Discipline and Punish? Nay, Positive Feedback and Learn

This is some fairly old school psychology stuff, but worth remembering. Regarding Learning and Punishment. Radical behaviorist, B.F. Skinner, the father of operant conditioning, says, the only thing people learn from getting punished is how to not get punished the next time (i.e. we don’t learn from punishment. period!)

Skinner says that there are 5 main obstacles in learning:

1. People have a fear of failure
2. There is a lack of directions
3. There is also a lack of clarity in the direction
4. Positive reinforcement is not used enough
5. The task is not broken down into small enough steps

Skinner suggests that with all of the obstacles out of the way any age appropriate skill can be taught using his 5 principles:

1. Have small steps
2. Work from most simple to most complex tasks
3. Repeat the directions as many times as possible
4. Give immediate feedback
5. Give positive reinforcement

Personally, I think we should just skip to the 5 principles for learning and life.