Punishment Is Not Always a Bad Thing

A study showed that teachers can spend a significant amount of time on classroom order (Acikgoz as cited in Gulcan, 2010). While it is preferable to prevent disruptive behaviour occurring in the first place, it is unrealistic to expect students to behave well all the time. As a teacher, I should be prepared to deal with such behaviour if it does occur and be ready to intervene quickly and efficiently to keep my students focused on learning. "Operant conditioning focuses on voluntary responses that are influenced by consequences. Consequences that increase behavior are reinforcers, and consequences that decrease behavior are punishers" ( Eggen & Kauchack ,2010,p.190).

I can choose to ignore the undesirable behaviour and reinforce a desirable one instead. This is an effective strategy because it draws the attention of the class away from the person acting out, and onto the person doing the right thing. Noticing and commenting on a student's desirable behaviour acts as a reinforcer for the rest of the class. This process is known as vicarious learning ( Eggen & Kauchack, 2010,p182).

However the nonoccurrence of expected consequences can be interpreted as an invitation to misbehave, so simply ignoring the behavior is not recommended all of the time. If a student continues to misbehave I will need to implement punishment which should be fair and age appropriate. Desists, time outs, detentions or response costs when used judiciously, are all effective and acceptable forms of punishment ( Eggen & Kauchack , 2010).

On the other hand I do not believe it is acceptable to create conflict with a student, embarrass them in front of the class or use homework as a form of punishment. This is not only inappropriate behavior on the part of the teacher, but could over time trigger feelings of insecurity amongst the students, as indicated in Pavlov's theory of classical conditioning (Eggen& Kauchack, 2010).