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Theory Into Practice

There are many different theories as to how people learn.   Learning not only involves the development of memory, but also the development of behaviors.   Many of these learning theories explain how individuals can be manipulated to increase good behaviors and decrease the frequency of bad behaviors.   As teachers, we can use these techniques as motivators for our students to achieve success.   These theories also help with diminishing unwanted behaviors.
Operant conditioning is the idea of learning through rewards and punishment (VanWagner, 2007).   This type of learning is prevalent in classrooms across the world. The learner makes an association between the behavior and its consequence.   B.F. Skinner was the originator of this theory.   His most famous experiment involved the Skinner Box.   This was a box where a rat was encaged.   There was also a bar that when pressed, released food.   The rat obviously had no idea of the importance of that bar until he accidentally pressed it.   In a very short time, the rat learned to press the bar in order to get his food.   An association was soon created.  
A behavior may be increased with the presence of reinforcers.   There are two types of reinforcers.   Positive reinforcement is when a favorable event is presented after a specific behavior.   This is common in middle childhood and adolescents when a child completes his homework and therefore receives an A.   A negative reinforcer is when an unfavorable event is removed after a specific behavior (VanWagner).   This happens in many elementary classes when a teacher allows a student to skip the weekly spelling test, if he receives a 100% on the pre-test.   The child was able to avoid the dreaded test due to his good grade at the beginning of the week.   With either reinforcer, the participant is likely to increase the behavior.  
Reinforcement can also happen on five different schedules.   One type is a fixed interval.   This means that the reward is given after a fixed amount of time....