Teaching Desirable Behavior

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Burrhus F. Skinner's view of teaching and learning is sought after because his main interest lies in the development of a technology rather than a theory of teaching. The author examines the use of operant conditioning and positive reinforcement in the classroom. Contrary to Skinner's experiments, the paper contends that education today is too dominated by the use of aversive stimuli.

From the Paper:

"Skinner maintained that operant responses account for most of human behavior. Operant responses are emitted by, but not elicited from, the organism, and since they are not induced by stimuli, they are voluntary in nature. The term operant is used to emphasize the fact that the behavior operates upon the environment to generate consequences Therefore, reinforcement is said to be contingent upon responses. The learning of an operant response is called operant conditioning."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Young, Pai (1998). Teaching, learning and the Mind, 74-117 Retrieved May 22 2008 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.pubmed.gov.

More papers on Teaching Desirable Behavior:

• Term Paper # 147862 : "Operant Conditioning and Conditioning A Child's Behavior"
• Term Paper # 107347 : "Emotional and Behavioral Disorders in Schools"
• Essay # 143574 : "Evaluation of Learning and Thinking "

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: