Behaviorism Integrated with Instruction

I think behaviorism and instructional strategies have a strong relationship. In order to ensure that each student is getting the same opportunity to learn the teacher must apply the behaviorist theory. The teachers implement their classroom management plan and conduct lessons using those guidelines. I agree with Mark Smith in the article, "learning is manifested by a change in behaviour"(Smith, 1999). I see this theory in place every day throughout my classroom. I can see the change in the student's behavior due to their gain of knowledge. Even the student's thought process changes over time and the student begins to think differently. Instead of coming to the teacher for an answer, the student researches. I think this is also helping prepare the students for their future in the real world. 


My colleagues and I meet once a week to discuss instructional strategies that seem to work for our students. Two of our strongest strategies in the classroom are hands on activities and repetition. The students are always given a chance to do an activity whether with a lesson or by chapter. This strategy engages the students and allows for them to learn a great deal of material at the same time. Repetition is useful in every subject are which allows room for integration of subjects. My fourth grade team has a weekly grammar sentence for students to complete. The students have identified parts of speech and corrected capitalization for more than twenty-four weeks now. The students have progressed tremendously and I agree with Smith that this strategy increases learning. The strategy that made me reflect on my teaching strategies is, "learning is helped when objectives are clear"(Smith, 1999). I have ran into problems in the classroom in which my objectives were not clearly stated the first time and I had to go back to correct myself. I love the fact that I teach two different classes the same thing so that when this happens I can make the changes for the second class. I am in agreement with Smith and the strategies that will help students learn and demonstrate a change of behavior.