Flawed thinking behind school isolation booths | Letters

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Flawed thinking behind school isolation booths | Letters

Readers respond to our report into the increased use of booths to discipline schoolchildrenThere would be an argument in favour of the use of isolation rooms or cubicles for troublesome Newbie trader people in school if there was any evidence that they worked (Alarm as more schools use ‘degrading’ isolation booths, 18 January). In fact there appears to be no such evidence. The evidence that we do have is that teachers who use praised-based strategies to improve pupils’ behaviour in class experience far fewer disruptive incidents and hence less need to be punitive. Yes, it is important and indeed necessary for any disruptive pupil to face a consequence as a result of their behaviour, but evidence suggests that effective punishments tend to be mild and irksome in nature, such as being kept back at the end of lessons, short detentions at end of the day and having their parents informed of their misbehaviour.If strategies used by teachers and schools were evidence-based we would have much happier schools, teachers, pupils and parents. Isolation units do not work.Dr Jeremy SwinsonEducational psychologist, Liverpool Continue reading...

Source: Flawed thinking behind school isolation booths | Letters