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Activity # 5: Changing Behavior Nicholas, an eight year old is apathetic about studies. He does not participate in group activities and completes only small portions of his independent work. No matter what activity the class is busy with Nicholas does not seem to take any interest. He is silent all the time and tries to express his boredom and apathy by deep-drawn sighs and lounging on his desk. When the teacher asks him a question Nicholas does not even change his position and ignores the teacher. This behavior irritates his classmates who usually address some bitter remarks to Nicholas and advise the teacher not to waste time on him.
Even such an attitude of his friends leaves the boy completely indifferent. The teacher decides to change this behavior of the student. It is obvious that the use of Level 2, 3 and 4 procedures is undesirable in this case, as it may cause aggression and inner protest of the boy and lead to deterioration of behavior. The first step that should be taken is to find out the reasons for Nicholas apathy. It is necessary to talk to his parents and / or consult with the colleagues. There may be several reasons for such behavior: the student may be diffident and prefers to keep silence rather than look stupid in the eyes of his classmates, or he may have a faulty opinion that he does not need studies at all.
The teacher should response to the problem immediately, and try to create a friendly encouraging atmosphere in the class and explain to the students using vivid examples how important schooling is and how helpful making mistakes can be when a person wants to improve and deepen his / her knowledge. Taking into account all the information gathered the teacher starts correcting the behavior of concern. The teacher notices that at the beginning of each class Nicholas is concentrated and follows the class activities, but after a five minute period of time he loses concentration and plunges into his thoughts. As the student can not work together with his classmates, at the very beginning of a class the teacher gives Nicholas an individual assignment, which is rather simple but still requires some efforts. It is very important that the teacher instructs the student properly and sets up businesslike relationships with the student clearly stating that if the boy does the work the teacher gives him, he will get good grades and appraisal, in case the work is not done, Nicholas will not be graded at all.
When the assignment is successfully accomplished, the teacher praises the student, if the boy fails to accomplish it, the teacher asks him to do his best next time. But during the first days of implementing the procedure the boy after having done his assignment puts on his usual mask of boredom and estrangement again. The task of the teacher is to prevent this transition of moods and ask the boy some encouraging questions which should be adequate to the level of his knowledge and necessarily related to the work he has just performed. This method will help prolong the boys attention. If he answers the questions he is praised again. At the beginning of the program instructional time should not be prolonged, but as the program progresses instructional time should be increased in order to sustain reinforcement procedures and more successfully correct the behavior of concern.
It is also should be noted that at the initial stage of the program the student would often resume his usual behavior, but this must not frustrate the teacher who should keep on delivering Differential Reinforcement of Alternative Behavior (DRA). However, DRA is efficient only at the early stages of the procedure, because Nicholas would often lie on his desk while answering the questions of the teacher. That is why at later stages of the program the teacher should use Differential Reinforcement of Incompatible Behavior (DRI), that is every time the student gives answers to the teachers questions lying on the desk, he gets no appraisal from the teacher. If the boy answers questions or performs his assignments sitting upright, he is praised by the teacher...
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Research essay sample on Behavior Of Concern Differential Reinforcement Teacher
