Earn it

College was the first time I had heard of B.F. Skinner and his theory of operant conditioning. Straight away I took an instant interest in it and decided that I would work around his theory of positive reinforcements to complete my graded unit.

My graded unit consisted of me investigating an area of my choice within the classroom and reporting back on my findings in detail in a form of a report.

Straight away, the idea of reinforcements for behaviour got me thinking about children and one 052child in particular that I worked one-on-one with. This specific child, lost his golden time almost every week. He had different behaviour management strategies in place however told me that he did not find the need to behave as he always lost golden time anyway. After having this conversation, I researched low self esteem in schools and the highest trigger for children with low self esteem was due to the children constantly getting in trouble. So, I discussed in depth with my teacher the idea of changing golden time from the norm of losing it, to every child starting with none and earning it for a week.

At first, the teacher felt that the children would not like the Golden Time changed however, after I discussed with the children what would be happening, I allowed them to vote independently wither or not to try the new Golden Time procedure so that it was the children’s decision and not mine. The results came back and the majority of the class voted to changing Golden Time to earning. The teacher was very surprised with this but was also excited to see my results after the week.

As I based my project on the theories of, Skinner, Rodgers, Maslow and Erik Erikson I learnt a great deal on children’s behaviour overall. I agree with Skinner in a lot that he says about positive reinforcements and my investigation reiterates that what he was saying actually has a major factor of truth.

After everything was researched and the ‘Golden Rules’ that the children came up with collectively as a class was put in place, I allowed the children to then earn their golden time over a week. After the week was over, I gained feedback through a carousel method and found 051that the children found earning golden time a better method to use as they could work as a team and it made them feel better knowing their positive behaviour had gained a reward.

I would love to have done this with the child that gave me the inspiration to put this investigation into place. I feel that it allowed children who may feel discouraged to improve their behaviour due negative reinforcements to have a clean slate and try to turn their behaviour around by working together with their peers. By also physically seeing the rewards for their good behaviour by receiving golden time the children’s self-esteem will also hopefully increase overtime.

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