Behaviorism: Pros and Cons

One of the first things that came to mind when I was reading about behaviorism, was learning in most of my introductory Spanish classes. This lead me to create an example of learning in a classroom virtually, that uses Nearpod (an online learning tool where a teacher can create interactive presentations that can contain Quiz's, Polls, Videos, Collaborate Boards, and more) to essentially "skill and drill." Through the use of this technology frequently used words can be presented, then students must then match the correct words to their meanings, gaining positive points for each word that they match.

The stimulus and response would be the student choosing the correct word and matching it correctly to the meaning, then the student gains a point for each correct matching term, creating a positive stimuli. Another option using Nearpod, is the use of gamification. As stated by Marrisa Keramida, gamification presents "the learning material by employing game design elements in an entertaining way in order to motivate and engage the audience throughout the learning process." This can be used in the review game Time to Climb provided within Nearpod. Students would have to answer questions that refer back to the meaning of words previously learned, and if they do not get them correct they do not move forward with their peers and if they do get it correctly, they have a chance of beating their peers. This activity provides both negative and positive stimuli.

There are definite pros and cons when developing instruction that is grounded in behaviorism. Since I have been in education for the past eight years, there has been a large shift away from using a behaviorism technique in the classroom. Two cons while using behaviorism is that the student cannot critically think or solve problems. Students are not able to apply basic memorization concepts in order to think critical or solve a problem. Because there are no scenarios that students can act out in a behaviorism model, they have a harder time transitioning their knowledge to the real world. However, while education has made a shift away from behaviorism, there are still some pros. I use behaviorism while setting up class norms in the beginning of the year. The theory of behaviorism is very beneficial when it comes to training students on when they need to be quiet, for example clapping once to gain attention from students, then clapping twice to signal that they must be quiet, and the teacher continues to reinforce this by praising students every time they follow the claps correctly. I also think that behaviorism is essential to younger learners, mainly pre-K, since the students of that age have not had much real world experience, and need to learn basic concepts that rely on repetitive information and positive reinforcement.