Prompt: EDUCATION & BEHAVIORISM

The best way to teach is to praise positive actions and ignore negative ones.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.

Assumptions

There is a best way to teach.

Ambiguous terms

Praise

Ignore

Positive actions

Negative actions

Students, teachers, learners, educators, content

The assumption that there is one best method for teaching, and that this method can be applied by all educators for the benefit of learners is unreasonable.  If there were one best method for teaching, then education could be mechanicalized and an one-size fits all program could be provided for students.  But, there is not a one-size fits all program fit for all students.  Therefore, there is not one best method for teaching.  But, don’t take my word for it.  Consider one of the most advocated for philosophies for educational needs: behaviorism. 

The essential idea of behaviorism is that by eschewing internal mental states and focusing exclusively on observable behavior, educators can modify the behavior of just about any organism.  They key to unlocking this modification of behavior is in the form of positive and negative feedback.  For instance, in classical conditioning, rewards in the form of food are paired with the sounds of bells ringing.  This pairing of conditioned and unconditioned stimulus, respectively, creates for the hungry animal an strong associate.  Soon, the animal begins to behave as if when it hears a bell, it is in the presence or near the presence of food.  This is well and good for creating the illusion of learning, but behaviorist educational philosophy is unable to define some key terms for all situations.  These terms include the actions of praise and ignorance, or what is the same, reward and punishment, and the precise nature of positive and negative actions. 

There are situations in which praising or rewarding positive actions can lead to problematic results.  For instance, take the hungry animal instance.  If the educator rewards a desired action with food, then the animal may come to rely on the reward in order to perform the intelligent action desired and set as the goal by the educator.  This is just one instance in which praising or rewarding a learner can undermine autonomy.  And autonomy is surely a much desired goal of all education.  

There are situations in which ignoring negative actions can lead to problematic results. For instance, consider what might happen if an educator ignores systematic grammatical mistakes of a second language learner.  The learner may acquire the correct grammatical form after interacting in his or her second language community; but the learner may just as well make a grammatical error in a formal setting, which could lead to embarrassment, and even worse, an extinguished desire for learning.  And surely, without the motivation to learn, a student will make very little to no progress in his or her chosen field of study. 

These examples, and many others from common sense indicate that teaching is not an exact science; it’s more of an art form applied by skillful interpreters of needs, strengths and weaknesses of individual students.