PLE 8

Elementary Education Case Study

You engage your third grade students in cooperative learning activities at least twice a day, changing heterogeneous group members once every four weeks. You have agreed upon routine procedures that your classroom community uses within their small groups, including the roles and responsibilities of group members. Lately you have noticed that one small group always seems to have difficulty grasping material and completing their project in an acceptable manner.  You observe this group carefully and find that Lisa seems to be the catalyst for their problems.  She gets angry with others if she does not get the job she wants and refuses to do her part in contributing to the group’s learning.  She constantly interrupts others in her group.  She does not pay attention when her group prepares for class presentations.

Consider your CSEL intervention case study.  Are there tools from a behaviorist view for either encouraging productive behaviors or discouraging undesirable behaviors that you could apply to the case?  What are they?


In order to discourage getting angry with others when she does not get the job she wants perhaps you could implement delaying gratification.  For instance, Lisa is immediately gratified if her classmates respond to her angry outbursts and give her the job she wants.  Instead, offer Lisa a larger reinforcer such as selecting her group job first on the next group project if she does not interrupt the group, pays attention, and does not respond in anger.  Perhaps this might be hard to monitor; however, I think the concept of delaying gratification could be beneficial in this situation.

Additionally, the teacher should utilize positive reinforcement in order to increase positive behaviors.  Because it would be impossible to simultaneously monitor the rest of the class and reinforce every correct response Lisa exhibits, the teacher should consider an intermittent schedule to reinforce as many correct responses as possible, but not every correct response.

Now, compare the interventions that you have identified above with what you think might work from a cognitive or constructivist viewpoint.  How do they compare to behaviorist tools?  What are the benefits of each theory, and what are the deficits? Which theory might play a larger role in how you determine classroom management? 

From a cognitive learning viewpoint, the teacher should recognize that meanings and understandings are constructed by the learner rather than derived from the environment. Perhaps the teacher could help Lisa reach her Zone of Proximal development by scaffolding Lisa and modeling appropriate responses to adversity.  Furthermore, the teacher might adapt materials to guide Lisa in making correct decisions.  For instance, the teacher could place Lisa in a group with students who could model appropriate group behavior.

While a cognitive viewpoint involves the learner adjusting behavior, in behaviorism, the expected behavior is very clear and either reinforced or punished.  I think that in a classroom environment, cognitive theory should always be used.  The teacher should always model appropriate behavior and scaffold students.  However, I think behaviorism methods can be more effective in special circumstances of classroom management.