Discipline is an action; it is training that one expects to produce a positive pattern of behavior, according to John W. Maag from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Punishment is a reaction to the negative behavior. When teachers discipline students, they are setting a precedent, so students know from the first day what behaviors are acceptable and unacceptable. Discipline prevents the need for punishment.
Punishments can include removal from class, suspensions or expulsions, but these approaches do not encourage students to perform appropriate behavior. Instead, they just try to keep the student from performing the unacceptable behaviors, states Maag. The goal and purpose of both punishment and positive intervention, such as positive reinforcement, are the same: to prevent undesirable behavior. The difference is that using positive reinforcement of desirable behaviors not only prevents undesirable behavior, it also makes the student want to behave and do well. If the teacher praises the students often for the things they do correctly, students will seek out these behaviors for the positive reaction and avoid behaviors that would invite a negative reaction.
The problem with punishment is the student may not know why the punishment occurs in the first place, so he can’t correct that behavior. There is a time and place for punishment, but teachers will not need to enact it in a school where positive intervention procedures are in place to prevent the negative behavior and reward the desirable behavior. When teachers punish students, they expect students to know what to do in place of the negative behavior, but often students do not have this knowledge.
Setting the precedent and modeling the behavior expected in the classroom is essential for effective classroom management and fewer disruptive behaviors. If the teacher begins from the first day teaching students what they can do to earn rewards rather than what they can do to earn punishments, these students are more likely to chase after the behaviors that result in rewards. In turn, they will try to avoid the behaviors they know will lead to a punishment. If teachers intend for punishment to decrease undesirable behavior, then rewards can actually act as punishments because they decrease undesirable behavior, positively rather than negatively.