The best way to teach is to praise positive actions and ignore negative ones Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the recommendation and explain your reasoning for the position you take In developing and sup

The statement seems all encompassing to me, there are many other ways to also teach, much of which depends on curricula, student audience and assessment. To a certain extent, I do agree that those who study hard need praise; it is only human that positive feedback encourages a person towards repeating something desirable. However, there are students or circumstances necessitating other teaching pedagogy or ignoring negative acts: sometimes a teacher needs to consider other factors like the learning environment, learning outcomes and course curricula.

A generalized statement like the one mentioned above is especially encouraged if teachers want to nurture good learning habits among children. Early childhood learners, who after receiving love, praise and affection develop the feeling and the habit to raise their hand again when those teachers ask them a question. Moreover, at every educational level, even in different cultural contexts, praising positive actions fosters active learning styles and strategies. An interactive classroom facilitates discussions, feedback and other learning assessments: children, all the way to adult learners cultivate the feeling and habit to enjoy learning. A happy educational atmosphere creates trust, bonds among teachers, educational staff, even among other classmates. These relationships can last a lifetime.

On the other hand, ignoring negative actions is also a necessary educational pedagogy. Especially among young learners, those children that are able to learn right from wrong in an environment nurturing trust and warmth. So, a young boy that disturbs his classmates doesn’t need to be reprimanded, it can be ignored the first time. The teacher instead focuses on instruction, curricula and maintaining a healthy learning environment. Also, he or she could utilize negative reinforcements for facilitating better learning outcomes among other children; so, if Ben plays a prank on his friend Tom during a classroom problem-solving activity, Mr. Spiegel could discipline Ben by refusing him playground access during lunch break. Negative reinforcement during a higher-stakes situation discourages learners of different ages and backgrounds from repeating an undesirable activity. For example, Tim, an older student, he had experienced different teachers docking points or disciplining him as punishment. For these teachers, instructing TIm, who made repeated classroom transgressions, which had negatively impacted the congenial learning environment, was an alternative to simply ignoring his negative actions at all times.

Effective teaching also uses other proven psychological techniques for enhancing learning outcomes. Notably, students learn by observing one another, also their teachers - young children in different social cultural contexts first learn to raise their hand to respond to questions by observing their peers. They want to avoid embarrassment, so they observe their best friend getting a positive feedback which encourages a child, let's say John, to only raise his hand at the appropriate moment (the right turn to answer a question, after a teacher has probably asked a couple of children). Students also learn by doing, or paired associations; young learners slowly overcome their fear of presenting their ideas in front of teachers and classmates by conditioned response. A small girl, Alina, who from her early childhood years had developed a conditioned response to the autumnal leaves fluttering in the sunshine, as a matched pairing with the particular class time, location or even sequence of speaking in front those teachers and classmates.

It doesn’t seem that there is any single, all-encompassing, definitive way of teaching which enhances overall learning outcomes. Praising positive actions and ignoring negative ones potentially works among certain student audiences and contexts, perhaps other teaching methods are more effective or certain students have other learning needs. It seems that this credo is effective if not taken to extremes.