When I was a child my parents would punish and reward me for things I had done. When I was in high school I was expected to get the best grades possible. My parents were always checking to see if my work was done on time and that my grades were to their expectations. I would get small rewards for getting good grades. It was in line with the behaviorism concept of positive reinforcement/punishment and negative reinforcement/punishment. When I would get good grades I would get complements that didn’t seem that sincere. The way they verbalized their praise did not have much enthusiasm. It would make me feel like I didn’t accomplish what they wanted, even though I believed I was doing excellent. However, when I received poor grades the punishments …show more content…
I was taking AP United States History. It was a difficult course for me, because it was college level material being taught. I had never taken a college level course before, so it was an entirely new experience for me. The teacher for my AP United States History course would mostly lecture and give exams after each unit. There were no papers or creative projects that I had grown accustomed to in the non AP classes. I believe my parents saw this as a test for me to see if I could handle a college level course. They were consistently on me about my progress in this course. I really enjoyed the class, and he was a fantastic and knowledgeable teacher, but I always felt nervous and anxious about failing an exam. I struggled on my first exam because I was always thinking about what my parents would do if I failed an exam. I did poorly on the first exam and my parents insisted on a parent-teacher conference. I was so embarrassed to see the teacher with my parents. During the conference I felt like a failure for not passing the first exam. My parents kept pushing my teacher to give me some sort of extra credit to help with my grade. The teacher did not offer any extra credit and did not think I needed it to pass the class, but my parents insisting until he budged and gave me an extra credit assignment. I didn’t like how much they would interfere with my schooling. I just wanted to try and do my best on my own without any interference. The pressure they put on me made me afraid to fail and also made me fear what the consequences would be for failing. As time went on I began to grasp the college level work and passed the rest of my exams. As I improved, my parents still gave me the same bland positive reinforcement they would always give. However, once I passed my AP test at the end of the year, their praise came in floods and it validated my accomplishment in passing this college level class. However I wish the positive
I yelled at them, ignored them, and occasionally did the opposite they told me too. At the time, I thought that made me better than them, but in the end, it got me nowhere. Soon I entered high school and my bratty preteen-self calmed down. However, my parents became stricter on my grades because there was a big milestone that would be coming up in a few years, getting accepted into college. My parents made it very clear that if I did not get a large scholarship to any university, I would have to go to the local community college. That was the last thing I wanted to happen, I wanted out of the house. I now had a strong incentive to do well in school. I wanted to be able to go out on my own and escape their tight grasp on me. I completed year after year, always making “A’s” in my classes. I soon climbed to the top of my school’s ranking system and was at the top of my class. Though, this did not matter to me, I wanted out of my house. At this point, I knew I was not disappointing my parents, they were as proud as can be with a daughter at the top of her class. This was the first time in my life that I felt as if my parents were generally proud of me and my accomplishments. I still however, felt guilty. Even though I was doing it for myself, I felt bad that I wanted to escape my parents. I did not hate them, I just could not stand being under their control
Every elementary school in my hometown requires a placement exam for freshmen entry. My parent decided to put me to a try at the system by sending me to a tutor. At the time, I believe some people are more superior than others base on family status, especially family with political background. I didn’t really care about the examination, because I felt like the result has already been determined within the school. In China, People with money can bride their way into one of the best school or get a good job within the government. I have the same mindset as my parents, my family background will not get me anywhere near a higher education. Education system in China is always been corrupted, because of that, I walk away from home to play with my neighbors. When my parents notice that, they were so angry that they lock me up for hours in the dark. While in the dark, frighten and scary moment flew by and lead me to try to take the exam instead of walking away like a coward. Because of that, I became more cooperative towards my parents. I tried my best during the placement exam, but it is tough to study full time when I am only seven years old or so. In the end, I got accepted even though I was one point off from the standard score line. Challenging the issue instead of giving up have granted me the opportunity to be one step closer to a higher
In second grade I was apart of a wild classroom. Their was a lot of chaos from all the young children. My teacher struggled to get everyone on task and to complete our work. After some time my teacher decided to make up a reward system (positive reinforcement). The children in the classroom were able to earn tickets for doing their homework, being respectful, and many other things. We were able to save these tickets and cash them in on fridays for treats, toys, or even sometimes extra recess. The teacher had a separate system for when we misbehaved. There were 3 colors you could earn everyday. If you weren’t on task, out of your seat, or just being disruptive she would change your color from green to yellow. If it happened again you got a red card and lost your tickets you earned for that day. This is a perfect example of positive punishment. It gave each child an opportunity to earn tickets for good behavior, and a warning system with the cards that possibly would lead to losing your earned tickets. Our teacher was using operant conditioning to produce a change in our
As I set such a scenario for you, two problems are clearly recognizable. The first lies in the lack of effort I put forth in my early schooling, and the second is that I recognized very early what my parents expectations of me were, though I failed to explore my own subdued expectations. They were bubbling just beneath the surface of my false façade of a student. It was not until my years in college, and my subsequent experience, although it is still in its infant stages, of teaching High School English that I began to appreciate writing and reading as a useful tool rather than a mechanism for keeping a smile on my parents’ faces. When this released enthusiasm became part of my life, the latter of the scenario’s problems quickly solved the former.
When reading the article “The Perils and Promises of Praise”, I was taken aback by the fact that there was a thing as negative praise. The studies show that just telling someone that they are intelligent is detrimental to future success in challenging situations because of the fear of failure. Encouragement of hard work and effort works more effectively than praising intelligence. I still feel that there is a missing element that was not mentioned in the article. It is secret number three in motivation for success in school. That motivation is the parents of the students. I was told that if I failed my classes, I could expect severe punishment and retribution for my failure, unless I prove I tried my best. Motivation is not just praise; it is the support of those adults in a student’s life that gives reinforcement of positive ideas
My parents always encouraged me to strive for the best, so when they noticed my mediocre grades and lack of motivation in high school they were not happy with me and always reminded me to be grateful for the opportunities in front of me. Imagine the “when I was your age…” speech on steroids. Truth is I was unmotivated; no subject sparked my interest and the only subject that I had some remote interest in was medicine/healthcare. So when my senior year rolled
A lot of my classmates taunted me for receiving good grades on all my tests. It was obvious that I had different morals than they did. Their parents did not care what grades they got. My parents were never harsh, but they would always make me feel guilty if I did not receive high grades on my report card. At times, I would feel pressured to not preform exceptionally in school because of the constant verbal abuse. In fifth grade, I received my first ‘D’ on an English test because some of my classmates dared me not to study for the test that week. Lucky for me, I had very supportive parents unlike some of my other classmates. They explained to me how important it was to maintain a high GPA; I would go much farther in life than they would because of my academic drive. I took their advice to heart and from that moment on I never let negative peer pressure effect how I performed in
In my early childhood, when I started schooling, I always cried and my parents couldn’t manage to leave me at all. They used Positive Reinforcement which is giving something good. To keep me stay at school by myself, they always brought me my favorite ice cream. However, my parents got financial problems. They couldn’t afford to buy me my favorite ice cream so they decided to use Negative Reinforcement which means taking away something bad. They started to hit me on my butt which a thick bamboo stick when I refused to stay in my school by myself. I forced myself to stay in my stay in my school so, I wouldn’t get hit. Using Positive and Negative Reinforcement taught me so many lessons in life that I could use in my work as a babysitter to discipline a 8 ye...
Throughout the process of growing up, punishments and rewards clearly mark what we should and should not do. Whether it is being sent to time out for pushing a classmate or earning an allowance for cleaning the dishes, we are programmed to know the difference between good and bad. When
In this paper I will be discussing the information I have learned from the article “From Positive Reinforcement to Positive Behaviors”, by Ellen A. Sigler and Shirley Aamidor. The authors stress the importance of positive reinforcement. The belief is that teachers and adults should be rewarding appropriate behaviors and ignoring the inappropriate ones. The authors’ beliefs are expressed by answering the following questions: Why use positive reinforcement?, Are we judging children’s behaviors?, Why do children behave in a certain way?, Do we teach children what to feel?, Does positive reinforcement really work?, and How does positive reinforcement work?. The following work is a summary of "Positive Reinforcement to Positive Behaviors" with my thoughts and reflection of the work in the end.
My parents applauded my academic success, but hardly knew the price I paid for it. I vividly remember one night when my mother couldn't fall asleep. She kept going to bed and getting up again. Every -, time I heard her get up, I'd turn off my light so she wouldn't catch me still awake. By 5 o'clock that morning, I was so sleepy that I didn't hear her footsteps as she shuffled down the hallway. When she saw the light under my door, she came in and demanded to know why I wasn't sleeping.
Research shows that the learning environment encompasses more than just the classroom that learning and teaching takes place. Many factors contribute to a learning environment, including the students, teachers, parents, school staff, policy makers, specialists, support staff, community members and the different learning spaces and resources available. This reflective journal will discuss some ways that teachers can set up the learning environment to maximise teaching and learning and some potential advantages and difficulties for me as a new teacher.
In daily life, we need motivation to improve our performance in our job or in studies. Motivation is an internal force, dependent on the needs that drive a person to achieve. In the other words, motivation is a consequence of expectations of the future while satisfaction is a consequence of past events (Carr, 2005). We need to give reward to our self when we did correctly or we has achieve our target. Reward is something that we are given because we have behaved well, worked hard, or provided a service to the community. Theories of motivation can be used to explain the behavior and attitude of employees (Rowley, 1996; Weaver, 1998). The theories include content theories, based on assumptions that people have individual needs, which motivate their action. Meanwhile according to Robbins (2001), motivation is a needs-satisfying process, which means that when a person's needs are satisfied by certain factors, the person will exert superior effort toward attaining organizational goals. Schulze and Steyn (2003) affirmed that in order to understand people’s behavior at work, managers or supervisors must be aware of the concept of needs or motives which will help “move” their employees to act.Theories such as Maslow (1954), McClelland (1961), Herzberg (1966) and Alderfer (1969) are renowned for their works in this field. The intrinsic reward or also be known as motivators factors is the part of Herzberg motivation theory. Motivators are involve factors built into the job or the studies itself such as achievement, recognition, responsibility and advancement. Hygiene factors are extrinsic to the job such as interpersonal relationship, salary, supervision and company policy (Herzberg, 1966. There have two factors that are called hygiene fac...
My measurable, specific and realistic goal for this quarter is to exercise at least 10 hours a week by weightlifting, running, and swimming for the next 10 weeks. To be able to do that, I would need to have positive reinforcement to keep me going, help give me that little push that I need every day. One positive reinforcement that I absolutely love to use is food. After a hard day of working out, I buy myself something nice to eat, like good pizza or burritos. This way I become more likely to work out knowing that I will get something doo to eat after. I like to believe that food is my number 1 enforcer. It will always be there when I need it, it satisfies me tremendously, and overall it is just ridiculously reinforcing. As a result I try to
My parents followed moderately different parenting styles. My mother’s parenting style was strict and extraordinarily Authoritarian, while my dad practiced a mix of Neglectful and Authoritarian parenting. My Father was a workaholic and was not around much. During early childhood, I would be in bed by the time he arrived home from work, so I would rarely see him. He did not get involved with my schoolwork and would rarely show up to piano recitals or swim meets. The few times he did show up, he would ridicule me and tell me I should have done better. Since my