The best way to teach-whether as an educator, employer, or parent-is to praise positive actions and ignore negative ones.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to address the most compelling reasons and/or examples that could be used to challenge your position.
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Trying to devise an optimal way to teach has always been one of the priorities in pedagogic research, and there have been many attempts to find out the effect of reinforcers and punishers. Although there are many good evidences that bolster the positive reinforcement approach, it would be fatuous for us, the educators or instructors, to overlook the merits of constructive criticism and of appropriate punishers.
It has been mentioned by behavioural psychologist many times that incentives are powerful motivators. This claim is backed by the empirical evidences we see in real life. In the corporate world, an outstanding employee is often awarded with the title "employee of the month". The satisfaction arose from having this glory would then motivate the winner to continue his good performance such as high sales or good proposals. Furthermore, child also develops a good habit much quicker than child without positive stimulus; It has been shown by one experiment that a child take 1 week less to learn to wash his hands before eating his meal. Therefore, encouragement and praises are indeed effective pedagogic tools.
It is also true that sometimes minor misconduct could be ignored. A child who gets scold at every mistake he made is likely to become overly introverted and diffident which is undesirable. Our offspring should be allowed to be explore our world freely and to come up with his own interpretations of things. In this way, creativity is unhindered and our children could then unlock their full potential.
However, serious offense should be actively discouraged. There have been many records showing teenage criminals that have been let off the first time to commit the same crime later again. Therefore ignoring negative actions could result in some ill-consequences. Moreover, sometimes the doer might not realize that his actions is perceived as unappreciated. Hence negative feedback could serve as a signal in this case. These examples illustrate to us the importance of responding to bad actions.
In sum, there is no doubt that positive reinforcement is conducive to learning. However, teachers would do a bad job if they rely on it solely. It is the teacher's duty to maximise his student's potential, and the only way to achieve this is use to utilize every teaching techniques possible.
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Thank you guys.
