Behaviorist family of learning theory

A human being begins as an organism and becomes a person or self as he acquires a repertoire of behavior... There is no place in the scientific position for the self as a true originator or initiator of action.
(Skinner, 1974: 225)

I think that it is not helpful to ignore the 'self' as an initiator of classroom behavior because we are all responsible for our actions and through the teachings of society and family we know wrong from right.

Skinner is famous for having taught rats to press levers and pigeons to play table tennis for rewards such as food. By comparing animal behavior with the behavior of human beings, he drew the conclusion that learning is achieved by association between stimulus and response (S-R).

Skinner argued that a learner's actual response can be brought closer and closer to desired response through the controlled use of stimulus-response associations. He also developed a 'law of positive reinforcement' which maintains that a stimulus-response sequence which leads to pleasing consequences for the learner is more likely to be repeated.

So far does my classroom experience has lead me to agree with this law, pupils respond very well to rewards and praise and punishments only create bad relationships and a sense on resentment. I need to use more praise and rewards (and follow through on the rewards) in order to train pupils to have automatic responses. If I was to have my own code it would be stimulus – response – apply – reward (S-R-A-R).

Assertive discipline is a structured, systematic approach designed to assist educators in running an organized, teacher-in-charge classroom environment.

The principles of assertive discipline can be linked to Skinners theory as it makes use of the S – R theory, but in this case the response is either good or bad, although the principle still applies that if the response is good a pupil will continue the good behavior. The only difference is that if the behavior is bad it is hoped that a child will change due to a negative response. The main difference is that Skinner believed punishments increased negative behavior gave pupils a feeling of unease and resentment.

The 'assertive discipline' approach has some what been adapted at our school would be very effective in primary school but not secondary. We have to adapt it for secondary students to make the rewards more appealing and all staff have to be consistent with rewards and punishments. I will suggest this method in our next school staff meeting.