Qualities of Successful Classroom
Management
0 The teacher is the control of behavior
0 Teachers who are successful:
0 Do not concentrate on discipline
0 Prevent problems by keeping students engaged
Discipline
0 Discipline is driven by
negative beliefs about
children
0 The objective of many
discipline programs is to
get children to comply
with adults.
0 How we manage our
classrooms has everything
to do with what we believe
about people.
Hidden Premises
“If the teacher isn’t in control of the classroom, the most likely
result is chaos.”
“Children need to be told exactly what adults expect of them, as
well as what will happen if they don’t do what they’re told.”
“You need to give positive reinforcement to a child who does
something nice if you want him to keep acting that way.”
“At the heart of moral education is the need to help people
control their impulses.”
Basic Human Needs
0 Autonomy – experiencing self-motivation, feeling
empowered, not a victim of circumstance or
environment
0 Relatedness – the need to feel connected, loved and
affirmed.
0 Competence – learning new things and being able to
apply them.
Questions to Drive our Discipline
Policies
0 What do children require in order to flourish?
0 How can we provide those things?
Instead of:
How can we make them do what we want them to do?
We need to guide our students toward developing
personal and social skills, just as we would teach them
about any subject in school.
BLAMING THE KIDS
0 The problem always rests with the child who
doesn’t do what he is asked, never with what he has
been asked to do.
0 Is the adults request reasonable?
0 When students are “off task” our first response
should be to ask, “What’s the task?”
0 To focus on discipline is to ignore the real problem:
We will never be able to get students( or anyone
else) to be in good order if, day after day, we try to
force them to do what they do not find satisfying.
BRIBES AND THREATS
0 COERSION- Without regard to motive or context, past
events or future implications, the adult simply forces the
child to act (or stop acting) in a certain way.
0 PUNISHMENT- Deliberately chosen to be unpleasant, and
must be intended to change the student’s future behavior.
0 REWARDS- Do this, and you’ll get that. Do rewards work?
Yes, for short term compliance.
0 Why do we punish?- It’s quick and easy. Works to get
temporary compliance. It’s familiar to us. It’s expected.
Gives us control. If we don’t punish, students might think
they “got away with it.”
PUNISHMENT LITE:
“CONSEQUENCE” AND PSEUDOCHOICE
0 Punishment vs. Natural Consequences.
0 PSEUDOCHOICE1. Obey or Suffer- Do what I tell you to do or I’m
going to punish you.
2. You Punished Yourself- If a student acts out they
are also choosing the natural consequence.
3. Choose… and Suffer- Students are encouraged to
make decisions so they will suffer from their poor
choice.
SUMMARY
0 It’s easier to blame the child for misbehaving or acting out.
0 Getting short term compliance will not solve the issue.
0 Punishment is easy to use and that’s why we use it.
0 Do we really give students a choice?
Effective...But at What?
"Withitness" Kounin 1970:
The teacher not only was attentive to what students
were doing, but let them know she knew what was
going on.
To be effective… to Kounin it meant..
Sit Down and Shut Up !!
0 Why does everyone think that the teacher should
be in control of the classroom?
0 Why do we have to make students comply?
Be Seated and Refrain from Talking!
0 “The more voice and choice students have, the more
cooperative and responsible they will act and feel”.
0 The New Disciplines are just as much about getting
compliance as is the more traditional approach.
0 "get the trains to run on time in the classroom, never
mind whom they run over.”
The Problem with Compliance
0 Teachers want students to be good people, not
necessarily good learners
0 Long-term goals
0 “Desirable outcomes are harder to achieve if we rely
on bribes and threat”.
0 "The more we 'manage' students' behavior and try to
make them do what we say, the more difficult it is for
them to become morally sophisticated people who
think for themselves and care about others."
Making Moral Meaning
0 The constructivist model of learning challenges the central
metaphors that so often drive instruction
0 The only way to help students become ethical people is to
have them construct moral meaning
0 Maximize the opportunity for students to make choices
and to discover and learn for themselves
0 Create a caring community in the classrooms that students
have the opportunity to do these things together
Behaviors v. People
0 The developer of one New Discipline program has
described its goal as getting students to choose
appropriate behaviors.
0 Discipline Programs can change behavior, but they
cannot help people to grow
Beyond Rules
0 The problems with rules are that they:
Turn kids into lawyers that are just looking for
loopholes.
Turn teachers into police officers, a role utterly at
odds with being facilitators of learning.
Often include punishments for breaking them.
0 To avoid this:
Have the students create the rules
Think about how everyone should treat each other
The Value of Conflict
0 Kohn says that it is more important for students to
wrestle with dilemmas, clash with others ideas and
take others needs into account than to follow sets of
rules.
0 Kohn says that conflict presents golden opportunities
for learning and therefore should not be suppressed.
0 Even hurtful conflicts need to be resolved rather than
pushed aside.
Conclusion
0 Many teachers are afraid that they will lose control of
the class.
0 Effective teachers use collaborative problem solving
instead of coercive control
0 Education must be reformed so that classrooms take
on the nature of communities.
0 Teachers who wish to move beyond discipline must
do three things: provide an engaging curriculum
based on student interests, develop a sense of
community and draw students into meaningful
decision-making
Why should students have a say
in making real decisions?
Alfie Kohn tells a tale of two teachers.
0 Teacher #1 made all the rules insisting that students
obey without question.
0 Teacher #2 stopped commanding and started
LISTENING. She found that students learned to make
good choices by creating the options for themselves,
instead of following directions.
0 “The construction of meaning is an active process”
Why should students have a say
in making real decisions?
0 “Choice promotes compliance and minimizes
behavior” – p 81
0 When teachers change their questions to begin with,
“How do you think we can …” and “How many ways
can we …”, this enables students to develop their
problem-solving abilities and experience a sense of
community
How do we help students develop
thinking beyond self-discipline?
0 Self-discipline means setting your own intrinsic
expectations and meeting them
0 Beyond self-discipline is when children possess the
skills and the inclination to solve problems
autonomously and together.
0 “Anyone who truly values democratic ideals would
presumably want to maximize children’s experiences
with choice and negotiation.” – p 85
What are the structural guidelines
when students are in control?
When students are asked to invent a system that
address everyone’s concerns, some criteria apply.
0 Purpose: What is reason for a restriction?
0 Restrictiveness: What is the need that it meets?
0 Flexibility: Time schedules and tasks must have room
to adapt to immediate needs of individuals and the
group
0 Developmental appropriateness: When students
establish expectations for their community, they must
consider if it applies to all ages or all individuals.
What are the structural guidelines
when students are in control?
0 Presentation style: When students negotiate for
change, the way they introduce their ideas can make a
difference on the response of others.
0 Student Involvement: The input in community
building conversations, interactions and tasks directly
relates to their sense of control.
To Meet Needs, We Need to Meet: When,
Where & How do we make Meetings
Work?
0 Take time CONSISTENTLY for meetings to make
academic time more efficient.
0 Clarify the purpose of meetings: to meet needs and
reflect on what is working and what is not working
that needs changing
0 Plan together any decision that influences the group,
which may involve voting.
0 Share successes that contribute to community.
Reflections on Decision Making:
What to Expect in Transition
Children who have been tightly controlled may need
time to rebuild trust in themselves and you.
0 They may exhibit disturbing, destructive, or damaging
behavior or refuse to participate.
0 They may parrot what they think you want or silently
nod approval without contributing.
0 They need to test the depth of freedom and how the
response will be to their behavior.
Reflections on Decision Making:
What to Expect in Transition
Trust is built on several basic habits:
0 LISTEN to students’ needs and their ideas how to
meet them with affirmative responses.
0 Be CONSISTENT in giving students the option to
create their own solutions to problems.
0 Provide resources and support for their ideas.
0 Show appreciation for student models that build
student leadership and community.
It is not management techniques that make
the difference, but rather a way of thinking
on the part of the teacher.
The perspective is that we are the
caretakers of the learning environment that
nourishes students’ natural curiosity,
helping them develop their problem-solving
abilities and experience a positive sense of
community.
What is community?
A place where students feel:
0 Valued
0 Respected
0 cared for
0 Encouraged
0 Safe (physically and emotionally)
0 They matter to everyone
There is a sense of unity and pride for all involved in the
community.
Why community?
The Child Development Project found:
0 Promotes social, moral and intellectual development
0 Stronger community feeling = more students report liking
school and learning
0 Positive effects are greatest in students with a low
socioeconomic status
Overall-if you want kids to do well in school, you have to help
them develop an environment that helps them feel good
about school and their classmates.
Community misconceptions
0 Students lose their identity and conform
0 Building a community is simply about being nice
0 Students will become compliant
0 The teacher alone creates community for the students
Community Building
Prerequisites
0 Time
0 It takes time for the students to get to know one another in a
community context
0 Group Size
0 The classroom is a good size, too large and you may need subcommunities
0 Teacher
0 Needs to be a part of the adult community at the school
Community Building Strategies
0 Relationships with adults
0 Important that students see the teacher as a human
0 Show them that you genuinely care
0 Be vulnerable
0 Admit when you are wrong
0 Remember details about their lives
0 Authentic responses to their questions
0 Model positive interactions for them
Community Building Strategies
0 Connections between students
0 Use activities to get them connected
0 Interviews and introductions
0 Give them the opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings
0 Give them the opportunity to view things from the perspective of
others
These kinds of activities help them feel more connected
to others and to feel more understood in the community.
Community Building Strategies
0 Classwide and schoolwide activities
0 Whole group collaboration activities
0 Class mural, collage, quilt
0 Class meetings to practice community together
0 Sub-communities if necessary
Community Building Strategies
0 Using academic instruction
0 Relate community to what is going on in the classroom:
homework, projects, reports, etc.
0 Build discussion time into your instruction as an opportunity
to practice community
0 Cooperative learning so students can learn and grow from one
another
0 Tie curriculum back to the classroom community
Final Thoughts On Community
0 Powerful classroom community can help students make
more positive associations about school.
0 Community helps us move beyond discipline and nurture
students more effectively.
0 You must involve students in building the community-it is
not effective if you impose it on them.
#1 – Build & Maintain Positive
Relationships
0 It's important for students to trust their teacher, to know
he/she respects them and to feel safe in speaking their
minds with him/her.
0 Nowhere is such a relationship more vital than in the case of
a student who has done something wrong and feels angry or
defensive.
0 Students must feel accepted by adults.
#2 – Skill Set
0 Teachers may need to help their students learn to listen
carefully, calm themselves, generate suggestions, imagine
someone else's point of view, and so on.
0 Children should have the chance to work on these skills
from the time they are very young. Like us, they need
guidance and practice to get better.
#3 - Diagnosis
0 The teacher’s role in dealing with an unpleasant situation
begins with the need to diagnose what has happened and
why.
0 Teachers sometimes need to play detective and try to figure
out what is going on, or how to interpret what the child is
telling them.
0 Punishments and rewards are unproductive in part because
they ignore the underlying reasons for a given behavior.
#4 – Question Practices
0 Must be willing to look beyond the concrete situation in
front of us.
0 Is the student really the problem?
0 Does my teaching engage them?
#5 – Maximize Student
Involvement
0 Expand the role students have in making decisions about
the classroom environment.
0 “Talk less, ask more.”
0 Involve students in figuring out what to do when something
goes wrong, and give them responsibility for implementing
a solution.
#6 – Construct an Authentic
Solution
0 Asking students to come up with solutions will not get us
very far if they feel obliged to cough up explanations,
suggestions, or apologies on demand.
0 The questions teachers ask them must be open-ended, with
students encouraged to explore possibilities and reflect on
their own motives.
#7 – Assist Students In Making
Restitutions
0 A reasonable follow-up to a destructive action may be to try
to restore, replace, repair, clean up, or apologize, as the
situation may dictate.
#8 – Re-Evaluate Plans
0 Determine if a plan worked, whether the problem got
solved, whether additional or entirely new strategies may
now be needed.
#9 - Flexibility
0 “Doing to” (punitive) responses can be scripted, but
"working with" responses often have to be improvised.
0 Example: Difficulty getting a student to talk openly about
what is bothering him/her and it will make more sense to
drop him/her a note and invite a written response.
#10 – Minimize Punitive
Impacts
0 Example: If a problem behavior is persistent and the
teacher asks the student to leave the classroom, the
teacher's tone should be warm and regretful, and he/she
should express confidence that the two of them can
eventually solve the problem together.
0 Control is a last-resort strategy to be used reluctantly and
rarely.
From a High School Teacher:
0 “If I just kick kids out of class, I "don't tolerate" their actions,
but neither do I educate them or their classmates. And it
works about as well as stamping out a few ants. I prepare
them for repressive solutions where misbehavior is
temporarily contained by an outside authority, not really
addressed. Sometimes I am forced to that position, but I try
not to be.”