Training pre-service teachers to use positive reinforcement : influences of depicted events

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine what events might be required for teachers to continue to use positive reinforcement skills learned in a teacher education program. Specifically, the study was designed to examine the effects of depicted events upon pre-service teachers' use of five types of reinforcement. The subjects for the study were 80 female undergraduates enrolled in a teacher education course. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups or a control group. The experimental groups viewed a video tape of a model teacher demonstrating five types of reinforcement with a classroom of students. This demonstration lesson was incorporated into one of three depicted events: improvement in student performance, neutral principal comments, or positive principal comments. The control group viewed only the demonstration lesson without any depicted event. A multiple baseline procedure was used to determine the effects of the experimental and control treatments. The five types of reinforcement were taught in an instructional video tape. The five types of reinforcement included: single word reinforcers, phrases used as reinforcement, delayed reinforcement, qualified reinforcement, and a system of reinforcement. Following the instruction, the subjects were given a week to prepare a microteaching lesson which would demonstrate their learning of these reinforcement skills. The subjects were given another week to prepare a second microteaching lesson and experimental or control conditions were administered at the start of this second microteaching lesson. ...