Chapter 9 Case Study

1. Does Mr. Kessinger's class represent a community of learners as defined in Ch. 7? Why or why not?

I would say Mr. Kessinger’s class does not represent a community of learners. One of the definitions of community of learners is “Students and teacher coordinate their efforts in helping one another learn, no one has exclusive responsibility for teaching others.” With this said, it seems Mr. Kessinger is the one who feels he has to teach everyone. Robin was trying to teach the others but Mr. Kessinger didn’t like how she was doing it and tore her apart for trying. He wanted it done his way. He also wanted people to learn right on the spot, when in community of learner say, “the process of learning is emphasized as much as and sometimes more then, the finished product.” Therefore her trying to learn her way, by writing notes is a great way to learn according to community of learners.

2. Does Mr. Kessinger utilize presentation punishment or removal punishment with Robin? Justify your response.
I would say Mr. Kessinger was using removal punishment. The definition of removal punishment says, “Punishment involving removal of an existing stimulus, presumably one a learner doesn’t want to lose. He was trying to punish her for taking notes and using them in his class because he didn’t want his students “cheating” in class and therefore tore up (removed) her notes to punish her. The notes to Robin were the existing stimulus to her that she didn’t want to lose. She felt they were helpful. By removing this he was punishing her. Thus, removal punishment is what he did.

3. Explain Robin's reaction in Ms. Yamashita's class from the perspective of classical conditioning.

Robin was conditioned by Mr. Kessingers to feel bad about taking notes. It seemed like it was a pretty traumatic experience for her. Because of that one instance she felt like, notes in his class was a bad thing and therefore fully expected Ms. Yamashita to be upset too. It seemed like she didn’t even hear what her Ms. Yamashita was saying. Instead she put the two stimuli together, (notes and teachers talking about them) making her subconsciously and involuntarily thinking Ms. Yamashita was going to tell her that her notes were a bad thing.

4. How might Ms. Yamashita encourage Robin to create concept maps in the future? Include behavioral concepts such as shaping, reinforcement, etc., in your response.

I think Ms. Yamashita was on the right track with praising her for taking the notes. It just happened to be on the wrong day. Robin wasn’t ready to hear it. She can slowly give her praise for the different steps in making maps to help her shape her back into thinking that concept maps are good. She could also positively reinforce her for making the concept maps by giving her extra credit every time she brings a map to class.