How To Help Pupils Excel in their Studies?

Positive Reinforcement
One successful method to help pupils excel in his or her exam is to use positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement encourages a certain learning behavior to be repeated. It typically uses stimulus such as reward, recognition, praise or appreciation to motivate, inspire and engage the learner.

Positive Reinforcement versus Negative Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement presents motivational stimulus such as rewards or praise while negative reinforcement removes the positive stimulus every time there is an undesired behaviour. The removal serves as feedback to the learners that this was not expected behaviour. Negative reinforcement is not a form of punishment though it may come in the form of negative stimulus or negative points. Negative stimulus is not encouraged in primary school as it puts too much pressure on the pupils and may be counterproductive.

Tips For Using Positive Reinforcement
Personalise your praise / reward. Custom tailored reward to students who show positive learning behaviours is more effective than general praise to all students in the class. The praise or reward has to be personal and as specific as possible to let them know what they did right. For example, “a star is awarded to you because you have exceeded your average score in the Maths paper.”

Offer positive constructive feedback.
Instead of telling your learners that they did wrongly at every question, try to offer them encouragement, inspiration and motivation. Give them positive feedback and try to figure out why they are repeating the same behaviour time and time again. Give them the benefit of the doubt.

Reward positive behavior immediately.
Offer the reward or praise immediately after it occurs. If you wait until the end of the term to reward the desirable behaviour your learner will not be able to link the behaviour with the reinforcement.

Focus on progress and improvement.
Let the learners know how far they have come since the beginning of the year or praise them for the progress they have made since the start of the term.