Poker Chips Rick Lavoie presented an interesting and compelling comparison between poker chips and self-esteem. Within his commentary he noted how easily it is for parents, teachers, and classmates to remove poker chips, which equal self-esteem, from young people. It was an insightful video and put tangible representations to the exchange that happens with the children in our lives and the self-esteem we either help build or help destroy. One way that we do this is by reinforcements. As described in our textbook, “Reinforcement following a behavior operates on the likelihood that the desired behavior will be repeated under the same or similar circumstances” (Hardin, 2012, p. 24). According to behaviorist, reinforcement can be positive or negative; all with the desired outcome of changed behavior. When compared to Rick Lavoie’s analogy of poker chips, I see positive reinforcement as giving poker chips to the child. Any type of praise, prize, or attention for behavior that is positive would add to the child’s self-esteem. Every time positive reinforcement was employed; poker chips would be given. I believe negative reinforcement would neither give poker chips, nor take them away—if done correctly. If negative commentary accompanied the reinforcement, such as “You never clean up your mess”, or “Why can’t you pick up like the other kids!”, or “I am so sick and tired of this mess!” then poker chips would be taken away. It depends on the commentary. It is the delivery of the consequence that decides if poker chips are taken and self-esteem is hurt. “Punishment is the application of an unpleasant stimulus or the withdrawal of a pleasant reward in an attempt to weaken response” (Hardin, 2012, p. 26). There are positive punishment (presenting punishment) and negative punishment (removal punishment) techniques. Both have the possibility of removing large amount of poker chips. According to B.F. Skinner, punishment is not as effective as reinforcements. He stressed that the child did not learn desired behavior, but how to avoid or escape the punishment in the future (p. 27). As a substitute teacher, I have seen many classroom management styles and there have been a few where punishments are primary. As a preschool teacher, I utilized exclusionary punishment in the form of a “time out”. It was an effective technique for the age that I was instructing; but it had to be administered correctly, and the commentary was just as important. I do not believe that punishment should be taken away from the teacher’s toolbox, but it needs to be understood the rate of exchange with the analogy of the poker chips. If the child receives more punishments than reinforcements, the child will be depleted of self-esteem. If you chose to use punishments as a classroom management technique than you need to be aware of the individual student’s poker chip reserves and how much you are taking from and adding to their self-esteem amounts. As a school counselor, one of the situations that may arise is dealing with a teacher who takes massive amounts of student poker chips away on a regular basis. Due to the variety of teaching styles and teacher personalities, I see this as a very real scenario that I will encounter. The first thing
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It gave a visual representation of how teachers, adults, and other classmates can take from and add to a child self-esteem. As a parent and a future school counselor, I found the information very informative and useful in my interactions with my children and my future students. In relation to classroom management techniques and behavioral approach; reinforcements and punishments can be used to add poker chips or take them away. It is important for people to understand the behavior techniques they use and how much they add to and take away from the child’s self-esteem. Ultimately, as a future school counselor it is important for me to understand not only how many poker chips I take away from the students, but also how much my co-workers do and to have a plan in action on how I would advocate for a student whose teacher was taking massive amounts of poker chips away from their students. The most important statement made by Rice Lavoie is to “make sure the child has more poker chips when they go to bed then when they get up in the morning” (Idonline,
It gave a visual representation of how teachers, adults, and other classmates can take from and add to a child self-esteem. As a parent and a future school counselor, I found the information very informative and useful in my interactions with my children and my future students. In relation to classroom management techniques and behavioral approach; reinforcements and punishments can be used to add poker chips or take them away. It is important for people to understand the behavior techniques they use and how much they add to and take away from the child’s self-esteem. Ultimately, as a future school counselor it is important for me to understand not only how many poker chips I take away from the students, but also how much my co-workers do and to have a plan in action on how I would advocate for a student whose teacher was taking massive amounts of poker chips away from their students. The most important statement made by Rice Lavoie is to “make sure the child has more poker chips when they go to bed then when they get up in the morning” (Idonline,