To improve behavior in class, teachers should focus on praising children for good behavior, rather than telling them off for being disruptive, according to a new study.

Researchers spent three years observing 2,536 students, across three US states, from kindergarten age through to sixth grade (5 to 12 years of age).

The children observed were shown to focus on tasks up to 20% to 30% more when teachers were required to consider the number of praise statements given, compared to the number of reprimands.

The study lead by Dr Paul Caldarella, at Brigham Young University, involved a research team that sat in 151 classes, in 19 elementary schools across Missouri, Tennessee and Utah.

In half of the classrooms, teachers followed a behavioral intervention programme called CW-FIT, where students are told about the social skills they are expected to show in lessons and rewarded for doing so. In the other half of the classes, teachers used their typical classroom management practices.

The study showed a relationship between the ratio of praise to reprimands (PRR) used by the teachers and the extent students focused on class activities. In other words, the more teachers praised and the less that they scolded, the more students attended to the teacher, or worked on assigned tasks.

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