Burrhus Frederic Skinner’s Theory Effectiveness to Education

Introduction

Skinner is a pronounced influential psychologist in America who created a significant impact on how people behave. He developed theories that are conditional operant in the idea that behaviors are determined by the consequences (Goddard, 2018). He was influenced to start on his theories by John B. Watson who was a pioneer in behaviorist together with Ivan Pavlov and his friend Edward Thorndike. Skinner spent much of his time as a teacher at Harvard University where he professionally taught psychology on the behaviors (Goddard, 2018). He also had attended classes at Indiana University after teaching at Harvard for nine years. He believed that the only way to approach scientific engagement was through the study of behaviors rather than internal mental process. This essay will engage in examining how skinners theories have influence education on a different basis. The topic is incarnating as it argues on how to engage in formulating questions about training specific learners and how well they are compatible with the behavioral change that influences understanding.  Skinners theory talks about how people operate through the influence of their behaviors towards the environment they live in. In other words, it revolves the participant’s engagement around the world with its endeavors and how they bounce back and forth to it (Green & Piel, 2015). The theory elaborates how the participants encounter operating stimulus or the reinforcing stimulus that are meant to reinforce its behavior. These specials stimuli are expected to affect positively the way participants operate where the behaviors are supposed to manifest just before the reinforcement (Goddard, 2018). In this case, the participant is entitled to follow its behaviors which give birth to the consequences that modify its life to a tendency to repeat the same behaviors in the future. Skinners research was to identify the positive and the negative side of the reinforcement in demonstrating the operant conditioning. This was a technique that that was supposed to develop in differentiating the classical conditioning behaviors and put the participants or the subjects in the program. Skinner formulated technique steps that would help the participant set goals which would determine the follow up of the subjects through changing the steps. Therefore, the initial idea of the theory is to formulate or design a program that will help the participant reach or attain the desired goals or the state of living (Green & Piel, 2015). This will occur with the implementation and evaluation by laying the program under test and evaluate its effectiveness. Skinners used the mechanism of slow advancement in identifying potentials that aid in full control of the different situation. These occur repetitively doing or undertaking of processes that participants engage in every day. He demonstrated the theory using a rat in the cage where it learned to control the access of food by pressing the bar. This state of the rat’s ability to learn how to control the bar relates to the education sector where it reinforces stimulus of the participants or learners reinforces as in the historical context (Green & Piel, 2015). The operant conditioning theory relates to education where the learners advance in understanding or can interpret their academics through the repetitive doing of the same things (Petronio, 2017). It looks at the schedules through which learners will in engage into an activity whichever number f times to fully internalize the trend or the occurrence of the same, which on the hand will interoperate the tendency in which the learner will be viable to configure in mind and let it stick as a new learned idea. It also puts the learners on the verge of reducing the number of time they have to do the same thing to get it stuck in mind. This means that the learners keep reducing the intervals through which they attend to a particular engagement where they can study the frequency through which the reinforcer occur (Green & Piel, 2015). This has closely applied to education where the teachers would apply the skinner's theory to determine whether the students have gotten the information as it should appear to them. It also will help in identifying if the information has gotten into them with the right impact. This situation requires the teachers to engage the students into an activity revolving around the topic of study and observe their behaviors will tell whether they did understand the topic.

Would a teacher use the same approach in diverse learners in identifying student’s abilities as with English language learners, and or measure their understanding with regard to the behaviors they manifest?  Skinner has formulated many different approaches and criteria that could be used to teach by observing behaviors that could help in understanding. Would his implementation program help in manipulating student’s stimulus behaviors in learning? Does the skinner's theory elaborate on how to enrich all students in a class, would it be possible to note when the information if whole absorbed by every individual in the class?  What would be the best way to impact the operating condition of the students with a disability, would a student with the hearing problem be able to comprehend about the topic of study and absorb useful skills in life? Skinner discussed his theory based on the behavioral context of the subject, and how precisely the behaviors can be used to rate understanding, would his theory manifest on how to manipulate student’s responses to upgrade understanding? Discuss how the repeated behavioral character helpful to students in understanding concepts? How is skinners theory relevant to the academic sector? Does the operant conditioning theory dictate the student’s level of understanding? Does skinners theory reinforce behaviors as it states, and are the behaviors the only factor that tells about the grasping of information or understanding? Would students with vision disability adapt to the behaviors in understand academics as with those with hearing disability?

Students with disabilities (SWD)

Skinners theory assess or relate to observing the participants behaviors in identifying if they have been able to understand what is being taught to them. When teaching a person with a hearing problem, it means that as a teacher you will have to demonstrate everything to make the student understand the concept and formulate the information the mind (Aubrey & Riley, 2018). This means that as a teacher you will have to follow up and test whether the student has gotten the concept by engaging that student. It will mean that the student will have to perform activities that will help the teacher to know whether the student conceived the concept (Escriva, Tessier, Ntoumanis & Sarrazin, 2018). For instance, when the teacher is teaching mathematics to the students on a wall, he/she will need the student to do a similar kind of mathematics on the board. The teacher will know that the student has conceived the concept after getting it right on the board. In the same way, the student will portray high positive behavioral towards the learning activity which will give the teacher confidence over the student’s ability to solve the mathematics problems. 

English language learners (ELL)

For learners who get it tough to express themselves in the English language or them that get it hard to understand the language, the teacher could use another tactic in evaluating the level of understanding the language (Aubrey & Riley, 2018). The tactic will involve the teacher by asking the students questions probably about common things in life which will help in evaluating the level at which they internalize the language.

Phonics grammar

For instance, if the student cannot understand a statement, the teachers would likely engage the student by asking them to do what the statement says. This will enable the teacher to know whether the learner has gotten the statement when they will finally do as per the statement (Petronio, 2017). This behavioral change in the student, where they can do what the English language statement says will tell that the students understand the language by bits. By the time, the student’s operant behaviors on the language will advance to higher levels which will imply that the language is now getting into their mind.

Assessment plan

Different approaches can be used by the teacher to identify whether the students are getting the concepts which he/she is teaching. He can conduct an assessment that will identify the student’s ability before engagement into the learning activity. The teacher could observe the behaviors of the student during the English language lesson which should tell whether they are getting it or not. By doing this, the teacher will be able to know the student's ability in internalizing the information and whether or not they can get the meaning of the statement (Petronio, 2017). The teachers should ask the question to the students and which will also help in identifying their potentials. This will help the teacher in identifying the best approach to teaching the language to the students. Therefore the teacher will give to the student the best instructions that will manipulate their behaviors which on the other hand will develop in them a peculiar interest in learning the language. After the instruction, the teacher may formulate other questions about the same topic through which will test their behaviors as to whether to have gained any concept or not. The change in behaviors from the previous state will imply whether the students now understand the language or not. For the student with hearing and mental problem, the teacher may demonstrate the area of study to the student. In this case, the student will be able to observe and learn what they are expected to do to achieve the skills (Escriva, Tessier, Ntoumanis & Sarrazin, 2018). The teacher may also involve the student in a constructive engagement where they will utilize their primary ability which will help in identifying what they have learned or they already know. In the same case, physical engagement could be a real source of information to these students where it will make to easy for them to observe and learn what they are expected to do. Gestures from these students will manifest what they have learned by expressing their change in behaviors as compared to the previous engagement. The same case will happen to diverse learners who are chasing knowledge about a particular topic or concept. The first primary engagement will be to understand the background of the students maybe by gathering the information from their families which will help in identifying these students ability. In other words, the family is the only primary reliable source of information about any person. Families are the sources of most people’s behaviors. In other words, every person has a source from which he/she copies the behaviors. A person might have copied from a family member the difficulty in understanding a language or even have had inherited some disabilities from the family (Brown, Kapteyn & Mitchell, 2016). It would be of much importance to study the background of the student with difficulties in understanding concepts which will help in identifying the best way to approach the student. This also will help the teachers in formulating the best and satisfactory manner for making the student change the behavior for the better. On the hand, help to find the basis of eliminating the associated problems that face the students with disabilities in the context that, their difficulties in behavioral change is determined by the state of the person from whom they were inherited (Escriva, Tessier, Ntoumanis & Sarrazin, 2018). By identifying ones, background attachment assists in determining the amount of engagement the teacher requires to make or the approach in making a positive impact on changing the student behavior. Therefore, families are a good source of information about student’s behavior change which will help in formulating the best ways or formulas to impact the students.  The learning target in this topic is to change or manipulate the way students partake in education. The main aim is to study the operant conditioning that limits students learning and try to change their behaviors towards achieving the best in their engagements (Brown, Kapteyn & Mitchell, 2016). The easy expose the learners to the ideology of mastering the behaviors which change with time and improve their learning ability as stated by Skinner. Behaviors are the best elements that tell whether a person is getting what he/she is learning or not. These behaviors could be sourced from the student’s background or from their daily engagements which manifests their behaviors and how those behaviors affect their learning (Brown, Kapteyn & Mitchell, 2016). Therefore, the two aspects are the core objectives of the study that looks into observing and manipulating or changing the manner through which students responds in their academics or to the education sector.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the skinner's theory of operant conditioning has significantly impacted the academics on a behavioral basis. The theory has intensely scrutinized the way behaviors are the primary indicators about the change in the student’s levels of understanding or the fact that they do not interpret or understand concepts at all (Petronio, 2017). It also elaborates of the engagement that teachers could use in making sure that there has a total change in the student’s conceptions of their understanding and interpretation in the education sector. Therefore the topic has been to evaluate the various ways through which a student can create an impact in the education by changing or advancing in behaviors reinforcers that lead to a better understanding of concepts as concerning history, guidance, and instructions from the teacher.

References

Aubrey, K., & Riley, A. (2018). Understanding and using educational theories. SAGE Publications Limited. Brown, J. R., Kapteyn, A., & Mitchell, O. S. (2016). Framing and Claiming: How Information F raming Affects Expected Social Security Claiming Behavior. Journal of Risk and Insurance, 83(1), 139-162. Escriva Boulley, G., Tessier, D., Ntoumanis, N., & Sarrazin, P. (2018). Need supportive professional development in elementary school physical education: Effects of a cluster randomized control trial on teachers’ motivating style and student physical activity. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 7(2), 218. Goddard, M. J. (2018). Extending BF Skinner's Selection by Consequences to Personality Change, Implicit Theories of Intelligence, Skill Learning, and Language. Review of General Psychology, 22(4), 421-426. Green, M. G., & Piel, J. A. (2015). Theories of human development: A comparative approach. Psychology Press. Petronio, S. (2017). Communication privacy management theory: Understanding families. In Engaging theories in family communication (pp. 107-117). Routledge.