Operant Conditioning in classroom/teaching:

 Behaviorism has become a learning approach that could be used in classroom teaching and learning in schools. The behaviorist perspective has given much attention to why the actions are done and how an individual’s action can be shaped. The Operant Conditioning has given much response to the classroom teaching and learning process (Cohen, 2009). The principles that Skinner proposed in Operant Conditioning, reinforcement and punishment are one of the most used techniques in classrooms all around the globe. These techniques have helped the teachers to develop children who are productive and disciplined.

            Snowman and McCown (2011) has proposed several classroom practices based on the principles of operant conditioning. Some of these practices will be discussed below.

            According to Snowman & McCown (2011), giving feedback frequently is a necessary component in a classroom, especially when the students are dealing with factual material. When giving the feedback, the teacher needs to take into account to give feedback quickly and to be specific. If the teacher is not specific enough when providing the feedback, the student may find it confusing. Factual information needs to be learned in an accurate way without having any ambiguous ideas. The child needs to be sure that the information he has learned is correct and accurate. For instance, when explaining the functions of the heart, after explaining the functions, the teacher can have a short self-corrected quiz. By doing so, the students will be more aware of the information provided and will be thorough with the lesson.

            Another practice that Snowman & McCown (2011), proposed was to delay the feedback when the older students are dealing with complex and meaningful material. This means that the teacher should wait for some time, to provide them with the feedback. Giving prompt feedback may not result productive to mature students since they have dealt with complex materials. Mature students’ needs to be evaluated in a different way. They have learned the simple concepts and will be trying to find or create meaning through the complex material. They will need to rethink the materials and needs to analyze the materials in a way that they could reflect back on the work of them. For example, grade: 10 students, they just completed a semester and when they come to school the next semester, the teacher can discuss their papers with them. By doing so, the students will be aware of the mistakes that they made and will be aware of how to improve it more.

            One of the most important practices to use in the classroom, according to Snowman & McCown (2011), is that the teacher to use several kinds of reinforces in the classroom. Each kind of reinforce should retain its effectiveness throughout the lessons. Some examples of reinforce is to simply say words like “good”. For instance, when a student finish work on time, say her things like “good”, “well-done” and so on and so forth, then the child will want to continue doing the behavior.

             To conclude, behaviorism is one of the dominant theories in human development that are used to identify the behavior of the individuals. Behaviorism was formed by J. B.Watson, who was inspired by the work of Pavlov. Before, psychology which studied the behavior came into existence; psychologists were concerned with how the mind and mental processes works. Behaviorism denied this perspective and believed that human development should be concerned with something that can be measured, behavior of humans. One of the pioneers of behaviorism, Skinner formed a concept called Operant Conditioning. His Operant Conditioning experiment was done on a rat, which was put in a box named Skinner box. His experiment concluded that if the consequence of the behavior is pleasant then there is possibility that the behavior will repeat and if the consequence of the behavior is unpleasant, then there is the possibility that the behavior will diminish. Skinner identified two principles to Operant conditioning, reinforcement and punishment. There are two types of reinforcement, positive and negative reinforcement. The objective of reinforcement is to increase the behavior while the objective of punishment is to decrease the behavior. In the three stages of development, Early childhood, Middle childhood and Adolescence, the operant conditioning can be applied. Furthermore, Operant conditioning can be applied in classroom teaching as well. Therefore, Operant conditioning is a type of behaviorism which could be very effective and productive in explaining the human development in every perspective.