Development and Diversity Essay

When a child is conceived they begin to develop in the mother whom and continue to develop until adulthood. Today we look at these developments and find new ways to teach children that all develop at different rates. Throughout history child development was ignored and little attention was paid to the advantages in their early abilities such as language usage, and physical growth that occurs during childhood and adolescence. Throughout the years there has been many people have come up with theories that support the growth of the development of children. I will talk about one of these theories here. B. F. Skinner, who carried out experimental work mainly in comparative psychology from the 1930s to the 1950s, but remained behaviorism’s best known theorist and exponent virtually until his death in 1990, developed a distinct kind of behaviorist philosophy, which came to be called radical behaviorism. He also claimed to have found a new version of psychological science, which he called behavior analysis or the experimental analysis of behavior (Richard Culatta) The behaviorist theory is a worldview that operates on a principle of â€Å"stimulus-response. All behavior caused by external stimuli all behavior can be explained without the need to consider internal mental states or consciousness. Originators and important contributors of this theory are John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, B. F. Skinner. The behaviorist theory is based off of positive and negative feedback to students in a classroom. It is a way to train the students in learning the correct way so they can keep moving onto the level of their education. An example can be a mouse in a cage that is really thirsty. Well the mouse will do and try anything to get out of that cage to get something to drink but when it finds the feeding bottle and see that all it has to do is push the little tab on the end to get some water the mouse is satisfied. The same go for students and children. Children will fight tooth and nail to try and get out of anything that they do not like but if they see a reward at the end they will stay with it to get the reward. This keeps them focused and controlled at the same time. There are three main contributors to this theory John B.  Watson, Ivan Pavlov, B. F. Skinner. These three have all contributed to this theory in one way or another. John B. Watson conducted research on animals, children, and advertising to further the theory. Ivan Pavlov conducted research on temperament of children, conditioning and involuntary reflex actions. Finally B. F. Skinner invented his own philosophy called radical behaviorism. All of these men have helped to improve on the theory to help us understand children’s learn and development better so we can teach them in better ways. Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten† (B. F. Skinner) The theory of behaviorism can be used in a classroom setting in many ways. It is the way that it is used that will determine if it works for the teacher and the student or hurts the teacher and the student. Giving children goals at an early age to accomplish tasks in the classroom can be a really good thing. Children always want a reward for the things they do. They are taught that at a very early age with their parents when doing thing like picking up their rooms and getting a reward for that at home. Well that carries into the classroom setting also. To reward students is giving them very positive feedback on their work many teachers use the star system. A large chart on the wall with all the student’s names and stars for the good work they have done. This gives students a little push to do their best because they want those stars so they can be proud or even get a reward for the most stars. This is a great idea in most cases but teachers need to be careful with this also because it can backfire on them. If you have a student that is a slower learner and does not receive stars like the others this can hurt that student and their learning. Yes there has be negative feedback with positive feedback but if all the child gets is negative feedback it can lead to them just giving up and we do not want that. So we have to walk a fine line when it comes to using different techniques in the classroom. All students are different and learn different so we have to work around that so all of our students receive the same education as the other. You can use activities in your classroom that go along with behaviorism and that will benefit your students in many ways. For example take ten sentences that go along with your lesson plan. Say you are teaching about animals in your class this week you can make up ten sentences and leave one word out of each sentence. Then you would list the missing words out of order and have the children fill in the blanks with the words that are off to the side. You can give rewards for their work to stimulate them in doing their best by giving a sticker for each one they get correct. This is a good way to do it because you have a really good chance of getting at least one sticker and all are happy but most of the kids will do well because they are going to try for more than just one. There are many different theories in education that can help a teacher in the classroom. These all work to give the student a better learning experience. It is the way you use them that will determine if they work or not for you and your students. With behaviorism you need to give positive and negative feedback to your student it is that you have to walk a fine line so you do not discourage your students from learning but make them want to be the best student they can be.