EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE OPERANT CONDITIONING THEORY

Conditioning and use of programmed learning

Programmed learning is one of the most prominent implications of the operant conditioning. The theory makes emphasis on habit formation, habit-breaking and role of incentives in the process of learning. It also brings to the fore the concept of programmed learning and introduction of teaching machines in educational technology. Broadly looked at, programmed instruction involves the inculcation of certain desired behaviour in a child. Programmed instruction deals with the preparation, writing, try-out and revision programmes. 

Programmed instruction includes reducing material to small steps, requiring frequent student response, providing immediate confirmation or correction and trying out and revising material. In the education context, the theory can or has been hugely utilised in general content delivery. Through the use of programmed instruction which also encompasses aspects of reducing material to small steps (task analysis), this approach has hugely benefited learners in certain areas. 

Subjects which are skill-oriented usually use the approach of task analysis where content is broken down into smaller units for easy comprehension. Learners with intellectual impairments and memory problems also hugely benefit from this approach.

Application of positive reinforcement in education delivery

v  Continuous reinforcement can be used when the teacher is teaching a new concept which might be difficult for the pupils to grasp. Once the concept has been grasped the teacher can use intermittent reinforcement (at unpredictably varying intervals) so that the learners can assimilate the new concept as they keep on expecting a reinforcer.

For instance, the teacher asks a grade 10 class to state the characteristics of living things and learners who give the correct answer are given lolly pops (sweets). The teacher should continue giving this kind of reinforcement each time she asks this question until all the pupils can answer the question correctly. Thereafter lolly pops can be given at varying intervals for answering the same question correctly. This will help to prevent extinction of the gained knowledge.

v  Teachers can encourage good performers to keep on working hard by praising them e.g. writing keep it up on their test paper, putting stars on the paper or simply saying very good to a correct answer.

v  To ensure that even the not so bright pupils are rewarded, the teacher can give group tasks where the fast learners and slow learners are put in one group. In that way slow learners can have a chance to be rewarded when their group does well.

Application of negative reinforcement and punishment in education delivery

Negative reinforcement

v  Teachers can use negative reinforcement to remove undesirable behaviour and encourage good behaviour.

For instance, if the learners do not like watering flowers in the garden, the teacher might decide to cancel this activity for some days for the best-performing, pupils in a given test. Likewise, the teacher may announce to the class that whoever does not miss study time for two weeks will be exempted from watering the flower beds the following week. In this example the teacher wants to remove the undesirable behaviour (missing study time) and encourage good behaviour (utilising the study time).

In all the examples, the learner will be forced to do the correct thing in order to avoid the unpleasant consequences of watering the flower beds.

Punishment: Positive Punishment

The teacher can use positive punishment to suppress the undesirable behaviour from the learners. For instance

• The learner’s phone rings in class and the teacher tells the learner to remain behind and clean the windows after class. This will remind the learner to switch off the phone whenever she is in class.
• The learner comes back drunk from the field trip and the teacher makes him slash the grass in the school grounds. This will prevent the learner from engaging in such behaviour on next field trip.

Negative punishment

The teacher uses negative punishment to remove the undesirable habit from the learner.

• The learner’s phone rings in class and the teacher confiscates the phone
• The learner comes back drunk from the field trip and the teacher leaves him out on the next field trip.

In both examples the pleasant stimulus is withdrawn from the learner.

In sum, it can be categorically stated that Skinner’s theory of Operant Conditioning had far-reaching ramifications especially in the education sector. No doubt, he immensely contributed to the behavioural body of knowledge and clearly demonstrated how this ought to be achieved. Through the presentation or withdrawal of rewards and other incentives, Skinner argued that behaviour could be learned or sustained. Reinforcement tends to strongly come out in his theory. 

As has been demonstrated, the theory plays a crucially important role in education, especially in the realm of promoting good behaviour and curbing that which tends to be deviant. Although the theory can be enormously applied in learning behaviour, it has inherent in it the shortcoming of not recognising the roles played by genetics other abilities like cognition. Emphasis is placed on the environment and the rewards it offers.