Penal rules: pedagogical defeat or lifesaver?
The imposition of punishment rules sounds old-fashioned, but there are teachers who swear by it. “Writing 'I must be silent in class' fifty times is an insult.”
Picture: Type tank
If a pupil from 3-mavo has not done his homework again, he has to copy a few pages from the workbook as punishment. The father thinks this is disproportionate and e-mails the teacher in the evening: 'Should you again feel the unsympathetic need to impose a pre-war sentence, then he is also immune from that. Because I don't believe in punishment and I'm not going to keep emailing you about your peculiar unpedagogical ideas.'
This case, which the National Complaints Committee handled last year, shows how sensitive the imposition of punishment is. Opinions often differ widely. With the Positive behavioral support, which came over from the United States about ten years ago, for example, more and more schools are focusing on rewarding desirable behavior and ignoring undesirable behavior as much as possible. This is based on the theory that everything that gives you attention - positive or negative - grows.
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Jurjen van der Helden, neuroscientist and starting biology teacher, would prefer not to reward or punish at all. In his book The learning man he shows that a reward system is lethal to intrinsic motivation. “Punishment and reward do work, but only if you are there as a teacher. As soon as you are gone, students lose the motivation to show the desired behavior.” Or, as the example in his book explains: with fish as a reward, seals learn to catch the ball and clap for each other, but once the instructor is gone, the ball is no longer played with.
Punishment, even the mere threat of it, can make the unwanted behavior attractive
Giving grades as a reward can even backfire. “If you get an 8 for something you just enjoy doing, it suddenly becomes less fun when you get a 7 afterwards,” he explains. “Rewarding performance also causes stress and makes you lazy. Students only do what is necessary for a grade and drop out if it fails.”
boundaries
Punishment, even the mere threat of it, can also make the unwanted behavior attractive. Research shows that when children are not supervised, they start doing exactly what is forbidden. “It is a difficult subject, because you also have to indicate boundaries,” says Van der Helden, who works as a trainee teacher at Thomas a Kempis College in Arnhem. “How I can appeal to students about their motivation is quite a quest. Adolescents are mainly concerned with their peers and also push the boundaries. If they then cross the line, you will have to punish, although I prefer to speak of correcting. Punishment is not my preference. I prefer to talk to a student about why he is displaying the behavior.”
There may be a good reason why someone keeps coming late or not doing their homework. 'We therefore primarily resolve conflicts through a conversation', writes psychologist Ludo Driesen in his book The less punishment. In addition, other measures, such as punishment, are sometimes necessary to correct the behavior. “A punishment must be meaningful,” says Driesen. According to him, extra exercises for a subject can be, but not punishment rules. “Writing “I must be silent in class” 50 times is an insult, is counterproductive, and only increases the likelihood of a negative relationship between child and teacher.”
It is precisely that 70s mentality of talking all the time that does not help
If you use punishment rules properly, it actually benefits the relationship, says remedial educationalist Astrid Boon. In her book Punishment/rules she describes her method: a student who violates a rule will receive a writing penalty after a warning. The punishment rules make it clear what the undesirable behavior is, what its effect is and how things can be done differently next time. “The advantage is that the punishment is very simple, clear and the same for everyone,” she says.
Research shows that teachers continue to warn for a long time, which is not very effective. They then quickly switch to 'heavy guns' such as removal and suspension, while this often comes out of the blue for students, she says. Boon: “With my method I want to offer teachers a friendly alternative. You can intervene immediately, it costs you little and the student a lot of time, while they can simply stay in class. If he then behaves well, you can reduce the number of lines as a reward. Some even say 'thank you'.”
Unpedagogical
'Medieval and unpedagogical' are often heard reactions to the penal punishment, but Boon dismisses them. “It is precisely that 70s mentality of talking all the time that does not help. An adolescent very often does not know why he is doing something or simply does not feel like listening. It is now known that negative feedback works better than positive feedback in adolescents, so why do you stick to rewarding over punishment?”
The prevailing idea is that only bad or novice teachers give punishment
That is, she says herself, because the idea prevails that only bad or novice teachers give punishment. “Teachers see punishment as a pedagogical defeat and are sometimes afraid of the consequences: for example, that colleagues will blame them or that they will get their parents on their roof.”
She does not know how many teachers apply her method, but her book from 2009 is still in great demand at teacher training colleges. For Roy Keuter, English teacher at the Hondsrug College in Emmen, it was one life saver. As a beginner, almost fifteen years ago, he sometimes went to school with a stomach ache. “Many things went well, but in some classes, students didn't listen. When I said something about it, they started a discussion all the time. I always had to punish, but that did not fit my image of a nice teacher at all.”
Picture: Type tank
A colleague gave him the booklet about criminal rules as a tip. “This method worked immediately!” he says. “Of course there was resistance in the beginning. But students know what to expect if they break a rule, and the longer they continue, the more lines they have to write. That prevents further discussion.”
Good preparation is essential, says Keuter, who shares experiences with two colleagues on epiconderwijs.nl for inspiration. He recommends drafting one escalation ladder where you map out possible violations and sanctions in advance. “If a student breaks a rule, you know how to respond. This allows you to remain calm, so that the bond is not affected. It does not become personal and the good thing is that the issue is settled with the surrender of those criminal rules. Every student then gets another chance.”
Bad head
The imposition of sanctions does not stand in the way of addressing the intrinsic motivation. “One cannot do without the other,” says Keuter. “For intrinsic motivation, autonomy and involvement of the student are important, but that is not the case in principle. Students are forced to be put in a cubicle with a lot of classmates and a teacher that they have not chosen themselves. In order to be able to learn, the teacher will have to create a safe climate. And you do that by setting clear rules and enforcing them. The sanction doesn't have to be a writing punishment from me, but you have to persevere. This shows students that you care about their behavior.”
By enforcing rules, you show students that you care about their behavior
He doesn't think it's a good idea to copy something from the book. “The question is how much a student learns when he makes that punishment with an angry face. Moreover, I don't want a negative association with my profession. The goal is to get students to change their behavior.”
He therefore always formulates the desired behavior that he wants to see in the criminal rules. The last punishment he handed out was: 10x 'I have to straighten the tables in Mr. Keuter's room'. “Four students made a lot of noise, even a table fell over and then I give such a small writing penalty. When handing in, a nice chat follows about how I can understand their behavior on Friday afternoon and that they also understand very well that it is not acceptable. That only strengthens the bond.”
And the father's complaint about his son's penal sentence? This is unfounded, the National Complaints Committee ruled. The teacher has the freedom to decide what punishment to give and 'there is no manifestly unreasonable or disproportionate punishment'.
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