In chapter 9, what caught my attention was the "Consequences That serve as Effective Punishment" section. I was really surprised to find that Verbal reprimands were seen as effective, especially scolding. I had always heard that this was the wrong way to try and get to your students. The reasoning for this was because students would tune out the teacher or it would have no effective impact, but after reading that it can be done in a effective manner, I am able to see why it would be effective. You have to make it infrequent, immediate, brief, and unemotional. From the "Consequences That May Undermine Desired Behavior Changes" section, I completely agreed that assigning extra homework to a student who is misbehaving is inappropriate. As teachers, our goal is to help students engage in class and find learning fun. If we are punishing them with what we are trying to get them to enjoy, we will never have successful punishment.
In chapter 10, I found the bullet point "Learners' expectations are influenced by what happens to other people as well as to themselves" to be interesting. I never had actually though about this statement, but, after reading the section, it makes sense that students observe one another more than teachers think. If a student sees a majority of the class studying and participating in class, he knows that this will result in good grades. Therefore, he is going to mock their behavior to get good grades. Hopefully, as a teacher, I will be able to set up a learning environment where students set this example to their classmates.
I enjoyed the scolding section and how to handle it and make it effective. Reminded me of the military how they train their NCO's to make sure the enlisted person they are speaking to needs their guidance towards a goal. I also thought that when you have taken the time to get to know your students it would aid you a great deal on how to approach them. I know with my own kids at home one I can not yell at or he just wilts and tunes me out entirely.
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I think this is a very good point to make about students viewing what other students are doing. I believe most students will see acceptable behavior and conform to, although there will be some who want to be disruptive. I have some of these disruptive traits. I have a bad habit for speaking out in class too much. I hope to fix this someday by being the instructor.