Sunday, October 12, 2014

Rewards vs. Punishment

As I was reading for this week, I noticed that one of the tips for trainers of the Functionalistic Theory was trainers should not punish learners who fail.  After reading that, I thought to myself do some trainers really punish learners who fail?!  I guess that was the teacher in me, because I immediately thought of my students, and I thought how could someone punish them for failing.  As a teacher, when a student fails, it reflects on me, and I would never punish a student for failing.  I would do everything I could to help them to succeed.  Then, after I thought about it some more, I had to tell myself that we are talking about adult learners and not children.  Even still, I don't think that adults should be punished for something they failed. However, in the workplace, if you fail to meet a goal, or you fail to do your job correctly, something needs to happen.  And that raises the question rewards or punishment?  I came across this article that discusses reward vs. punishment and what motives people more.

3 comments:

  1. Wow, I didn't think of rewards vs. punishment in that way. I just related it to the workplace and not with my students. I too would never punish any student for failing, I would punish myself for letting them get to that point.

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  2. Well here is a stretch example. In the world of sports, no matter if it is kids or adults, if you fail you are pretty much punished. What position does a baseball player play when he fails? THE BENCH! haha..

    It is a stretch but it's an example. Anyway, positive reinforcement and rewarding feels and sounds so much better.

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  3. Good point Steve. I like that example, and it's so true!

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