![]() |
"Cumulative Reinforcement of Concepts and Skills [CRCS]" is an instructional strategy that was introduced in the late 1990s and intended for high school students. Its efficacy was noted, and teachers of fourth and fifth grades were eager to implement it in their classes, as was a teacher of the seventh and eighth grades in Florida. The results were dramatic.
CRCS owes some of its success to B.F. Skinner's “Theory of Operant Behavior”—the reinforcement of performance by positive feedback, which provides stimulus for "repeated behavior." It also owes much of its success to the belief that every child can learn and to approaches that facilitate learning, such as developing appropriate structures by which each student can learn, giving repeated reinforcement of the lessons, and showing the teacher the tools by which to implement the program. In mathematical disciplines such as pre-algebra and geometry, students build their knowledge in stages, as the students are encouraged by their abilities to learn and retain the information.
The book includes a helpful history of acts and laws from which education policies have been structured for nearly sixty years. The chapter headings describe their topics concisely, while charts and graphs demonstrate the focus of the lessons. The book also features a useful section on the tools that teachers need to implement the plan. The text is leavened with illustrations that enhance the importance of positive attitudes and environments for students' development and achievement. This book is important as a guide to plan effective strategies in mathematical curricular development and as a motivational tool geared to encourage teachers to be leaders.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review