After reading chapter 7 in Woolfok, I learned a lot about the Premack Principle (pg 258) and the different types of reinforces and ways in which we discipline our students. The Premack Principle is also referred to as "Grandma's Rule" which means "if you do what I want, you can do what you want after." I have seen this rule set in place in many of my placements including the one I am currently at. One of the students walked in and said, "Can I have my 3 minutes of ball time (self-stim time)?" The teacher responded, "Sure, but first, I need you to finish this worksheet and start this project, then you can have your three minutes." I feel that this principle is effective, but also manipulative.
As an ED major at Trinity, I hear the term "positive reinforcement" ALL THE TIME! In the SPED/ED community, it generally carries a positive connotation. It was not until this semester when a professor of mine gave me a scenario and asked me how I would solve it that I realized I didn't really know what positive reinforcement was. I said I would solve the problem scenario with positive reinforcement and he asked me for an example of what I would actually do and I could not respond. I now know that it means strengthening a behavior through presenting a desired stimulus after the behavior is shown. (pg 251) An example would be giving a student a sticker after they raise their hand without shouting out in class.
I also found the information on Applied Behavior Analysis (pg 256) very interesting since ABA therapy is such a huge deal right now in the Autism community. I have heard of and know one family who pays a lot of money to get their child ABA therapy. I wonder if special education teachers will have to be trained on this and required to teach their Autistic students with this method one day? I am very interested on learning more about this type of therapy. It might be a career field to look into as well...
A quote that I considered from the restorative justice article was this:
"Our schools are places where harm happens, and it can happen at many levels. How do we handle this? Zehr suggests that we go to the Bible to search for the answer to justice and wrongdoing. If our Christian schools seriously want our children to live and learn what it means to be a disciple, we must take a long look at our current discipline practices and assess what we are teaching our children about love, grace, and forgiveness." -Nathan Siebenga
As a Christian, I find it SO important to be an example to my students of God's love. I want to show my students his love and grace through my teaching. A major way to do this is through the ways I interact with them as I have to be an authority in their life and potentially discipline them.
Jessica, I remember sitting in that class with you when the professor asked you for an example of positive reinforcement. I sat in my own seat trying to answer the same scenario. I feel like it had been ingrained in my head to simple think, "positive reinforcement", but I too did not realize that I was not sure how this would look in a classroom. This chapter helped unfold what positive reinforcement would actually look like: encouraging good behavior through your actions. I can relate to how you were feeling.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about ABA becoming a huge issue, and not only in the Autism community. Our new LBSII masters program includes behavior analyst certification because this was deemed so important in special ed.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious about what the scenario was that you didn't have an answer for.
I'm not sure I remember the exact scenario, but I definitely remember not having a response to an example of positive reinforcement.
ReplyDeleteHi Jessica, when I read chapter seven and learned about the premack principle I had no idea before this class that such a thing existed! I was sort of excited to say the least when I learned about it, I like this idea and with my own children all with different personalities and ideas of what fun is we use the premack principle in my own home a lot. I think in the classroom we will need to learn how to choose our battle wisely and sometimes that might take a little compromising which I do not see a problem with.
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