Positive Reinforcement

16 Nov 2011

One of the most difficult tasks for any teacher is without a doubt classroom management and trying to keep a positive environment in the classroom. Too often we get wrapped up in telling kids "don't do this" or yelling at kids who are misbehaving.We forget to tell the quiet kids who follow instructions promptly that we see and appreciate the way they act.

Indeed, there is a tendency for teachers to learn the names of students who misbehave before they learn the names of the other students. I have around 350 students that I see once a week, and I am ashamed to confess that I don't know all their names even after two months. Unfortunately, the names I do know tend to be the students who draw attention to themselves because of their positive or negative behaviors. 

In one of my educational studies classes in college, a visiting lecturer told us that one of the things that teachers need to be aware of is how they discipline approach affects their students. Does the teacher do it in a negative way or in a positive way? These approaches shape the environment of a classroom. It's the difference between telling a student "please don't run" and "please walk." The latter feels less like an attack and reinforces positive behavior by focusing on the behavior that the teacher wants to illicit.

Another method for fostering a positive environment is to praise students for positive behavior. With my classes here, I've been trying to watch for students who are following my instructions or helping out another student without my asking them to do so. I tell them, "I like that you helped _____," or "Thank you for opening your book right away."

As you can imagine, it makes a big difference to use this approach. I notice that increasingly the students wait for me to come around to their part of the room to show me what they are working on. Today, a student even came up to me and asked if he had behaved well during the class.

I have to admit some times it's a little bit of a struggle because our whole lives we are programed to "not to X" or "Don't Y." In another class, there was a student who was playing with glue. He was licking it and rubbing it on his chest. It was really distracting to the other students, and they all wanted to tell me and the other teacher what he was doing. Obviously, my first reaction was to tell him to stop; however, I didn't really want to give him the attention (albeit, negative) that he was looking for.

As a Fulbrighter, it's not up to me to discipline students. My host teachers ultimately decide how to deal with misbehaving students. While it's the English teachers' job to discipline students in our class, I still wonder: what do you do in this sort of situation to maintain a positive environment?

In this case, the English teacher sent a student to fetch the student's classroom teacher, and he left the class for the rest of the period. This eliminated the distraction for the class, and we were able to continue with the lesson. However, at what cost? By removing the student, he got the (negative) attention he wanted and reinforcement for his negative behavior. He also missed an English class--depriving him of a chance to focus his energy on learning and making him fall further behind (apparently, he was also removed from English class earlier in the week).