According to B.F. Skinner, in a school situation, “Good instruction demands two things. Students must be told immediately whether what they do is right or wrong and, when right, they must be directed the next step to be taken.” Working with high schoolers to put on a production seems easier than it actually is. With kids coming in late and others messing around during rehearsals, my approach to the students much change. To address these issues, I have designed four different programs that illustrate the four different methods of operant conditioning. Operant Conditioning can be defined as, organisms associate their actions with consequences to either increase or decrease behavior. With this being said, my first program that I am going to attempt is “Immediate Positive Reinforcement …show more content…
This means that the stimulus is given directly after the behavior is displayed. To hopefully increase the on-time attendance of my students through this process, I will be providing snacks before rehearsal for all students that show up on time. Due to there only being a few more rehearsals until opening night, I will be doing this in a continuous pattern to teach the correct behavior quickly. Nevertheless, IPRP might not work in all cases, so I have also created the “Delayed Negative Punishment Program (DNPP).” Unlike IPRP, DNPP will be a delayed response to an incorrect behavior. Negative punishment is where there is a subtraction of a pleasant consequence to decrease the frequency of a behavior. For example, in a home situation, a child yelled at his or her parents and then got his or her phone taken away. In my case, if a student from this point on continues to show up late, their privileges for being in future productions will be denied. This will have a greater effect on students that enjoy being in plays, just like taking a child’s phone will have a greater effect if the child is attached to their