Theme: Positive reinforcement is more effective than negative reinforcement for improving behavior in classroom environments.
Keywords: positive & negative reinforcement, influence, student, behavior, classroom
Abstract
Education is one of the most important aspects that people pay attention to. It can decide children’s thinking model, characteristics, and their future development. Therefore, the classroom environment where students study in every day is becoming more and more important. Nevertheless, teachers' different reinforcements in the classroom environment inevitably bring some influences on children’s learning and growth. This article will introduce different reinforcements in the classroom. Secondly, the article will elaborate on the effectiveness of each type of reinforcement. Then, the article will bring several examples for better understanding. Lastly, the paper will put forward suggestions for future development of teaching and children’s growth.
Overview/Introduction of positive and negative reinforcement
Reinforcement usually can be used when teachers want to teach new skills or increase appropriate behaviors in students[1]. It is a strategy that teachers utilize to meet their ultimate goal, although it is often not used as effectively as it could be. Before we talk about the effectiveness of each type of reinforcement, it is important to inform the differences between positive and negative reinforcement.
When reinforcement is truly being used, it means that students are behaving appropriately, and the likelihood of the student behaving as such with increase in the future. Reinforcement often fails if the reinforcer is not actually motivating the student[1]. Some examples of positive reinforcement include handing out a sticker after a student completes their assignment, or verbal encouragement such as “well done”, or “great job”. Positive reinforcement can simply be concluded as providing desired consequences after a student completes the desired behavior. Positive reinforcers fall into three categories: tangible, social, and activity[2].
However, negative reinforcement can also help students acquire a skill. Negative reinforcement involves removing an unwanted object or condition once the student has engaged in the desired behavior[2]. For example, teachers can choose to exempt a quiz if the student meets an average grade of A. Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean providing undesired consequences to decrease behavior. There are two types of reinforcers. Primary reinforcers mean innately reinforcing, such as edibles (food or drink), or sensory experiences such as toys, notebooks, etc. Secondary reinforcers are tangible items, activities, special privileges, social praise, and attention[2]. These reinforcers can effectively help teachers to regulate students’ behaviors.
Table 1. Three main types of positive reinforcers (Iris Center)
Examples of how teachers may use it in the classroom
Teachers can prevent reinforcement failures by taking a reinforcer survey. Reinforcer surveys can help find students’ interests, which is an effective way to find students’ preferences. Besides, teachers may talk to the student and their parents to find possible reinforcers. There are five types of instructional reinforcement: praise or other verbal reinforcement, symbolic rewards, tangible rewards, token rewards, and activity rewards[3]. Through some interviews with two English teachers, they affirmed that giving reinforcement could improve the student's achievement in the classroom[3].
Image 1. Example of praise and other verbal reinforcement (Fitriati, Fatmala & Anjaniputra, 2020)
Image 2. Example of tangible rewards (Fitriati, Fatmala, & Anjaniputra, 2020)
Review of the effectiveness of each type of reinforcement
According to research produced by the University of Virginia focusing on Behavioral Approaches to Classroom Management, it concludes that “the effective use of positive reinforcement in classroom management has been well established across a variety of student age and ability levels, a number of academic and social skill areas, and in a variety of settings"[4]. There is a positive correlation between students’ achievements and teachers’ p
ositive reinforcements. Numerous classroom-based studies have shown that systematic praise and attention brought by teachers may be the most powerful stimulation and classroom managing tool. Using correct positive reinforcement can greatly help students to improve academic performance and increase social responsiveness and appropriate behavior.
Table 2. Overview of five basic behavioral operations (Landrum & Kauffman, 2016)
In addition, negative reinforcement can also help improve students’ behavior. However, unlike positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement refers to the contingent removal of a stimulus, and the removed one must be one that students find unpleasant. Thus, students will try to avoid undesired outcomes and follow the teacher’s guidance. While negative reinforcement is a powerful behavioral operation, its importance to teachers probably lies as much in unplanned and even inadvertent occurrences as in plentiful implementations[4]. There are some underlying complexities and potential dangers in trying to transform negative reinforcement into a management plan. This may have effects on building students’ personalities or cause unhealthy mental health.
Conclusion & Recommendations — Reasons why positive reinforcement is better for improving behavior; Problems with negative reinforcement
This paper aims to analyze the influences brought by positive and negative reinforcement in the classroom and to give suggestions accordingly. This article uses literature reading and data collection methods to collect resources for analysis. After reading and analyzing different lectures, we can get the following conclusions: 1)both positive and negative reinforcement can be very effective tools in managing students’ behavior; 2)there are some underlying risks in applying negative reinforcement since there are possibilities that the managing method is incorrect. Also, we should be clear that negative reinforcement doesn’t mean punishment; 3) positive reinforcement is recommended compared to negative reinforcement because it is easier to manipulate and it provides teachers with a well-researched set of tools for managing classroom behavior.
References
[1]Larriba-Quest, K. (2017). Reinforcement in the classroom. The Reporter, 21(18). Retrieved from reinforcement-in-the-classroom.
[2]Allen, S.(n.d). Reinforcement: Positive Versus Negative. Iriscenter. Retrieved from iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu. https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdf_activities/independent/IA_Reinforcement_Positive_versus_Negative.pdf
[3]Fitriati, S. W., Fatmala, D., & Anjaniputra. A. G. (2020). Teachers’ classroom instruction reinforcement strategies in English language class. Journal of Education and Learning (EduLearn), 14, 599-608.https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1276485.pdf
[4] Landrum, T. J., & Kauffman, J. M. (2006). Behavioral Approaches to Classroom Management from. Handbook of Classroom Management, Research, Practice, and Contemporary Issues. 47-71. https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9780203874783.ch3