A Behavioral Nightmare For Teachers

If I had a rowdy class of 7th graders to teach after their lunch break, I would try to use effective behavioral techniques in order to calm them down and not give up so much instruction time trying to calm them down myself. Operant conditioning is learning produced by the rewards and punishments that results from the active behavior of a human. The active behavior is called the operant. In my classroom, I like to focus on positive reinforcement. If a a positive operant, such as getting to a zero voice level by the time my timer goes off on the board, I will give some type of praise or prize for this behavior, which would be considered the reward. For this particular situation, I would like to try using positive reinforcers that follows an operant, which will increase the chance of of that operant or behavior occurring again. For example, I would make a deal with my students; if they are able to come into my classroom, get started on their , and be at a 0 voice level by the time the timer goes off, I will give them some type of reward. The reward might be primary reinforcers, which are rewards such as candy that or it might be secondary reinforcers, which are rewards that gain reinforcement value through their association with primary reinforcers. This might look like giving out tickets to those students who follow my instructions and at the end of the week they can use their tickets to purchase different types of prizes from my room that are labeled for different amounts (1 ticket, 2 tickets, etc.). This is the approach I would try using in hopes this would turn their behavior around. This would give them something to work for their good behavior in my classroom.