Imagine standing in front of a room full of hyperactive seven-year-olds who are all running around and pushing each other. Now imagine that your task is to shut them up, sit them down, and teach them the basic rules of subtraction. What would you do? Would you like to shout because of their screaming voices? Would you tell them that anyone who wasn't seated within ten seconds would lose ten minutes of playtime? Perhaps you would tell them that a reward awaits the child who is the quietest and stillest in the next ten seconds. Each of these strategies can be effective with students. But using positive reinforcement like rewards instead of negative reinforcement like punishments creates an overall more supportive learning environment. As an education graduate and experienced student teacher, I know how important it is for teachers to find a way to manage classroom behavior while creating a positive and nurturing educational environment. Since punishments reinforce negative behaviors, positive reinforcement should be the first method used by elementary teachers to manage student behavior, in order to help students succeed socially and academically, to enable them to develop ethical stronger work and provide a positive environment in which students. may be more successful. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayPunishment and negative reinforcement have been the traditional method of classroom management since the implementation of public and group education. In his article Corporal Punishments in Schools: Theoretical Discussion and Personal Experience, Omar Alsaif mentions that in the past, teachers used negative reinforcement as powerful as corporal punishment because they believed it would improve work ethic and skills of their students (19). Recently in America, this method has been rejected to the point of being banned in schools. Teachers are adopting more positive methods to encourage their students rather than creating an environment of fear. This can be a difficult transition for educators to make. Elementary school teachers, in particular, are entrusted with one of the most difficult but also most important tasks in the world: educating the next generation and paving the way for their future. Of course, the responsibility and stress of the job would make teachers use the simplest method to implement classroom management. Although it may be easy to yell at students or impose punishments, these are neither the most effective nor the best methods for students. [Story, Flattery] There is substantial evidence that negative reinforcements such as punishment actually have the opposite long-term effect than teachers hope for. Christina Kennedy and Kristine Jolivette, both professional child behavior researchers and authors of the article The Effects of Positive Verbal Reinforcement, found that punishments, especially if administered in a public place and may cause humiliation, can actually stimulate negative behavior in students such as rebellion or social withdrawal (212). Because of these effects, positive reinforcement should be a focus for teachers when working on strong classroom management. Of course, as a teacher myself, I understand the temptation for teachers to get angry, yell, threaten, or by all meanspossible, to simply make their students obey. But creating a healthy learning environment through positive reinforcement will help teach students to respect the teacher and each other in the long run. Positive reinforcement encourages students to succeed socially and academically. Academically, students will naturally be encouraged to succeed by teachers who genuinely seem to care about them. A study conducted by Kanacri et al. found that children who perceived their teacher and learning environment as positive were more likely to demonstrate better academic adjustment the following year (1,102). Using positive reinforcement and rewards for success not only encourages good behavior, but also helps build positive relationships between the teacher and students. When students feel like the teacher is on their side, instead of constantly yelling at them or punishing them, they are more likely to strive for the academic success that the teacher encourages. Socially, modeling mutual respect helps students learn how to interact with each other appropriately. Using negative reinforcement and punishment in a public classroom can be socially harmful to the student. Imagine being a shy little girl in first grade who talks excitedly to the girl next to her and doesn't hear the teacher asking the class to be quiet. Imagine the teacher yelling at the little girl for being disobedient and asking her to sit in the “quiet chair” in the corner while her friends all watch. Yes, the little girl would stop talking in class, but she might also drastically reduce her speech during the school day, which is socially unhealthy. Now imagine that the teacher offers a reward to the quietest students in the class. Every student would be thrilled to be chosen for the award and would strive to remain quiet in class without having to be yelled at or publicly humiliated. It seems that this concept is obvious to experienced teachers. Unfortunately, the implementation of positive reinforcement as a classroom management method has been slow to take hold and is still rare in many classrooms. Using positive reinforcement to implement classroom management helps students create a stronger work ethic from a young age. As mentioned previously, students who feel encouraged and supported by their teachers are more likely to succeed academically. But this academic success does not simply come without effort on the part of students. They work hard and are satisfied with the results because they are encouraged by the positive learning environment around them. Since this incentive can be given at such a young age, they unconsciously begin to build a strong work ethic that will last a lifetime. Teachers who encourage their students to work hard in elementary school create hard-working future students. Using positive reinforcement is one of the best ways to create this type of encouragement and incentive. Positive reinforcement in the classroom creates a positive learning environment. An example of this from my own teaching experience came when I was a student teacher in a first grade class at a local private school. The host teacher created a reward system for her students using colorful cotton balls. Whenever a student or group of students was particularly attentive or obedient, they received a colorful cotton ball. Students with the most cotton balls at the end of each month.