A little conductor

"In almost any subject your passion for the subject will save you" (James, 1962, p. 67)

Weekly Response #6 for EDP 610

R 6

Question:  The use of reinforcement is a controversial topic in education.  In spite of its drawbacks, why is reinforcement is still used in our schools?

            Although educational systems from different cultures are not the same, children’s behaviors and thoughts are similarly shaped by various reinforcements from teachers, parents, peers, and others around them.  The feeling of being changed without sufficient acknowledgment is not a positive one.  As such, it is not surprising that Mr. Kohn (1993) views rewards as a tool to manipulate and control people’s behaviors, and that this tool should not be used in education.  Instead of rewards, Kohn argues that “an engaging curriculum that is connected to children’s lives and interests” (p. 124) is a better choice, which has some merit.  However, after serious consideration, I find myself in agreement with Mr. Chance.

The first thought that came to my mind is how this process affects adults: do we, as adults, care about rewards, prizes, evaluations, or comments from others in our daily life?  We can consider actors who perform intensely in hopes of winning an Academy Award, athletes who exercise daily hoping to participate in the Olympic Games and scientists who reap tremendous glories from winning Nobel Prizes…  The world in which we live is full of rewards for the purpose of encouraging more contributions from people in different fields.  This process to some extent drives our society and civilization to move forward.  If this is the reality which children will face when they grow up, I do not see a reason to terminate the use of rewards for children, because one task of modern education is to cultivate the ability of children to adjust in a competitive society. 

As James (1962) indicated, ambition, pugnacity, and pride are children’s native reactions that will not disappear even if after they grow up.  Winning prizes or rewards in this sense is driven by the nature of children.  Of course, we need to be cautious when using rewards because not all children will receive prizes for any one activity.  It is believed that failures decrease children’s interests on certain tasks; however, I insist that it also could be viewed as an opportunity for educators to teach children how to face and tackle the failures in their lives, which is a necessary lesson.  Similarly, operant conditioning is a law of behavior.  There is essentially no difference between applying this law of behavior and the law of gravity.  The more important consideration is how to use reinforcement sensibly rather than condemning the law.

An engaging curriculum might be ideal by making instruction and learning related to children’s interests and lives.  However, is it realistic in all contexts?  Teachers who have practical experiences understand, as we discussed in class, how difficult it is to unearth different objects that are natively interesting to every student in such a demanding educational system.  Further, I argue that building these connections between knowledge and students’ lives is beneficial but not always plausible.  When children are young and  content is simple, we can ask how many pens they have after putting one more into their pen case.  However, when studying analytic geometry, students may not see an instant application for this knowledge to their lives.  In educational systems, if rewards, praise, and golden stars result in  students studying more effectively, why not use them? 

Mr. Chance (1996) points out that “reinforcement is powerful” and the use of reinforcement should be administered carefully. I felt grateful for my main teacher in high school.  She praised every student who made some progress compared to their past scores.  She taught me that one cannot always win, and that there is always someone with more skill in a subject than I.  Outdoing my own prior performance is sufficient proof that I am a winner.  However, not all students have good memories of reinforcement.  One of my friends was punished and humiliated by his teacher because he did not follow the classroom discipline very well. He hated that teacher so much that he dropped the course.  Several years after graduating from high school, he still felt angry about that teacher.  These two examples remind us that if educators decide to use reinforcement, Mr. Chance’s guideline for rewards should be followed.

A class using operant conditioning.

This video displays examples of using positive reinforcement in ESL class.  I choose this video because the theme of this video is about students' English learning in Asian countries, which is more related to my background.  When we took English class in middle school, there was not so much games and fun.  We were struggled with all the new words and grammar rules.  This video proved that positive reinforcement is effective tools in teaching class like this.  However, I insist we should not rely too much on the prizes.  Because if students make a stable connection of their effort  with prizes, once the prizes are gone, they might easily lost their interests.  Another issue is, at the end of this video, the teacher mentioned everyone received present.  I understand that everybody worked hard for their team and the final prize, and teacher should give positive feedback to their efforts, protect students' feeling, give them encouragement.  However, I suspect, if everybody wins in each competition, is winning still precious?  Maybe, maybe not...

Weekly Response #5 for EDP 610

R5

Question:  if the teaching machine cannot help teachers, what kind of help could educational psychologists offer to teachers?

Quotation:  “Teachers must learn how to teach, and they must be taught by schools of education.

They need only to be taught more effective ways of teaching” (Skinner, 1984, p. 948).

            Skinner (1984) emphasized the importance of promoting the teaching machine in one of his classical works, “The Shame of American Education.”   Although it is believed that the teaching machine would weaken the role of teachers, Skinner did not dismiss the training of teachers entirely.  He indicated that it is necessary for teachers to learn how to teach.

I am hesitant about use of the teaching machine because it relies heavily on the reinforcement provided by the machine.  Students are viewed as passive organisms without free will whose behaviors are directed by outside stimulation.  It can be asserted that reward and punishment are commonly used reinforcement in school environments.  Grading, praise, gold stars, and even cash are being employed as external influences to regulate students’ studies; however, recent research shows that if students’ behaviors are only controlled by external outcomes, their self-determination and interest to study would be at a low level (Deci & Ryan, 2002).  James (1962) wrote that “in almost any subject your passion for the subject will save you” (p. 67).  Self-determination and interest in performing well on a subject indicate a student’s passion for that subject.  We need to be cautious about using external reinforcement that might decrease the passion of students for study.

Another point in Skinner’s article with which I connect is his emphasis on teacher education.  If schools of education in which teachers are trained were disbanded, our educational system would likely encounter a disaster.  The educational system of a country might fall apart. Without the fundamental education of teaching, teachers from different backgrounds would share little common thoughts about education.  Teachers would have little chance to learn and practice new instructional methods, and teach students in ways with which they familiar.  Teachers would lose a great resource to improve their practice, if schools of education were to disappear.  However, after decades of debate between behaviorism, cognitive psychology, humanistic psychology, constructivism, and so on, we continue to lack consensus on the nature of learning.  Educational psychology is one of the core courses for teacher training, in which prospective teachers have high expectations for learning how to teach effectively.  One of the goals of educational psychology research is to find a bridge between the science of psychology and the art of teaching. The nature of the most effective bridge remains elusive.  As a researcher in educational psychology, I am considering whether studies in our field can meet prospective teachers’ expectations. 

A study using surveys or experiment methods may confirm a positive correlation between teachers’ computer skills and their confidence level.  But many questions about educational practice may remain, such as:  Is research going to help teachers in their practice?  Is it effective for teachers to expend energy toward improving computer skills?  Can computer skills improve teaching skills?  How might the learning effects in classrooms be improved?   The applicability of research findings within a real school context is critical, including exploring possible causal factors.  Although these are some of the challenges we face, educational psychologists believe that we are finding ways to integrate science and practice.  Recent applied research studies will help teachers hone their skills and their passion for teaching, by examining and evaluating a wide array of factors and practices.

Weekly Response #4 for EDP 610

R 4

Question:  What is the role of free will in education?

James’s (1962) chapter of will was written with a view to education, psychology, and philosophy.  After a serious discussion in which pupils were described as “behaving organism” (p. 11) and “associating machinery,” (p. 41) James clarified his belief in free will.  According to James, the exercise of active will may only account for a small part of people’s lives; most of that time is at the beginning of a sequence of habitual reactions, which control the direction of future activities.  James stated that people’s action of voluntary attention (a representative of will) is “brief and fitful”, but “momentous and critical” in establishing our “higher or lower destinies” (p. 92). 

James categorized our will into two different types: impulsions and inhibitions.  Impulsions force us to take action, while inhibitions prevent us from taking action.  The tension between impulsions and inhibitions determine whether action will be taken or not.  The relationship between impulsions and inhibitions is similar to the one between id and superego.  However, it is difficult to say which type is preferred, because the relative position of impulsions and inhibitions depend upon the action people are considering.  One example is a child who likes her friend’s doll and desires to own it.  Her impulsion to take the doll without permission is not a desirable one, so she needs to use her moral judgment inhibition, which communicates that her desires are wrong.  In this example, the inhibition of the child is preferred in our culture.  An opposite example is a child who plans to finish homework on time and gain a good grade, but discovers the homework to be too difficult.  The impulsion message is to conquer the difficulties; the inhibitions persuade the child to give up.  In the latter case, the impulsion of the child is more desirable. 

These two cases are reminiscent of another theory which has a similar idea as James’s concept of will - the conflict theory of Kurt Zadek Lewin.  In Lewin’s (1935) theory, the combinations of approach and avoidance, which serve as two key elements, categorize conflict into different types.  The conflicts between impulsion and inhibition, id and superego, approach and avoidance serve as agents to motivate people.  Understanding James’s thoughts about free will may help teachers find effective ways to motivate their students.

Early in the instructional process, teachers need to provide sufficient and associated information to students, so that students receive “stocks of ideas … [to] furnish them” (p. 91).  The main purpose of this step is help students understand that they have many choices and opportunities, which distinguishes James’s beliefs on education from fatalists’.  By molding students with “the notion of good,” (p. 94) students find the “right conception” (p. 90).  There is no absolute rule to determine right or wrong, especially in the area of moral education, so “the notion of good” (p. 94) is a sufficient guideline in moral education.  Once students make positive choices, the main task of teachers is to develop students’ voluntary attention to maintain their interest and engagement, which involves effort from both teachers and students.  Maintaining positive habits in students, such as telling the truth, respecting other people, and learning with effort, is another challenging job for teachers.  James concluded that a teacher’s task is “to build up a character in your pupil” (p. 90).  The will of students is a relatively influential component in the search for positive choices and for holding voluntary attention.  Instead of fully supporting James’s opinion that building children’s character is a teachers’ task, I believe that character development is a complicated process that requires effort from children, parents, teachers, and their communities.

Reference:

Hergenhahn, B. R. (2009)An introduction to the history of psychology (pp. 479-480): Wadsworth.

Response to IATs

Implicit Association Tests are worldwide famous tests for the purpose of detecting people’s unconscious or automatic cognition and attitudes towards certain subjects.  I was so impressed when I first experienced these tests years ago, and I believe it is an ingenious and tenable approach for interpreting people’s unconsciousness, although sometimes the results are not delightful.  This time, I took Gender-Science and China-USA IATs.  One of my research interests is how to motivate young people to study science, so I was wondering how is my “real” attitude towards the gender differences in science learning.  I took the China-USA IAT once at the beginning of last semester, so I was also curious that whether my cognition about China and USA had changed after I began to adjust in the life in America. 

The results of these two tests are illustrating.  Consciously, I fervently believed that boys and girls have the same opportunities to succeed in science.  However, the result told me that I am just similar to the majority of people in terms of holding this idea, which is males are more associated with science area and females are more associated with liberal arts area.  As a female and a student who chose science as major since high school, it is difficult for me to recall how much pressure I was bearing when I competed with other rivals and my self-contempt at the same time.  This result further reminds me that I need to be more careful in my future research in order to avoid the negative influence from my unconscious prejudice.

The result of China-USA IAT is not so surprised because I had experienced it once.  Although I began to know more and more about the advantages of the States as a developed country in higher education, human rights, and political democracy, it is almost impossible for me to associate China with bad automatically.  However, I do not believe my national pride should cause my blindness to the weakness of Chinese social status.  I am still being criticized about the unfairness that happened in my country.

I like the title of NBC video: pride and prejudice.  These two elements are natively rooted in our mind, and keep influencing our behaviors and cognition towards circumstances.  Although implicit bias is a common phenomenon, it does not mean people are controlled by their unconsciousness.  As long as people are willing to and strive to view and treat others equally, the influences of implicit bias would abate gradually.

Implicit bias might not be positive, but implicit association as a broader concept could have some incredible positive effects on people, especially in the learning process.  James (1962) wrote an interesting description in the chapter of habit: one may allow herself to discount one exception in building a habit consciously, but “down among his nerve-cells and fibers the molecules are counting it, registering and storing it up…” (p. 39).  Although this paragraph was not talking about association directly, I believe it could be viewed as an interpretation of how implicit association of ideas and behaviors (habits) happen to people, and how inevitable this procedure is.  James highlighted the role of association in learning or education by saying “the more copious the associative systems, the completer the individual’s adaptations to the world,” (p. 41) which suggests that association is a fundamental factor for education whose purpose is to gain “organization of acquired habits of conduct and tendencies to be behavior”.   The “diverse and multiple” (p. 61) associations would increase students learning interests, improve their concentration, and their memory capabilities.  Interest, attention, and memory are three key elements in learning process, the development of those three elements would promote learning process for sure.  Hence, teachers should “impress the class through as many sensible channels as he [they] can” in order to make the subject matters being “well recognized” (p. 68). 

Weekly Response #3 for EDP 610

R3

Question:  Based on the association of ideas, James discussed a series of educational concepts, including interest, attention, memory, the acquisition of ideas, and apperception.  These concepts remind us of the importance of “building up useful systems of associations in the pupil’s mind” (p. 42).  What messages do these discussions send to educators in practice?

            In educational practice, teachers strive to interest students in the subject matter, to maintain students’ attention, and to help students learn concepts, principles, and other knowledge.  These goals are especially difficult to accomplish when the content is abstract or challenging.  James addressed these concerns.  “It is astonishing how many mental operations we can explain when we have once grasped the principles of association” (p. 42).  The habitual patterns of people’s associations constitute their “nature” or “character” (p. 42).  The associations that form when students progress from natively to artificially interesting objects illustrate how interest in a neutral subject develops through voluntary attention.  The quality of memory from instruction differs mainly in terms of the “persistency” and “number” (p. 60) of associations.  Understanding and applying the ideas of association would provide a solid foundation for teachers to reach their instructional goals. 

            Interest and attention are closely related.  Children naturally attend to the subjects in which they are interested.  Their focus on the materials teachers present is the necessary condition for their “reaction” or “correlative expression” (p. 17).  Without attention, what children perceive in class passes away quickly without leaving an impression.  Teachers understand the importance of maintaining student attention, however, “the accomplishment is difficult in the extreme” (p. 55).  The artistry of teaching resides in teachers’ ability to make subjects interesting and to transform children’s passive attention to voluntary engagement.  To provide additional help for teachers, James presented some practical suggestions, such as illustrating abstract concepts with graphs, diagrams, or examples.  Teachers implement these recommendations to different degrees in practice.  As James implied, not all teachers have the talent to make subject matter interesting. As with painters, only a few become famous, and an extremely rare number achieve the level of mastery as did Monet or Van Gogh.  This reality does not stop many artists from becoming painters, nor does it prevent many teachers from entering the field of education! 

Passive attention may be desirable at times, but can sometimes distract children from their learning goals.  Voluntary attention with effort is necessary in some circumstances.  “Effort always has to go on” (p. 55).  For subjects that are less interesting, teachers can show their enthusiasm in the subject in order to gain students’ voluntary attention.   Creating interest in a topic is not the final goal of education.  The formation of “diverse and multiple associations” (p. 60) is more important for children on their life-long journey of gaining knowledge.

            On several occasions in his writing, James demonstrated his unique thinking that distinguished him from genetic determinists and behaviorists.  He believed that not all people are natively interested in a variety of topics, or are “highly focalized and concentrated,” (p. 56), or have excellent general memory, but students can learn as long as they have desire and passion to succeed.  “In almost any subject your passion for the subject will save you” (p. 67).  I agree with his statement for both students and teachers.  I also believe that while free will may operate in a small part of our daily lives, the ability to choose has incredible power for education in all areas.