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.