Educational Psychology / Unit 13 EDP 1240 review, 2 to 3 minutes
The Behavioral Arc in One Classroom
The idea
Behavioral principles run from the laboratory to the classroom as one connected set of tools. Classical conditioning explains how neutral stimuli come to trigger responses. Operant conditioning explains how consequences shape behavior, with reinforcement increasing it and punishment decreasing it, each in positive and negative forms. Schedules decide how durable a behavior becomes: intermittent reinforcement makes it slower to extinguish, which helps a teacher maintain good habits and hurts when misbehavior is only sometimes rewarded. A reward is not a reinforcer until it increases the behavior it follows, and expected, tangible rewards for activities students already enjoy can reduce intrinsic motivation. Applied behavior analysis brings these ideas into the classroom: define the behavior, measure a baseline, find the function, choose the consequence by that function, shape and prompt the replacement behavior, and fade to natural reinforcers.
In practice
Worked example: a teacher wants a class to start work promptly after lunch. She counts how many students begin within two minutes for a week, the baseline. She states the target positively: "open your notebook and start the warm-up." At first she praises every prompt start, continuous reinforcement for fast learning, then praises now and then, which keeps the habit going. One student delays to avoid the warm-up; the function is escape, so she gives that student a shorter first problem rather than sending him out. As prompt starts become routine, she fades the praise, and the satisfaction of finishing the warm-up takes over.
Where people slip
Behavioral plans go wrong in three familiar ways: they assume a pleasant consequence is a reinforcer without measuring, they apply a consequence without checking its function, as when time-out rewards escape, or they never fade, leaving behavior dependent on artificial rewards. Measuring, reading the function and fading are what keep behavioral methods effective and compatible with intrinsic motivation.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it · Sources for Educational Psychology