ABSTRACT
Two-term shaping creates new behavior without any antecedents like hinting, reminding, demonstrating, or physically moving any part of the individual whose behavior is being shaped. Two-term shaping changes properties of actions by the timing of reinforcement that selects extremes of a learner’s current performance. Shaping occurs whether or not anyone is aware that it is going on. Two-term shaping is also called “free operant” shaping. Shaping is a process of building new behavior by selecting the best properties of a student’s actions with reinforcement. Shaping new behavior, as in programmed instruction, involves providing prompts at first. Subsequently the prompts may be made more difficult to see (literally “fading”), or parts of prompts are removed bit by bit (“vanishing”). Effective teaching begins at current levels of skill and builds to more complex performances. Many educational techniques break down advanced skills into successive approximations, the steps that students carry out as they progress.
