Positive Reinforcement 正向鼓勵

Credit to Razzy's Corner.

With the recent trend of low fertility rate, almost every single Taiwanese child was pampered by their parents and grand parents.I have few students who still can't wipe their bonbon after they finish at the age of 6.As a result, Taiwanese children nowadays are not used to negative comments and react differently. Instead of being motivated by it, they would reject and be offended. Therefore it is important for us teachers to communicate more subtlety and adopt the positive reinforcement method.

When I first started teaching, my supervisor taught me how to convey message. For example, instead of telling student that his/her performance is bad, tell student that he/she is doing really well AND if he/she tries harder, he/she will be top of the class. 

Credit to Harrison Company.

In my personal experience, instead of pointing out where they did wrong. It would be more effective to focus on what they did right and then move on to the wrong doing. For example, I have a student who constantly disturbs the class and cannot focus much. In the beginning, I asked him to be quiet and threaten him with more homework. It didn’t work. Later, instead of focusing on his disturbance, I verbally awarded him when ever he did something right such as raise his hand before talking. After a week, his behavior improved a lot and even his mother noticed the difference.

What’s your trick of dealing with students? Please share with me!