This essay discusses the application of Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) to students in secondary classrooms. The essay will consider the many studies that suggest approaches to resolving behavioral issues such as Operant Conditioning and its four main elements. Management of behavior in classrooms has always been and is still an important element within education. Thorndike stated in the Law of Effect that behaviors do not just happen, but are learned. In like matter, whenever an individual’s response is rewarded or punished, the response is whether strengthened or weakened (Westwood, 2004). This powerful process is called reinforcing. A reinforcer is something given or a consequence that adds to the frequency or influences the length
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Bushell (cited Mather & Goldsteing, 2001) stated that it happens often in classrooms that teachers provide too weak or irrelevant consequences to students, therefore, the action is neither strengthened nor weakened. These neutral consequences are called noise. Therefore, we can argue that teachers must be selective of the reinforcements used to make sure to impact student’s behaviors. Positive reinforcement is the first element of Operant conditioning which consists in adding a positive consequence to a child’s action to encourage him to repeat this desired action. Within Operant Conditioning, Token reinforcement system is a technique consisting to reward students with tokens for their behavior, and these can then be exchanged for wanted items or activities. Based on studies, …show more content…
They are easy to use and students respond well to them as they are followed by well-defined statements. To be successful, reprimands should be stated right after the unwanted behavior and not used to humiliate the child in front of his peers (Mather & Goldsteing, 2001). We can discuss two main aspects of this strategy, first, we can argue that they are the most used punishment as they are time consuming and easy to apply. Second, reprimands can work as efficiently with primary kids than secondary students as verbal reprimands are always effective guides for off-track students. Other positive punishments add a more concrete consequence to the child’s action. For example, a student may be given a detention or extra homework to complete because he did not complete any of the tasks given during the lesson. We can discuss that this type of punishment would be the next logical step for students on whom reprimands would not have worked as it provides a stronger
Bushell (cited Mather & Goldsteing, 2001) stated that it happens often in classrooms that teachers provide too weak or irrelevant consequences to students, therefore, the action is neither strengthened nor weakened. These neutral consequences are called noise. Therefore, we can argue that teachers must be selective of the reinforcements used to make sure to impact student’s behaviors. Positive reinforcement is the first element of Operant conditioning which consists in adding a positive consequence to a child’s action to encourage him to repeat this desired action. Within Operant Conditioning, Token reinforcement system is a technique consisting to reward students with tokens for their behavior, and these can then be exchanged for wanted items or activities. Based on studies, …show more content…
They are easy to use and students respond well to them as they are followed by well-defined statements. To be successful, reprimands should be stated right after the unwanted behavior and not used to humiliate the child in front of his peers (Mather & Goldsteing, 2001). We can discuss two main aspects of this strategy, first, we can argue that they are the most used punishment as they are time consuming and easy to apply. Second, reprimands can work as efficiently with primary kids than secondary students as verbal reprimands are always effective guides for off-track students. Other positive punishments add a more concrete consequence to the child’s action. For example, a student may be given a detention or extra homework to complete because he did not complete any of the tasks given during the lesson. We can discuss that this type of punishment would be the next logical step for students on whom reprimands would not have worked as it provides a stronger