Behaviorism Vs. Cognitive Theory

Behaviorism v.s. cognitive theory. Its about the process not the product. What did the child do to get themselves to this reward or punishment. Its like cause and effect but with more detail. If children receive emphasis on the journey then they are more likely to learn from it. Cognitive theory does do a better job at rewards and punishments as a whole. The more cognitive theory is practiced I think will lead to higher levels of self-regulation in children. If children can think about the actions that lead them to either good or bad consequences they can make more efficient behavior choices to lead them to the desired consequence. Consequences are not always bad. Everything in life has a consequence and I think cognitive theory will help children
Teachers should think about this. If a child keeps committing an undesired behavior and the teacher tries and tries but the child persist with the undesired behavior there is an underlying reinforcer the teacher is not seeing. This is relatable to my previous point, children are different. Taking away points, changing colors, or giving children a frowny face doesn’t work for them all. This exposes one of the many flaws of punishment and reward systems in the classroom. Positive reinforcement is what makes most sense to use in a classroom however, negative reinforcement is used more frequently because it is easier. Positive reinforcement allows the child to lead themselves to a new behavior. Now, this may not be good in all cases but it has a better long term effect than negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement takes care of the problem but does not teach anything. Positive reinforcement can be a better learning tool. Generally, positive reinforcement can help children to learn desirable ways to behave rather than just avoiding it. Avoiding and taking away from something never really fixes the
To reprimand is to express your disproval. A teacher an express complete disproval without putting fear and hurt into the child. We discussed reprimands in my guidance class last week. Like our book says you should be calm and soft spoken and never reprimand a child in from of the class. Yelling doesn’t get they point across any better and neither do humiliating the child in front of everyone. Another thing the teacher should do is to get on the child’s level, don’t tower over them. Reprimands should be an opportunity to work with the child. Allow them to express what they did wrong and why. Ask them how they could do better next