A punishment refers to the imposition or infliction of different kinds of penalties as a form of retribution owing to the fact that a person has committed a grievous offence or one that is inappropriate in regards to acceptable standards. Therefore, the punishment is in the form of an inflicted penalty. In a school setting, such occurrences are usually numerous and at the same time prove to be ineffective in instilling discipline and morality on the receiver’s end. In essence, punishment occurs when the response that follows is that of a stimulus change that consequently decreases the frequency of the occurrence of similar responses. In simpler terms, part of the learning process involves the use of punishment procedures to curb certain reactions and behaviors deemed unnecessary. Every decision has consequences, therefore in the event that an unacceptable behavior happens, swift action needs to take place to curb the behavior and consequently facilitate the adoption of the strict moral code. However, as stated above, sometimes such behaviors cannot be reduced and when this happens other forms of punishment need to be employed to cause the desired effect.
As a teacher in high school, numerous types of punishment-based procedures were used to instill discipline in students. These methods resulted in a brief reduction of unacceptable behavior. However, on most occasions, the behavior was short-lived and resulted in an increased resistive behavior that saw many students develop rebellious tendencies. Among the worst forms of punishment-based procedures is corporal punishment. This kind of punishment refers to the causation of an often pain related discomfort owing to the fact that a student has indulged in undesirable behaviors. Often in the school where I was tutoring, students would often be beaten with a cane across their buttocks or on their hands. Various tools would be used including a wooden stick, plastic cane, leather strap and so on. After such punishments, students would become disciplined, but only for a while then they would resort back to their old characters. Punishment-based procedures especially corporal punishment leads to many repercussions that frankly tend towards being worse than the way the punished victim was before. The most common of these consequences are an increase in aggression, antisocial behavior, and physical injuries and may even cause an increased prevalence of mental health problems in the end. Various investigators of child violence and trauma have long corroborated this hypothesis, and currently, a number of cases involving the use of excessive corporal punishment have shown the tendency to lead to the aforementioned symptoms
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Some of the ethical considerations for the use of punishment that need incorporation in schools include the right to safe and humanistic treatment. The need to place all kinds of behavioral intervention in the category of safety is paramount and ultimately leads to safer environments of punishment. Cooper, Heron and Heward (2007) categorically state that there should be firm procedural and policy safeguards in the implementation of any punishment-related procedures. Such safeguards ensure the proper implementation of effective punishment routines that ensure the student being punished adopts proper morals that make him or her effective without having dire repercussions. Other ethical considerations include the right to effective treatment and the use of the least restrictive alternative in the process of punishment application.
In light of this, other alternatives to punishment-based procedures continue to evolve and include the use of reinforcement-based procedures. Such procedures include the alternative behavior differential reinforcement (DRA), the low responding rates (DRL), the other behavior differential (DRO) and the behavior that is viewed as incompatible (DRI) (Dreher, Seymour, & Tobler, 2014). Such reinforcement-based procedures normally have the consideration of being alternatives because they are much more effective considering the fact that they are employed with minimal effort and do not possess flagrant consequences such as those experienced in the punishment-based procedures. There are a number of examples when it comes to reinforcement-based procedures. These includes telling the students to work on an extra assignment, awarding them with extra hours of training or even deliberately failing them so that they can grasp a concept better. According to O’Brien and Repp (1990), such procedures are effective, and instead of traumatizing the student, they lead to academic success and instill discipline.
References
Cooper, J.O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2007). Applied Behavior Analysis (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Dreher, J., Seymour, B., & Tobler, P. (2014). PUNISHMENT-BASED DECISION MAKING. Frontiers In Neuroscience , 6 (127).
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a part of the U.S. Department of Education . (2017). Nces.ed.gov . Retrieved 29 May 2017, from https://nces.ed.gov/
O'Brien, S., & Repp, A. C. (1990). Reinforcement-based reductive procedures: A review of 20 years of their use with persons with severe or profound retardation. Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps , 15 (3), 148-159.
