kevin's overview

       I found this class to be very helpful - both the class discussions, the instruction, and the Ormrod textbook.  It is a book I will keep and refer to as I teach -- and I haven't kept many text books in my life.  
        I haven't had a psych class since introduction to Psychology many years ago, and it's fascinating to me how directly what we are learning applies to what we are doing. I remember studying Skinner - when I studied him, he was still cutting edge science.  There was a book I read at the time, called Walden Two, that imagined a changed and better world where behaviorism made everything better.  I think rearticulating ABA and being reminded, as we have been in this class, that students can be taught using rewards and reinforcement schedules, will change how I teach.  I have done those things instinctively, but though it seems obvious, I have been teaching somewhat instinctively.  I think it's been working, but sometimes reinforcement was hapazard, sometimes long after the behavior in question, and I have learned to make it more effective.  And that's just the ABA.    I gave the talk, with Ariella, on Maslow -- and I was really impressed how he articulated something I've thought about before -- but never had put into words.  It was such an eye opener after studying simple behaviorism.  I find the idea of an hierarchy of motivation so apparently true, and such a nice expansion on the idea that we just move toward incentives.  I see parallels with capitalism and socialism.  Are we working for rewards or for a higher good?  I saw a few of the videos on Skinner, particularly the one assigned on our day off, and I was surprised at how clinical and detached he seemed. 
        I was delighted to read Chapter 2 on Piaget and Vygotsky, I had been unaware of their work.  I enjoyed Chapters 6 and 9 almost as much.  I think those chapters and the discussions that followed will directly affect the way I teach.  Although all we've covered seems pertinent and applicable to what we do for a living, it was the learning processes that I will take away.  I had never seen the Blue Eye/Brown Eye Study.  I'll never forget it.  Words count.  What we say and how we express our feeling for our charges makes a huge difference.  I think as teachers and as members of society, we have a responsibility to make the world a fair and more accommodating place.  I also enjoyed Speak quite a bit -- and find it ties in nicely to the idea of there being a responsibility we have taken on to our students.   Thanks everyone, and mostly to Prof. McDermott