Acknowledgments

I would like to give a big enormous thanks to everyone at Laurel Hill Secondary School, would helped me with this project, especially, the three first year science classes and their teachers, because without them I would not have been able to do this experiment.  Also, I would like to thank Mr Cregan, would allowed me to do this experiment, to use the schools facilities and who gave me advice.  I would also like to thank Ms Crowes fourth year physics class, who helped me hugely in putting the finishing touches to my project. 

I want to give a big massive thanks to Ms Crowe and Ms Curtain, who were totally dedicated with helping me with my project and for their continuous advice and support.  Because without their help this project would not be have been like, what it is now. 

I would also like to Maeve Guilfoyle, who worked with me on this experiment, but unfortunately could not make it to Dublin.  I would also like to thank Aisling Cooke, who helped me enormously with this project and for coming up to Dublin with me.  I would also like to thank both of our parents, because without their support and their cars, we wouldn’t be able to show this project.

Introduction

Before I started this experiment I found it interesting that there are loads of different teaching styles that various teachers used.  I wondered what type of teaching methods were the best for the students, and what style helped the students get good grades.  I was more interested in positive and negative reinforcement.  That was down to the fact that I looked at different classes and I saw two main styles.  One style was that the class was thought by a teacher who was really interested in the topic that they were teaching, and they enjoyed teaching the class.  This made the class lively, energetic and it made the students pay attention, but only half.  The other style was that the teacher used made the class boring, dull and complicated, this made the students uninterested and that they would not pay attention. 

This made me want to investigate about positive and negative reinforcement and I wanted to see what type of reinforcement was better for the students in general.  I looked at skinner theory (see appendix iii) about extreme reinforcement, and I wondered that, does extreme reinforcement have a good or bad affect on students grades. 

Discussion

B. F. Skinner’s entire system is based on operant conditioning.  The organism is in the process of “operating” on the environment, which in ordinary terms means it is bouncing around its world, doing what it does.  During this “operating,” the organism encounters a special kind of stimulus, called a reinforcing stimulus, or simply a reinforcer.  This special stimulus has the effect of increasing the operant — that is, the behaviour occurring just before the reinforcer.  This is operant conditioning:  “the behaviour is followed by a consequence, and the nature of the consequence modifies the organisms tendency to repeat the behaviour in the future.”

Eg. If a student in a classroom answers a question correct than the teacher will give them a reward, thus in the future the student will keep on answering questions correctly in order to receive the reward that the teacher has.  The operant is the behaviour just prior to the reinforcer, which is the reward.  Over a short period of time other students will catch on to the reward that the teacher is offering for each correct answer.  The teacher is now referred to as a positive reinforcer.

‘‘A behaviour followed by a reinforcing stimulus results in an increased probability of that behaviour occurring in the future.’’ – This means that when a person/student behaves the way the reinforcer/teacher wants them to behave accordingly, and then they will get a reward.  This is positive reinforcement.  

But, if the teacher stops giving the students a reward for every correct answer, then most of the students will stop their answering behaviour.  This is called extinction of the operant behaviour.  The teacher is now known as a negative reinforcer.

‘‘A behaviour no longer followed by the reinforcing stimulus results in a decreased probability of that behaviour occurring in the future.’’- This means that if the reinforcer/teacher wants to change the person/student behaviour then they should remove something that the student desires most e.g. a reward f some kind.  This is known as negative reinforcement.

If the teacher wanted the behaviour that the students had before they were negatively reinforced in the classroom, then all the teacher would have to do is offer them a reward each time they get an answer correct, the behaviour of answering a question correctly will ‘pop’ back into existence, much more quickly than it took of the student to learn the behaviour the first time.  This is because the return of the reinforcer takes place in the context of a reinforcement history that goes all the way back to the first time the students where taught to answer a question correctly.

According to skinner if a teacher keeps on reinforcing a class either positively or negatively then the students will respond with the appropriate behaviour, either negative or positive.  It is clear from the results that when a class was taught either positively or negatively they responded with the appropriate behaviour.  Therefore, when a class was taught negatively they responded negatively, and when the class was taught positively they responded positively. 

In the negatively reinforced class when they were given a before test, the before test  was different than other two classes before test, due to the reason that in the negatively reinforced class we covered more aspects of the topic than in the other two classes.  The before test that was used in the control and positively reinforced classes, questions differed but they where based on the same topic. 

We gave the students a before test, so we could determine what the academically ability of the class was.  This and the after test let us see if the reinforcement affected the student’s grade.  The after test also showed us what the students learnt in the class.  We also had a focus group, this was to record the students reaction to our teaching and the reinforcement that was used.  The focus group results may vary because the first years might’ve been nervous about talking to two fourth years.

Our reasoning behind having more questions in the negatively reinforced class before test, was due to the fact that in the negatively reinforced class, we were more focused on getting to the point and not on explaining clearly to the students and making sure that they understood.  Therefore, we covered more material. 

While we were teaching the classes, we were very nervous, this was down to the fact that we were 4^th years and we had to stand up in front of a class and teach about a topic that we had to know everything about, we didn’t really concentrate on what reinforcement that we were using in the classroom.  Therefore, after each class we observed ourselves teaching and we used the observations sheets, this was to determine what type of reinforcement that was used in the classroom, while we were teaching the students.

In the positively reinforced class, in the before test the students got 40% of their before test correct, while in the negatively reinforced class they got 33% of before test correct.

In the negatively reinforced class they got 37% of their before correct, this means that 37% of the students reacted negatively.

In the positively and negatively reinforced class when they got a after test after they had been taught their positive reactions where almost equal, with 39% of the negatively reinforced class reacting positively and 40% of the positively reinforced class reacting positively. 

While the positive reaction was almost equal the negative reaction in both class was more obvious, 11% of the positively reinforced class responded negatively, while in the negatively reinforced class they responded 30% negatively. This result has shown me that a negative behaviour towards a subject from a teacher results in a class showing a negative attitude towards a topic, and inevitably could lead to a negative attitude a whole school subject.  

In the after test there were two questions on how they learn at home.  Most of the students answered that they prefer to move around and see things when they are trying to learn about a topic.   The majority of the students were spatial learners, this means that they like see things when they are learning, they prefer to learn when they see picture or they see experiments happen.  Also, a few students where kinaesthetic learners, this means that they like to move around when they are trying to learn about a particular topic.

Overall, from observing the three classes I expected the students in the positively reinforced class to perform better than both the negatively reinforced and the control classes.  I also expected the negatively reinforced class not perform well.  I expected the control test to have an average out come.

From my experience in teaching the classes before I looked at the results from the before and after tests, I expected the students in the negatively reinforced class to perform poorly.  Also, I expected the student in the positively reinforced class to before better than the students in both the negatively reinforced class and in the control class.  Again I expected the students in the control class to have a mixed outcome – they weren’t too positively or negatively.

From the results, I now feel that the students in the control class preformed better than the students because they had a good balance of positive and negative reinforcement, it allowed them to form their own opinions of the topic.  I feel that the students in the negatively reinforced class did not perform the best due to the fact that they were taught using too much negative reinforcement.  Also, I feel that in the positive reinforced class did not perform as well as the students in the control class because they were taught using too much positive reinforcement.    

Conclusion

Before conducting this experiment it had been my opinion that the positively reinforced class would’ve preformed the better than the other two classes.  I also thought that the negatively reinforced class would not have performed the same as the positively reinforced class and the control. 

Skinner stated that extreme forms of reinforcement be it positive or negative, would obtain greater results from a class.  My results have found that extreme reinforcement is not the ideal situation, when it comes to teaching a topic in a class. 

Our control class, which was a good balance of positive and negative reinforcement, provided us with the best results from the students.  The control class managed to provide us with the best results in the after tests. 

In the after test the control class students managed to get 63% of their test correct, this is an increase comparison to the positive class who only got 40% of their test correct, and the negative class only got 39% of their test correct.  This shows us the students preformed better when they were taught not too positively or negatively, this tells us that skinner theory of extreme reinforcement can be challenged.

Recommendations

From these results, I think that teacher should teach their classes using both negative and positive reinforcement, in equal measure.  This will allow students to form their own opinions of a particular topic or the subject in general.   I think that teacher should not teach their classes with either extreme reinforcement. 

Further Study

If I were to continue to study this particular topic, I would study the reinforcement that is used in primary school and see how it differs from the reinforcement that is used in secondary school.  I would also study how positive and negative reinforcement in a classroom affects the students choice of their third level course. 

Abstract

The reason I did this project was that I had mixed opinions on every subject that I had, that were been taught by a different teacher. I came to the conclusion that maybe a teacher could affect your opinion on a particular topic and thus affecting your attitude towards the topic in general, and in turn affecting your grade. I also thought that maybe it was my personal preference, but then I thought back again to the subjects that I liked and that I disliked. I looked upon my grades for those two classes and I found out that I preformed better academically when I liked the class and the teacher. This made me think that maybe a teacher does affect your grade.

The project that I have chosen to do is about the different elements of teaching that affect a student’s grade, things like how the teacher approached the lesson and how the students responded to them, and the class. We looked at different aspects of teaching and more closely at positive and negative reinforcement. We looked closely at skinners theory- that extreme reinforcement works, it doesn’t matter if it is positive or negative reinforcement, it just has to be extreme.
I researched about positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is - ‘‘A behaviour followed by a reinforcing stimulus results in an increased probability of that behaviour occurring in the future.’’(see appendix iii) In my opinion positive reinforcement
is occurs when a teacher offers a reward for a desired behaviour that the teacher wants the students to have.
Negative reinforcement is - ‘‘A behaviour no longer followed by the reinforcing stimulus results in a decreased probability of that behaviour occurring in the future.’’ (see appendix iii). In my opinion, negative reinforcement is when a teacher doesn’t want their students behaviour anymore, therefore the teacher would remove something that the students desire.
We also looked at different learning styles. We explained what they were and what type of person would use them. Also, in the before test that we gave to the three classes, we added two questions on how they study and what they prefer, so we then could determine what type of learner they are, and we could see what the most common learning style was amongst the students.

For this project we went into three first year science classes and we observed the teacher teaching their classes. With us we had observations sheets (see appendix ii) and on them were clarities of positive and negative reinforcement. After observing the classes we went in to them and thought them either positively reinforced, negatively reinforced or as a control, which had a balance of both positive and negative reinforcement. We tested the students twice, the before test, was about us seeing how the class was academically and from those results we expected a class to get a certain grade. The after test was to find out which type of reinforcement was better, and then we could compare the two tests to see if our teaching methods affect the students and also to see the affects reinforcement has on the students.

Before we started this experiment we both thought that the positively reinforced class would perform better than the negatively reinforced class and the class that was used as a control. We had a control class, that was taught with a balance of positive and negative reinforcement, we used the control class as a comparison, so we could compare the results between positive and negative reinforcement But, we were mistaken. From our results it is clear that the students in the control class preformed better that the students in the negatively and positively reinforced classes. This means that skinners theory (see appendix iii) about the extreme reinforcement be it positive or negative, would be the best, was not proven by our experiment, but we did prove that extreme reinforcement did not work, but if a class had a good balance of positive and negative reinforcement then the students would perform well.

The Result of the after test that was given to the three classes.

It is clear from the graphs that:

•       In the control class the students answered 85 questions out of a possible 135 correct; this means they answered 63% of the test correct.  The students got 37% of the answers wrong, which means they got 50 incorrect answers.  The students also left no blanks.

•       In the negatively reinforced class the students managed to get 80 questions answered correct out of a possible 254, this means that the students got 39% of the test correct.  The students got 30% of the answers incorrect, which means that they got 77 questions incorrect.  They left 97 questions unanswered, means that they left 39% of their test unanswered. 

•       In the positively reinforced class, the students got 44 questions correct out of a possible 110, this means that the students managed to get 40% of their test correct.  They got 12 questions incorrect, which means that they only got 11% of their test incorrect.  They left 49% of their test blank, which means that they left 54 questions blank.

From the above results it is clear that the students in the control class got the most questions correct, while the positively reinforced class preformed better than the negatively reinforced class.  Also, it is clear that the control class got most of the questions incorrect, the positively reinforced class got the least number of answers incorrect.  From the results, it is evident that positively reinforced class left the highest amount of blanks, while the control class left none.

The Results From The Before Test That Was Given To The Three Classes.

It is clear from the graphs that positively reinforced class preformed better in the before test, because they managed to get the most of the questions asked correct.

•       The students in the positively reinforced class answered 44 questions out of a possible 110, which means that they got 40% of their answers correct. They got 11% of their answers incorrect which meant that they got 12 incorrect answers.  They left 54 questions unanswered which means they left 49% of the questions that they were given blank.  

•       The students in the control class got 22 questions correct out of a possible 76, which means they got 29% of the questions answered correct.  They got 66% of their answers incorrect, which means that out of a possible 76 questions, they got 50 incorrect.  They left 4 answers unanswered, which means that they left 5% of questions that they were given blank.

•       The students in the negatively reinforced class answered 23 questions correct out of a possible 69, which means that they got 33% of the questions answered correct.  They got 37% of their answers incorrect, which means that the students answered 25 questions incorrect.  They left 21 questions unanswered, which means that they left 30% of the questions that they were given blank.  

From the above results, it is clear that the students in the positively reinforced class answered the most questions correct.  The control class answered the least amount of questions correct.  The students in the positively reinforced class also got the least number of their answers incorrect, while the students in the control class got the most number of questions incorrect.  The students in the control left the least amount of questions blank, while the students in the positively controlled class left most of the questions asked blank.  The negatively reinforced class preformed somewhat in the middle, because the students didn’t answer the most questions correct, incorrect, or left them blank.

Reports on Class Observations.

Class A: - positive class used in experiment.

                In the observation of this class we both found that the teacher taught her class in a positive way. We found that the teacher explained clearly, always had eye contact, related to things students may know more about, worked with individuals who did not understand. We also found that the teacher related to previous work done in the last class. It should be noted that the teacher may have altered their approach as they knew that we  were coming into the class to observeing it, therefore the teacher could have acted in a more positive way towards the students and the teaching.

Class B: - control class used in experiment.

                In the observation of this class we both found that the teacher taught her class in again a positive way but the manner of the class was different. We found that the teacher responded positively to students answers by been enthusiastic and congratulating students who answered the questions correctly. We also found that the teacher explained clearly, repeats what is said by illustrating it on the board, the teacher related to things students may know more about, there was always eye contact, and the teacher was very enthusiastic throughout the whole class. Again the note was made that the teacher was fully aware that we were going to be attending the class for an observation so the teacher may have acted in the manner she did because we were present in the room.

Class C: - negative class used in experiment.

                In the observation of this class we both found that the teacher taught her class in mixed way between positive and negative teaching methods. We found that the teacher responded positively to a student’s answer when the question was taken, although we found that the teacher didn’t listen to students when they wanted to ask a question. We found that the teacher always had eye contact, and sometimes related to things that students knew more about. We did find that the teacher didn’t explain clearly in the class and read through the text without explaining properly. The note was again made that the teacher may have acted in a different manner in her class because the teacher was aware that we were observing her class.

How I thought the class was neither reinforced positively or negatively.

When we went into the control class, it was the second time that we stood up in front of a class and thought a particular topic.  We learnt from our previous mistakes that we made in the negatively reinforced class, so we became better prepared and we had a very detailed class plan that had everything that we were going to teach and what job a person had.  The main reason on how this class turned out to be our control, was due to the fact that we weren’t as enthuastic as we should’ve been, this made the class somewhat negatively reinforced at that time, but we correct it by responding to the students answers – even if they got them wrong, we hinted at the right answer, also when a student got an answer correct we congratulated and praised them.  This made the class positive, which cancelled out the negative reinforcement, which in turn cancelled out the positive reinforcement.  So therefore the control class was neither over – positively or over negatively reinforced, it was in the middle.  The main reason on why this class differed so much than the negative class was the fact that we didn’t try to cover as much of the chapter than we did in the negatively reinforced class.  So, we had more time to explain the topics more clearly and more efficiently.   

                            During the entire class we didn’t stick to the book, we only referred to the specific chapter on separation in it.  Instead of the book, we used posters that we had redone to explain the meaning of the terms and they had diagrams of the experiments that the students would be doing.  They illustrated the things that we were explaining.  We also asked the students questions after we explained a meaning; we also made them guess at a few questions.  While explaining about filtration, we had filtration and chromatography paper and we made them guess at what it does and let them see what they look like.   At the end of the class we gave them out sheets, that had all of the different ways of separation, so that in the future they can use them for revision.