Impacts of Behavioral Management in the Classroom

There are many ways to help shape the development of children in their society. Many psychologists have studied different ways to condition children, one of them being positive rein- forcement. In their 2003 book entitled, Classroom Management: Creating a successful learning community, Burden described the most classic definition of positive reinforcement as a method to help manage behavior. There are many benefits to using positive reinforcement to support children’s development, but there are also some down sides. In my experience, children who re- ceive positive reinforcement feel acknowledged, appreciated even. When a parent, educator or peer go out of their way to recognize a positive behavior, the person receiving the recognition often times will feel confident in the choices they made or behavior they exhibited. This confi- dence leads to the repetition of the positive behaviors. Positive reinforcement is not something that is standard in schools, it’s not even something that is standard in colleges where future edu- cators are trained. This capstone project includes a review on the psychological research on the impact of positive reinforcement and explores the benefits and limitations of its use in education- al settings. The written portion of a chapter book for children focuses on this topic.