Positive and Negative Reinforcement in the Classroom

By: Reifet Islam '24

Positive reinforcement is the action of employing positive stimuli in hopes of encouraging positive behavior according to Positive Action. This concept was developed by B.F. Skinner in the 1930s with his behavioral education theory of operant conditioning which is the study of reversible behavior that is preserved with reinforcement schedules. It suggests that behavior is conjoint with consequences. If you behave positively, you will be rewarded. On the other hand, negative reinforcement is the action of punishing students for undesirable behaviors. In schools, positive reinforcement is used to encourage students to demonstrate academic, positive behavior in exchange for various incentives. This practice can serve as a motivator for students, as it gives recognition and rewards for their efforts. While positive reinforcement in schools can offer several advantages, it is crucial to recognize that it also has its share of disadvantages. This topic of discussion has introduced the debate of whether or not positive reinforcement should remain or be removed from the classroom.

Generally, positive reinforcement is an adequate tool for maintaining a desired behavior among students. When implementing positive reinforcement in the classroom, teachers must identify and make it clear what exactly is the desired behavior from the students. Otherwise, they would be confused about what type of behavior they should display to get the rewards. Along with this, teachers must decide on a timeframe for when these rewards should be distributed to the students. They must pick one where students are not being rewarded too frequently or waiting too long to receive them. For earlier grades, an example of this could be giving a student a sticker or eraser for completing their week’s work on time. If done correctly, this could serve as a great source of motivation for students as they would have something else to look forward to besides high scores. This could remove the stigma amongst students that doing well in academics is useless according to the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community.

On the other hand, negative reinforcement is commonly used to keep students from partaking in undesirable behavior through various punishments. These punishments can vary from warnings, detentions, removal from extracurricular activities, parent-teacher conferences, and actions that would be detrimental to the students. Despite its ability to keep undesirable behavior out of the classroom, negative reinforcement could be discouraging for students. Instead of anticipating recognition and reward for their efforts, they are just trying to avoid punishment. This could encourage students to participate in acts of academic dishonesty like plagiarism because they would just want to get the work done not to be penalized. Along with this, students with mental disabilities will struggle even further with negative reinforcement, as they would be punished for behavior they cannot control as quickly as others. Despite these disadvantages, some argue that a combination of positive and negative reinforcement would be the most effective for keeping adequate behavior and academic efforts in the classroom.

Regarding SOCES, in recent years there has been more negative reinforcement enforced in classrooms than positive reinforcement. A core example of this is the detention system that is enforced for all students. This system fails to consider how some students may have external issues that they have little to no control over that is causing them to be late. Instead of being considerate and understanding towards these issues, the system punishes students for any late arrivals no matter what the cause is. A senior student, Oscar Orellana, agrees with this statement as he said, “Although positive reinforcement is done well by some teachers and allows for kids to grow in the classroom, there are some teachers that are unfairly inconsiderate towards students and their situations, limiting their growth and learning. The main job of a teacher is to reinforce the students’ strengths and that is something that is being done, but not to the extent that it should be at SOCES.”