Implication of operant conditioning pakistani educational system.pdf

implication of operant conditioning pakistani educational system

1. Successive approximation:

Successive approximation is a process which means that complicated behaviour patterns are learned gradually through successive steps which are rewarding for the learner. Every successful step of the child must be rewarded by the teacher.

2. Eliminating negative behaviour through extinction:

When a learned response is repeated without reinforcement, the strength of the tendency to perform that response undergoes a progressive decrease. Extinction procedures can be successfully used by the class-room teacher in eliminating negative behaviour of students.

3. Reinforcement:

Operant conditioning has valuable implications for reinforcement techniques in the class-room. The schools can use the principles of operant conditioning to eliminate the element of fear from school atmosphere by using positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is perhaps the most widely used behavioural technique in the school setting.

This technique simply involves providing a reward for positive behaviour. The reward can be a high grade, a pen, a smile, a verbal compliment. The principle underlying positive reinforcement is that the tendency to repeat a response to a given stimulus will be strengthened as the response is positively rewarded.

Some educators believe that whenever a child is systematically punished for certain negative behaviour that behaviour tends to decrease in strength.

The effectiveness of punishment as a reinforcement technique depends upon the following variables:

(i) Timing of punishment:

To be effective, punishment should be administered immediately after the inappropriate behaviour.

(ii) Consistency of punishment:

If a child is punished sometimes for a certain behaviour but not punished at other times, then the punishment is less effective than if it is consistently administered.

(iii) Intensity of punishment:

Punishment may range from a disapproving look to corporal punishment, to severe electrical shocks. But very aversive stimuli produce more permanent changes than mildly aversive stimuli and that intense punishment is effective. But corporal punishment which is an intense aversive stimulus should be avoided and instead some other strong aversive punishing stimuli should be found.

(iv) Adaptation to punishment:

If the child is continually subjected to punishment, he loses the ability to distinguish between aversive and non- aversive situations, between which behaviours are acceptable and which are not acceptable.

The following principles of behaviour modification help a teacher to a great extent:

(i) Identifying the target behaviour:

The teacher should identify first the particular disruptive acts or undesired responses of the child that he would like to terminate. The more specific he can be in this respect, the better for him. The undesired behaviour that is to be eliminated is called the ‘target behaviour’. When there are several target behaviours the teacher must single out and concentrate on the one that he finds most disruptive or that can be most readily modified.

(ii) Recording the frequency of target behaviour:

The teacher should gather information about the frequency with which a target behaviour occurs. He should ascertain and record the number of times a student acts in the undesired way.

(iii) Identifying the antecedents of mis-behaviour:

The teacher should observe and record the circumstances or conditions under which the student misbehaves. He should find out what happened just before the student misbehaved.

(iv) Identifying the consequences of the behaviour:

It should be identified that what happens to the child immediately after he misbehaves.

(v) Specifying the goal behviour:

Goal behaviour refers to the desired responses the teacher wishes to bring out, the things he wants the child to do. The teacher must first of all decide what behaviour is to be established. He should give a functional description of the goal. Here the teacher should be as precise as possible.

(vi) Formulating and trying out the hypothesis:

The above mentioned five preceding steps are essential parts of a total behaviour modification programme. But the formulation and testing of hypothesis is at the very heart of the programme.