Lenses on REading 2nd edition

1. Chapter 3
Behaviorism
The Dominant Educational Perspectives for
50 Years (1900-1950s)

2. What is Behaviorism?
● Behaviorism is the theoretical perspective of learning that focuses on observable changes in
behavior.
● Behaviorism changed the depiction of reading from one of perceptual processing to one of
reading as a behavior composed of isolated skills, each of which could be reinforced to increase
student achievement.
● Behaviorism continues to be significant today as the theoretical underpinning associated with
direct instruction.
● Two underlying assumptions are present in all theoretical versions of Behaviorism.
o The first is the belief that behavior is the result of an organism’s or person’s, response to
stimuli.
o The second is the belief that external stimuli can be manipulated to strengthen or reduce
an organism’s or an individual’s behavior.

3. Three major behavioral theories:
1. Classical Conditioning Theory created by Ivan Pavlov
2. Connectionism by Edward Thorndike
3. Operant Conditioning Theory by B.F. Skinner

4. Classical Conditioning Theory
● Classical Conditioning occurs when two stimuli become paired, eventually both eliciting the
same response.
● Pavlov created Classical Conditioning Theory as a result of his research studying dogs’ digestion
in the 1920s. In this study, the dogs had learned through association to connect their food bowls
with their dinners. Eventually, Pavlov was able to produce salivation in his dogs simply by
ringing a bell. This conditioning was achieved by the repeated pairing of bell ringing with the
delivery of food to the dogs. This form of associational learning became known as classical
conditioning.
● Watson (1878-1958), was the first behaviorist to apply the concepts inherent in Classical
Conditioning Theory to the realm of human behavior.

5. Classical Conditioning Theory
● One example of classical conditioning often seen in schools is teachers’ use of turning off the
lights to quiet down their students. Students have learned to associate the physical motions of
turning off the lights with becoming quiet.
● Through classical conditioning, students often develop strong feelings related to learning and
other school-based matters.
● Through classical conditioning, students’ learning anxiety can be reduced when teachers
stress improvement rather than perfection during instruction.
● Classical Conditioning Theory exemplifies Behaviorism because it focuses on observable
changes in behavior and responses to stimuli as demonstrative of learning.

6. Connectionism
● Extension of Behaviorism that deals with the stimuli that
occur after a behavior and its effect on future behaviors.
● Created by Edward Thorndike
● Made up of 4 laws
o Law of Effect/Principle of Reinforcement
o Law of Readiness
o Law of Identical Elements
o Law of Exercise

7. 4 laws
Law of Effect/Principle of Reinforcement
● If an act is followed by a “satisfying change” in the environment, the chance of the action being repeated
increases. However, if the act is followed by an “unsatisfying change”, the chance of a repeat performance
decreases.
● One’s present performance plays a crucial role in one's future performance
o Implication- Correct response such as the reading of a story made up of the target words or filling
in a blank with a target word in a workbook should be praised
Law of Readiness
o Learning happens when easier tasks occur after a related but more difficult task
i. Implication- stated that the critical behaviors of reading which were viewed as recognizing
the most frequently used words needed to be sequenced.

8. Laws Continued
Law of Identical Elements
● States that the more elements of one situation are identical to the elements of a second one, the greater the
transfer, and thus the easier the learning the second situation.
o Implication-Students practice repeatedly on specific sets of target words to make a connection
between stimulus and response.
Law of Exercise
● The more stimulus-response connections are practiced, the stronger the bonds become. The less the
connections are used, the weaker bonds.

9. Operant Conditioning
“Programed learning” / “program instruction” Learning is broken down into small successive steps that are
carefully designed to maximize the likelihood of students’ success, and to minimize the likelihood of students’
frustration and failure.
1. B.F. Skinner- creator
a. Programed instruction is usually implemented through the use of behavioral objectives.
● Behavioral Objective
● A statement that is created to identify a target behavior in need of change, as well as to
identify what behavioral change will constitute success.
a. Ex: Students will independently rotate through the classroom centers. &
Students will be achieved when students are able to complete their center
rotations for 1 month with three or less teacher assists per day.

10. Operant Conditioning Cont.
a. Schedule of reinforcement
● how often the reinforcement is delivered, and is being manipulated to achieve the behavioral
objective.
● Day one-teacher will positively reinforce her students after 3 mins.
● Day 2 positive reinforcement would occur after 5 mins, and so on
b. Shaping
● Gross approximations of the desired behavior are initially reinforced with the use of positive
reinforcement
● Thereafter only more and more reined approximations of the desired behavior are reinforced.
● Ex: young children we reinforce them for looking at pictures and telling the story in
their own words. With an older child our expectations increase and we only reinforce
them when their reading becomes more conventional
c. Chaining
● Enables a person to sequence small, individual conditioned acts into a complex skill.
● Central element of Skinner's application of operant theory to the classroom

11. Classroom Applications
● Behaviorism has affected reading by the way the task of reading is understood,
perceptions of how reading instruction should proceed, the creation of reading
materials, and the assessment of reading progress.
● It has created a new perception of the task of reading as a complex act consisting of component
parts.
● Component Parts- visual discrimination, auditory discrimination, left-to-right progression
during reading, vocabulary, and comprehension.
● Provides an important instructional element in helping general education students and
ELL's progress in reading
● Provides a structure and framework for a child.
● When programs are created with behaviorism, they often have scripted plans for the teacher and
worksheets for the children to complete to demonstrate proficiency
● Combination of direct and explicit instruction to guide an activity and allowing students to
put their own thoughts down, allows students to construct meaning.

12. Direct Instruction
● Teacher is responsible for children learning
● Key to successful instruction is to find out what the student has been able to learn
● Teachers need to find ways to respond to children individual differences
● teach children in a way that allows feedback on what they have learned and their struggles.
● Direct instruction allows teachers to focus children's attention on specific reading
concepts such as phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension skills. In direct
instruction, teachers have a clear understanding of those skills that are necessary for
successful reading and know how to assess their students abilities and teachers directly
teach those skills.
● 6 steps:
a. specify objectives
b. devise instructional strategies
c. develop teaching procedures
d. select examples
e. sequence skills

13. Direct Instruction (continued)
Instruction stage: teacher demonstrates the steps in a strategy and then
provides structured practice in using the strategy
Guided practice stage: teacher reduces help and prompting which a;;pws the
students to apply the steps in their own way.
Discrimination: teacher presents a set of examples that provide practice on a
new strategy and items from previous strategies.
5 steps to teaching a skill
1. Pre-skills of a strategy are taught before the strategy itself is presented
2. Instances that are consistent with a strategy are introduced before exceptions
3. high utility skills are introduced before less useful ones
4. Easy skills are taught before more difficult ones
5. Strategies and information likely to be confused are not introduced at the same time
6. Always concluded with independent
7. practice, repeated practice, and review.

14. Reading Readiness:
Educators focus on facilitating reading development through instruction in skills
and sub skills identified as prerequisites for reading. Instruction takes place
through the use of worksheets
Skills:
Auditory discrimination
visual discrimination
left-to-right progression
visual-motor skills
large-motor abilities

15. Research Applications
Montare:
● 4 year old non readers were shown 22 pictures of known objects
● Pictures and words were shown to children via tachistoscope
● No reinforcement
● 10 conditioning trials for each word picture pair
● Retention was measured by presenting each child with the printed word prompt
● Results:
o 95% retention rate- children were able to read the printed word in the absence
of the pair picture
o Classical conditioning could be demonstrated in single-word identification, it was
unlikely to be applicable to the reading of connected text that requires higher levels
of cognition.

16. Research Applications
Study(Shen, 2009)
● Studied the impact of a reading- writing connection project on first- year English
as a foreign language college students was evaluated
● Research created a classroom environment supportive of reading-writing
connections including explicit instruction of text structures and story elements, use
of reading logs, and creative writing in response to story books.
● Results:
o learners literacy developed not only in linguistic progress but also in critical thinking
as well as personal growth.
o Reading helped the EFL learners development of their writing with the
stimulus, structures, vocabulary, and prior experience

17. Research Applications
Edens
● Compared the effects of an operant conditioning intervention with one that focused
on metacognition
● 120 undergraduates participated in a study that explored two uses of an electronic
student response system that provides immediate feedback to their teachers and are
displayed in a graphic representation
● Operant condition group: data from clickers were used to provide motivation to students
and affected their class grade
● Metacognition group: data were used to help students better understand their
preparation for and performance in class, and were not associated with their grades
● Results:
o no significant achievement difference for the students in the two groups. Students in
the operant conditioning group outperformed those in the metacognitive group on
measures of class preparedness and attendance
o Students in the metacognitive group outperformed students in the operant
condition group on the development of intrinsic goals and self- regulatory