A Functional Approach
In the second half of yesterday's class we discussed the "functional" approach, which is, as Dr. Nellis said, an "improvement upon the traditional operant conditioning approach".
The functional approach deals with the "why" of a situation or behavior..
Why is the student acting this way?
Why does he or she feel the need to act out?
The functional approach also allows the teacher to provide something called "Positive Behavior Support". Basically, this means that after the teacher identifies the purpose of the behavior (or the why) he or she may then provide the student with alternate ways to achieve the same purpose or fulfill the same need.
Example: a student is being rowdy in class because he is having troubles at home, instead of being disruptive in class the teacher may suggest that when he is feeling like he needs to act out he go see the councilor instead of coming to class.
As I have briefly stated, before the teacher can provide positive behavior support he or she must determine the other variables. This is called "functional analysis" and it's as easy as:
A- antecedent (what happened before the incident),
B- behavior (what the student is doing in response to the antecedent),
and C- consequences (what is going to happen as a result of the student's behavior).
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Operant Conditioning vs. Functional Approach
The main difference between these two approaches is:
with operant conditioning, the teacher is solely focused on the student's behavior with no regard whatsoever for it's causes. If a student misbehaves the teacher simply punishes his or her for acting out; whereas, with the functional approach, the teacher asks why the student is misbehaving and provides solutions. The teacher shows that he or she appreciates the student's situation as opposed to simply punishing him or her without considering the why.
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Yet again, thank you for reading! Only 3 posts left and then it's over!
Sincerely,
Natasha!
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