What's so Special about Habits and Behaviors?

February 7, 2021

Do our habits and behaviors affect the way we learn? The short answer is yes. Over the past two weeks, I read about how all of us have several habit loops that include a cue, a routine, and a loop. A cue is a trigger that tells our brain to go into automatic mode to start a habit. A routine is something that we do in a physical, emotional, or mental state. A reward allows the brain to figure out if this habit loop is useful for the future (Duhigg, 2012, p.16) When I read about Eugene, a patient whose memory was affected by viral encephalitis and the coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers(2001) Tony Dungy’s training, I realized that I go through several habit loops a day. I use a habit loop to get up in the morning, to brush my teeth, to get through lessons with my second graders, to exercise, and to do my night routine. Habits are within everything that we do and allow learning. “Habits, scientists say, emerge because the brain is constantly looking for ways to save effort,” (Duhigg, 2020, p.15) which shows that we need habits to learn anything that we do. Habits help us to be as efficient as possible.

Through looking at habits and behaviors, I realized that behaviors are learned. In the Flipgrid assignment, a tool used to share videos, this week, I took a look at a scene from the popular show, How I Met Your Mother. In this scene, an example of classical conditioning is shown, where every time Barney sneezes, Marshall says, “Let’s go to Shin-jit-zu.” Kendra Cherry (2019) defines classical conditioning as, “a learning process that occurs through associations between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus.” This example made me think back to the behaviors I have taught that are classically conditioned. On Zoom this year, my students know they get a break after finishing their exit ticket. After their exit ticket is complete, students get a point on Class Dojo, then turn off their screen and are muted. They come back after a five minute break with music playing. However, I realized this routine is automatic because my students do not need me to walk them through the routine, they just do it. A compelling aspect is that my students will turn their screens off after completing their do now, when the expectation is to keep their cameras on and grab materials needed for class. They turn their screens off during the do now because the process is similar to the exit ticket. This routine has become a habit loop for my students that they have been classically conditioned to do.

With learning about behaviors and habits, I have started a new habit loop of waking up earlier. I set a routine to set my alarm on my phone to 6:45am and set it back five minutes each week. Each time the alarm goes off (cue), I get out of bed and turn off the alarm to start my day(routine). I use this habit as a system to positively reward myself with more time in the morning to grade papers or lesson plan (Nebel, 2019). In order to keep waking up earlier, I noticed that my bedtime habit loop needs to change. Duhigg(2012, p.3) says I can not extinguish this bad habit, but I can change it if I keep the same cue and reward. My goal is to learn how to extinguish this bad habit of going to bed late in order to feel refreshed in the morning.

Behaviors and habits impact the way we live life. If we did not have habits or a way to condition ourselves to learn, the world may be a little crazy as it would have no structure. Behaviors and habits are learned and allow us to have daily routines and rewards.