The Teaching Box

The very first hours a teacher spends in front of her or his teacher are the most important because that saying about the first impressions is twice as powerful when it comes to children. That is why for centuries teachers tried to impress an image of fierce authority since that is the easiest to convey and children respond very fast to it. However this technique also creates an atmosphere of fearful obedience and it interferes with creativity and can lead to mindless memorization instead of actual learning. So it is far better, as a teacher or as a parent, to use positive reinforcements to help struggling learners to cope more easily with their lessons since, that way, they have a better chance to actually use the information that they are given.

One of the best positive reinforcements that a teacher can set from day one is to let the class decide the rules of the game. Now, the thing that most teachers fear is that the class will dictate a set of rules that will lead to total anarchy; for example no student will say that they want to spend the entire class to study. However this is where the teacher can set an implicit rule by the way he or she formulates the question because it is not about how the students would like to spend their time in class but how they can use that time to study more easily. And once the question is framed correctly the majority of the class will come up with rules like keeping quiet, talking on the basis of some specific rules and so on.

And once the first hurdle of establishing the ground rules is passed it can be quite entertaining for the teacher as well as the students to come up with the next positive reinforcement, which is to celebrate the achievements of the most successful students. Of course a wise teacher will find ways, tests and situations that will let most students feel the glory of having their work appraised by the entire class. So, for example, if one day the class is supposed to write a paper on a technical subject that will mean that the next day they should be asked to write something on a more art related one so that a totally different student will be praised on that day.

Besides the work itself good behavior needs to be also rewarded and that can again be the source of some great prizes. However this is the most difficult type of reward system because everyone in class needs to know how and why those rewards were given out and they need to feel that the system is fair. So the rules for the types of behavior that will be praised need to parallel the rules that the class decided and the teacher needs to make sure that he or she is following the feelings of the class. So if the class feels like cooperation is a better value than silence a rowdy kid that somehow helps everyone coalesce should be rewarded despite the preference most teachers have for silence. This way the entire class will feel encouraged to perform better and will not feel that anyone is imposing exterior rules onto them.

Positive reinforcement for skill building whenever possible, and keep in mind that struggling students may suffer in self-esteem. Joye Allen is a content writer and she tries to dissertation help for the students for last few years.