‘Completing this course’ was chosen as a target behavior in this question in the view of increasing its parameters for achieving better educational and professional results. The procedure of increase is premised on several stages –setting the goal of behavior increase, the level of necessary increase, and conditions under which these objectives may be realized (Cormier and Nurius, 611).
First of all, the goal of increasing behavior in completing current courses, which presupposes achieving positive educational and professional results. The completion of the current course Human Communication Interviewing however does not mean simple termination but effective and productive work, based on an active position that may be stimulated by self-aware patterns (Cormier & Nurius, 612).
This basic goal stipulates other objectives and tasks which should be fulfilled to guarantee to achieve necessary results. Among them, one should pay specific attention to increasing the practical and individual productivity of students in class. This particularly stipulates elaborating interesting and effective exercises, practices, and games that would form a positive educational experience and working climate in a group (Cormier & Nurius, 611).
Besides this, specific attention should be paid to creating and realizing effective forms of control and assessing, guaranteeing a necessary level of knowledge and professional skills. The desired level of increase is dependent on the target behavior which is expected. This target behavior is premised on several important factors – high level of educational motivation, self-reward, skills for studying course material both individually and in groups, the orientation on artistic and creative aspects of educational behavior.
The abovementioned objectives may be realized only in certain conditions. First of all, a positive and effective working climate in the group should be in place to foster collective activities. Secondly, effective methodology and assessment measures should be implemented, motivation and self-reward guaranteed for those students seeking knowledge and professional development.
We choose verbal/symbolic, material, and imaginal types of reward.
The first type of self-reward may be extremely important for mobilizing your will for achieving necessary education results. Besides this verbal and symbolic self-rewards such as different action appeals, self-praise, and encouraging are extremely important in terms of self-confidence and effective target behavior (Cormier & Nurius, 611).
Material types of reward may be described as the most effective form of reward. Among material self-rewards that meet basic criteria, one should mention allowing additional time for rest in the case of positive grades and tangible course achievements. Besides this, one should pay attention to such types of material rewards as additional grades for creative and individual initiatives, which stimulate positive target behavior both individually and collectively. These rewards are individually tailored, accessible and tangible, hence meet basic criteria.
Imaginable self-reward is another type that may prove to be very effective in terms of stimulating the educational process. Imaginable self-rewards may be used to improve educational productivity and motivation.
For instance, it is possible to imagine that successful realization of educational tasks will bring certain material rewards, thereby significantly increasing motivation. Therefore, we may say about certain interplay between imaginal and material rewards, which stimulate each other. In complex, they are extremely important for achieving proper course results.
References
Cormier, S & Nurius, P (2002) Interviewing and change strategies for helpers. Pacific Grove, Ca.: Brooks/Cole Publishing Co.