Reinforcement and Consequences

Natural Reinforcement
The first form of natural reinforcement that I would use would be praise. This
reinforcement would typically be used when a student has done something positive
in the classroom few examples of positive things might be being on time for class,
actively participating in class, completing work quietly, and properly following the
classroom rules. It is also a good idea for the instructor to praise the students when
they are in front of their peers because then it would show others how they should
behave. Praise is such a simple but highly effective natural reinforcement and
really promotes the students to have good behavior.
The second form of natural reinforcement that I would use would be
contacting the students parents. Often times this act is performed because the
student is misbehaving, not often enough is this reinforcement used in the positive
way. I would call the students parents for multiple reasons, such as improving test
scores, improved classroom behavior, and improved work ethic. This would
encourage the students to continue their hard work and improvements because
they would then be getting more reinforcement from home. However the teacher
should not constantly call home because just like anything else of it is done too
frequently, it might lose its effect.
The third form of natural reinforcement that I would implement would be
allowing my students to have free time at the end of class. This could not occur on
a regular basis though because it would take away from a lot of the teaching time
but this could be use to reward students for good behavior. The option of the
students being able to get free time would be mentioned at the beginning of the
period, that way the students would know that if they are well behaved through the

class and do what is expected of them they will receive that reward. If the students
do not do what is asked of them during that period or misbehave and waste time,
the privilege of having free time would be taken away.
Artificial Reinforcement
One form of artificial reinforcement might be if the students got a good grade
on the test, and continued to get good grades on other assessments, possibly
allowing students to pick the topics from a specific unit. Since there are often so
many things to cover in biology, you typically cannot cover all of it. It is possible for
the students to pick a topic that might interest them to learn more information
about. Not only could this benefit the teacher by deciding what to teach, the
students would be able to pick a topic that actually interests them. However, the
students should not be allowed to have the power to decide all topics that are to be
covered, because that would just be highly unprofessional.
The second form of artificial reinforcement might be something like a
classroom surprise. This might be something like the students being able to have
an ice cream or pizza party and watch a video or complete a fun experiment that
might not have been the lesson because of lack of time. I would announce the
possibility of this occurring at the beginning of the week to allow the students to
earn it throughout the week through good grades and behaviors. However this is a
great reinforcement, it cannot happen on a regular basis because the students
would begin to expect it and the reason that you are doing the act would no longer
be important. This reinforcement could also take place as a competition between
other classes. The class that gets the best scores on their weekly quiz or the class
that has the best behavior would win the prize. This could also end up being
problematic though because the classes that dont win may feel upset and that is

not the purpose of the reinforcement. This reinforcement is to encourage students

to perform their best like stated in the purpose and for them to behave their best.