Teaching & Reinforcing Your Procedures: clear and thoughtful plan for how to teach and reinforce procedures that includes an explanation for why the learner expects their plan to be effective with his or her student population

Teaching, particularly in the United States, has come under much scrutiny. Here, poor academic performance relative to other countries has caused much more scrutiny of K through 12 institutions. Likewise, the disparity between the overall quality of schools has also been a major point of contention for both politicians and instructors throughout the country. All of these variables are then coupled with strained state and local budgets, often requiring tough sacrifices as it relates to allocations of resources related to education. Due to these circumstances, it is important for current instructors to have a strong plan as it relates to reinforcing procedures within the classroom. This is important as it allows students and instructors to make the most out of their allotted time together. It also allows students to more readily receive and process instruction from their respective instructors, thus improving educational outcomes.

The first priority when teaching and reinforcing procedures is to emphasize the benefits to the students. Here, having a positive, engaging, and challenging learning environment is paramount to student success. Therefore, when teaching and reinforcing procedures, having a strong classroom environment ensures compliance with the procedures. Likewise, ensuring that students understand that the procedures are non-negotiable and will be administered strictly throughout the academic period. This ensures that students understand the seriously of the procedures and take their adherence seriously within the classroom setting. This also has the residual impact of teaching students soft skills related to adherence to...

…and providing rewards for those who conduct themselves accordingly, instructors can better establish as positive learning environment. Modeling also helps students who learn in different ways. Some students are visual learners, while also are much word oriented. Having rules displayed and mimicking the behaviors ultimately allows students with different learning styles to better understand the rules and procedures.

To conclude, teaching and reinforcing classroom procedures is important as it relates to improving overall student outcomes within a classroom setting. As such, it is important for instructors to first explain the rules to students through properly communication and dialogue. Next, instructors should have the rules clearly visible so that students can easily review them while also committing them to memory. Finally, teachers should mimic the desired behaviors while also providing positive reinforcement to students who fully adhere to the classroom policies…