Case study: Joe Smith is in 2nd grade. He gets in trouble for talking and gettin
ID: 3445361 • Letter: C
Question
Case study: Joe Smith is in 2nd grade. He gets in trouble for talking and getting up from his seat. He also runs in the hallways which is not allowed in the school. Joe often forgets his homework every week, and he talks to another girl who sits next to him. The girl also talks all the time. Joe sits almost in the last row, next to the window. He sometimes stares outside instead of doing work.
1. You are Joe's teacher. Write a behavioral plan for Joe using both classical conditioning and operant conditioning. What are the details of your plan? What methods are you going to use? Are you trying stop the behavior or using punishment or rewards and etc? What are your goals in changing Joe's behaviors? Length (3-5 paragraphs) with details.
Explanation / Answer
Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.
(Answer) Classical Conditioning – Ivan Pavlov’s classical conditioning would involve creating either a positive or negative reinforcement over a period of time. The goal would be to create a trigger in the sub-conscious mind of the individual to adapt to certain behavioural patterns as desired.
Operant Conditioning – While classical conditioning encourages reflexive behaviour, operant conditioning is behaviour that is calibrated by reward or punishment. Basically, this is behaviour that is reinforced by the consequence as opposed to a trigger like in classical conditioning.
Plan details and methods – Firstly, most schools have a bell that rings to make sure students get into the class on time, form a queue when necessary or assemble in an orderly fashion when necessary. This could be reinforced with John. Whenever the bell rings for the students to obey instructions, the teacher could especially go to John and give him explicit instructions. For instance, when the bell rings for the students to finish their recess and enter the class, the teacher could go immediately to John and instruct him to get into the class like the rest of his friends. After a couple of days, John would probably take the school bell a bit more seriously and conform to the rules like the rest of his classmates.
Through operant conditioning, it would be prudent to make John answer a simple question every now and then or handle a project for the class regularly. When he does so with distinction, the teacher should reward him with encouraging words, a gold star or any such positive rewards. This would perhaps be an incentive for John to continue to concentrate in class and be diligent.
John could perhaps be made to sit away from the girl he talks to frequently. As a reward, both these students could be put on long projects together once in a while. This would enable them to handle these projects outside of school and spend adequate time talking with each other. The novelty of having long chats in class could perhaps fade away if they were to have time outside of class or during projects to work together and communicate.