I'm kinds of interested with the idea mentioned in Johana's blog that the people would imitate people's behavior who they feel a strong emotional attachment with. The idea of brain wave seems beyond the reach of current educational psychology, but it may help to explain some inner mechanisms from biological perspective. In the same line, I've encountered with the idea of mimetic algorithm recently. Like the genetic algorithm which functions in biological evolution, meme plays a role of cultural genes that seek suitable places to grow for themselves. Human behavior and belief seem like their transmitting channel. In this sense, if a person confronts with two different types of meme in their belief system, how does he or she deal with that conflict? Examining this question from positive reinforcement perspective, it seems that the reinforcement could be the catalyzer in a chemical reaction. But what's the conditions of this behavioral change? Such as the strength of the reinforcement and the time of exposing it.
Another issue is that we have talked a lot about students' behavioral changes, but the question that why adults are easily annoyed by children's misbehaviors lacks of deep exploration. It seems that the interaction between adults and children depends on the choices from adults. There exists imbalance between different powers. I'm questioning that whether this relationship could be modified or how to consider inner mechanisms behind this imbalanced interaction.
Quiannan, you raise a good point: we have not given much attention to adult emotions. The very nature of working with children requires educators to be intentional to manage/train behavior through daily interactions. It seems to me that training is an natural dynamic of the educator-student relationship and an important component of classroom management, which is vital to a successful learning environment.
ReplyDeleteI am interested in gaining a better understanding of your statement, "There exists imbalance between different powers."
Because I've observed that when parents or teachers punish or blame children for a certain behavior, children usually do not know how to defense themselves at that moment. It seems that adults are largely responsible for changing the interaction into positive direction. Basically, imbalance of power I mentioned here is trying to portrait the influences of authority . If parents and teachers hold strong authority towards children, then how could children develop their own autonomy for themselves? Compared with adults, they seems to be more vulnerable, no matter physically or mentally.
Delete