When Time Is an Obstacle to Reform
Find the Right Teaching Tweaks
Who Has the Time?
Teachers can find it hard to improve their instruction. Ego and expertise can certainly get in the way. We like to think of ourselves as not just competent but masterful. Why change? But time may be the greater obstacle to improving one’s instruction. Doing things right takes time. Indeed, some might say that doing things right takes too much time.
Running a Finely Tuned Machine
Teachers invest heavily in course preparation. Preparing a new course takes many hours, often spread over several terms as the teacher enriches, adjusts, and refines course content, while improving delivery methods. To the teacher, the structure of a course can feel like a perfectly tuned engine, any change to which throws the whole thing off.
Behavior Analysis to the Rescue
Here, though, is an advantage of applied behavior analysis. The method invites rather than discourages piecemeal reform. Indeed, its point is to identify strategic pinpoints to which to apply small adjustments. The field recognizes that an instructor cannot design all contingencies and supply all reinforcements that a perfect world would require.
No Need to Reinvent the Wheel
Not only does the field of behavior analysis demand no overarching design approach that would require a total course redesign, but it instead specifically eschews overarching designs in favor of close examination of student behavior. The bottom line is that much of your prior preparation may be entirely adequate to the reform task, if you are prepared to spend just a little time thinking through some behavioral adjustments.
