After viewing the interactive tutorial about behaviourism and positive reinforcement I can see some areas where this approach would be beneficial. I think it is of value when teaching the basics, where the information being transferred is very definite, with set rules, with little variation and is mostly of a factual or proven nature. In my own learning/teaching context I can relate this to learning the maths times table where we wrote out our times table, and repeated the ones where mistakes were made until they were all correct. Knowing my maths times table still stands me in good stead today. In my work context this this type of teaching works well where the information being imparted is very straightforward, and very basic, how to get from A to B, the reward is when they reach B.
Pavlov's Classical conditioning
At university level I found positive reinforcement valuable when tutors who marked assignments highlighted areas where students did well. Knowing what you did right is just as valuable (if not more) as knowing areas that need improvement .
Mathematics, learning languages, basic English grammar and spelling would lend themselves to this type of learning. I think one of the drawbacks of this type of learning students don't necessarily have to have complete understanding of the subject, and when placed in a new situation where some factors or props have changed they might find themselves back to the beginning.
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