What? We talked about Classical and operant conditioning. Reinforcment and punishment. As a class we discussed the difference between negative and positive reinforcement because alot of people had been confused about the meanings after that group quiz we took. I really liked the example Linda gave of negative reinforcement by the hot air balloon. Negative reinforcement would be taking away the sand bags on the air balloon as it is rising up. To reinforce your students we could take away the stress or the negative idea. An example would be, "If you improve on your spelling test score you do not have any spelling homework over the weekend." You are taking away the negative aspect, which is the homework, to motivate them to do well on their spelling test.
So What? Understanding reinforcement can help you learn how to most effectivly use it in your classroom. You have to understand its positive and negative aspects. How your students will react in response to certain classroom procedures you have. It is important to understand in forming a good relationship with your students.
Now what? This was good for me to learn because I realized that as a teacher I want to use as little as reinforcement as possible. I want my students to learn how to be self motivated, because I would have appreciated learning that at a younger age. I also believe there would need to be some sort of motivation for the students to have good classroom behaviors. I would have to come up with a motivation that would be positive and would not cripple my students. I would have to get to know my students individually first before I could come up with my own type of motivation that would work best.
It was good to hear different view points about types of motivation that would work or not work. It was also interesting to hear about different experiences people had in field that involved types of motivation.