Essay Example on Natural Consequences: A Guide for Teachers

Introduction

Natural consequences are those things that happen in response to a child's behavior without parental or guardian involvement (Mageau 12). Natural consequences are always imposed by nature, society, or a third party. As a teacher, you do not have to deliver natural consequences they occur naturally. On the other hand, logical consequences are structured responses and learning opportunities for children to stop children's misbehaviors or the occurrence of any misconduct for that matter (Mageau 12). Below are a scenario and five consequences, both logical and natural that could arise from a child's action.

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The Scenario

According to the school policy, a child is allowed to wear mittens during the winter periods. The children are not allowed to take their mitts off during the cold weather. At times in the compound of the school, it rains snow, and the children are not allowed to play in the snow. Mike, one of the students, removes his smitten while kids are out playing in the school field. It begins to rains snow, and the other kids retreat to the indoor playing arena. As a teacher, an attempt is made to try getting Mike retreat to the indoor playing ground, he refuses. More importantly, Mike refuses to wear his mittens despite the cold weather.

From the explained scenario, the natural consequences include; First, Mike's hand gets cold since he is not wearing mittens. The second natural consequence is that Mike is not aware that he is allergic, the cold triggers an allergic reaction and so he has problem breathing. The third natural consequence is that Mike passes out in the cold. THE fourth natural consequence is that Mike's whole body becomes cold. The fifth natural consequence of Mike's mistake is that he got a cold. He also had to be admitted to the local hospital for a few days until he got well. However, as he got back to school, the teacher put some logical consequences to him to avoid the occurrence of such behavior in the future again. The first logical consequence is that Mike was not to be allowed to walk in the school without his coat and the mittens. Secondly, Mike stays in indoors detention for fourteen days that is until he gets healed. The detention means he is not allowed to play with other kids for two weeks. Thirdly, Mike is made to apologize to the parents and the teachers for breaking the school rules on wearing mittens during the winter. The fourth logical consequence is that the child is meant to be the pupil leader in charge of sensitizing other children on the importance of wearing mittens during the winter season. The fifth logical consequence is that Mike is only allowed to play in the indoor arena until the winter season is over, this consequence is not linked to whether it rains snow or it does not.

As a teacher, the knowledge benefited from the experience is that; the effectiveness of these consequences is that by allowing children to experience the pleasant and the unpleasant consequences of their behaviors, they easily learn that their choices have real consequences. A result can be a useful discipline tool for children as compared to direct punishment (Mageau 14). In the classroom, as a teacher, it is vital to notice that consequences are closely tied to behavior. From the fact mentioned above, it is only essential that the teacher makes the logical consequence as instance as the behavior. Giving logical consequence requires that as a teacher within the classroom the consequence is offered almost immediately to the child after the action is displayed. Instance consequence stays longer in the child's mind, and the child is unlikely to repeat the behavior in the future.

Work Cited

Mageau, Genevieve A., et al. "Effectiveness and acceptability beliefs regarding logical consequences and mild punishments." Journal of applied developmental psychology, 2018. http://www.mapageweb.umontreal.ca/mageaug/Articles/Mageau,%20Lesssard%20et%20al.,%202018.pdf.