Behaviorism

 I am a teacher at a daycare. I work with children ages 2-4 depending on what classroom I am in that given day. Over the years I have been working there I have picked up on some ways to get small children to corporate in given situations. When dealing with a large group of 3 year olds it becomes very high stress. Using the concept of behaviorism has really helped me. 

I use a sticker chart. Good behavior earns you a sticker. 10 stickers earns you a treasure from the treasure chest. For example if I am reading a story and one child in specific is listening and the rest aren't that child would earn a sticker. This does two things. It allows the individual child to see that good behavior earns a sticker and the rest of the children will copy in hopes to also earn a sticker. 

In the article “Behaviorism in Psychology it explains this concept. The article states, “behavior is simply a response to environmental stimulus”. The children's behavior is a response to getting or not getting stickers. I have found this method to work well but there are some ways this might not work. The article listed some assumptions about this theory. The article says, “The major influence on human behavior is learning from the environment”. While this can be true it might not always be. 

I agree with this article and have clearly used behaviorism to my advantage. However, there can be cons to this as it might not always be as black and white. While experimenting is good to learn more I feel like it can be dangerous experimenting with behavior as it is hard to reverse when things are learned. 

https://www.simplypsychology.org/behaviorism.html