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Effects on Children of Classroom Punishment

I believe that one of the most serious questions about child development in relation to classroom practice is this: is the use of punishment ever justified in the classroom? It is well-known that discipline is a major problem in schools today. Not only are students more unruly, teachers are finding that traditional behavior control techniques like punishment are no longer effective (Kindsvatter & Levine, 1980). This fact alone demonstrates the necessity for change in classroom disciplinary practices, but I contend that the more serious issue here is the emotional and developmental repercussions that punishment has on the child being punished and the children witnessing the punishment.

Skinner (1971) has argued for decades that punishment is an ineffective and inhumane behavior modification strategy: positive reinforcement of desirable behaviors and non-reinforcement of undesirable behaviors lead to much better long-term results. The latter two methods also leave no emotional scars on the person whose behavior is being modified. Punishment, on the other hand, creates only short-term behavior changes and gives the child a poor role model (Kindsvatter & Levine, 1980; Hill, 1982). When a child is punished, the first thing he learns is that it is appropriate to use one's power to force someone weaker to do one's bidding. The second thing he learns is, of course, not to get caught when he breaks rules. He does not learn not to break rules and not to hurt others. Thus, although punishment may be gratifying to the punisher, it does the punishee a great deal more harm than good.

When a teacher punishes a child, she is not only punishing that particular child, but the rest of the class as well. This is because of the principle of vicarious learning which states that a person can learn from the reinforcement or punishment of others almost as well as he learns from direct environmental contingencies. What makes this vicarious punis...

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Effects on Children of Classroom Punishment. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 04:01, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1700075.html