After many trials of pairing, with the light or the bell, with the food, eventually the dogs began to associate being feed with the stimuli if the light or the bell. Upon making the association with the light or bell with the food, the dogs would then begin to salivate when the light turned on or when the bell was rung. The dogs had been conditioned to salivate at the sight of the light being turned on, or at the sound of a bell being rung. Pavlov’s discovery of conditioned reflexes led to the modern day theory of classical conditioning. Classical conditioning considers stimuli and response: unconditioned stimuli, unconditioned response, conditioned stimuli, and conditioned
These strategies include, communicating with parents, arranging of the classroom environment, building positive relationship with students and implementing rules and routines. In order to prevent challenging behaviors, an educator must document and observe children’s behavior. Educators should communicate rules, consequences and incentives to the parents. Sending home notes, making phone calls, preparing articles in the newsletter could be some of the ways educator can communicate a child’s behavior to the parents. Regular feedback regarding a child’s behavior is also important to keep the parents aware.
Classical conditioning and operant conditioning are very different and alike at the same time. People acquire certain behaviors through classical conditioning, a learning process in which associations are made between an unconditioned stimulus and a neutral stimulus. Operant conditioning occurs when the consequences that follow a behavior increase or decrease the likelihood of that particular behavior occurring again. Classical and operant conditioning are very alike and different. Classical conditioning always has a specific stimulus that elicits the desired response where operant conditioning has no stimulus and the learner must respond, then behavior is reinforced.
Classical conditioning is a theory of learning founded by Ivan Pavlov, It is a way of learning through past association, he accidentally stumbled upon this theory as he was studying the digestive system of the dog and then applied it to human psychology. It involves an unconditioned stimulus and an unconditioned response. He tested his theory with a dog, food being the stimulant (UCS) and salivation being the response (UCR) and a bell as a neutral entity to which there was no response until combined with the food. The final test in the his theory is to reintroduce the the bell without food (UCS) and which this time causes the salivation (UCR). This reveals the dogs mind is remembering the past association with the bell and the food.
Learning is through operant, classical or instrumental conditioning. Behaviourists view instrumental and operant conditioning as having a slight difference on the constructs they observe for each of these. Cognitivists view learning as through classical conditioning, operant (instrumental) conditioning or observational learning. Ivan Pavlov a Russian psychologist studied classical conditioning, which is a valid means of learning to both groups. In his classic studies Pavlov rang a bell each time before giving his dogs food and eventually the dogs were conditioned to salivate when they heard the bell in expectancy of food.
Pavlov used dogs to further prove his theory. He decided to use the tone of the bell (CS) and paired it with food (US) which caused the dogs to salivate (UR). After repeatedly pairing the bell with food, the bell alone caused the dogs to salivate (CR). The dogs orienting response – also referred to as the orienting reflex – to the tone of the bell is that they perk up their ears and turns its sensors to where the sound is coming from. After repeated presentation of the bell, the dogs then got used to the tone of the bell and ignores it because the stimulus is of no consequence, a process he refers to as habituation.
A subject can be taught to discriminate and only respond to a specific stimulus e.g. dog has been trained to run to his owner when he hears a whistle, after the dog has been conditioned he responds to a variety of sounds that are similar to the whistle. The trainer wants the dog to respond only to the sound of the whistle, the trainer teaches the dog to discriminate between different sounds and then it will respond only to the whistle and not to other tones. While studying digestive research using dogs, Ivan Pavlov (1849 – 1936) Russian psychologist observed that the dogs salivated when food was produced and noted that this was an unconditioned response. But he then observed that the dogs also salivated in the absence of food and smell, he noted this was not due to an automatic physiological process, but it
It is the responsibility of the adult/caregiver to teach a child how to make good choices and encourage exploration of the world around them in which they may encounter the circumstances of their actions. The McMillan sister theory of the “nurture” school is equally important because the health of the child is vital to their learning ability. An unhealthy child’s development can be delayed if they are constantly sick, improperly cared for, as well as neglected. T. Brazelton’s reasonable discipline is also important because a child should be taught the way that they should go and even though they may stray they will always return to what they were taught. All children should be able to explore but must have boundaries set.
Part of being a professional early childhood educator is being able to set aside personal problem that may cause a distraction. The complete focus needs to be on the children so that they can contribute to the children’s needs and expectations of a good teacher. Children look for a teacher to be able to show care, protection, and loyalty. When educators master these basic qualities, they would be prepared when dealing with the different levels of emotions and experiences that would be present throughout the early childhood environment. These different aspects allow the educator to think if this is the profession for them.
I found that it is important that I assess ELL students when they come into to my classroom because I need to know what that ELL student already knows, so that I can effectively understand how to move on instructing and assessing the ELL student (Lenski. 2006, P. 25). This article has also taught me that it is important to include parents in their child’s education. Parents can help in completing predictability logs, which can be very useful for me to use when figuring out how much the child already knows. The predictability log will help me to understand the ELL’s prior literacy experiences (Lenski.