Rewards and sanctions, rules and routines

Child (2002) says that unacceptable classroom behaviour is likely to be minimised when the teacher

• Aims to personalise the learning for each student and identifies the most appropriate learning style
• Supports and challenges students as well as planning activities and content which are interesting
• Monitors and recognises progress based on well developed assessment strategies

I would agree with Child on these 3 points, students all have a preferred method of learning and I’ve found that if the activities are not engaging and interesting students lose focus.

The school I teach in has very few students so it is important that you develop a good relationship with these pupils although effective classroom management needs to be enforced for good learning to take place. In my opinion praise, rewards, sanctions, rules and routines need to be consistent and a school must have a code of conduct which pupils must follow and teachers should enforce. Praise should be plentiful to motivate students and set a good example to those who aren’t behaving. Rewards should be followed through on and not be superficial (such as a chocolate bar), good rewards might be a letter of praise sent home or a certificate of merit. Punishments must be fair and worthwhile and should also be followed through on because if there not pupils know that they can get away with bad behavior. These good relationships with pupils must have a line drawn somewhere so effective classroom management can take place. I have an experience of punishing a pupil many times and in return this pupil started to behaved and respected me more.