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Online Assignment- REINFORCEMENT IN TEACHING-LEARNING PROCESS
REINFORCEMENT IN TEACHING-LEARNING PROCESS
INTRODUCTION
Reinforcements
are stimuli that can strengthen or weaken specific behaviours. Learn about the
many different ways that rewards and punishment are used to change and
reinforce people's behaviours, and find out why some are more effective than others.
One of the
many ways in which people learn is through operant conditioning. Operant
conditioning simply means learning by reinforcement. There are a number of
factors involved in reinforcing an individual's behaviours, and by applying
reinforcers, we can increase and/or decrease behaviours as well.
POSITIVE
AND NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT
There are
multiple types of reinforcement that can be used. The two most common forms are
known as positive and negative reinforcement. It is important to note that, in
this case, the words positive and negative do not mean good or bad. Instead,
they meaning you are adding (positive) or removing (negative) something in
order to strengthen the desired behavior. Negative reinforcement is often
confused with punishment, however, as you will see below, they are not the
same.
Positive
reinforcement occurs when a token or reward is given to strengthen a desired
behavior. For example, if a child cleans her room, she may receive a candy bar
or a toy as a reward. The reward will serve to strengthen the behavior because
the child will be more likely to continue with this desired behavior in order
to receive the reward.
Likewise,
negative reinforcement also strengthens a behavior, but it does so by removing
something that is unwanted. For instance, when you get into your car and put
the key in the ignition, you might hear a loud bell or ringing sound. In order
for the bell sound to stop, you need to put your seatbelt on. This is an
example of negative reinforcement. In order for the sound to be removed, you
need to fasten your seatbelt.
PUNISHMENT
Punishment is
another form of reinforcement and it can be both positive and negative, as
well. Just as with positive and negative reinforcement, the words positive and
negative are not related to good or bad, instead they mean adding or removing a
punishment. As opposed to reinforcement, punishment is intended to decrease the
likelihood of an undesirable behaviour.
Positive
punishment occurs when we introduce something to stop an unwanted behaviour.
For example, if a child behaves in a manner that a parent sees as wrong or even
dangerous, like running into a busy street with cars driving by, the parent
might scold or spank the child. Both of those reinforcers serve to decrease the
likelihood that the dangerous and unwanted behaviour will occur again.
Negative
punishment is when we take something away after an undesirable behaviour
occurs. Again, the goal of punishment is to decrease the behaviour. So if a
child is fighting with her brother, a parent may take away her favourite toy or
suspend her TV privileges. By doing so, the parent will decrease the likelihood
that the unwanted behaviour will continue.
IMPLICATIONS
OF REINFORCEMENT FOR TEACHING/LEARNING
If an individual is to become a truly professional
teacher, he/she must be able to skillfully apply the knowledge of reinforcement
in teaching and learning situations, it is a known fact that among the problems
of teacher education, one of the most persistent is that of relating a
teacher's practice to the principles of development and learning, particularly
in the areas of reinforcement. The need for effective reinforcement in teaching
and learning is the need for the individual's development, intellectually,
physically, socially and emotionally. So as to become intimately involved in
learning, it is a sad reflection that inmost developing countries of the world,
most teachers are often not aware nature and the complexities that determine
whether learning is reinforced and, if it is, how adequately. If a teacher has
a better understanding of the nature of the complexities involved in
reinforcement, then attempts to match his/ her understanding of reinforcement
to teaching/ learning situation, it is then such a teacher will see him/herself
actually within the learning process and be able to derive the most suitable
and specific methods. On the basis of the above, therefore, we can now examine
the implications of reinforcement for teaching and learning.
(1) On the aggregate of Skinner's
studies, scholars have emphasized the role of reinforcement in teaching and
learning and went further to claim that such reinforcement must be immediate.
This statement gave rise to self-instructional techniques that paved way to the
growth of educational technology. Educational technology has provided material
for instructional purpose ranging from silent and sound motion picture
projects, tape recorders, closed-circuit television, teaching and machines to
computer-based teaching systems.
2) Scholars of reinforcement have
had remark able success in the use of reinforcement in shaping many desirable
responses and they have demonstrated amply that reinforcement is an important
factor in teaching and learning.
3) The use of aids accomplishes many purposes such
that teachers can enrich any learner by the judicious use of audiovisual
materials that are time-saving as well as handling many students through
programmed instructions.
4) Partially reinforced acquired behaviour extinguishes
less rapidly than behaviour or learning acquired through acquired through
continuous reinforcement.
5) The greater the number of
reinforced training traits, the stronger the stimulus response bond or habit at
least until the habit has reached maximum possible strength.
(6) None reinforced trials
contribute to the inhibition of the learned responses.
7) The stronger the habit formed or a learned response
through reinforcement, the greater the number of extinction trials necessary to
extinguish the response.
8) Reinforcement is necessary to
increase operant strength or behaviour or learning but punishment has a diverse
range of negative effects. It typically suppresses the response thus;
punishment of all kinds inhibits learning.
PROBLEMS COMMONLY ASSOCIATED WITH
REINFORCEMENT IN LEARNING
A point has to be made that among the problems of
teacher education, one of the most persistent is that of relating a teacher's
practice to the principles of development and learning especially reinforcement.
As teachers, they have to decide what responses are to be rewarded, the kind of
reinforcer to be used and the time of reinforcement and these are by no means
easy to determine. One of the most interesting stories about Skinner is the
supposed explanation of his interest in education. Invited to visit the fourth
grade in which his child was studying, Skinner was shocked of the learning
conditions. It appeared to him that the teacher, no matter how capable, was
unable to reinforce pupils' response and thus encourage meaningful and
permanent learning. On the basis of the above, the following havebeen
identified as the common problems of teachers in their attempts to reinforce
pupils' responses effectively:
(a) The problem of when, how and
what responses are to be reinforced by teachers. Teachers need some specialized
skills to overcome these as well as a kind of mechanical help.
(b) The classroom atmosphere should
by nature, provide for encouragement, adequate and proper material, meaningful
goals if reinforcement is to achieve desired goals. Thus reliable reinforcement
to some extent depends on external variables within the classroom atmosphere
over which the teachers may have no control.
(c) It has been amply demonstrated
in experiments with animals that the slightest delay in reinforcement causes a
disintegration of behaviour and for human beings, a loss of interest. Thus
immediate reinforcement is preferred to delayed reinforcement, meaning that
most pupils lose interest in the kind of reinforcement given' by most teachers
as feedback on their classroom work.
d) Reinforcing a large group of pupils or students is
still a big problem because in such a large class, everybody cannot be doing
well at the same time. The laggard may feel confident that the teacher approves
of his progress. A small, carefully controlled segment of the class is
preferable for effective reinforcement. There is, however, hardly any such
desired small group or class size, particularly in the Nigerian school for now.
Thus, this is a problem at least for Nigerian teachers.
f) What teachers should know is that
reinforcement, though a vital part of learning is not the sole explanation of
the learning process. In fact, infants learn by progressive processes of
cognitive integration and classification rather than rote memory. Teachers
should provide for self activity in an attempt to reinforce pupils' responses.
CONCLUSION
Whatever the constraints involved in
the teachers' attempt to efficiently reinforce pupils' responses for effective
learning, we have to accept that reinforcement is an important concept in
psychology whose relevance to teaching and learning is underscored everyday in
every classroom.
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