The Magic of Positive Reinforcement: From a resistant student population to an engaged one

I’m a big fan of devising meaning through interaction.

“What?”, you’re thinking. “Okay, how’s this… ?”

It’s one of my most passionate missions to let teachers and students learn by doing.

Alright, alright. More concrete. Instead of entering the classroom prepared to stand in front of people—little people, bigger people, younger or older people (now I’m channeling Dr. Seuss)—ready to talk at them, I walk across the threshold of any learning environment prepared with materials so that they have the tools necessary to absorb new information on their own—so that we become a collective unit of thinkers who negotiate meaning together.

For this very reason, I’m not going to give you a concrete definition of positive reinforcement; I’m going to give you situations so that you can figure out the concept yourself and then we’ll collate your conclusions and see if we have an agreement. How does that sound to you? Just wait. This is going to be fun!

Situation 1: Your students are working on a task in groups. Some finish early and begin bothering the groups near them, or start moving around the room without permission, speaking loudly, and being generally disruptive. What do you do? What is your first reaction?

Situation 2: Your students are busy on a task and working effectively—except for one who, as usual: is not where he should be, is bothering other students, is ignoring you. What emotions come up from you? How do you act on those emotions?

Situation 3: One of your students has her hood pulled down over her head. You can tell she’s angry, that she’s not going to participate appropriately, and that at any moment she may lash out at her classmates or you. What do you do? How much do you take personally and does that factor into how you act?

Now, hopefully you’ve been honest with yourself—you might as well be because no one is there judging you, so just let your answers fly. In your mind, did you scream, pound on desk, ring a bell incessantly, lash out with ‘shhhhhh’ at your students over and over again? And in your mind, how long did it take for you to get your students’ attention? Most of us react fast and aggressively. I’m not saying that we’re cruel, but we’re probably not very thoughtful and we probably aren’t thinking of long-term solutions, but rather something that will stop the dynamic right then and there.

Ready to see how positive reinforcement can be used in these situations?

Situation 1

Call a Class Meeting. You’ve already set up the structure and practiced class meetings in which the students have leadership and agency. One of the elements you’ve co-created are the norms and consequences, so this class meeting is simply an opportunity to review them, have the students fulfill their roles in weighing the behaviour of their classmates, the norms they've chosen not to respect, the corresponding consequences, and the enforcement of those consequences.

Logistically, you can follow these steps:

Raise your hand for silence and give a signal that you’re going to have a five-minute class meeting.
Give groups three minutes to verbally review the norms and consequences.
The speaker in each group stands up and states which norm have been broken and what the consequences are for those who chose to ignore them.
Consequences are enforced.
Done—move on and everyone is back to learning.

You can find more on norms and consequences here. And if you ask us nicely, we’ll send you information on how to structure class meetings, which are incredibly effective tools you can use from Pre-School to Secondary.

Situation 2

Direct student to the Cool-off Area you’ve co-created with the whole class beforehand, along with the tools they can use to calm themselves down independently.

The choices can be:

Put on earphones and listen to binaural music.
Answer prompts such as: What you are feeling? What are the options when you feel this way? What can you do to calm down and feel more in control over yourself?
Follow a written or audio guided breathing exercise.
Pick a piece of paper from one of two bowls: One is filled with ways you can tidy the classroom (many children calm down by doing something physical), the other bowl filled with ways to help a classmate (many children calm down when they feel useful to others).
Color in mandalas or any other images provided (colouring helps the student’s mind to stop racing and offers focus). You can find mandalas to print out for your cool-out area here.

Situation 3 – solved with positive reinforcement

Connect Personally.

Ask the student quietly about a hobby or singer or actor that you know they like. (In this way, the student gets the message that you see and value them and their interests. These quick, quiet comments are usually enough for the student to move out of fight-or-flight mode, to a place of contemplation and self-reflection).
Hand the student a gratitude journal they have worked on in the past. Give them time to focus on filling in an entry instead of doing the task that the rest of the students are working on. Incorporate the student back into the main activity when their body language indicates that they are ready. (You’re not wasting time by giving the student this alternative because if you don’t, they’ll not only be unproductive in their group, but they will also probably end up being disruptive.)
If she’s generally trustworthy, give her a specific errand outside the classroom. (In this way you’re giving her a message that you see her as responsible, you’re letting her move her body which she needs to help her to switch her out of reaction mode, that she’s needed as a valuable member of the class.)

You can find more ideas on connecting to your students verbally here.

So what is positive reinforcement? The options above have surely mapped out the general idea. Just to be sure, here’s a tale about that elucidates the concept. There was a dolphin trainer in Florida who worked at the dolphin pool for hours, encouraging the dolphins to perfect their routines. (Whether this is ethical or not is a whole other conversation.)

Because many of those hours would be spent standing poolside and throwing fish as treats, storks from the nearby reserve would often fly to her, land on her shoulder and beg for food. This became so common that she spent a lot of time pushing storks off her shoulders. Storks are actually heavy—an average of 8 kilos (18 pounds), which is a lot to have on your shoulders! However, because the temptation was so strong to get the fish, the storks didn’t change their behaviour… until the trainer decided to switch tactics and, instead of spending time showing them where she didn’t want them (her shoulders), she put colourful towels on the cement next to her and taught them where they could land. There they received positive reinforcement—the same treats they got before, but this time for doing what she found appropriate. Everyone won!

This is what positive reinforcement is in the classroom as well. Instead of indicating (in often loud, frustrated voices) what we want our students not to do, we calmly remind them of what is appropriate to do—what we’ve agreed on beforehand. Instead of speaking in anger, sparked by the fear of not knowing if we’ll be able to control a situation, we speak calmly, and review the choices they took part in creating to control themselves.

Once you start practicing this, you’ll be amazed at the change in the general attitude of your students and at how much more productive everyone is. Doesn't that sound like an incredibly welcome change?