“I guess the natural consequence of “being a behaviourist” is that people assume that I walk around all day with my sticker charts telling people to just put consequences in place. It’s a shame that the judgement we ask not be assumed about our most challenging learners is not extended to professionals based on their labels”

Part of my response to an educator who causally linked a post on how natural consequences do not teach students after I identified as being a behaviourist in support of Collaborative Problem Solving (Ross Greene). 

Yes, those two things can co-exist. 

And I get it.  You were taught in university or college that behaviourism is dead. Alfie Kohn told you that people like me manipulate and harm children with our behaviourist approach.  Ed reformers tell you consequences and rewards are bad things and should be abolished. 

I am a behaviourist.  At the end of the day I want what you want: our learner to succeed; our learner to acquire the skills necessary to participate in our community and do things that are meaningful to them.  Sometimes, challenging behaviour gets in the way of that and is usually a symptom of underdeveloped adaptive behaviour skills.  I teach and reinforce replacement behaviours without dangling carrots in front of them, if you will.  I model coping skills and problem solving with the intent that next time, they might do the same (and hopefully I am there to catch them doing it so that I can give feedback).  I do this without shaming them or insisting that “bad” behaviour be punished.  And I coach parents and teachers to embody the same approach.

You can call me a behaviourist, but please do not assume what I do is bad, cold or manipulative because I speak of consequences.

Related posts: 

I help people, not control them: http://tmblr.co/Z-t1fx92PjZ5

Consequences are all around us: http://tmblr.co/Z-t1fxETxewE

I hate those behaviour charts anyway: http://tmblr.co/Z-t1fxN76Wxq

Positively Persistent Teach: Rewards »

positivelypersistentteach:

I forgot to mention this when the subject of rewards came up.

I had a class clown when I taught 2nd grade. He was in no way disrespectful, mean and did not purposely misbehave (most of the time). But he loved getting the class’s attention, and it was not easy to keep them on track in the first…

This reads like a great reinforcement system (I distinguished reinforcement from reward on purpose here because not all reward systems function as reinforcement).  In applied behaviour analysis terms what this teacher has done is referred to as differential reinforcement of low rates of behaviours (DRL; Deitz, 1997).  After establishing the initial rate, the student and teacher aimed for progressively lower rates of that behaviour over time.  Reinforcement is only delivered when that targeted rate is achieved.  

I also like the self-monitoring aspect of this intervention.  With the student keeping track of his own behaviours and seeing the actual numbers, he can monitor and work towards a more acceptable outcome.  There is research to show that simply monitoring one’s behaviour (both desirable and undesirable) can affect the rate of the behaviour in the desired direction (Cooper, Heron & Heward, 2007).

And finally, the discreet and individualized approach to this “reward” system is also beneficial.  There was an effort to avoid shaming the student into behaving in desirable ways and the system itself was tailored to the individual and the behaviour targeted for change.  This is how reinforcement works.  Reinforcement is not always in effect when generic behaviour charts and rewards are used.  In these cases, reinforcement happens by chance for some students; and for others, there is no effect or worse, the system becomes an aversive.

Classroom “reward” systems that function as reinforcement are not as easy as they look.  Not every student needs it (i.e., if they are already demonstrating the “good” behaviour/skill, it is already being reinforced) and each student comes with their own reinforcement history and skill sets.  All of these factors (and others) require consideration when developing reinforcement systems.  

References:

Cooper, J.O., Heron, T.E., & Heward, W.L.  (2007).  Applied Behavior Analysis (2nd ed.).  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.

Deitz, S.M. (1977).  An analysis of programming DRL schedules in educational settings.  Behaviour Research and Therapy, 15(1), 103-111.  

“

My son spent much of his first three years at school under a black cloud. I’m talking of course about a ’school behaviour system’, in other words, teachers trying to get children to do what they want them to do. Jamie would often not do what his teachers wanted him to do.

“…His name, along with the names of the other children in his class, was printed on to card and laminated and a piece of velcro was attached to the back. Three pictures were similarly printed; a sunshine, a sunshine poking out from behind a cloud and a black cloud. On the first day of the year, all the names were stuck on a felt covered board under the sunshine, because all children are good and the sunshine is a good place to be. If a child stepped out of line then their name would be moved underneath the sun and cloud. If they offended again, their name would then be moved under the black cloud. The black cloud is a bad place to be, it is cold and dark there. The child would then have to display some consistently good behaviour in order to be moved back towards the sunshine.

“….There were two names under the black cloud, my son’s and another little boys. Everyone else’s names were basking in the sunshine. After that I checked the board most days. The state of affairs mainly remained the same. Jamie came to school in the morning, four years old, full of joy and his name would be under the cloud, from the day before. At the end of the day it would normally not have made any progress towards better weather.

”

From ‘Under a Black Cloud – shame-based behaviour systems in schools’ (read full post here:  http://www.sallydonovan.net/2012/01/06/under-a-black-cloud-why-i-dont-like-shame-based-behaviour-systems-in-schools/ )

From an excellent blog by an adoptive mother of traumatised two children. I’ve lost a lot of the last two days reading through this blog, must read for educators. Gives a good idea of what’s going on with some of our students outside the classroom and what may have happened to the before they reached us. (I’m sure we’ve all met a Jamie)

GWALP adds:  Indeed, this was a good read.  Not all classroom/behavior management systems work for all students.  At the high school level, this type of public shaming is completely ineffective and often counterproductive.

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Unfortunately, I see or read about too many of these “behaviour management systems” that are failing our students - especially those with special education needs.  It frustrates me that this is considered a behaviour management technique (like that’s a good thing) when I can see that a concept was (mis)applied by someone not up to date on behaviour change, behaviour analysis.  If a tool such as this is meant to function as punishment - it is working at punishing school attendance, co-operation and being ready to learn while doing very little to motivate a student to work with their teacher and learn skills.  Behind every challenging behaviour is a purpose and thus a missing skill on the part of the learner.  How does labeling one’s behaviour under the category of black cloud of shame promote learning and skill development?

Behaviour change is a process and will not occur with just a sticker chart or a sun/cloud picture (as if those hold relevance).  Shame and punishment-based systems teach students what to avoid and if teachers/EAs/support staff are associated with these system, the student ultimately avoids (or tries to escape from) them.

And finally, all of these poorly applied and mismanaged behaviour management systems give behaviourism (and ultimately B.F. Skinner) a bad rap.  I’m pretty sure Skinner never intended classroom management and learning to look like this; and neither do behaviourists like me.

(via girlwithalessonplan)