Recognize & Reinforce

Recognizing and Reinforcing

There are two types of recognition and reinforcement—academic and behavioral.

Both of these types are crucial for student success, especially for the students who are identified as “at-risk” because they “see little connection between their effort and earned reward” (Cain & Laird, 2011, p. 72).

Specifically, Cain & Laird (2011) asserted: “Reinforcement of the work and effort it takes to achieve academic success builds habits and understanding that students can access throughout their academic career and well into their adult life” (p. 72).

Academic recognition is the recognition of any academic success. It is easy to recognize an A on a test or a high class rank. However, the power of academic recognition is in the ability to recognize intermediate success, even if it is an assignment that's not turned in on time.

Academic reinforcement is the acknowledgement of the effort that a student made in order to complete an assignment or a task. It provides the student who is not intrinsically motivated the encouragement to persist and to make this behavior a regular reoccurrence.

Behavioral recognition is based on the principle of personalization and specificity. For example, “Instead of applying comments to broad groups of students, the teacher addresses specific groups of students or, better yet, individual students. Specificity addresses the need to clearly state the behavior or action that warranted the attention” (Cain & Laird, 2011, pp. 73-74).

Behavioral reinforcement has to do with acknowledging the desired behaviors. However, according to Cain & Laird (2011), “Unfortunately, [sic] teachers actually do the reverse” (p. 76). They tend to pay more attention to the undesired behaviors and correct those as opposed to recognizing the desired behaviors.

Summarizing the power of recognizing and reinforcing, Cain & Laird (2011) said that “Teacher who deliberately engage in the practice of recognition and reinforcement quickly create classroom environments that are nurturing, engaging, and empowering to an increased number of students” (p. 79). This is another element of the Fundamental Five that does not require additional preparation. It simply takes a conscientious effort on the teacher’s part to notice the desired behaviors in the classroom and to acknowledge them.