The best way to teach is to praise positive actions and ignore negative ones

As one who has been a former teacher, I have seen first hand how students react to praises. As a result of my aforementioned experience, I daresay that the best way to teach is to praise positive actions. Albeit, not by totally ignoring negative ones.

During my experience as a teacher, students who were praised or given any sort of reward usually became hungrier for success, daring to do more. It follows that those praises served as a form of incentive. Underperforming students who know they can receive some sort of reward would even be motivated to do more.

Now, while it is beneficial to praise and reward positive actions, it isn't exactly prudent to ignore negative ones. Take for instance, a student who is constantly disrupting the class with incessant noise making, going on as to even convince others to join in his bad behavior. The teacher is faced with either treating this behavior or ignoring it. Both of these choices will have consequences. If the teacher goes ahead to ignore this bad behavior, the whole classroom could be reduced to utter chaos. Hence, we see that ignoring won't work here. It becomes principal that the student be reprimanded for bad behavior.

However, there are instances where ignoring bad behavior creates the opposite effect. A student who is so prone to attention seeking might go on to exhibit some terrible behaviors just so he gains the attention he desires. Confronting the student in this case might simply mean playing into his whims. If the student doesn't so much as disrupt the class or distract other students, the student is best ignored. Perhaps, the student might come to a self-realization that bad behavior doesn't gain attention. This realization might motivate the student to exhibit proper behavior which he will come to realize does actually gain the much needed attention.

Thus, while I do agree with the original statement, there are certain loopholes that need filling, and certain contexts that should be provided. Generally, praising good behaviors lead to more good behaviors. It is how humans are programmed, we crave for some sort of reward or attention, or anything that identifies as a result — anything that tells us that we aren't wasting our time. This is what propels us to want to do more, to want to push ourselves. Ignoring negative behaviors however, comes with context. Serious questions should be asked. Does this behavior disrupt the classroom? Is he better avoided? Is he influencing others to join in his bad behavior? Is he merely seeking attention? Answering these questions give you a better understanding as to how to tackle any given bad behavior problem.

In conclusion, the original statement has certain perks, but surely, we can see that it isn't devoid of problems intrinsically.