The role of Reinforcement and Punishment in following rules and procedures
But operant conditioning is not just something that takes place
in experimental settings while training lab animals; it also plays a powerful
role in everyday learning. The term used most frequently in everyday
learning which forms a part of operant conditioning is “reinforcement” which,
refers to anything that increases the likelihood of a response occurring.
Reinforcement can have the effect of increasing or strengthening the response.
Reinforcement is widely used in schools and in our daily lives
as both positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is a reward that a student or students
receive in recognition of good behavior. For example – The entire class gets a
candy each for cleaning up the book shelves. Negative reinforcement, however, involves the removal of something
known as an aversive stimulus in order to increase a response. In other words, a child work towards fulfilling expectations in order to remove an in-place unpleasant consequence. For example –
The class has one home work free night which is Friday. However if a student does not turn in homework in time then he/she has additional homework for the weekend. To strengthen the behavior of timely homework submission, the teacher removes the unpleasant consequence of weekend homework when the student meets the teacher's expectation. In addition
to both positive and negative reinforcement, some schools also include
punishment, which is a consequence for bad behavior. For example, a student who
is constantly disrupting the class is made to sit right before the teacher’s
eyes.
Teachers use different methods of positive
and negative reinforcement and, when required, punishment. However, before I
elaborate on some examples of reinforcement and punishment it is important to
understand the effect that any reinforcement has on children. Research shows
that positive reinforcements result in much better performance than negative reinforcement;
though there is some amount of improvement seen when negative reinforcement is
used. A test done on Grade 6 Math students revealed that students in the positive-reinforcement group had the
highest average score, followed by the negative-reinforcement group. Both
reinforcement groups had a higher score than the control group, which received
no type of reinforcement. These findings were consistent with the hypothesis
that students given positive reinforcement would have the highest average
score, followed by negatively reinforced students and then the control group.
Punishment on
the other hand is not professed by most teachers. There are some who believe
that punishment is a good way to teach students a lesson and ensure that a
particular behavior is not repeated. However, the downside of punishment far
outweighs any positive effect it can have. It is believed by renowned
psychologists that the harmful effects
of punishment (physical punishment) are not limited to just childhood but often
last until adulthood. They also believe that punishment dehumanizes the
children, violates children’s right to equal protection under the law and have
negative rather than positive consequences on children. They generally believe
that punishment makes children feel worthless, scared and ashamed, increase
child aggression, increase antisocial behavior, lower intellectual achievements
and it can lead into mental health problems.
Having
obtained this knowledge it is quite clear that more time and energy should be
spent on reinforcement rather than punishment. Let us look at some examples of
positive and negative reinforcement. These are situations that I come across as
a teacher in my classroom and this is how I use reinforcement.
1.
A student who does
not answer questions in class – This Grade 4 student was always very
unsure of her answers and didn’t want to answer because her responses were usually
incorrect. I also found that my loud voice sometimes deterred her from trying
and she would be teary eyed. When I noticed this, I first consciously reduced my
volume and then started pushing her to try. Once she started making an effort,
I responded to an incorrect answer with a high five and the comment ‘good job
on trying” but if she gave a correct answer, I would respond with another
verbal cue of “Excellent or Fantastic!”. She is now in Grade 5 and has come
back to school so much more confident and happy.
2.
A
student who forgets to bring his notebook to class on most occasions – I
always had the first lesson with the Grade 5 class and a particular student would
not only walk in late on most days but would also forget to bring his Math notebook
to class. This was usually because he didn’t complete his homework. He was an
intelligent boy and always wanted to answer questions in class but I started
allowing him to answer questions only if he came into my class in time and
brought his notebook with the home work completed. In addition to answering the
question he was given the opportunity to explain the solution to the class on
the board. This attention was a great reinforcement and he started turning up
to class on time with his completed homework.
3.
Students
who cleaned up desks after snack and lunch – A positive reinforcement
we use to encourage students to clean up their desks after snack time and lunch
is giving them extra recess time on Friday. The same children who forgot to
pick up their bowls and plates and put them in the counter do not need a reminder
anymore.
4.
Recognition
for keeping shoes on the shelf and having indoor shoes – In our
school we use indoor and outdoor shoes. When the students go outside to play
during recess and lunch time, they change their shoes and are supposed to leave
their indoor shoes in the shelf neatly. However, some of them wouldn’t have
indoor shoes. After several days of reminding and practicing, the classes where
every student had indoor shoes and all of them put away their shoes neatly on
the shelf were given the “Stars of the Week” certificate and their picture went
on the bulletin board at the entrance of the school. This proved to be an
excellent reinforcement and we now have the whole school following the rule.
The reward now is a pizza lunch on the last Friday of the month.
These were some real life examples from my school and classroom.
There are a lot of other things one can do. Some of these reinforcements and
punishments are mentioned in the flowchart below. Before I drew up this flowchart I asked my students the kind of things they do not like to do. Some of these things were:
- Students did not like to sit and have lunch with a group of teachers.
- They did not like to do homework during the weekend.
- They also did not like taking quizzes or tests.
Having identified what they did not like,I intend using these as negative reinforcement. Each of the above is an unpleasant consequence of not fulfilling the required expectation of cleaning up desks after snack and lunch, turning in homework on time and receiving poor grades on 3 tests or more. Therefore when the expectation is met this aversive stimulus is removed. Since using negative reinforcement is not as powerful as using positive reinforcement the examples I have used are limited.
The positive reinforcements listed in the flowchart above, without repeating the ones that I have listed above are:
- Class follows the rule of "Respect" - When the class demonstrates respect for the teacher and classmates by maintaining silence and using their listening ears, they are rewarded with a smiley sticker if they are at the Elementary Level in addition to Class Dojo points. Middle school students are rewarded with points on Class Dojo.
- An Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) student who finds it very difficult to complete written tasks, stays focussed and completes the expected percentage of the task is given an activity reinforcement where he is allowed to engage in his favorite activity of drawing dinosaurs.
- Students who find it very difficult to walk and run all over the school corridors instead are given the reward of being line monitors when they follow the rule of using their walking feet.
- Attention Deficit Hyperactive (ADHD) students who find it very difficult to stay focussed on one task for two long demonstrates the ability to work through a task and completes it, he/she is rewarded by receiving the opportunity to help the teacher with tasks.
I have also mentioned negative reinforcements above which have been introduced taking into consideration the students' feedback.
- If there is a student who usually forgets to clean up after snack time and lunch, follows the procedure of cleaning up and then heading to the playground, the undesired result of eating lunch with the teachers is removed.
- A student who usually has delayed homework submissions and gets additional work for the weekend, gets a homework free weekend when timely submissions are made. The unpleasant consequence of homework on weekends is removed.
- When a usually disruptive student who is given reduced playground time, is allowed his complete playground time when he behaves himself and does not disrupt the class also qualifies as negative reinforcement.
Finally, the least desired element of punishments. Some examples are:
- Time out for continuous disruptive behavior
- Parent contact for hitting other children
- Confiscation of mobile phones if brought to school
- Negative points in Class Dojo for not having indoor shoes
- Director Contact for spoiling school property
Having delved into the subject of reinforcements and punishments in some detail, it is important to make a note of what is required for reinforcements to be effective.These are:
1.
Identifying rewards that the student or class really likes and
finds encouraging.
2.
Ascertaining the activities or tasks that students dislike so
that the removal of these can be used as negative reinforcement.
3.
Both positive and negative reinforcements must be given
immediately after the good behavior or successful task completion. A delay does
not have the same effect.
4.
Special rewards such as Pizza parties or Movie Nights should not
be very frequent otherwise they lose their effect.
Last but not the least, as teachers, we should always strive to strengthen good behavior and encourage those with bad behavior to become better members of the school community not by punishing them but by facilitating an environment where we bring out the best in every child.
References:
Marzano, Robert J.
(2007).The Art and Science of Teaching
Smith, Kareen. (2016, December 2). Positive Reinforcement
in the Classroom: Tips for Teachers. Improving Lives CEHD Vision 2020 Blog.
Retrieved from https://cehdvision2020.umn.edu/blog/positive-reinforcement-teacher-tips/
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