To what extent does positive praise
affect behaviour, performance and confidence in the classroom, as shown in
theory, policy and practice? The vast majority of teachers
believe classroom management skills to be of major importance to them
professionally (Merrett and Wheldall, 1993). In many classrooms, behaviour
management is considered to be a large part of the teaching process, going so far
as to be a significant part of some teacher training programs. According to
research conducted by Ofsted in 2012, 92.3% of schools in England are
considered to have either Good or Outstanding behaviour presented by the
pupils, although an earlier survey showed 69% of teachers saying they faced
disruptive behaviour on a regular basis (Neill, 2001), and Ofsted (2014)
suggesting that up to an hour of learning is lost by pupils in each school day
due to low level disruption. This conflict of opinion stems from the notion
that there is no simple definition for poor behaviour, given the subjective
nature of teaching (Beaman et al, 2007), and the opinion also given by Ofsted
(2014), that low level disruption now seems to be accepted by teachers as part
of life in the classroom. However, there are many strategies available to
teachers in order to combat what they may consider to be poor behaviour, to
combat the loss of learning time. One such strategy is that of positive praise.
This is used not only to assist in behaviour management but also to enhance
both the performance and confidence of students in the classroom, occasionally
offering up more praise than is particularly necessary to some pupils, in order
to give examples of behaviour that should be replicated. This is occasionally
used as an individual technique, but is more often seen alongside sanctioning,
which then conversely informs the pupil of behaviours that should not be
repeated by attaching consequences, using either positive or negative reinforcement.
However, there are mixed opinions over the most effective strategy that of
only using praise, only sanctioning, or the use of both methods together, and
the efficacy of each of these strategies in enhancing performance, confidence
and behaviour is widely debated. The use of positive praise in addition to sanctioning is much
talked about in the teaching community, as both a performance enhancer in
quality of student work and also in behaviour management. The theory of this
strategy is that students will become defensive and resistant to sanctioning in
certain situations whereas will yearn for positive praise when seen given to
others who are behaving and achieving appropriately and so will seek to emulate
the same behaviour in order to gain the same positive attention. In 1995,
Merrett and Tang conducted research into the efficacy of this approach as
perceived by the students. The research, although conducted on students and
therefore open to bias and not pertaining to data, concluded that not only was
positive praise more likely to be effective on the younger years, such as year
7, but was also more likely to affect performance in lessons than the behaviour
of pupils, although by pupil perception, students were more likely to resent
their teacher for sanctioning them based on performance and knowledge, and more
likely to experience confidence issues as a result, whereas praise was less
likely to affect their behaviour but would build confidence in their knowledge.
At School A, behaviour policy states. Within our school there is a widely
noticed and appreciated lack of confidence, with many of our students having
come from poor backgrounds, or with issues in their home life that must be
carefully considered. As a result, the behaviour management in class must also
be carefully considered so as not to dissuade pupils from answering questions
and venturing guesses when they do not know the answers. Students are made
aware not only of the behaviour expectations in class, but also of the
expectations for participation through the use of posters and consistent
reminders in lessons, with many teachers embedding these slides into their
lesson plans. These slides and posters show students what behaviours will earn
them bronze, silver and gold rewards in class, which will allow them to
purchase desirable items such as footballs and stationery, and which behaviours
will result in yellow, amber and red slips, which will result in the losing of
their positive points, detentions and potentially IEU days. This follows the
standard outlined by the department of education which states that behaviour
policies must be publicised both to students and parents, which is achieved
through the code of conduct in student planners and publishing on the school
website. In this manner, the concepts of positive praise as a behaviour
management and confidence builder as this may be a method to instil the growth
mindset in my pupils, a technique being implemented widely across my A
placement school. This is also an important concept to pupil perception, as if,
in my practice, I use positive praise as a response to good behaviour, this may
not be as effective as using sanctioning to manage behaviour. The
department of education s position on behaviour management is that there is
vast improvement to the behaviour of students when a particular ethos is
instilled in the classroom, an ethos in which the teacher understands that
behaviour is learned, that behaviour is influenced by the situation in which it
occurs, and lastly that misbehaviour serves a purpose for each student
(Department of education, 2008). The department of education also suggests that
the best schools maintain a delicate balance of sanctioning and praise, in
which praise is used to encourage and motivate pupils but they are aware of the
sanctions for negative behaviours (Steer, 2006). The behaviour for learning
policy at this school is supplemented by the use of the Behaviour Watch
software in order to record and incentivise behaviour and progress. In this
manner it is made explicitly clear to the pupils which behaviours they will be
rewarded for, through the use of points they can spend at a student shop, that
will allow them to buy desirable items such as footballs, and eventually ipods
etc. This also makes them aware of the result of negative behaviours (yellow,
amber and red) which will result in removal to the IEU and losing some of their
points. Therefore, placement school A
follows the guidelines based on the students being aware of the sanctions,
although in my own practice I have witnessed a lack of praise being given both
by myself and others. In a critical incident that occurred in my own classroom,
a pupil pointed out to me that although this particular child was often
misbehaving in class, this had put a negative perspective of him into my mind
which had then prevented me from offering him the praise he deserved for his
work and behaviour. When I reviewed his book since the incident in question, it
was apparent that there had been a slip in the standard and quality of work
achieved in lessons. From this I could conclude that he felt that he would not
receive the praise he wanted regardless of the level of commitment to his
learning, and so why would he try? This incident drastically altered my
classroom practice to include more positive praise in order to offer an
incentive, not for positive behaviour management, but to improve the
performance of my students and give them a reason to work. The use of positive praise in the
classroom is not a particularly modern concept, nor one pertaining only to
schools in the UK. In 1967, Becker et al.
conducted a study in which 5 classroom teachers in the USA which showed that
pupil behaviour drastically improved when rules were made positive and the
teacher praised the behaviour they wanted to be reinforced. However, this study
did note that this tactic did not prove effective if the child was ill prepared
for the work that was being covered, or if there was a strong peer influence.
Although this study pertained to elementary school children, and studied only
ten students overall, it is interesting to note that the use of positive praise
to improve behaviour management is not only noted, conversely to the results of
Merrett and Tang as aforementioned. but has been shown to occur even in times
where perhaps parental influence was lacking due to the vietnam war occurring
at this point in time. This suggests the strength of the technique as behaviour
is often so strongly affected by circumstances outside of school. In addition, it is noted that positive praise
has been used successfully in developing countries as well as western
civilisation in order to improve pupil performance and confidence, with asian
students who had been given positive praise and roles of responsibility
responding positively in terms of their presentation skills and confidence
(Richmond, 2007). This suggests that positive praise can work beneficially to
improve pupil performance across cultures despite significant differences in
the structure of learning, with the asian students involved in the
aforementioned study being accustomed to a very passive role in the classroom
and entirely teacher led learning, whereas at my placement A school and across
the UK, teachers being encouraged more and more to include student led learning
and active education. However, the efficacy of positive praise as a tool for
behaviour management and for performance enhancement is dependent on the
teacher and the consistency and efficacy with which they apply the tactic.
Where studies have shown teachers using positive praise as the only
reinforcement in the classroom, using this technique with absolute consistency
until it has become embedded into the minds of the student, great success has
been shown, with students on an individualised reward system showing increased
productivity and stable behaviour patterns. However, it was noted that without
the physical reward system an all praise approach was not effective, and so
this technique relies on extensive teacher time and effort as well as resources that may not be available to all schools
(Pfiffner, Rosen and O Leary, 1985), as well as the establishment of positive
behaviour previously using both positive and negative reinforcement, and so the
tactic will not stand alone. In addition, the use of positive praise relies
strongly on the impartial attitude of the teacher, as was shown by my own
critical incident in which my own preconceptions of a student prevented me from
offering appropriate positive reinforcement. Merrett and Wheldall found, in
studies of the use of positive praise in the classroom in 2006, that female
teachers were more likely to respond to social behaviour from boys in a
negative way than the same behaviour by girls, and that male teachers were more
likely to respond positively to boys academic behaviour than to the same
behaviour by girls, although objectively there was little difference between
the two classes observed in terms of either behaviour management or
productivity. As such, positive praise can only be effectively employed or
judged, if there is certainty of objectivity by the teacher. Should this not be
the case, Merrett and Tang s study regarding behaviour management perceptions
by pupils addressed that students were more likely to resent their teacher if
they felt others were being praised over them despite their conscious efforts,
and this was more likely, in the eyes of a student, to lead to negative
behaviour. Perhaps it is with this in mind that pedagogy teaches us the value
of positive praise in the classroom, and teaches us that this is not only
valuable, but drastically underused in the modern classroom. However, as with all tactics there
are some clear flaws in the results that stem from the use of praise. Saeverot
points these out in his book Indirect pedagogy:
Some lessons in Existential Education. He notes that, despite education
nowadays leaning in favor of pupils becoming self assessing and independent,
that by utilising praise as a tool on the basis that pupils crave the positive
attention from their teachers, we are indirectly teaching the pupils to rely on
this feedback, and to struggle to meet the expectations of the teacher as
opposed to their own. In that sense it seems that although positive praise may
be beneficial to the students academic achievements, as it pushes them to meet
the expectations the teacher holds, it may be detrimental to their confidence
in their own abilities, in addition to their ability to reflect on their own
work and be accountable by their own expectations (Saeverot, 2015). As such,
this take on the pedagogy of praise suggests that, while it has a place in the
classroom and can be used as an effective tool, if we wish to build the
confidence of our students, then praise would be more effective if offered only
for the extraordinary, particularly in terms of academic achievement, offering
praise only to students who reach entirely new concepts of their own accord, to
encourage the rest of the class to be forward thinkers but without the
expectation of such, to offer praise without demanding or expecting a response
in return. This poses the question however, that if we are to praise without
expecting behaviours and progress to change, what would be the point?
Additionally I am of the belief that this attitude towards praise in the
classroom is a luxury dependent on the situation of the school in which a
person teaches. At placement A school, the students are not only low ability,
but immensely low self confidence, and many come from a background in which
there has been very little praise from outside school. Therefore, it is
considered vital not only to their in school progress but to their development
as members of society, that the students are made aware that positive
consequences stem from positive behaviour and negative consequences from
negative behaviour. This is clearly not only considered vital by my own
placement school given the OFSTED focus of british values, as advised by the
department of education, with teachers being advised to guide students to enable students to develop their
self-knowledge, self-esteem and self-confidence , in addition to the Teaching
Standards by which teachers are evaluated dictating that teachers consider the
social and intellectual well being of their students, and to motivate students
to meet the expectations set by the educator. Though the Department for
Education itself (Department of Education, 2008) outlines praise as being a
beneficial motivation tool, in terms of pupil response and perceptions, Shreeve
et al. (2002) found that students showed
across all age groups in several secondary schools showed complete indecision
regarding not only whether they found praise to be an effective motivator, but
also which rewards offered that they would find motivational. Although the
circumstances of the schools (Grammar or comprehensive, information about the
general student populus) was not available to draw data from, this study would
suggest, across a wide number of pupils, that the pupils themselves would not
find praise motivational. However it was also pointed out that the schools that
had the most success with this praising policy used in the study, were those
that made their behaviour policy and the consequences of both positive and
negative behaviours, explicitly clear to both students and parents, and
consistently reinforced this. So
it seems in literature, the make or break of the policy of positive praise is
the ability of the teacher to maintain consistency in not only the response
given to certain behaviours but in the pupil being responded to also. Shreeve
and Boddington (2002) highlighted this need in their findings that consistency
of approach, with all teachers offering the same sanctions and rewards for the
same behaviours to all students, was a vital factor in the students seeing the
policies as both fair and purposeful, and that in these instances, a high level
of praise and low level of sanctioning was seen as the most effective policy to
hold, whereas when the policy was inconsistent it ceased to be valued by both
pupils and teachers, given the poor effects that resulted from the system. It was also suggested by pupils and staff in
this study that the praise system worked more effectively still if there was
potential for the students to pay off any sanctions earned when they received
praise. This would then give the pupils
more motivation to work towards praise in order to avoid the consequences of
sanctions. Conversely, without this potential to overcome the sanctions,
students who are given sanctions may then feel the rest of the lesson is not
worth trying to behave well as they will be punished regardless of their future
behaviours. This was displayed within my
own classroom in the case of my critical incident in which the child felt that
once he had been sanctioned once, albeit even in a previous lesson, I had
biased opinions of him now and so would not praise him as deserved. To conclude I have found
that investigation into the policy, philosophy and pedagogy of using positive
praise in the classroom, and researching evidence of the ways in which this has
been successful and unsuccessful in practice has been highly beneficial to my
own practice, despite their being many arguments both for and against the use
of this technique in the classroom. Although some have claimed that praise can
be toxic if overused, I feel that the majority of evidence suggests that if
used appropriately and in line with the school behaviour management policy,
praise can be an effective tool for motivation of pupils both in behaviour
management and behaviour for learning.
As a response to this research I now need to adjust the manner in which
I conduct myself in sanctioning and praise in the classroom. Due to the low
self esteem of my students I need to use praise not only as a motivator but as
a confidence builder, and improve my level of bias and consistency, allowing
students to pay off their sanctions when they earn praise. My key actions will therefore involve the
implementation of growth mindset
techniques into my classroom so that students rely not only on my praise but on
their own self worth and that of each other, to revert to a more visual system
of behaviour management utilising whiteboard space to gives ticks and crosses
so that students can see that they will lose sanctions when they gain praise,
and to develop methods of my own to prevent bias towards more disruptive
students in my classroom and improve my awareness of when I should be offering
praise. It may also be useful to reduce sanctioning for homework tasks being
incomplete and instead reward the students who complete homework on time. This
critical analysis has allowed me to reflect on my current practice and to
improve the approaches I use in my own classroom, altering behaviours and
attitudes of my own in order to better address issues in the classroom such as
that of my critical incident. Word count: 3139 words.
Bibliography
Department of Education (2008) A positive school ethos. Available
at:
https://www.education.wa.edu.au/documents/2548175/2664299/Managing+Student+Behaviour.pdf/5b8c7ce1-e504-444d-9a29-d79be2fc98a0
(Accessed: 11 January 2017).
Baker, K. (2014) Managing teacher performance at a local
level: Policy developments related to recruitment, appraisal and
capability. Available at:
http://www.lgiu.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Classroom-behaviour-%E2%80%93-Ofsted-report.pdf
(Accessed: 11 January 2017).
Beaman, R., Wheldall, K. and
Kemp, C. (2007) Recent research on troublesome classroom behaviour: A
review , Australasian Journal of
Special Education, 31(1), pp. 45 60. doi: 10.1080/10300110701189014.
Becker, W.C., Madsen, C.H.,
Arnold, C.R. and Thomas, D.R. (1967) The contingent use of teacher
attention and praise in reducing classroom behavior problems , The Journal of Special Education,
1(3), pp. 287 307. doi: 10.1177/002246696700100307.
Brennan O Neill, K. and
Liljequist, L. (2001) Strategies used by teachers to rate student
behavior , Psychology in the Schools,
39(1), pp. 77 85. doi: 10.1002/pits.10007.
HM Government (2012) Pupil behaviour in schools in England
education standards analysis and research division. Available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/184078/DFE-RR218.pdf
(Accessed: 11 January 2017).
Merrett, F. and Tang, W.M.
(1994) The attitudes of British primary school pupils to praise, rewards,
punishments and reprimands , British
Journal of Educational Psychology, 64(1), pp. 91 103. doi:
10.1111/j.2044-8279.1994.tb01087.x.
Merrett, F. and Wheldall, K.
(1992) Teachers use of praise and Reprimands to boys and girls , Educational Review, 44(1), pp.
73 79. doi: 10.1080/0013191920440106.
Merrett, F. and Wheldall, K.
(1993) How do teachers learn to manage classroom behaviour? A study of
teachers opinions about their initial training with special reference to
classroom behaviour management , Educational
Studies, 19(1), pp. 91 106. doi: 10.1080/0305569930190106.
Pfiffner, L.J., Ros n, L.A. and
O Leary, S.G. (1985) The efficacy of an all-positive approach to
classroom management , Journal of
Applied Behavior Analysis, 18(3), pp. 257 261. doi:
10.1901/jaba.1985.18-257.
Richmond, J. (2007) Bringing
critical thinking to the education of developing country professionals , International Education Journal,
8(1), pp. 1 29.
Saeverot, H. (2013) Indirect Pedagogy: Some lessons in
existential education. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pcZEAAAAQBAJpg=PA61lpg=PA61dq=pedagogy+positive+praisesource=blots=w80jofOCLysig=2pEv4_zr0EALF4Nt-OPVJvKcviMhl=ensa=Xved=0ahUKEwj8_5upr7jRAhVcFMAKHf1LDusQ6AEIVDAH#v=onepageq=pedagogy%20positive%20praisef=false
(Accessed: 11 January 2017).
Shreeve, A., Boddington, D.,
Bernard, B., Brown, K., Clarke, K., Dean, L., Elkins, T., Kemp, S., Lees,
J., Miller, D., Oakley, J. and Shiret, D. (2002) Student perceptions of
rewards and sanctions , Pedagogy,
Culture Society, 10(2), pp. 239 256. doi:
10.1080/14681360200200142.
Steer, A. (2006) Learning behaviour principles and
practice what works in schools. Available at:
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151715/http://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/0281-2006PDF-EN-04.pdf
(Accessed: 11 January 2017).