The government’s recent launch of the Behaviour Hubs programme and the report on which it is based (Tom Bennett’s ‘Creating a Culture’ review), seem to reinforce long-held traditions about the value of rewards and sanctions as the main vehicle for managing pupil behaviour.
These techniques are based on the idea that behaviour can be controlled and modified via reinforcement systems of rewards and/or sanctions. The 2017 Behaviour and Discipline in Schools government guide also emphasises the need for discipline, threats and punishment as a key vehicle for optimising behaviour.
Whilst there are some laudable attempts to acknowledge other factors and strategies that might be important or helpful in building pupils’ ability to follow the school rules, there remains a stalwart commitment to mechanisms that are unlikely to achieve the intended goals.
Research suggests that current behavioural policies and practices which utilise the systems of sanction and reward do not necessarily address the complexities of social and emotional needs of pupils, particularly those who are vulnerable, in need and/or high-risk of under achievement.
If these external mechanisms to condition behaviour really worked, there’d be no pupils in self-isolation units and none excluded from schools. Moreover, pupils ‘habituate’ to reward systems, which tend to lose their effectiveness over time in motivating them to behave. And using fear and punishment can lead to pupils relying on innate survival mechanisms such as disassociation (e.g. not caring) or becoming reactive (e.g. aggressive) in an attempt to compensate, especially those who have experienced trauma.
Reward and punishment require rational minds
Another key reason rewards and sanctions may not work is because they rely on a capacity to mentally envisage and understand the consequences of behaviour, an ability to delay gratification and a capacity to regulate emotional needs. Rewards and sanctions need a calm, fully functional rational mind to operate successfully but any teacher will know that troubling behaviour rarely comes from a place of calm and reason.