... in the classroom. Two main principles of operant conditioning, as defined by Skinner, are reinforcement and punishment. First, I would like to define reinforcement. According to Skinner, each time a particular behaviour (response) is reinforced that behaviour is being strengthened thus it is more likely to happen again. In operant conditioning there are two types of reinforcement, positive and negative reinforcement. On one hand, positive reinforcement helps in making a particular behaviour stronger by presenting a pleasant stimulus after the response such as, food, praise and a smile. On the other hand, negative reinforcement increases a response by taking away a negative stimulus. Teachers should use reinforcement each time they wish to reinforce a desirable behaviour. Thus, teachers must keep in mind what behaviours they want to increase and try to follow those behaviours with positive stimuli. Also, the teacher must realize that in order for operant conditioning to be effective ...

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