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stresses that human behavior can be shaped along desired lines by means of the
systematic application of reinforcement. The reinforcers might be oral rewards such
as teacher praises and material based which attracts pupils the most like sweets.
Pupils who do not follow the procedures, who misbehave or who perform poorly are
denied desired rewards or are punished in some way.
As stated above, the types of reinforcers can be divided into social and
tangible reinforcers. Social reinforcers are rewards that use oral as the medium. For
example, teacher praises such as well done, very good, and excellent. On the
other hand, Tangible reinforcers are real objects that pupils can earn as rewards for
desired behaviour and are more powerful for some pupils than other types of
reinforcers. They are widely used with pupils who have special behaviour problems.
The examples of inexpensive reinforcers are crayons, colour pencils and sweets.
During her class, teacher Yogeswary explained to her pupils that they will get
a mystery gift from her if they behave correctly as listed on the classroom rules. This
shows that she used tangible rewards to attract her pupils to make them follow the
classroom rules and do not misbehave during the teaching and learning process. As
in return, they will receive a mystery gift if they manage to follow all the rules. This is
quite effective as most of the pupils follow the rules set by the teachers as they
wanted to get the mystery gift.
At certain point of the lesson, the teacher lost control over the pupils where
the pupils are making unnecessary noise after they had finished doing their work
(task exercises or worksheet). What the pupils had done was they are talking to the
other pupils, which considered as disturbing the other pupils whom have not finish
doing the task. This action had disrupts the pupils and demotivate them to complete
the task. What they had done was they join the other pupils talking and abandoning
the task. For this situation, teacher used Theories of Instructional Management by
Jacob Kounin. Kounins theory on classroom management and discipline (Kounin,
1970) is important because without some idea on how to control the pupils in an ESL
classroom, there will be chaos. Through this theory, the teacher applied the concept
of ripple effect in the classroom. Teacher corrected and punished a student who
misbehaves, and this positively influenced the behaviour of other nearby pupils. It
leaded to the greatest pupils involvement and minimum misbehaviours.
Possible reasons and comments for the actions/decisions taken by the teacher
teacher Yogesvary also used punishments to her pupils who do not follow the
classroom rules even though warned. As a result, she punishes them by asking them
to stand behind the class and face the wall for the remaining time. According to
Jordan and Porath punishment is a reinforcer that decreases behaviour. In classroom
management, shaping behaviour is always a better choice than decreasing
behaviour. It is therefore not suitable for the teacher to punish their pupils in the
classroom.
Furthermore, the pupils also keep on making noise and screaming when the
teacher is delivering the lesson. Teacher should not ignore this problem because the
pupils will think that it is alright to make noise while she is teaching. Jacob Kounin
believed that teachers who demonstrate effective instructional behaviours usually
have better-behaved students. Testing his theories over two decades of work, he
analysed thousands of hours of tapes of classes on a variety of grade levels and in a
variety of neighbourhoods and communities Eilerman, T. (2002). Through this theory,
the teacher applied the concept of ripple effect and overlapping in the classroom.
The teacher applied the concept of ripple effect and overlapping. Ripple
effect is the effect when a teacher corrects one student who is misbehaving and the
behaviour ripples to other pupils causing them to behave in a better way.
Overlapping is what teacher does when they have to deal with two matters at the
same time which is the same idea as multitasking. The teacher a better class control
by the use of ripple effect and overlapping.