Rewards and Punishment Systems

The classroom management system in my classroom is multifaceted and ultimately

reflects the reward and punishment system that has been put into place in my school. The Upper

School at Eton has many rules and processes that are part of the reward and punishment system:

for instance, students who do not come in with their homework completed are ultimately sent to

study hall – a room where they go to in order to finish their homework – instead of social room

or gym during “recess.” Although this has been intended to help the students gain extra time to

work on their homework, the students ultimately see it as a punishment, for they are required to

attend study hall, and they are missing out on hanging out and socializing with their friends. The

names of the students who are going to study hall are read aloud to the entire school – only 90

students total - before they go to recess. This punishment is obviously presented publicly and

has been a topic of debate for many years: Anderman and Anderman (2010) explain that it is

important for the teachers to consider the social nature of handing out rewards, for the

presentation of punishments and rewards may be embarrassing to many students and might affect

their self-esteem (p. 57). Teachers are wondering if this is an effective way to hinder students

from not doing their homework or if it is too harsh of a punishment for those who truly do

struggle with executive functioning.

My own reward and punishment system has definitely been influenced by the practices

implemented in my school, yet there is still room for me to execute my own personal

management systems. While these systems are explained in my syllabus, they are not posted

anywhere in my room, which I am working on changing. I deliver punishments (detentions,

mostly) when students do not change their inappropriate behavior after being redirected multiple

times throughout the duration of the class period. I am a firm believer that I need to offer the

students explicit feedback on their inappropriate behavior before I give them a detention – I want

them to be able to reflect on what I said and give them an opportunity to change it. If they don’t,

then I feel comfortable administering that punishment. Anderman and Anderman (2010) discuss

how to effectively deliver praise - teachers must provide the student with specific information

about why his/her behavior was good – and I believe that this mode of thought applies for

punishment as well (p. 45).

While a majority of my classes have specific reward systems – like Fun Friday and

(soon-to-be) Vocabulary Bingo – a lot of my reward systems revolve around praising the

students. As Anderman and Anderman (2010) explain, “verbal praise that teachers offer to

students can have profoundly positive effects on student learning and motivation” (p. 45). As

implied above, my praise is considered informational: it provides students with specific

information or feedback about his or her mastery of or improvement in a task (Anderman and

Anderman, 2010, p. 43). It is my hope that the praise I deliver the students will help them

become intrinsically motivated to continue that behavior in class.

Overall, I do believe that I can strengthen my reward and punishment systems in the

classroom. Sometimes, I really struggle with being consistent with these systems – this is

because the students have so many various learning disabilities: what is truly considered

inappropriate for one student is not always inappropriate for another. Overall, I think that

creating an “inclusive” environment – or one in which the students see themselves as a

community of learners and work together in order to decide upon behavior guidelines and

consequences – will help create more consistency in my classroom management practices

(ASCD. n.d).

References

Anderman, E., & Anderman, L. (2009). Classroom motivation. Upper Saddle River,

N.J.: Pearson.

Motivation, The Key to Success in Teaching and Learning: Motivationally Anchored

Classrooms. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2, 2014.