ALTERNATIVES TO CORPORAL PUNISHMENT:
PROMOTING POSITIVE EDUCATION
Positive discipline is based on children’s rights to a
healthy development, protection from violence, and the
value of their participation in their own learning and
development. It focuses on forming positive attachments
and promoting parent-child and educator-child
cooperation and reciprocity. Under positive discipline,
parents, caregivers and teachers use warmth, structure
and good communication so that the child learns new
skills to prevent recurrence of misbehaviour.
“
States Parties shall take all appropriate
measures to ensure that school discipline is
administered in a manner consistent with
the child’s human dignity and in conformity
with the present Convention.”
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child:
Article 28(2)
Parents, caregivers and teachers implementing the positive discipline methodology should be guided by four
interdependent principles: 1) identifying long-term educational goals; 2) providing warmth and structure; 3)
understanding how children think and feel; and 4) problem-solving.
1 I dentifying long-term educational goals: In order to effectively provide positive discipline, parents, caregivers
and teachers need to identify the specific goals they would like the child to achieve in the long-term.
Examples of possible goals may include the management of stress, improvement of communication skills and
consideration of other people’s feelings. These goals are the foundation on which parents, caregivers and
teachers can build their responses to a child’s behaviour.
2P
roviding warmth and structure: Research shows that children learn best when they feel respected,
understood, trusted, safe and loved. They also need clear information to help them gradually understand, learn
and succeed.
3U
nderstanding how children think and feel: Learning to see and understand the world through the lens of
a child helps adults provide warmth and structure in ways that are appropriate to the child’s developmental
level – their evolving capacities. For instance, a main task for parents of babies is to build a strong foundation of
trust and attachment, whereas a main task for parents of adolescents is to support the development of a strong
identity.
4P
roblem-solving: Problem solving helps children learn important skills. When parents, caregivers and teachers
take a step back, regulate their own emotions and see the situation through a child’s eyes, they will be able to
approach behaviour and conflict as a problem to be solved. As children get older, they can participate in the
problem-solving process.
TOOL: Positive Discipline and Alternatives to Corporal Punishment of Children
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