What is the relationship among behaviorism, the instructional strategies, and the technology tools? How do the strategies and the technology tools work together to support student learning?
Behaviorism is based on the idea of simple operant conditioning: wanted behaviors are rewarded and unwanted behaviors are punished (Walden University, LLC, 2015). Punishment is the less effective form of behaviorism and can often be harmful, causing fear and even trauma in students. The worst forms of punishment are confinement and restraint which rarely have the desired outcome and can easily cause injury. A resource officer working at an elementary school in Kentucky in 2015 handcuffed a student and made him sit in a chair as a response to the child having behavioral outbursts in class; the student sustained minor injuries and the school was sued (Gonzalez, 2017). To prevent harmful uses of behaviorism, my school district now requires teachers to complete an online training each year about restraint and confinement. The summary of the hour-long training: don’t do it.
The more effective side of behaviorism is rewarding wanted behaviors. This can be done through rewards, praise, or recognition. Oftentimes, a system of recognition and reward in a classroom can mirror the instructional strategy of gamification or the “practice of strategically adding some game elements into a learning experience in order to boost motivation” (McNaughton-Hussain, n.d., para. 5). In the classroom, this is typically done through a Positive Behavior Support (PBS) or an Electronic Behavior Management Program (eBMP) which is a form of PBS based in technology. The most popular eBMP used by more than 90% of k-8 schools in the United States in ClassDojo (Corser, 2025). When using eBMPs like ClassDojo, students typically create avatars or characters to represent themselves and the teacher awards points or badges similar to points or badges one might earn in a video game. These can be linked to digital rewards like upgrades for their avatar or physical rewards provided by the teacher like getting to pick a prize from the class prize box. Corser (2025) and McNaughton-Hussain (n.d.) have discussed that as children are granted rewards for positive behaviors, they will continue to do those positive behaviors intentionally in seeking rewards, but then they will eventually exhibit the same positive behaviors naturally out of habit.
How do you currently, or how might you in the future, use behaviorist-based instructional strategy(ies) and technology tool(s) in your classroom setting?
I do not teach elementary school, so many eBMPs don’t really fit my students. I teach high-schoolers, specifically alternative high-schoolers, students who notoriously detest school with every fiber of their being and are at risk of dropping out or going to jail. Even though my students are too old for ClassDojo, they are far from too old for praise and recognition and other forms of positive behavior reinforcement. When it comes to my students’ work, what I struggle with the most is getting them to do anything more than the bare minimum. I assign a creative digital poster project, and they turn in a Google Doc with a white background and a few copied and pasted images with a single sentence at the top in 11-point Arial font. They don’t care about receiving a low grade, as long as they get at least a 59.5% overall grade at the end of the course. They don’t respond to the punishment of a low grade, but they do respond to positive reinforcement, especially the kind that puts them in the spotlight even when they are no longer in the class.
When I assign my students creative digital projects like posters, slideshows, brochures, etc, I try to always show them my “showcase” of examples from past students. I keep the projects that look the best and required the most effort. They aren’t always the ones with the most correct information or the highest grades, but they do the best at showing what effort looks like. My students try harder on their projects when they know there is a chance that theirs will be used as a future example. They may not care about their grades, but they do care about their work getting to live on even after they are no longer in my class. As Pitler (2012) suggests, I am reinforcing effort because “effort leads to achievement” (p.57).
When my students are completing any digital projects, they are meeting the ISTE standard 1.6.a “Choose Platforms or Tools” by selecting which digital tools–usually Canva, Adobe Creative Cloud, or Google Docs or Slides–they want to use to meet the requirements of the project (ISTE, n.d.b). When my students understand that their work may be used as examples in the future and that their work will outlive their time in my class, they are meeting the ISTE standard 1.2.a “Digital Footprint” (ISTE, n.d.b).
In order for any of this to work, however, I need to do my part as well by meeting the ISTE Standards for teachers, namely being a leader as described in standard 2.2 and being a citizen as described in 2.3 (ISTE, n.d.a). I must ensure that the digital tools I am expecting my students to use are accessible to all of them and their diverse needs. Part of this is done by my modeling how to use the tools. Typically, when my students are doing a project, I am doing the same project on the board using Canva or one of the other tools that may be new to them and I make sure to model the lesser-known above-and-beyond features that will make their projects showcase-worthy. I meet the standards of being a citizen by doing more than just my part to make the experience as positive and engaging for them as possible, and also by removing names from past-student projects to protect my students’ identities.
What are ways you can apply the sources you researched for this module’s Discussion? How might you integrate each source into the variation on GH or HoC you selected in Module 2 to support the application of behaviorist learning theory in your classroom?
This weekend, I have just finished a round of classes and will be beginning a fresh term on Monday. Right now, I am looking for ways to incorporate a Genius Hour Project into my Speech class for this block. My plan is to swap out their typical argumentative speech, for which they already choose their own topic or issue to present on, with a project of each student’s own design to argue a relevant issue. Since this is the first time I will be doing this project, I will not have examples from previous students to showcase, but I can invite a few other teachers to come watch their presentations to act as a special guest audience to judge the best project. If the project goes well and I plan to do it again in the future, I can then showcase the winner for the next class.
As I brainstorm, plan, and prepare this project for my speech students, I will be studying The Genius Hour Guidebook: Fostering Passion, Wonder, and Inquiry in the Classroom by Krebs (2016) and looking for application ideas on the Genius Hour blog (Genius Hour Guidebook, n.d.). I will also be on the hunt for other resources and ideas so if you know of any, please, let me know in the comments.
References
Corser, K., Manolev, J., & Danby, S. (2025). Problematising ClassDojo as a digital tool for behaviour management and home-school communication. Learning, Media and Technology, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2025.2553184
Genius Hour Guidebook. (n.d.). Let’s collaborate! blog. Routledge. https://www.geniushourguide.org/
Gonzalez, J. (2017, October 16). When we lose the right to call ourselves professionals. Cult of Pedagogy. https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/confinement-handcuffs/
International Society for Technology in Education. (n.d.a). ISTE standards: For educators. ISTE. https://iste.org/standards/educators
International Society for Technology in Education. (n.d.b). ISTE standards: For students [Multimedia]. ISTE. https://iste.org/standards/students
Krebs, D., & Zvi, G. (2016). The genius hour guidebook: Fostering passion, wonder, and inquiry in the classroom. Routledge.
McNaughton-Hussain, H. (n.d.). Gamification in the Classroom: Learning through Play. Discovery Education. https://www.discoveryeducation.com/blog/teaching-and-learning/gamification-in-the-classroom-learning-through-play/
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works (2nd ed.). ASCD.
Walden University, LLC. (2015). Behaviorist learning theory [Video]. Walden University Canvas. https://waldenu.instructure.com
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