Behavior management: What and how?

By Kristy Niemeyer
College of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
November, 2010

During today’s class we learned about how to use praise and punishment in the classroom and what type of reaction from a student follows that consequence. In my opinion, both praise and punishment could work for a student depending on the type of child. I find praise to work very well because everyone likes to be rewarded in some type of way. We learned in class about the operant conditioning process, which is when there is a variety of possibilities and then there are different consequences. When a child knows that the consequence from doing something is praise, prize or some type of positive reinforcement they will be more inclined to do that task. For example, when a teacher uses a star chart that corresponds to each child, the student knows that if they do something outstanding or follow the rules then they will receive a star.

We also learned about the rules for applying reinforcements when it comes to punishment. For myself I know that I will have the most difficulty with consistency and being sincere. I am a very sincere person and would love to be the teacher that everyone loves so I know that I will always like to say “good job” to each student. However, if I say it too much it will not mean anything to a student anymore when they hear it. I have to make sure that I save those comments for students that truly deserve it to make that meaning special.