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Positive And Negative Reinforcement In The Classroom Analysis

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Mr. Malone uses both positive and negative reinforcement with his class. When he notices a select group of student who are falling behind, he decided he needed to incorporate some form of reinforcement in order to boost motivation. He included bonus points, homework passes, and pizza coupons to those who did not receive attention and to those who complete work well and on time. However, it seemed to me that Nina took his new rule personally and called Mr. Malone out on it in front of the class. His idea of enforcing completion of work with motivational rewards made Nina feel targeted, resulting in her outburst. I believe Mr. Malone is using intermittent reinforcement properly. His idea of rewarding students once a task is complete or being successful at not getting detention is enough for the majority of students to comply to these new rules. When Nina bursts out at Mr. Malone, he answers her in a professional manner, then informs her that her behavior is unacceptable and states her Walker 2 punishment. The role of punishments in a classroom setting intends to reduce the frequency of an undesired behavior through time out, detention, suspension, etc. Mr. Malone is effectively using reinforcers to motivate his students to finish the Shakespeare project in a timely fashion, but the punishers he is utilizing seem to not work out in his favor. The unpleasant reaction he received from Nina makes it evident that detention and in-school suspension are not enough to turn her

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