Positive Attention, Praise, and Rewards
Recommendation 3 focuses on increasing expected behavior by intentionally noticing and acknowledging it. This lesson shows how you can move beyond vague praise toward specific, meaningful, equitable, and sustainable systems of acknowledgment in your classroom.
Teacher-Delivered Behavioral Interventions in Grades K–5
Read Recommendation 3: Pages 28–38Pay particular attention to the distinctions among positive attention, praise, and rewards; behavior-specific praise; student preferences; equitable acknowledgment; and adjusting the frequency of reinforcement over time.
Notice the Behaviors You Want to See More Often
Positive acknowledgment is more than being nice to students. When teacher attention, praise, or rewards reliably follow an expected behavior, those consequences can strengthen the likelihood that the behavior will occur again.
The guide distinguishes among three related strategies. Each can be useful, but they are not interchangeable.
Building an Effective Acknowledgment System
Focus attention on observable behaviors that are connected to classroom expectations and meaningful student success.
Attention, praise, and rewards do not function identically for every student. Student and caregiver input can help identify preferences and culturally relevant forms of acknowledgment.
Tell the student what they did successfully rather than relying only on broad statements such as “good job.”
Make the connection between the expected behavior and the earned outcome clear enough that the student understands what led to the reward.
It is natural to notice problem behavior more readily than successful behavior. Deliberately scanning the room increases your opportunities to acknowledge students who are meeting expectations.
Higher rates of acknowledgment may be useful while a behavior is being established. As the behavior becomes more consistent, reinforcement can become less frequent while still maintaining success.
“We Already Praise Them” Does Not Tell You Enough
Broad descriptions such as “I praise him all the time” or “rewards don’t work” say very little about what is actually happening. Look at whether your acknowledgment is specific, contingent, frequent enough, meaningful, and distributed equitably.
Which Praise Is More Useful?
Choose the statement that most clearly identifies the successful student behavior.
Build an Acknowledgment Plan
Select the strongest components for a student whose independent work behavior is just beginning to improve.
What behavior should be acknowledged?
What type of praise best fits?
What reward is most defensible?
What should happen as success becomes consistent?
“Praise Doesn’t Work”
Work through a scenario in which it seems like positive reinforcement has already failed.
What should you ask yourself first?
What is the strongest next step?
What is your best next decision?
What Does the Attention Data Suggest?
Apply the concepts from this lesson to analyze patterns of teacher attention, praise, and reinforcement in a classroom. Use the information provided in the activity to develop and explain your response.
Key Takeaways for Teachers
- Positive attention, behavior-specific praise, and rewards are related but distinct forms of acknowledgment.
- Behavior-specific praise clearly identifies the behavior that the student demonstrated successfully.
- Rewards should be meaningful to the individual student rather than assumed to be reinforcing.
- Deliberately scan for expected behavior, because problem behavior tends to attract attention more readily.
- Check whether your positive acknowledgment is specific, contingent, timely, equitable, and actually valued by students.
- Higher rates of reinforcement may be appropriate while behavior is being established, followed by gradual thinning as students become more successful and independent.