Behaviourism and Learning

I always thought that I was okay at feedback – yes I could improve. Sometimes at those pressure filled weeks I could turn around the marking faster than I do. I could write more. I could write neater. I could catch up with my students more and discuss their learning. Then I was invited to join a cluster project  Assessment for Learning.

Wow!

How wrong could I be? Assessment for learning has really opened up my eyes. AfL really focuses on making students and teachers accountable during the learning phase. Assessment for learning is the purpose of using classroom assessment to improve learning! While assessment of learning is the measurement of what pupils can do. (Assessment for Learning – Qualifications and Curriculum Authority)

At our school we have ditched the old rubrics and created CQ (Criteria Quality) rubrics which are explicit and display A work – this really aligns with the work and theory behind AfL. Thank god! However there is still room for improvement in my classroom assessment. So when I sat down to read chapter 6, I had AfL ideas and readings running through my head, I was astounded. At uni I think that the information surrounding behaviourism must not have been aligned with assessments or grades because I do not remember it! (But I think that is another blog altogether)

So let’s compare …

Dimension 3: Infrastructure for learning (page 146)

Behaviourists state that teachers should use appropriate reinforcement in the form of rewards or punishment. This includes good girl, bad girl, A+, C- etc. In the B.F. Skinner reading it discusses the concept of   reward and punishment as operant conditioning (Thorndike describes it in his Law of Effect).

Black and Wiliam (Inside the black box – raising standards through classroom assessment) believes that rewards or punishment do not help students to learn. Using tactics such as gold stars or a rewards system associated with learning does not encourage students to learn but rather to win or lose. Similarly Wiggins (Assessment as Feedback) believes that using positive or negative reinforcements can be detrimental to learning. At first I thought that this might be one of those things that are associated with political correctness going to far … but then when you begin to think about it (And many people may disagree, but I think it is a really valid point) placing a sticker and a well done does not encourage learning. The student can only think that all their work is great. Their next piece of work there is the assumption that it should also be great as there has been no explicit feedback.

Dimension 4: Measuring learning (page 146)

The behaviourists believes that not everyone was capable of behaviour modification. The behaviourists believe that this was because some people are more naturally intelligent than others. They are able to learn more from their experiences – to pick up on the stimuli, respond more intelligently, learn better from positive and negative reinforcement.  …

AfL believes that every student can learn. It is the teachers responsibility to understand their students and help them learn. Therefore each student has different expectations. As a class each student must understand the explicit criteria of what makes something good. Some students may already by doing all these things. However many will be struggling. When we have traditionally marked a piece of work, we have marked everything … For example in writing we mark spelling, grammar, punctuation, tense, paragraph structure and this is all before the intellectual quality in the writing. Using AfL we work with the students individually what do they need to focus on? Some students may struggle with spelling so that becomes their focus, some students may struggle with sentence starters so they can work on extending their writing. AfL encourages the students to be accountable, they no longer become self-conscious about their work and there are no excuses. They have one focus and they know that by trying they can not fail.

I think that the behaviourists were right when they said Some people will never be very smart, no matter how much knowledge we try to give them. We do not give our students knowledge we give them opportunities to THINK.