Assignment 5

Assignment: Identify and explain six or more strategies for weakening behaviors.

When student behaviors are dangerous to self or others, they require an immediate response. If a behavior is stopped through one immediate and noxious or startling experience, a punishment may have been administered. There are times when a punishment is necessary. It is important to question the outcome of intentionally applying aversive actions. Much like the physics theory, it is a good guess that for every action there will be a separate and equal reaction.

Consider other options carefully, and only when nothing else will work, should aversive stimuli be administered. There are many other ways to weaken student behaviors. Using the example from the previous reading, a child who sucks her thumb could be given a piece of chewing gum. As gum chewing increases, the time spent in thumb sucking lessens and the child's target behavior is weakened. Giving a child gum is not a punishment. There are many excellent tools for weakening target behaviors. This assignment could assist you in adding some great intervention strategies to your classroom management repertoire.

One of the ongoing debates in education surrounds consequences and punishment. Consequences are not generally considered a part of behavioral tools. Natural and logical consequences can be used in place of punishments. How are the two different. Listen to the following example.

Vignette - Larry is out of his seat and not paying attention to the reading task. He seems to be caught up in thoughts of the upcoming basketball game that is to take place over lunchtime. He moves near Nate and makes a comment about being the Center for the game. He shadow plays making the last two points. Undertones of "Basket, basket, basket boys, you make the basket, we'll make the noise," keep coming from him as he wiggles his hips and poses like a cheer leader.

The teacher walks close to Larry and gives him a verbal prompt about completing his work and not bothering other students.

The teacher looks around and realizes that nearly everyone is keyed up about the lunch time ball game and decides to use a round robin basketball through with the nerf ball, asking questions about the reading and materials.

The teacher calms Larry and reminds him about getting control so he can get his work done and do well in sports and academics. Remember, it is aversive not a logical consequence if delivered with sarcasm or a veiled threat, name calling, "the teacher voice."

Punishment: "Larry, if you don't settle down and get your work done you can forget the basketball game this lunch hour. You'll be sitting right here."

What is the difference between punishment and consequence? Many authorities do not think this is easy to distinguish. Some even say that teachers use consequences when they mean something aversive.

Incident recorded by Duen Hsi Yen http://www.noogenesis.com/malama/punishment.html

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) also dog troubles of his own, as described by one group of researchers working in his lab: "In a famous experiment by Shenger-Krestovnika, published in 1921, a dog was trained to salivate to a circle but not to an ellipse. The ellipse was then made progressively more like a circle. When the ratio of the axes of the ellipse was reduced to 9:8, the dog could discriminate it from a circle only with great difficulty. It showed some signs of success on this problem for about three weeks, but then its behavior was disrupted. It was unable to respond correctly not only on this difficult task, but also when presented with obvious ellipses and circles that had given it no trouble in the earlier part of the experiment. What is more, instead of coming to stand quietly in the apparatus of the past, the animal now showed extreme excitement, struggling and howling" (Gray, 1979).

This work was brought to my attention by a University professor/psychotherapist, who also informed me that this dog eventually had to be put to sleep! It never was able to recover from the "experimental neurosis," induced by Pavlov. This result is even more amazing because the conditioning did not involve punishment! The dog was merely trained to perform a discrimination. When it couldn't do it, it went crazy!

Later, Pavlov and his coworkers discovered lots of other ways to create neurotic dogs. These results were so remarkable, that at the age of eighty, Pavlov launched himself into an entirely new career in a different field, to understand psychopathology. He soon was visiting psychiatric wards several times a week, discussing the various cases with the psychiatrists!

What is even more insidious, is that our entire educational system, as it exists today, is based on this type of learning! Children daily are asked by teachers to make discriminations that they cannot make, and when they make a mistake, they are punished! (The process is often referred to as "operant conditioning" or instrumental learning.) The result is that we have become a society of "low risk perfectionists." By the 5th grade, most children will no longer risk answering a teacher's question unless they are absolutely, positively sure that they have the correct answer!

I remember I became this way, because I literally trembled with fear when I was called upon to answer, and I never volunteered! The worst was when the teacher started asking questions going around the room in alphabetical order. Because my name is Yen, I was usually called last, and as a consequence, I spent most of the class period dreading my turn! Needless to say, during my school days, I didn't ask very many because I didn't want to look 'stupid' or be called "dumb."

What is the difference between punishment and consequences? There are three specific things to note. 1) A consequence either occurs naturally, or is a logical extension of the actions; 2) Punishment is typically all about the person dishing it out. When it is not about power, control, who has the upper hand, who is in charge, but rather about what to do to support a student, help them gain self control, make better choices, it is more likely to be a consequence or a learning experience; 3) Punishment is nearly always a retribution - a getting even -- and it is a difficult thing for most of us to hear.

How do we weaken responses?

What is the difference between a punishment and a consequence?

Is it possible to weaken a response using privileges and rewards? Are there things students stop doing if they don't keep getting "paid" for doing them?

Does competition weaken or strengthen learning behaviors? Under what conditions?

When does it make sense to keep students in or give them detention?

Strategies for Weakening Behaviors