Biography
 Kounin began his career in 1946 as an educational psychologist at
Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan.
 He is best known for his studies on classroom management which
took place during the 1970’s.
 Focused on preventive discipline techniques & strategies designed to prevent
occurrence problems
 His findings were based on videos taken in 80 different elementary
school classrooms as well experiments on college, high school and
elementary school aged students over a five year period.
 His book, “Discipline and Group Management in Classrooms”,
published in 1977, summarizes the behaviors of both effective and
ineffective management.
Key Vocabulary
Ripple effect
Momentum
Withitness
Smoothness
Overlapping
Withitness
 A teacher’s ability to know what is going on in all areas of
the classroom at all times.
 This trait is communicated more effectively by teachers'
behaviors than by their words.
 It is effective only if students are convinced that the
teacher really knows what is going on.
 They pick up in the 1stsign of misbehavior, ignore minor
misbehavior to stop a major infraction
Smoothness
 Transitioning from one activity to another without disruptions.
 Lesson
flow & time management
 Kounin and Gump (1974) demonstrated that lesson formats as
totalities varied along dimensions of continuity, insulation, and
intrusiveness
 Lessons are associated with the amount of given task
 High continuity in individual require:
 (a) that each child has the necessary props which he is able to
manipulate appropriately
 (b) that his actions produce a visible effect which signals
further action.

Kounin S, Doyle, J. (1975).
Momentum
Refer to teachers’ starting lessons
with dispatch, keeping lessons
moving ahead, making transitions
among activities efficiently, &
bringing lessons to a satisfactory
close.
Overlapping
The ability to attend to two issues at
the same time.
The Ripple
Effect
When teachers correct misbehaviors
in one student, it often influences
the behavior of nearby students.
The Ripple Effect
 The control technique (3)
 The children's reactions (5)
 The impact of the setting
The Ripple Effect in Discipline
 The control technique (3)
 Clarity – clarity of the directions teacher provides to students

Ex: “Stop it!” , “Don’t do that!”,  “ We don’t take the blocks
away when someone's using them”
 Firmness- how much the teacher “means it”

Proximity to the child (walking over, touching, guiding)
 Roughness – Teacher expressed hostility or exasperation


gave child a warning look which was more angry than
serious
Touch had more pressure/ shouting

Article by Jacob S. Kounin and Paul V. Gump
…The Ripple Effect in Discipline
 The children's reactions (5)
 Sometimes boys & girls showed no reaction - they just continued what they
were doing
 “Behavior disruption” - children reacted sharply to the correction of a
classmate.
o Students would lose interest in what they were doing & became worried,
confused, and restless.
 “Conformance” - children responded with a special effort to be good.
o
Trying to show no misbehavior stopped on their own, sat up taller, paid
closer attention to the lesson
 “Non-conformance”- correction had no prevention whatsoever
o
If a student was corrected for their misbehavior, another child would
misbehave
 Children in the audience vacillated between conformance & non-
conformance.
o Both conformed & misbehaved.

Article by Jacob S. Kounin and Paul V. Gump
…The Ripple Effect in Discipline
 The impact of the setting
 Children who were misbehaving-or related to misbehavior-were much
more responsive as they watched the teachers' efforts to control
 Children who were free of misbehavior were quite likely to show no
reaction.
 Children who were misbehaving showed more conformance, more
nonconformance, & markedly more vacillation between conformance
and nonconformance.
 Effects for clarity were obtained regardless of whether or not the
watching child was associated with misbehavior
 Firmness affected only groups that had some connection with
misbehavior. In these groups, high firmness increased conformance &
decreased non-conformance

Article by Jacob S. Kounin and Paul V. Gump
Application of Theory
 Use the ripple effect to your advantage by using phrases like, "I see many people have
already completed half their work." to get students who are not working back on task.
 Let students know that you are aware of their behavior by saying things like, "I see you
have barely started. This work must be done today!“
 Call on students in discussions as a way to involve them in the lesson and keep them
engaged.
 Point out progress when it occurs. For example, "Good! Now you are on the track! Keep
up the good work.“
 Provide variety.
 Continually challenge students to accomplish more.
 Hold students accountable with group focus techniques.
 Do not disregard students because they have been nonproductive in the past.
Vocabulary
Withitness
Smoothness
Overlapping
Ripple effect
Momentum
References
 Andrius, J. (n.d.). TeacherMatters - Classroom Management and Discipline - The Kounin
Model of Discipline | TeacherMatters - Classroom Management a. TeacherMatters.
Retrieved May 13, 2011, from http://www.teachermatters.com/classroomdiscipline/models-of-discipline/the-kounin-model.html
 Kounin S., Gump V. (1958). The Ripple Effect in Discipline. The Elementary School
Journal, Vol. 59(No. 3 ), pp. 158-162. Retrieved May 12, 2011, from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/999319 .
 Ryan, K., & Cooper, J. M. (n.d.). Those Who Can, Teach - Google Books. Google Books.
Retrieved May 12, 2011, from
http://books.google.com/books?id=rqmdR6Xrgq8C&pg=PA189&lpg=PA189&dq=james+k
ounin&source=bl&ots=9YUnHUZ6rJ&sig=in0vVOBGQty2n3OoSkh_GuJmerU&hl=en&ei
=DnfMTeWAIJTSiALQtJCgBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDIQ
6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q=james%20kounin&f
 Kounin S, Doyle, J. (1975). Degree of Continuity of a Lesson's Signal System and the Task
Involvement of Children. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 67(No. 2,), 159-164.
Retrieved May 13, 2011, from the PsycARTICLES database.