Psychology Chronicles Series #10.2: The Power of Reinforcements | The Impact of Negative Reinforcements Towards Learners' Academic Performance
Kids today are quite difficult to deal with.Modernization,which produces physical & industrial changes in the society also creates behavioral shifts on the individuals dwelling on it.When traditional societies became modern, people's behavior goes along with it. Young people who are very vulnerable to changes are slowly affected by the negative effects of modernization.
With the different socio-cultural changes,children's values and characters changes through time making them very hard to handle.
This is really an intricate challenge for modern teachers to attend to in the academic domain.
I gave my insights on the topic about the "Substantial Influence of Positive Reinforcements to Students' Effective Learning Behavior" which highlighted the benefits of rewards to the learning process and a brief history about it's connection to "B.F. Skinner's concept of Operant Conditioning".Giving positive reinforcements is undeniably effective in creating an effective environment to the learners as it produces the likelihood of repeating a favorable learning response.
In Skinner's Experiment, there was also a second test conducted inside the "Skinner Box". The goal of the said experiment is to present the effects of negative reinforcement in a given situation. The rat was placed inside a box that releases electric current. Desperate to survive the rat moved frantically around the box and fortunately pressed a lever. Instead of releasing food just like the first experiment,this time this lever is programmed to temporarily stop the flow of the current. In order to stop it's agony, the rat now depends on pushing on the lever to avoid pain. This experiment only shows the effects of negative reinforcers to behavior and how it could achieve an increase of positive response.
In connection with the said experiment this article aims to share the effects of negative reinforcements to students academic performance. As a teacher and as what I have stated above,molding the minds of millenials is definitely a sort of rocket science. Because of individual differences,erratic behavior and the lack of focus on their studies, my profession is definitely not an easy one.
Negative Reinforcement to Correct Unpleasant Class Behavior
Negative reinforcers though has distinct similarities with punishers are different in some angles. Negative reinforcement is eliminating a negative stimuli to avoid its unpleasant effects thus increasing the likelihood of a response to occur again. Therefore; punishment on the other hand decreases the chances to repeat a certain response while negative reinforcement increases a particular behavior.
Here are some examples of negative reinforcements utilized in classroom settings:
□ Student A is tired of hearing his teacher constantly nagging him all the time about not wearing his uniform.So one day he decided to go to school looking neat and tidy by wearing his uniform. Instead of receiving sermons from his teacher he now received praises.
□ Student B who was always deducted points by the teacher in coming late in class realized to change his shortcomings by waking up early every morning.
□ Student C was caught cutting classes and was sent to the principal's office. In order to prevent another trip there. He now avoided his friends who was a bad influence to him when it comes school.
Students usually exhibit misbehaviors in class which interrupts the whole learning experience. So as a teacher it is important that we know how to use negative reinforcers rather than giving out punishments to our students.
We need to let our students engage in positive actions to prevent them from doing negativeconducts. Can it correct misbehaviors in class? Yes it can,if executed properly.Since our students are heterogenous by nature,we need to be sensitive to their individual needs so as not to demotivate them.
Negative Reinforcement as an Effective Tool in the Teaching Learning Process
Negative reinforcement is an effective strategy to motivate our students to be absorbed in our discussions or class activity. In this method,the learner is taught how to avoid undesirable behaviors by increasing the probability for the operant to repeat. This might be a long and tiring process to discipline students but I believe this is also as effective as positive reinforcers.
Punishments which stops a negative behavior might be temporary since the absence of the punishers might push the individual to do the same mistake again. And too much punishments could create problems with personal development and self-confidence.But as for negative reinforcements it slowly shapes up learners in the long run thus helping the learner to eliminate atrocities in their systems.
This method can be used with difficult students who constantly shows inappropriate behaviors in class. In order to discipline our students correctly we need to pay attention to them as much as possible. Utilizing negative reinforcers right away can increase the chances of eradicating student's misconducts. Establishing positive relationships with them is also a plus factor because if you have a good emotional bond with your students this strategy would be more effective.
And lastly, create a warm,fun and competent atmosphere inside the classroom so that it is easier for you to reach not only their minds but also to their hearts...
References:
1.Psychestudy: Negative Reinforcements
2.How Negative Reinforcement Works
3.Reinforcement and Reinforcement Schedules
4.Behavior Modification in the Classroom
5.The Difference Between Positive and Negative Reinforcements
Love & Light,
@sakura1012



Skinner’s studies on reinforcement are fascinating aren’t they @sakura1012? :)
This is a nice post! Just be a little more careful next time with the images. Do you know pixabay.com?
Thank you dear @abigail-dantes Skinner's experiments are definitely interesting. Thanks for your concern you really are so sweet,to tell you honestly I haven't even had the chance to sleep again because I am researching for ways on how to make sure that images that I will use are not copyrighted. 😔 I'm very thankful for @kryzsec for his advice. Anyway I haven't heard of pixabay.com yet I'll look it up now.
Don’t worry yourself too much about it! Now you know what to do. Kryzsec is a steemstem curator, and the good news is that they have found you :)
Really? That's amazing! 😀 Dear,I already pulled out the website and this is very helpful. Thanks for helping me out,I'm so blessed to have you. You really are my sunshine.
Excellent! Going to bed now 😴😴😴
Bye 😊
Goodnight dear... ☺😪😪
This sentence alone made me want to stop reading and just flag this. Millenials (born between ~1980 and ~2000) are not the problem, and by blaming a generation (with around a 20 year span) you basically...
Anyways your images are copyrighted and cannot be used, I would change that.
Here in our place we usually call the next generation or the kids today as millenials that's why I mistakenly wrote about it this way. Thanks for commenting I should've double checked it a couple of times.