AP Psychology Mr. Honma Conditioning the teacher Behavioral principles are all around us! Teachers attempt to shape the behavior of their students every day, but students also shape the behavior of their teacher. Consider how differently all of your teachers (not necessarily from the present school year or from our school) conduct their classes. How do you know a particular teacher wants the class to settle down and get to work? Do students rush out of class with the sound of the bell in some classes but wait for a teacher’s formal dismissal in others? What about your coaches or club/activity leaders? Are there activities that seem to be done regularly and others that are not done at all? If so, chances are those behaviors have been shaped by their students over time. Ask a teacher you know (the teacher does not need to be from our school, and could be a leader of a club or activity such as a sport) to participate in this activity. Ethically, please explain the purpose of this activity to the teacher via a written proposal describing the procedure and its point. You must provide the option of anonymity for the teacher’s participation in the activity (you must respect their trust if they choose to remain anonymous), and provide the teacher with a copy of your finished work before you submit it to me for a grade. The teacher must have the option to refuse their participation in the activity at any time. Ethical considerations are an important part of research, and it is okay if your subject refuses to participate and will require you to find another subject to observe. You will observe the teacher during a class period or session that is an ordinary day (not featuring a test, lengthy quiz, class party, fire drill, those sorts of things), and describe activities/procedures they do at the beginning and end of class, as well as during class. The descriptions should not contain subjective statements about the effectiveness, logic, or enjoyability of the activities/procedures. Following the observation, meet with the teacher and interview them about what you saw. Please summarize their responses to the following questions: 1) Describe an observed activity/procedure used to begin class. Good/not-so-good experiences doing this? 2) Describe an observed activity/procedure used to end class? Good/not-so-good experiences doing this? 3) Describe an observed activity/procedure used during class. How consistently/frequently are those activities/procedures performed? Why those activities? 4) Are there activities the teacher “never” does? Why not? Assessment (written in the form of an FRQ answer). Examples should be based on actual observations and this should be evident in your descriptions and analysis. A) Describe an activity/procedure used to start the classes you observed. -What seemed to reinforce it and was the reinforcer positive or negative? -Describe the schedule of reinforcement that is in place (describe why it is an example of a particular schedule of reinforcement. B) Describe an activity/procedure used to conclude the classes you observed. -What seemed to reinforce it and was the reinforcer positive or negative? -Describe the schedule of reinforcement that is in place (describe why it is an example of a particular schedule of reinforcement. C) Describe an activity/procedure that is not done in the classes you observed. -What seemed to punish it and was the punishment positive or negative OR did the activity/procedure undergo extinction? If it did, contrast extinction and punishment in your example’s description. D) Describe possible limitations on your observations caused by the Hawthorne effect, representativeness of your sample, and the availability heuristic.
