A Behavior Analyst Talks About Education: webinar aired 01/09/24

Abstract

by A. Charles Catania, Ph.D. What students learn is what they do, so one effective way to improve learning is to get students to do more. Another is to concentrate more on the behavior of the learner and less on the behavior of the teacher. Too often when educators are expected to address problems in the classroom, they try to change what is taught rather than changing how they teach, as when one kind of math (new or traditional) or one kind of reading (whole word or phonics) is substituted for another. We will review events in the history of education that have held back progress in education over much of the past century: the myth of the hidden costs of reward; advocacy of punishment; misguided objectives such as emphasis on self-esteem rather than on mastery, as well as the features of behavioral methods that have been neglected or ignored, such as fluency, specific praise, and data-based modifications of computerized curricula.