Praise is a powerful tool that teachers can use to improve students’ behavior and attitude towards learning. It should be used correctly to be effective enough to change the overall behavior of a student to make them do better.
We take a look at the different types of praise that teachers can use to effectively apply them the right way.
Benefits Of Praise
Research shows that it is not used by teachers nearly enough and is, in fact, underused with students.
It is also found that teachers who use praise as behavior management tools have better relationships with their students.
What Types Of Praises There Are
There are three major types of praises that teachers often use to help manage the behavior of students. Of these three, two are more effective.
Personal praise: this type of praise is when a student’s unique characteristic is praised, such as saying a child has a beautiful voice. This may seem like a suitable method, but it may have adverse results with the child who may think they are not as good as you think.
This may cause them to become less willing to try new things because they are not confident in their own skills and abilities.
Praise Their Efforts: effort-based praise may have a more positive effect on the child where the teacher will praise the hard work they put in. You must use this type of praise to show the student that their hard work has been noticed.
Using the example of a student with a beautiful voice, it will be better to show the student that you are impressed with the effort and hard work they put into learning the notes and song.
Behavior Praise: When you tell a student that you are proud of how they did something and show them, they did the right thing. For instance, tell the student that you are proud of them for taking their homework out before being told to do so.
How To Apply It Effectively
- Be specific to why you are praising the student, so they will know precisely what they are praised for
- The expectations of the teacher for the student must be clear so the student will know what to do
- Use praise for all the steps, from the beginning and the process to the outcome of what they are praised for
Concluding Thoughts
As you can see, praise used at the right time and with the right attitude will positively affect the student. It is a good thing when teachers use various behavior managing tools to improve overall relationships.
