Punishment is a very present method in our society, from taking a child’s toys for their bad behavior to punishing adults for committing crimes. We see punishment as a way to reduce or avoid behaviors we don’t like. What are its consequences? In this article, we will try to answer these questions and talk about the role of punishment in educating children.
It is possible to hear the phrase “punishment in time avoids many absurdity” from the mouths of many people. It should be noted that education is a very serious problem and cannot be reduced to specific experiences or individual opinions. The use of expressions like the one mentioned above takes us away from the scientific criterion on which educational practices should be based.
- To study the usefulness and consequences of punishment in education.
- We will focus on empirical data.
- However.
- It is important to remember that a personal point of view can lead to a totally misinterpretation of the subject; On the other hand.
- Research data gives us very useful information about the punishment and its educational implications.
- Let’s go further.
Before discussing the usefulness and consequences of punishment in education, it is essential to understand the principle that governs it: Why does punishing a person allow us to reduce overt behavior? The answer to this question comes from the functional conditioning of BFSkinner, one of the fathers of behaviorism, who contributed greatly to the psychology of learning.
Operating conditioning says more or less that when a behavior is strengthened it is more likely to be repeated, that is, when we receive something positive as a result of some action, we will have to do it again in the future.
With punishment the opposite happens: when a behavior is punished, its likelihood of repetition is reduced. There is amp extensive evidence in favor of operational conditioning and the theory has been widely demonstrated (both in human and non-human animals).
However, the complexity of learning is very high and is not limited simply to the premises we have raised, a key aspect to understanding the effects of reward and punishment on education is its instrumental nature, when we reward or punish, we change behavior because the subject expects this reward or punishment. In other words, the subject moves for extrinsic motivation.
It is inferred from extrinsic motivation that the new conduct will be maintained as long as the punishment or reward is maintained. It is important to understand that operational conditioning is associative learning; the subject will not understand why the behavior is good or bad, he will simply know that certain behaviors are followed by certain consequences.
Now that we know the principles governing operational conditioning, let us move on to the usefulness and consequences of punishment in education.
When we educate a person, we do not seek to shape them according to our will, but to develop their intellectual potential and their critical vision of society. It is the purpose of education and the premise that will guide our analysis.
Punishment, while effective at shaping behavior, is a very poor method in education. The reasons for this are:
As you can see, educating a person is complex and nuanced, punishment is a simple and easy solution, but extremely superficial and dangerous on many occasions, although negative behaviors should not go unpunished, educating in values is a little more complex.
Good education is governed by a style of democratic, critical and debate-based education. When a child behaves negatively, it should be followed by a discussion about why he or she is wrong, what alternatives exist, and how they can solve it. the problems they’ve created.
Education is a very serious problem because it determines much of our future life. Through scientific research and gradual change in our practices, we can move in the right direction.