POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT PYGMALION EFFECT

Megan Bretz

Janell Barr

Rachael Domilewski

Dan Franklin

TOPIC QUESTION Have you ever felt discriminated against in a

class? Are there any classes you think you did

better in because of the teacher? Do you think teachers use positive

reinforcement in the classroom? Why?

EXAMPLE

Jane Elliot did a study in 1968-1987 observing how children react to being separated into different groups. Within these different groups, each group was treated differently.

Her famous study “Pygmalion in the classroom” separated children by eye color, brown eyes and blue eyes, she treated the blue eyes better and the next day treated the brown eyes better, but while one group was getting praised the other group was being mistreated.

EXAMPLE CONTINUED

This study showed the effect of positive reinforcement in the classroom helped with children's attitudes as well as test score.

CONFOUNDING

Children in different groups feeling sympathy for another group who is being treated poorly.

For example: children from the blue eyed group feeling bad for how children in the brown eyed group are being treated.

BLINDING

The kids don’t know they are being discriminated on until they are being separated.

PLACEBO

The teacher telling the kids who are normally lazy in class their better and the kids showing improvement in their work.

Vice Versa children who normally do very well are told they aren’t as good did worse in a case study of Pygmalion in the classrooms.

PLACEBO EFFECT

The children who already feel they are discriminated upon before the study.

Then afterwards the kids who felt discriminated upon before who were in the positive reinforcement groups did better on things they normally wouldn’t do well on.

BLOCKING

Dark eyes .vs. light eyes Male .vs. Female Ethnicity Age

REPLICATION

For this experiment replication would be extremely important to see how different people react.

Also to test to see if this study actually works in the classrooms.

JANE ELLIOT’S RESULTS

Her results showed that how the teacher treats the students really does matter on how well they perform.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/

TOPIC

Does Positive reinforcement really help students learn?

The answer is yes, it does help.