Operant Conditioning and Humanistic Perspective Term Paper

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This technique is called shaping, as the teacher starts with information students already know and then new information is broken into small pieces.

In teaching vocabulary, the teacher is more likely to suggest or work with the textbook, and the setting of a democratic environment based on common agreement is not such an important fact as in the humanistic approach.

The lesson starts with a revision and review of the information taught in the previous class. The new lesson is introduced and after the new words are highlighted and identified the correct spelling is reinforced and the main focus is on the dictionary use. The students who answer correctly are given positive reinforcements such as verbal praise, good grades and other rewards (prizes, red points, pluses etc.). The teacher is mainly interested in fostering "the correct answer," he is concerned with observable behaviors he is able to test. Therefore, for a teacher that uses operant conditioning in teaching, exams and testing are very important. In teaching vocabulary operant conditioning is effective as students deal with structured material that needs to be memorized. A variety of exercises may be employed in order to offer practice and facilitate the memorizing of new words. In such a context, the student plays a more passive role. His emotions and personal experiences are not the focus of the learning process.

Moreover, the reading and text scanning are strictly controlled by the teacher. The delivery of small bits of information followed by exercises in order to produce the correct answer is called chaining, and is a consecrated behaviorist technique.

In teaching vocabulary, a type of exercise that may be called behaviorist is matching the words with their meaning. The mechanism of this type of exercise is based on "trial and error," in that the student may be able to eliminate certain elements (the words he already knows) and deduce the meaning of the other words left. Using context clues in texts to deduce the meaning of certain words may be considered another proof of the existence of trial and error learning in teaching vocabulary.

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In operant conditioning teaching, instructional objectives (i.e. The desired behaviors are clearly stated) and reinforcers are clearly established. For instance, students will be aware that if they solve correctly a word matching exercise there is a great chance of obtaining a bonus prize, or a good grade. This means that the teacher takes into account both the number of the correct answers and that of the mistakes made, and the reward is based upon them.

The two approaches to teaching vocabulary stress different components in what concerns both the learning process and the actors participating in it. In the humanistic approach the stress is on the students and on their contextual development: teaching vocabulary does not mean only memorizing new words but also is aimed at developing communication skills and emotional expressivity. In the behaviorist approach the focus is on the teacher, who is in the position to administer rewards or punishments that foster learning experiences. The students are more passive and conditioned to learn by the administration of reinforcers. Performance is defined by testing results, and there is a great chance that the students are motivated by the grades they receive rather than by their own personal development. Moreover, the stress is on exercising and memorizing the words rather than on openness to experience and global acquisition and performance.

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