Behaviorism oh Behaviorism, teach the students of Nichidai the good way

Students doing their presentation
Our mentors would always clap before they present
This is to encourage them, and to let them
feel that they are winners or successful regardless.

Unfortunately the majority of Educational Psychology and even Philosophy of Education, plus Learning Theories have limited usage in Japan. Even with our mentors, we can never escape teacher-centered teaching; they are only able to allow students minimal freedom as again, the students don't have much independence when it comes to learning. The most prominent philosophy of education is Behaviorism. However, this only entails in the teacher's perspective. The majority of my observations on my mentors' teaching consist of praising and clapping if a student did well or volunteered. Praising and clapping for the most part works on them doing well such as answering and getting the answers right. However, when it comes to encouraging the behavior of volunteering; it is not as effective.

Mr. Long always stresses on us not to always corrected the students as it would, unfortunately deter them from their confidence. And also, from Mr. Aron's Spanish class, we were explained that we do not necessarily correct the students on the spot when learning a foreign language that is completely unfamiliar to them, instead, praising them for their willingness to try will further increase their wish to try out something new.

In Ms. Jaimee's first year junior high school classes, the method of praising and clapping in the context of volunteering actually worked in addition to the point system (it is widely used in Nichidai and schools in Japan) where students are awarded with points for positive behaviors and they will get deductions if they failed to do their homework or forgot to bring certain materials essential to class & etc. The points will be calculated at the end of the semester during the students' examination period. The basic or defaulted points will be 8 and the maximum can occasionally exceed the limit which is a 12. Some of the students in Ms. Jaimee's class would ask for plus points as they know that volunteer would reward them. This also applies for the 3rd year Senior High students back in Osaka. They would become very well- behaved and studious as they want to achieve good grades and impression. Because of this point grade system, it somewhat made the students materialistic. According to Mr. Thomas, he had to conduct a class on students who have passed the entrance exams; their attitudes in class was the exact opposite before sitting for the entrance exams.

As for older and stubborn students, they will be sent to the English Lounge to complete a reflection sheet before writing on a paper stating what they did was wrong and why was it wrong. They will have to memorize the sentences and recite them before we let them off. For worst case scenarios, Mr. Thomas would give them a warning that their performance will be notified to their ECA teacher or coach and their bad behavior usually stops. In Nichidai, the school mostly focuses on ECAs over academics and Mr. Thomas manages to find leverage in controlling student behavior.


My mentors mainly apply, Behaviorism or more importantly Operant Conditioning when teaching to ensure learning and classroom management to be as smooth as possible; whereas Social Learning Theory could be seen in the student-student interaction which, our mentors would also use them in occasions in various degree.

Operant Conditioning:

Refers to a kind of learning process whereby a response is made more probable or more frequent by reinforcement. It helps in the learning of operant behavior, the behavior that is not necessarily associated with a known stimuli. Mainly, Ms. Jaimee in general applies this through positive reinforcement for enhancing desired behaviors by giving them plus points for their positive behaviors it most certainly worked as her Junior High students are fairly well-behaved. Whereas, Mr. Thomas is her counterpart- positive reinforcement for decreasing undesired behaviors- sending students to write reflections and long essays in English Lounge, at the end of their writing and reflection, he would as the students whether it was fun or enjoyable which they normally shake their heads and this is where Mr. Thomas would emphasize that the punishment will be present and possibly increased if they continue to re-offend.

The usage of Behaviorism does not take in consideration of student thinking and emotion, so long as the students achieve the desired behavior, the goal has been achieved and it is only accountable for the concentration on the behavior observed. Supposedly humans or students learn from environment and thus we can link this to Social Learning theory as well in the context of student perspective to be put to use for the benefit of classroom management. Not only that, through the usage of repetition in operant conditioning, students learn and get encouraged to continue with the desired behavior.

Social Learning Theory:

Like I stated before, the students in Nichidai takes on well through learning from their friends such as observing. Our mentors would make examples out of the good students to encourage more of these behavior to occur in class. Alongside with the use of Operant Conditioning, it is safe to assume that these two work side-by-side well. Reward students before their classmates, they will start to follow. This method however, may or may not work depending on the occasion; as stated in the previous points students may not like standing out and they fear humiliation. For this occasion, I personally feel that praise the whole class once everyone st has done the same desired behavior then they will be able to realize what should and should not be done.

On a side note, Mr. Long and the Japanese teachers let students sleep in class and some students admitted that they are tired, I can safely assume that Maslow's hierarchy of needs take place where if they do not have sufficient energy, they may not perform well in class, considering that the students in Nichidai have really tight schedules to lead.

Personal thoughts

I was lucky enough to teach students in Nichidai. I normally teach the second year SGL class Mandarin and I have came to accustom that praises and encouragement should be implemented, this also applies to my cultural lessons where I taught the first year Junior High students Hokkien. They were very excited knowing that they received recognition from the teachers. 

I also notice that establishing routines and familiarity through the usage of Operant conditioning best works when teaching students here in Nichidai.