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Education & Teaching vocabulary · Classroom Management

Positive reinforcement

Meaning in education & teaching, with examples

nounCommon term

In education & teaching, positive reinforcement means: Giving something pleasant, such as praise, a reward or privileges, right after a desired behavior so that the behavior is more likely to happen again.

In Turkish: olumlu pekiştirme

How it is used

A term from behaviorist psychology, now widely used in classroom management. Teachers use positive reinforcement through specific praise, points, stickers or positive notes home. Specific praise ('You checked every answer') works better than general praise.

Example sentences

  1. Positive reinforcement changed the atmosphere: I started noticing students who were doing the right thing.

  2. The school's behavior policy is based on positive reinforcement rather than punishment.

Common collocations

  • use positive reinforcement
  • specific praise
  • reward system
  • positive behavior support
  • classroom managementThe ways a teacher organizes the class, time, space and student behavior so that everyone can learn in a calm, focused and safe environment.
  • classroom rulesA short list of clear expectations about how students should behave in a class, often agreed together and displayed on the wall.
  • disruptive behaviorActions by a student that interrupt teaching or stop other students from learning, such as shouting out, talking constantly or refusing to follow instructions.
  • detentionA punishment in which a student must stay at school during a break or after school hours, usually under a teacher's supervision.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Classroom Management

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