Behaviorism in Practice

Many of today's education websites include activities and and games for students to peruse while studying or completing homework. Just as the sites are informative, they are also heavily grounded in a reward or punishment (as not moving on to the next level, or page) system. While education is ever changing, some things remain a constant. Human behavior is intrinsic and has to be molded as the individual matures. Students also mature at different times. Some students learn very quickly that completing a project that was difficult is very rewarding. Others will stray from a challenge, or procrastinate until the very last, or they will only do the absolute minimum. With today's technology, a teacher has a tool to level the playing field. Students can be stimulated to peak their interest, or they can reinforce areas where they struggle. In this week's course resources, there were several sites that offered a tremendous amount of help for a student as well as a teacher. It became apparent that with the proper planning, many of the sites can be used in class, or implemented as homework. They can be used in conjunction with a lesson, or they can be an addition to or reinforcement of the lesson. In the content area I teach, homework assignments are limited, yet there are a number of different paths to take to build the Social Studies skills such as recognizing bias, or cause and effect relationship. Even though it is a bit more abstract than conducting a scientific experiment where one can actually see the process, the sites provided, one in particular, was able to address a very abstract concept and produce a visual of it. For a student who is trying to grasp the concept, it is an extremely valuable tool. Therefore I found exploring the sites very interesting and at least I felt I had a more clear understanding of the philosophy behind the development of the sites.