Behaviorism

I was really interested in the reaction that most people in class had to the philosophy discussion, in particular the information presented on behaviorism. Whenever someone with a background in education hears the term "behaviorist" they immediately think of Pavlov and his dogs (kinda ironic that we're been classically conditioned to think of him when we hear the phrase...). We usually assume that behaviorism is a bad thing. We see this as some creepy, robotic type of system that does not allow for people to be individuals. However, Pavlov may be onto something. We can in fact "train" students to behave in a certain manner through the use a system of rewards and punishments (if I could train my dogs half as well as my students, I'd be thrilled!).

Before I entered the classroom last year I was adamant that I was opposed to positive behavior systems of classroom management.  I didn’t want my class to behave well because they will get a prize or a ticket; I wanted them to behave well because that is the expectation in my classroom and their job is to meet my expectations.  As it turns out, 5 year olds don’t care very much what I expect them to do; they care much more about extrinsic motivation.  It also turns out that I don’t really care what their motivation is; I just want them to behave well for any reason at all!  My school used the stoplight system for behavior management so I put one up in my classroom but was hit or miss about actually using it to enforce behavior.  It was two months into my teaching last year before I broke down and started a class marble jar.  When the whole class was doing what they were supposed to do we earned a handful of marbles.  When the jar was filled they got a class prize (lunch in the classroom, extra recess, etc.).  I could not believe the difference.  Just saying “Looks like we won’t be earning marbles during math today” would quiet down my entire class in an instant.  Marbles became better than stickers (which is a big deal because to Kindergarten students stickers are like a drug).

This year my school did away with the stoplight system due to the embarrassment and anxiety it caused students because of the fear of having to move their clip from green to yellow.  Teachers at my school are now only allowed to use positive behavior systems in their classroom.  While I think negative punishments do have their place in the classroom, I was secretly excited to break out the marble jar this year.   I introduced the marble jar in the first week of school and at the end of week two we have filled it up and received our first reward!  I start out very heavy handed with the marbles so the students learn what it feels like to earn the reward.  As we get further into the year they earn less and less marbles at a time so that it takes longer to fill up. 

My school has opted not to become part of the PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) system just yet, this year we are all implementing positive behavior systems in our classroom independent from a school system.  The PBIS program website, http://www.pbis.org/ has a lot of information about how to implement positive behavior.  They even provide templates of “good behavior tickets” to pass out and a list of free or inexpensive rewards, http://www.pbis.org/training/student.aspx (for the list of rewards click on “free rewards for students” under the Gotcha resources).