question we face in my district is about how to measure learning in relation to these skills. How can I measure time management or manners? Can I create a learning target that is tied into the state standards for my grade level and subject area? So much of what we are facing in my district is removing these intangibles from the equation and focusing solely on learning results tied to standards. I'm sure you can see the predicament that we get caught in. A lot of the freedom to be creative in our teaching and assessment has been removed.
I am at a loss for the ways to use technology for some of your listed skills. I can think of ways to use technology for some of the skills I listed in a response to another post. Computers and the internet provide a cheap and fairly easily accessible resource for my students to practice research skills. They can do this for almost no cost at school or a local public library.
Ray
Ray,
ReplyDeleteI too have heard many of these comments growing up. As I do feel that some concepts need practice, I believe that it is our job to question these methods as time passes to see if in fact a new method is more effective. Do you think that drill and practice is a good example of behaviorist practices? Or perhaps, the behaviorist techniques are used to enforce the effort needed to complete the drill and practice activities.
Thanks,
Nicole F
Ray,
ReplyDeleteThis has historically been a problem with my students. Every year i have at least 2-3 students who never turn in homework. I have begun to grade homework daily. It goes back to giving feedback quickly. In the morning the students know that if they have a question about the homework to ask it. If they do not want the whole class to hear they just write a note on the homework. At some point in the day when students are doing group or individual work I check over the homework. I grade it on it being complete not right answers. I will then let the students know who is missing homework. If they did not turn it in that is the time for them to do so without losing credit. If they are missing more then 3 homeworks I call home. It seems to be working very well this year. I only have two students who are chronic with not turning it in.
Stephanie Cunningham