Presented by:
Michelle Burton-Moyes
Deanna Richard
Sharon McRae
William
Glasser’s
Choice Theory
and Quality
Teaching
William Glasser
Background



A psychiatrist
Thought to be one of
the greatest
educational thinkers of
our time
Contends that
behaviour in school will
not improve until we
change the way we
work with students
Choice Theory
Student
behaviour is
determined by student
choice, not teacher
control
Foundational Assertions for
Choice Theory
 We
cannot “make” students do anything,
but we can influence them to do things
that lead to better behaviour and
increased success
 It is up to teachers to make school
adequately interesting and otherwise
satisfying to students’ needs
Major Concepts in Glasser’s
Non-coercive Discipline





All human behaviour is purposeful
We are responsible for our own behaviour
All of our behaviour is our best attempt to
meet five basic needs
Students feel pleasure when their basic needs
are met and frustration when they are not
At least half of today’s students will not
commit themselves to learning if they find
their school experience boring, frustrating, or
otherwise dissatisfying
Major Concepts in Glasser’s
Non-coercive Discipline




Few students in today’s schools do their best
work
If today’s schools are to be successful, they
must create quality conditions that greatly
reduce student and teacher frustration
What schools require is a new commitment to
quality education
The school curriculum should be limited to
learnings that are useful or otherwise relevant
to students’ lives
Major Concepts in Glasser’s
Non-coercive Discipline



Students should be allowed to acquire indepth information about topics they consider
useful or interesting
Quality learning is evident when students
become able to demonstrate or explain how,
why, and where their learnings are valuable
Instead of scolding, coercing, or punishing,
teachers should try to befriend their students,
provide encouragement and stimulation, and
show unending willingness to help
Major Concepts in Glasser’s
Noncoercive Discipline



Teachers who dictate procedures, order
students to work, and berate them when they
do not are increasingly ineffective with
today’s students
Teachers who provide a stimulating learning
environment, encourage students and help
them as much as possible are most effective
with today’s learners
Motivation is the key ingredient in learning
Major Concepts in Glasser’s
Non-Coercive Discipline



Teachers who dictate procedures, order
students to work, and berate them when they
do not are increasingly ineffective with
today’s students (Glasser calls these teachers
boss teachers)
Teachers who provide a stimulating learning
environment, encourage students, and help
them as much as possible are most effective
with today’s learners (Glasser calls these
teachers lead teachers)
Motivation is the key ingredient in learning
Any Program of Quality Education
Must Meet Students’ Needs





Survival needs are met when the school environment is
kept safe and free from personal threat
Students sense belonging when they receive attention from
the teacher and others and participate actively in class
concerns
Students sense power when the teacher asks them to
participate in making decisions about topics to be studied
and procedure for working in class or assigns them
responsibility for class duties
Students experience fun when they are able to work and
talk with others, engage in interesting activities and share
their accomplishments
Students sense freedom when the teacher allows them to
make responsible choices concerning what they will study,
how they will do so, and how they will demonstrate their
accomplishments
Student Needs
http://lundak.com/About_Us.html
Main things schools can do to
improve student behaviour and
learning are:
 Provide an engaging curriculum
 Emphasize quality
 Influence students non-coercively
to make good choices about
learning and responsible conduct
Quality Curriculum



Schools must be places where students learn
useful information and learn it well
Glasser suggests that if students are old enough
you may ask them to identify what they would like
to explore in depth—learning a smaller number of
topics in depth is preferable to covering many
topics superficially
Quality learning requires depth of understanding
combined with a good grasp of its value


Ask students to explain why the material they have
learned is valuable
Ask students regularly to assess the quality of their
own efforts
Quality
Teaching
Provide a warm, supportive classroom climate





Use lead teaching rather than boss teaching
Ask students only to do work that is useful
(knowledge and skills that they will make use of in
their lives)
Always ask students to do the best they can
Ask students to evaluate work they have done and
improve it





Ask students to explain why they feel their work has high
quality
Ask students how they think they might improve their
work further
Progressively help students learn to use self-evaluation,
improvement and repetition
Help students recognize that doing quality work
makes them feel good
Help students see that quality work is never
destructive to them, others or the environment
Seven Deadly Habits vs. Seven
Connecting Habits
Deadly Habits







Criticizing
Blaming
Complaining
Nagging
Threatening
Punishing
Rewarding students
to control them
Connecting Habits
 Caring
 Listening
 Supporting
 Contributing
 Encouraging
 Trusting
 Befriending
Relation of Quality Teaching
to Discipline
Misbehaviour can be reduced greatly if
teachers do the following:
 Work with students to establish standards of
conduct in the classroom
 Discuss the importance of quality work
 Ask students about class behaviour they
believe will help them get their work done
and truly help them learn
 Ask for student advice on what should
happen when behaviour agreements are
broken—behaviour problems are best solved
by looking for ways to correct the underlying
problem
Relation of Quality Teaching
to Discipline (cont’d)
 Whenever
appropriate, ask students what
you the teacher “could do to help”
 Once agreements and consequences
are established they should be put in
writing and all students should sign the
document
 Agreements established and dealt with in
this way show that the teacher’s main
concern is quality, not power
 Hold classroom meetings to explore
alternatives to inappropriate behaviour
Gaining Benefits of Quality
Classrooms
 Replace
deadly habits with connecting
habits
 Make plain how you will work with
students
 Befriend your students
 Establish reasonable rules of class
behaviour
 Take the energy out of impending
misbehaviour
Gaining Benefits of Quality
Classrooms





Teach things that make a real difference in students’ lives
Help students learn to strive for quality
 explain that you will ask students to work at any given
assignment until they have achieved an acceptably high
level of competence and that nobody will fail or receive a
low grade
Test students frequently, but productively
 explain that tests are for learning only and promise that no
one will fail or receive a bad grade
Emphasize understanding and making use of new learning
Provide options for students after competence is achieved e.g.
help other students or move ahead to something of higher
quality
Implementing Glasser’s Ideas
in the Classroom
 Remember
that your students’ behaviour
is internally motivated and purposeful—
adjust your curriculum to help students
meet those needs
 Remember that your students will not
commit themselves to class activities they
find boring, frustrating or dissatisfying
 Hold a discussion with your class on how
school could be made more interesting
and enjoyable
Implementing Glasser’s Ideas
in the Classroom
 Following
the class discussion, indicate
that you will try to organize activities as
students suggested and that you will do
all you can to help them learn and
succeed
 Hold meetings with your class to discuss
new efforts and any results you see in
classwork and behaviour—focus on
improving learning
 Befriend students and provide
encouragement and stimulation
Implementing Glasser’s Ideas
in the Classroom
 Ask
students what kinds of class
behaviours will help them improve class
behaviour while acquiring quality learning
 When students misbehave, discuss their
behaviour and why it was important and
what they feel they could do to avoid
misbehaving in the future
Teacher Survey
Needs and their Definitions
Strength and Satisfaction Rating Scale
Love and Belonging:
The need for interpersonal contact, working
together with others, and the potential for
developing long term relationships and friendships.
To feel wanted and approved of by colleagues as
well as superiors.
Need Strength:
1 2 3 4 5
6
7
8
9
10
Need Satisfaction:
1 2 3 4 5 6
7
8
9
10
Need Strength:
1 2 3 4 5
6
7
8
9
10
Need Satisfaction:
1 2 3 4 5 6
7
8
9
10
Need Strength:
1 2 3 4 5
6
7
8
9
10
Need Satisfaction:
1 2 3 4 5 6
7
8
9
10
Need Strength:
1 2 3 4 5
Self-Worth/Power:
The need for a sense of empowerment,
competence and opportunities for personal
effectiveness in your place of work. A connection
between one’s personal sense of achievement and
worthiness with similar experiences in the home,
school/work, and community. Opportunities for
leadership and management roles.
Freedom:
The need for autonomy, independence and limited
restriction in the work environment and at home.
Opportunities for spontaneity and change in all
areas of one’s life.
Fun and Enjoyment:
The need for balance between work and pleasure.
Sufficient opportunities for enjoyable and fun
experiences within the context of work, home and
community.
6
7
8
9
10
Need Satisfaction:
1 2 3 4 5 6
7
8
9
10
Need Strength:
1 2 3 4 5
6
7
8
9
10
Need Satisfaction:
1 2 3 4 5 6
7
8
9
10
Survival and Health:
Safe physical environment in the workplace and at
home. An environment that is a supportive context
for one’s mental and emotional health. Family
income that adequately provides for enhanced
educational opportunities, personal self-care,
leisure activities, and vacations.
Student Needs
Survival & Health
Love & Belonging
Power
Freedom
Fun & Enjoyment
Student Needs
Survival & Health



Provide opportunities
for students to get
food, water and fresh
air by allowing snacks,
encouraging regular
water breaks and
growing classroom
plants or opening
windows.
Maintain behavior
guidelines that support
safety and respect.
Develop consistent
classroom procedures
and routines that add a
sense of order and
security.
Love & Belonging







Learn each student’s
name as soon as
possible and engage
students in activities
that help them learn
one another’s names.
Greet all students as
they enter the
classroom.
Let students get to
know you personally:
your outside interests,
what you stand for,
and who you are.
Regularly engage
students in teambuilding activities.
Teach students how to
work cooperatively,
and give them regular
opportunities to learn
in structured
cooperative activities.
Conduct class meetings
on a regular basis for
class-building,
problem-solving, and
content-related
discussions.
Smile.
Power






Give students a voice
in the classroom.
Solicit their input
regarding classroom
rules and behavioral
guidelines; allow them
to generate questions
that guide the
direction of the
curriculum.
Discover students’
instructional levels and
meet them where they
are.
Teach to a variety of
learning styles.
Hold regular
discussions about the
value of the curriculum
to students’ lives.
Use research-based
best practices, such as
structured cooperative
learning, authentic
assessment, and brainbased teaching
strategies.
Instead of giving
students low or failing
grades, allow them
second and third
chances to
demonstrate their
learning.
Freedom












Provides students with
choices regarding:
Their seating
Team members for
cooperative learning
activities or projects
Assignments (topics for
essays or class
projects, outside
reading)
Performance tasks for
assessments
To gain and keep
students’ attention, we
can:
Change location
Introduce lessons with
different kinds of music
Use a variety of
strategies
Change students’
cooperative learning
partners or team
members regularly
Begin class with a
variety of teambuilding activities
Go on field trips
Fun & Enjoyment



Play review games such
as Who Wants to Be a
Millionaire, family Feud,
or Jeopardy.
Play drama games that
relate to course content,
such as Science Term
Charades
Engage your students in
brain teasers such as
Mental Math or Lateral
Thinking Puzzles
Thoughts on Glasser?
Huh?
Ya!
Na…
Critical Friend
 “Students
should be allowed to acquire
in-depth information about topics they
consider useful or interesting.”

Student Choice vs. School Expectations—
teachers must teach what is in the
curriculum
 “Do
not grade their work because grades
suggest to students that the work is
finished.”

If we do not grade student work, what do
we show to administration, parents, etc.
Critical Friend
 “Allow


students to come up with rules.”
Ron Morrish “Rule making should be the
teacher’s job, and the teacher should be
able to explain to students why the rules
exist and what they are intended to
accomplish.”
What happens when rules are broken?
(consequences)
Critical Friend
 What


about special needs students?
How do these students fit in Glasser’s
Choice Theory and Quality Education?
William Glasser makes no mention of
students who have special needs
 Choice
Theory seems to be designed for
older students

What about elementary students?
References









Charles, C.M. Building Classroom Discipline. 10th. Toronto, ON: Pearson, 2011,
138-152.
Erwin, J.C. (2003). Giving student what they need. Educational Leadership, 61,
19-23.
Glasser, W. (1998). Choice theory: a new psychology of personal freedom.
New York: Harper Perennial.
Glasser, W. (1988). Choice theory in the classroom. New York: Harper
Perennial.
Glasser, W. (1997). Choice theory and students success. Education Digest,
63(3), 16-22.
Glasser, W. (1997). A new look at school failure and school success. Phi Delta
Kappan, 78(8), 596-603.
Palmatier, L. (1998). Crisis counseling for a quality school community: applying
william glasser's choice theory. USA: Taylor and Francis.
Wubbolding, R.E. (2007). Glasser quality school. Group Dynamics: Theory,
Research and Practice, 11(4), 253-261.
http://www.choicetheory.com/ct.htm