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Behavior Management at Inman Intermediate 

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Behavior Management at Inman Intermediate 

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Positive Reinforcement is something that I have seen used most in my internship. At the school I am in, they use what they call SOAR tickets. These tickets are awarded when teachers observe someone being an outstanding student, an outstanding citizen, or an outstanding learner. Basically, when students are actively engaged and listening in class, do a good deed, are helpful, show academic excellence, or are being good role models for other students, they have the opportunity to be rewarded a SOAR ticket. These tickets can be accumulated and turned in for prizes every so often. This ticketing system is an example of positive reinforcement because it is the action of rewarding behavior or action that is desirable, therefor, creating an environment where students will want to work towards desirable outcomes without having to take away things or issuing punishment when behavior or action is undesirable.

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"Positive reinforcement occurs when a behavior is encouraged by rewards. If a child enjoys candy and cleaning the room is the desired behavior, the candy is a positive reinforcer (reward) because it is something that is given or added when the behavior occurs. This makes the behavior more likely to recur."

Scott HK, Jain A, Cogburn M. Behavior Modification. 2021 Jul 13. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2021 Jan–. PMID: 29083709.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29083709/

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Behavior modification is a psychotherapeutic intervention primarily used to eliminate or reduce maladaptive behavior in children or adults. While some therapies focus on changing thought processes that can affect behavior, for example, cognitive behavioral therapy, behavior modification focuses on c…

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The Effects of Inclusion and Positive Reinforcement Within the Classroom by Danielle Morin

This resource talks about the great benefits that positive reinforcement can have on students, the teacher, and the class as a whole. In this piece, the author talks about how positive reinforcement can be beneficial to students with disabilities, but also makes it clear that mainstream students can see positive outcomes through this classroom management strategy as well. Morin notes that historically, teachers have used punishment over positive reinforcement due to teachers having the belief that taking something away as punishment is more effective and faster than rewarding something for good behavior, or that positive reinforcement is just rewarding students for something they should already be doing.

Some of the benefits of positive reinforcement in the classroom that Morin highlights are:

- Motivate students to make good behaviors habitual.
- Long term behavior changes
- Build confidence and self esteem in students
- No limit on the amount of positive reinforcement that can be given
- Shows students what their strengths are and encourages them to capitalize off of that

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Classroom Management: Positive Reinforcement by Chandra Williams

This resource not only talks about the benefits of using positive reinforcement but also the concept of it in general as well as the dos and don'ts to make this classroom management strategy a success in the classroom.

The author makes a point of noting that positive reinforcement is not bribing as "Positive reinforcement is earned, bribing is not" and that bribing to lead to further behavior issues in the classroom later down the road.

Williams also takes the opportunity to highlight the differences between positive reinforcement and punishment:

Reinforcement
- Increases frequency of a behavior
- More effective at producing sustainable behavior
- Can be incorporated into all classroom activities

Punishment
- Decreases the frequency of a behavior
- Only works for the short term
- Negative and draining

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5 Activities For Using Positive Reinforcement in the Classroom by Heather Craig

While this article covers a lot of bases, including information written in favor of using positive reinforcement, it did offer a well written section about the possible negatives to positive reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement has actually been widely rejected by many teachers. Some of the critiques that teachers and administration offer up against the use of positive reinforcement are:

- Reduces a student’s ability to develop self-direction and crushes the student’s internal motivation
- The teacher cannot control what is naturally reinforcing for a student
- Very easy for a teacher to inadvertently positively reinforce inappropriate behavior

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1. Morin, D. (2017). The Effects of Inclusion and Positive Reinforcement Within the Classroom. Honors Program Contracts. 4. Retrieved October 22, 2021, from
https://scholarworks.merrimack.edu/honors_component/4

2. Williams, C. (2021, August 16). Classroom management: Positive reinforcement. Center for Student Achievement Solutions. Retrieved October 22, 2021, from https://www.studentachievementsolutions.com/classroom-management-positive-reinforcement/.

3. Craig, H. (2021, February 17). 5 activities for using positive reinforcement in the classroom. PositivePsychology.com. Retrieved October 22, 2021, from https://positivepsychology.com/positive-reinforcement-classroom/.

4. Esposito, T. (2021, May 10). The battle between positive and negative reinforcement. Generation Mindful. Retrieved October 22, 2021, from https://genmindful.com/blogs/mindful-moments/the-battle-between-positive-and-negative-reinforcement.

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Would I use Positive Reinforcement in my own classroom?

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Would I use Positive Reinforcement in my own classroom?

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I think positive reinforcement can be a great tool to use in the classroom in order to promote good behavior and outstanding learning. I think positive reinforcement can keep from too much negativity making its way into the classroom when it comes to reprimanding or redirecting bad behaviors. Positive reinforcement allows for students to earn something and makes behavior change a less negative experience. On the other hand, I do think there is opportunity for there to be a good balance between positive and negative reinforcement. Not all reinforcement needs to be negative, but that does not mean that negative reinforcement should never be used, I think it should just be used sparingly in comparison to positive reinforcement. I can see and understand the positives and negatives of positive reinforcement, which is why I choose to implement it into my future classroom, without completely discrediting that negative reinforcement may also have to be used on occasion in certain circumstances.

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The Battle Between Positive and Negative Reinforcement by Traci Esposito

This resource talks about the differences between positive and negative reinforcement while also hilighting their disadvantages.

Some of the disadvantages that are talked about for positive reinforcement are:

- Can cause children to expect rewards every time they behave in a desirable way, which is difficult to sustain
- Children do the desired action because they want the rewards that they know comes after.
- Children aren't learning the why, they are learning to do a "trick to get their treat"
- Kids can become dependent on rewards
- Rewards may decrease student's motivation by having them focus on receiving a reward instead of learning