Is It Right With Punishment During Education?

We see punishment as a way to eradicate or avoid negative behavior. But is punishment in education useful? What are the consequences? In this article we will try to answer these questions.

Education is a very important topic that can not be boiled down to concrete experiences or individual opinions. Training practices should be based on scientific criteria.

To investigate the use and consequences of punishment in education, we focus on empirical data. This is because scientific data gives us very useful information about punishment and its pedagogical implications.

Rewards and punishments during education

Before we discuss the use and consequences of punishment in education, it is important to understand the principle that governs it. Why does punishment allow us to remove a certain behavior? The answer to this question lies in BF Skinner’s theory of operant condition. He was one of the fathers of behaviorism and contributed greatly to learning psychology.

Operant condition roughly states that when a behavior is amplified, it is likely to be repeated. In other words, when something positive happens as a result of a particular action, we tend to continue to act that way in the future.

The opposite happens with punishment. When a behavior is punished, the likelihood of it being repeated is reduced. A lot of evidence supports the theory of operant condition. In addition, the theory has become widespread in both animals and humans.

However, learning is very complex. An important aspect of understanding the effect of reward and punishment in education is its instrumental nature. When we reward or punish, we change the subject’s behavior because they expect that price or punishment. That is, the subject behaves according to extrinsic motivation.

From an extrinsic motivational perspective, we can conclude that the new behavior will only continue as long as the punishment or reward is maintained. It is important to understand that operant state is associative learning. The subject does not understand why the behavior is right or wrong. They just want to understand that certain consequences follow certain behaviors.

Consequences and problems of punishment in education

Now that we know the principles that govern operant condition, let’s discuss the use and consequences of punishment during education.

Pitfalls of punishment during education

Punishment, despite the fact that it can help shape behavior, is a bad method in education because:

• Change in behavior is conditional: As we mentioned above, the behavior will continue only as long as the punishment exists. If the punishment disappears, the negative behavior is displayed. This shows us that the subject does not learn what is right or wrong. Instead, we find only a simple associative learning.
• Possible behavior of learned helplessness : If the subject is not presented with an alternative behavior along with the punishment, they may not find the alternative behavior themselves and become paralyzed in their actions.
• Education with violence creates violent people: Our severe punishments (physical or psychological) can have serious consequences. People learn by imitation and empathy in a social context. If we see violence, we learn to respond in the same way as what happens to us.
• Associating punishment with a person and not with a behavior : On many occasions, when the subject does not understand why their behavior is wrong, they associate punishment with the person punishing them. The subject believes that the punishment is an evil or egotistical whim of the person who performs it. Thus, the subject may avoid the person who punished them instead of changing his behavior.

Use punishment with caution

As we can see, educating a person is a complex thing. Punishment represents a simple and easy solution that can also be extremely superficial and dangerous. Although negative behavior should not go unpunished, educating in values ​​is somewhat more complicated.

A democratic pedagogical style based on discussion is synonymous with good education. When a child shows negative behavior, address why the behavior is wrong, the options that exist, and how the child can solve the problems they created.