Module 3

The resources for Module 3 provide many interesting takes on behavior, punishment, and conditioning. First, I read an article titled Restorative Justice: Faithful and Fair. Several interesting points about young children and schooling were discussed. For example, children make believe school when they play. If you have kids, you know they do this! The author suggests that schools are places where harm can happen, and suggests that we go to the Bible to search for the answer to justice and wrongdoing. He says “If our Christian schools seriously want our children to live and learn what it means to be a disciple, we must take a long look at our current discipline practices and assess what we are teaching our children about love, grace, and forgiveness.”

Continuing with discipline, the next resource, an article Punished By Rewards, discusses punishment in a very different way. There are two types of punishments, those for bad behavior (direct) and those that are the unintentional result of something else. We use punishment a lot in life, and it is unfortunately not an effective form of motivation.

If punishment is not an effective form of motivation, then rewarding good behavior must be good, right? Unfortunately, no! Rewarding good behavior might not be so great either. According to the article, “Rewards are most damaging to interest when the task is already intrinsically motivating”. From the article, I learned that there have been studies showing when people are offered a reward for doing a task that involves some degree of problem solving, they will tend to do lower quality work than those offered no reward. I suppose this is true. In reflection on my own teaching, when I would praise a student for accomplishing something difficult, the student’s progress would often tend to slow down. I never understood this! Maybe I will be a little tougher on my students and bring up shortcomings as well as accomplishments. The author did offer a suggestion though. “Sometimes the way you ask a question will provoke the desired answer”. As teachers, we always need to find ways to get students to talk. The answer is in there somewhere!

I had an easy time connecting the article to our Woolfolk text this week. In chapter 7, Woolfolk discusses classical conditioning, praise and reinforcement, and punishment. Starting on page 257, we learn about how reinforcers can either strengthen or cause repeat behavior. On page 258, a discussion about negative reinforcement vs. punishment shows differences between the two. While negative reinforcement involves taking away a privilege, punishment directly decreases or suppresses the behavior. I also learned that punishment doesn’t always lead to positive behavior (Woolfolk 271).

Finally, Woolfolk Chapter 13 offered some insight into the challenges of classroom management. On page 493, the author details how to create a positive learning environment. This includes routines and procedures, rules, consequences, and personal territories. I particularly gained a lot from the section Dealing with Discipline Problems on pages 506-513. The text stressed that you must stop problems quickly. I also heard this in my teacher interview. Problems can get worse if you don't confront them immediately!

This was a lot of material to cover, but I look forward to using this knowledge as I student teach and eventually take over my own classroom!