Week 9

1. Week 9 The Challenge of New Behaviors A Look at the Behaviorist Perspective

2. Announcements • Thank you Anna and Kathleen! • Quick questions after class • Make a time to meet your TF or anyone on the team for particular puzzles

3. Review and Preview

4. Part 1. The challenge of new knowledge and ideas The Pandora questions / Theory One and other fundamentals of learning / Understanding / Transfer / Learning with others • Part 2. The challenge of better thinkers and learners The critical mind, academic and critical literacy, story of knowledge / The dispositional mind, visible thinking / The proactive mind, self-theories • Part 3. The challenge of new behaviors Behaviorism / Beliefs and mental models / Will and intentions

5. PreviewA look at the behaviorist perspective, the first session on “the challenge of new behaviors” • The challenge of behavioral change • Behaviorism basics • A case: The Horse Whisperer • Behaviorism regained: is it the “dark side of the force?” • Horsing around with your project • Rapid review and looking ahead

6. Learning Goals • Understand some of the challenges of behavioral change in contrast with conceptual change • Understand how to apply behaviorism with imagination as a practical and humane tool of behavioral change

7. The challenge of behavioral change Goal: Appreciate the importance and difficulties of behavioral change through the Pandora Questions

8. Why worry about behavioral change? • When behavior is the/a bottom line • Moral development • Teaching practices • Family relations • Organizational change • Etc. • The problem of the idea-action gap • Good talk vs. good walk • Espoused theories vs. theories in practice

9. Behavioral versus Conceptual LearningA Pandora Comparison • What’s worth learning? • What makes it hard to learn? • How is it best learned? • How well is the learning going?

10. Behaviorism Goal: Good initial sense of behaviorism from review and handout and application to follow Basics

11. Why bother with behaviorism? • Behaviorism has a bad name. • Yes, limited explanatory power for complex cognition • But a powerful conceptual tool for understanding and effecting behavioral change

12. The short short story of behaviorism • Behavior is shaped by reinforcement • through events closely associated with the behavior • during or right after • that shift the probability of response in future situations. Positivevs.Negative Reinforcers Primaryvs.Conditioned

13. Learn to unpack your imagination around behaviorism. It’s not mechanical. It requires creativity to use effectively. Learn to apply behaviorism responsibly from a humane stance, rather than manipulatively. Behaviorism And Teaching BAT

14. Emphasize positive reinforcement Rely on intrinsic rather than extrinsic reinforcers when can Use conditioned reinforcers Use shaping Use desensitization Maintain established behaviors with occasional reinforcement Eliminate undesirable behaviors while avoiding strong negative reinforcement When you’re up to BAT…

16. A case The Horse Whisperer Goal: Understand behaviorism in action by analyzing a case

17. Emphasize positive reinforcement Rely on intrinsic rather than extrinsic reinforcers when can Use conditioned reinforcers Use shaping Use desensitization Maintain established behaviors with occasional reinforcement Eliminate undesirable behaviors while avoiding strong negative reinforcement What principles are at work in the ‘horse whisperer?’

18. Behaviorism regained Is it “the dark side of the force?” Goal: Understand more about the debate behind behaviorism and the readings through a few comments and reflection

19. Behaviorism lost • Discredited by cognitive psychology • Thought to be mindless • Thought to be manipulative • Thought to be mechanical • And so it can be. BUT...

20. Behaviorism regained Re cognitive psychology: depends on what you’re trying to explain and do. Still one of the best ways to change behavior. Widely used in animal training and in dealing with retarded learners. And widely and unfortunately neglected when it matters. Mindless:well, that depends on whether hard core or soft core behaviorism. Karen Pryor: “Do animals think...of course they do, form time to time, as do people.” Reinforcement is a form of communication. Manipulative:well, that depends on whether it's coercive or unrecognized. One minute manager urges that people should be in on the game. Karen Pryor urges partnership. Mechanical: No, requires imagination. As Karen Pryor says.

21. From horsing around with behaviorism to…Horsing around with your project Goal: Understand behaviorism in action better by making connections with your design project through Quick Design

22. Emphasize positive reinforcement Rely on intrinsic rather than extrinsic reinforcers when can Use conditioned reinforcers Use shaping Use desensitization Maintain established behaviors with occasional reinforcement Eliminate undesirable behaviors while avoiding strong negative reinforcement How does your project shape up, and how could it shape up better?

23. Rapid Review and Looking Ahead

24. Learning Goals • Understand some of the challenges of behavioral change in contrast with conceptual change • Understand how to apply behaviorism with imagination as a practical and humane tool of behavioral change

25. Beyond these walls • Look for how reinforcement controls your behavior in all sorts of subtle as well as blatant ways • Look for how you control your own behavior by administering reinforcements – and how you might do so more.