The Use of Behavioristic Techniques for Building Schoolchildren’s Ability to Accept Themselves and Others without Judgment

Abstract

The prevailing methods of character education in the Russian school are now methods of a rationalistic nature, appealing to reflection, analytical and critical thinking. However, K. Kawakami’s research shows that spontaneous and instinctive behavioral acts of individuals cannot be tackled solely by means of consciousness-based methods of building value attitudes. The manifestation of judgmental behavior by a person is often a spontaneous behavioral-emotional act. In this regard, the author turns to the study of irrational (including behavioristic) methods of character education and ways to use them in the educational process in order to implement the recommendations of the Federal State Educational Standard on developing the ability of schoolchildren to accept themselves and others without judging. In the course of the research, the author relies on theories of classical and operant conditioning, acquisition, anchoring techniques and social imprinting. The author proposes a set of practical behavioristic techniques for use in the school educational process. Some of them are already used in the pedagogical process in Russia or abroad, and some have been developed by the author. Among them are: rhymed or rhythmic educational slogans of an affirmative structure (the role of which can also be played by proverbs and sayings used according to a number of requirements), emotional training technique based on anchor images, as well as bonus rewards for positive social behavior. The conclusions of the article can be used for further theoretical conceptualization of introducing irrational methods into the school process of character education, as well as for developing programs for emotional or moral education, programs for the formation of tolerance, empathy and emotional intelligence with the inclusion of behavioristic and other irrational techniques.