Plenty of policies and programs limit our ability to do right by children. But perhaps the most restrictive virtual straitjacket that educators face is behaviorism鈥攁 psychological theory that would have us focus exclusively on what can be seen and measured, that ignores or dismisses inner experience, and reduces wholes to parts. It also suggests that everything people do can be explained as a quest for reinforcement鈥攁nd, by implication, that we can control others by rewarding them selectively.
Allow me, then, to propose this rule of thumb: The value of any book, article, or presentation intended for teachers (or parents) is inversely related to the number of times the word 鈥渂ehavior鈥� appears in it. The more our attention is fixed on the surface, the more we slight students鈥� underlying motives, values, and needs.
It鈥檚 been decades since academic psychology took seriously the orthodox behaviorism of the psychologists John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner, which by now has shrunk to a cult-like clan of 鈥渂ehavior analysts.鈥� But, alas, its reductionist influence lives on鈥攊n classroom (and schoolwide) management programs like PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) and Class Dojo, in scripted curricula and the reduction of children鈥檚 learning to 鈥渄ata,鈥� in grades and rubrics, in so-called competency- and proficiency-based approaches to instruction, in standardized assessments, in reading incentives and merit pay for teachers.
Some of these variants are marketed as new innovations. But if competence or proficiency is still defined as the mastery of discrete skills or bits of knowledge, it reflects the same Skinnerian model that was developed on rodents and pigeons. Similarly, grades are no less destructive just because they are 鈥渟tandards based.鈥� Formative assessment can be as reductive as summative tests, particularly if it鈥檚 done continuously. Reward programs are controlling and counterproductive even when they show up on a screen.
With every child, we need to keep in mind that behaviors are just the protruding tip of the proverbial iceberg.鈥�
In finalizing a newly updated edition of my book Punished by Rewards, I sorted through scores of recent studies on these subjects. I was struck by how research continues to find that the best predictor of excellence is intrinsic motivation (finding a task valuable in its own right)鈥攁nd that this interest is reliably undermined by extrinsic motivation (doing something to get a reward). New experiments confirm that children tend to become less concerned about others once they鈥檝e been rewarded for helping or sharing. Likewise, paying students for better grades or test scores is rarely effective, never mind that the goal is utterly misconceived.
Over and over, researchers continue to find鈥攊n schools, families, and workplaces鈥攖hat people who are rewarded tend to lose interest in whatever they had to do to get the reward. Often, too, they end up not doing it as well as those who weren鈥檛 treated like bundles of behaviors to be managed and manipulated.
But the enduring lesson for educators isn鈥檛 just that 鈥減ositive reinforcement鈥� turns out to be anything but positive. It also concerns the conceptual dead end of behaviorism more generally. Every day, and with every child, we need to keep in mind that behaviors are just the protruding tip of the proverbial iceberg. What matters more than 鈥渨hat?鈥� or 鈥渉ow much?鈥� is 鈥渉ow come?鈥�
A few illustrations:
鈥� The best predictor of how well students will fare in school later may not be how well they fared in school earlier. It鈥檚 why they think they鈥檝e done as well as they have. The key is not measurable achievement, in other words, but how students experience and explain their success or failure.
鈥� Someone preoccupied with behavior may say 鈥済rit鈥� or self-discipline is desirable without bothering to consider the child鈥檚 possible motives. Does she love what she鈥檚 doing鈥攐r keep at it because of a desperate need to prove her competence? Whether persistence is constructive depends, among other things, on whether it鈥檚 animated by passion or compulsion.
鈥� New research confirms that financial incentives fail over the long haul to get people to lose weight, quit smoking, or use the gym. Partly that鈥檚 because what matters is under the surface. So, too, for students who eat too much or too little, or who struggle with substance abuse. 鈥淗ow do we get a young person to change his behavior?鈥� is a shallow and unproductive question. Try: 鈥淲ho is this kid? What needs or fears might explain what he鈥檚 doing?鈥�
鈥� Behaviorists may monitor whether kids鈥� eyes are on the teacher, but this means very little. More than 30 years ago, two University of Wisconsin researchers videotaped elementary math students, then interviewed them later and assessed their understanding of the lessons. Whether students had appeared engaged was unrelated to what they had been thinking about鈥攁nd the latter better predicted achievement. A student might look like she鈥檚 paying close attention while she is actually preoccupied with her performance. As the researchers concluded, 鈥淏ehavioral measures, such as observations of on-task behavior (鈥榯ime on task鈥�), convey limited information about classroom learning.鈥�
鈥� In 2006, Suniya Luthar at Teachers College, Columbia University, and her colleagues set out to determine whether affluent kids are stressed out because they鈥檙e overscheduled. They found that a high number of extracurriculars鈥攖he measurable behavior鈥�. What mattered was how students thought their parents felt about what they were doing.
These examples could be multiplied indefinitely鈥攁nd of course they apply to parenting as well as teaching. What matters isn鈥檛 whether a child says 鈥淚鈥檓 sorry鈥� after hurting someone, but whether she actually feels remorse. If not, then insisting she apologize just teaches insincerity. It applies to adults, too. For example, a 2005 study showed that . Rather, the relevant variable is the reason people do so.
It鈥檚 time we outgrew this limited and limiting psychological theory. That means attending less to students鈥� behaviors and more to the students themselves.
