The first management strategy was Establishing Expectations .  You’ve got to teach your expectations explicitly before you begin managing behaviour so that your students understand and know your expectations. 

Second is Responding to Misbehaviour . You need to learn to respond to behaviour infractions with consistency, but this must be done with a range of strategies that go beyond just yelling or being negative.  

In this third article, I’m going to hone in on using positive acknowledgement as your primary mode of responding to misbehaviour.  Experts suggest that for every one negative or angry comment that you make in a classroom, you need to be counteracting it with four positive acknowledgements to keep the tone of the classroom buoyant, to keep it positive, and to keep students engaged with what you are saying. 

Stop for a moment and think about the number of times you correct or reprimand students for their behaviour in one day. Now take that number and multiply it by 4. Do you use positive reinforcement and encouragement as much as that? If you’re honest the answer is most likely no and there’s no shame in that. It’s true of most teachers because we have a natural tendency as human beings to notice any anomalies in behaviour and respond to them instinctively. It’s how our brains work to protect us. 

The challenge for teachers is, we need to train ourselves to develop an instinct for responding positively first rather than negatively. The good news is; if you can master the skill of positive reinforcement, it will become the most used and most effective tool in your classroom management arsenal.  

If all you ever do is correct behaviour negatively and tell kids off when they’re doing the wrong thing, sooner or later they will tune out to you and they will stop listening to your correction. But if you can counterbalance it with positive acknowledgement,  with positive reinforcement, with a; “Well done for the people that are putting up their hand and not calling out,” or a, “Well done for the people that lined up quickly and are ready to learn”… rather than the usual “get into line” or “stop calling out”… you will find that your students start to emulate the behaviour you acknowledge most often.

The happy byproduct of this is you will feel way less stressed and your kids will be much happier in the class too. It’s exhausting being grumpy and negative all the time, so do yourself a favour, focus on being positive for your sake if nothing else and watch your students respond in kind. 

You know it, most of your kids actually want to do the right thing most of the time most days. But you normally spend 80% of your time and energy correcting and managing 5% of your students. 

Those kids that do the right things need to hear your positive affirmation. But, even more so, when you are positively acknowledging the right behaviour, kids who are engaging in the wrong behaviour will very quickly cotton on to that fact and realise; “The way that I get teaches attention is I have to behave, I have to do the right thing”. 

They’ll see all these other kids getting your attention, getting your praise, getting your acknowledgement, and they are going to very quickly figure out that if they want your praise, acknowledgement and attention, they’re going to have to modify their behaviour. 

Rather than giving all our attention and response to negative behaviours, we need to learn how to catch our students when they are doing the right thing. 

Now I acknowledge, this doesn’t come naturally and will require you to approach your teaching with a great deal of intentionality and focus. Especially if you are not a naturally positive person. But when you do, you will find that positive reinforcement becomes your most used and most effective tool in your behaviour management toolbox. 

One of the things that I do to help myself stay focus on the positive is, I keep a tally on the board. When I have to correct somebody negatively, I put a mark against my own name. If I praise students and positively reinforce behaviour I give a point to the class. I turn it into a competition: The Class vs Mr Stevenson. What that helps me do is to keep track of how many times I’m being negative without actually singling out individuals. 

It also helps the class to focus on positive behaviour which I tie to rewards rather than consequence tied to correction. If I have 3 or more negative tallies in my column, I straight away look for opportunities to start praising kids, start positively acknowledging the class to keep the ratio of positivity higher than that of correction and negativity. 

If you keep track of your corrections and focus on positive reinforcement, you’ll find the tone to the classroom will be a lot calmer, and cooperative. You’ll also find that you’re not yelling or correcting so much because you’re actually using their desire to please you for effective behaviour management.

5 keys to doing positive reinforcement well. 

1. Be descriptive

Positive reinforcement must clearly describe the desired behaviour you want to see more of. e.g. “I love the way you opened your book quickly Cindy, that shows me you’re ready to learn.” or “Thank you for raising your hand before speaking Jarred, that’s very respectful.” By using specific language you can effectively link the behaviour to your class expectations and ensure consistency in your response.  

2. Verbal and Non-Verbal

Not all positive reinforcement needs to be verbal. Don’t be afraid to use a hand on the shoulder, a thumbs up or a smile from across the classroom to catch them in the moment. Very often, students who find it difficult to make positive choices in the class will pop their head up momentarily to check if you’ve noticed them making great choices. No matter how small, don’t miss those opportunities to encourage even if it’s a micro gesture that is only shared between you and them. They don’t wait long for acknowledgement and if you don’t catch them in the act, the opportunity may be lost…

3. Private and Public

Not all children like to be praised publicly. Some (especially boys) find public praise embarrassing and may react negatively to it. Emails, Phone calls home or a private conversation they are leaving the class can also be a very effective way of encouraging and positively reinforcing their behaviour. For the child that is self-conscious, it can be a powerful motivator to continue in said positive behaviour and also endear them to you relationally. 

4. Be Generous with your praise

If you have a belief that your students never do anything worthy of praise you are not looking hard enough. Be generous in your praise. Don’t wait for your students to do monumental things before they get your approval, look for the little stuff. The micro compliances, they small gestures, for some of your students you’ll need to look hard, but I assure you. They are there. Look hard and praise often. You’ll thank me later. 

5. Use what works, not what you prefer. 

We all have a relational language that we prefer to use (See Gary Chapman’s book Love Languages for more context.) As a result, we will have a prefered way of praising or encouraging kids in our class. This, however, may not be the language that your kids speak. Perhaps you like receiving gifts and as a result, you have got an amazing prize box and love to give out certificates. This will work for some kids, but a great number of your students will not be motivated by tangible rewards. Some prefer verbal praise, while others prefer, quality time, physical touch (high fives, fist bumps etc) or even gestures of service. What you need to do is figure out what they respond to and learn to speak their language, even if it’s not yours. 

It will take time if you are not currently engaged in regular use of positive reinforcement, but with a little bit of planning and a lot of practice it will become more natural with time. Like anything, if you want things to change, you’re going to have to put in the work for a little while before it becomes second nature. Once you do though, the tone of your classes and approach to teaching will change forever. Rather than constantly feeling stressed and frustrated by your class, you may actually start enjoying yourself. Go on, give it a try and let me know how you go in the comments or on social media.

If you would like to learn more about managing classroom behaviour effectively, why not check out our FREE video course Behaviour Management Blueprint. See below for details.

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