Reinforcing effort and Homework practice go hand in hand with behaviorist learning. “Typically, students need about 24 practice sessions with a skill in order to achieve a 80-percent competency.” (Marzano et al., 2001, p.67). This means that practicing a skill repeatedly is way to learn a skill effectively. These skills can and should be learned using several strategies that make the material more interesting to the learner. Practicing a skill 24+ times if done in the same manor can be tedious and discourage some students. With the use of technology applications that have you learn the material in different and increasing difficulty ways it makes the repetition of the skill more meaningful and less like work. The learning resources examples in reinforcing effort helps show students through effort/achievement spread sheets that they have made that effort is important and helps increase their learning and grades. Knowing this some students will work harder and study more to get better grades instead of just trying to slide by doing the minimal amount of work required.
Homework practice is a way to reinforce classroom learning so the student becomes competint at the task. With homework I agree that it’s important to have assignments that have a clear purpose and outcome and that they receive varied feedback on their work. This feedback should be specific intermittent praise which from a behaviorist perspective reinforce learning. This specific praise will help incourage positive behaviors and discourage negative ones. Technology programs such as Flashcard exchange which allows students to create and share flashcard notes is a way to practice vocabulary and information. The research tool in Msword sounds like a great program for students to gather a more in-depth understanding of a word without having to go online and sort through information. Strategies such as Co-teaching units like the example of the Football coach and Math teacher working together to get students to create graphs of the amount of weight lifted, reps, and heart rate help teach a skill because it remediates the skill and shows that the skill has a real life application.
Marzano, R.J., Pickering, D. J., & Pollock, J. E. (2001). Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: Assocciation of Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Hi Zach. I love the idea you have of have teachers of different subject areas working together. We try to do this in our school, but sometimes the buy in is a bit hard to get. Do you do it much at your school? How do you have time to plan together?
ReplyDeleteDo you feel you always have time to repeat a skill 24 times? I teach SS and with the crazy busy calander we have, I barely have time to cover everything by the time the CRCT roles around. I find it rather frustrating and would like to know how to help my students retain more information!!!
Arielle,
ReplyDeleteIt can be difficult at times to co-teach units because of everyone's busy schedule, not having much team planning time, and when the units are being taught. We met after school 4-5 times. Only a few of us do it because of the extra work but having the student learn the information in several classes at once increases the retention of the skills. As for skills I do think that for a student to learn a skill it takes quite a few times and he/she has to have interest in learning the skill. We are busy but it's not just you that has to have the student practice the skill 24 times. They probably are using some of those skills in other classes. For example having an option to do PowerPoint projects for an assignment. Some students have used it or will be learning it in other classes so it makes it easier to teach and lets you individual work with students that need extra help/are new to the application.
Hi Zach,
ReplyDeleteRegarding the need for 24 practice sessions to develop competency in a skill, I agree with both you and Arielle. Zack, I agree that the 24+ practice opportunities need to be approached in different ways. If I am teaching the badminton serve, I must provide varied practice sessions. This will help to insure the students will remain interested and not become bored. And Arielle, I agree, that many practice opportunities do take a long time. I think that is where homework will be of help.
Thanks for sharing the flashcard exchange site. I have never used it but I did check it out. I will add it to my list of resources. The technology program that I use to create flashcards, matching games, concentration games, and surveys is www.quia.com. When you create the activities for your students to use, you just add the URL to your website and your students can access them from there. These activities provide students practice opportunities and immediate feedback.
I see you are a swim coach. I coach basketball and have previously coached swimming. I find that I use the behaviorist learning theory a lot in my coaching. How about you?
Terri
The other great thing about technology is that it is exciting and engaging to students. While you are reinforcing their content learning, you are also reinforcing their ability to use technology that will be vital to their future. Showing students that what they are doing will be useful in one way or another to them in the future, helps to not only create more connections to the learning, but reinforces that learning with positive experiences - thus becoming a great part of behaviorist theory.
ReplyDelete