Unit # 1--Introduction to
Classroom Management
and Guidelines for
Teaching
Dr. Martha Pelaez
Florida International
University
Some Basic Assumptions
• ALL children have a right to an effective education
• Every child is a unique individual
(history, temperament).
• No single set of interventions or remedial procedures
is effective under all conditions with all children
• No matter how well designed and executed
classroom intervention process may be, their
effectiveness will be limited unless teachers target
the function of the child’s behavior
Guidelines for Teaching
Guideline 1: The student is always right
– That doe not mean they are always
correct, but that their behavior will tell you
if what you are doing is working (See law
2)
Guideline 2: If you always do what you’ve
always done you will always get what
you have always gotten (performance
predicts performance)
– If what you are doing is not working try
something else
Guideline 3: Never let them see you
sweat
–“Its nothing personal, its only
business”
--Tony Soprano
What is Behavior
Management?
• All action (and inaction) a teacher engages in that
enhances the probability that children, individually
and in groups, will develop effective skills that are
productive and socially acceptable
– Behavior management is a complex set of skills that must be
planned, implemented, and evaluated often in an ongoing
effort to provide an effective education for all students
Definition of behavior management (cont.)
When effectively implemented behavior management is:
• comprehensive rather than piecemeal
– part of the overall tactics of teaching
• proactive rather than reactive
– sets the occasion for student success
• positive rather than negative
– is designed to teach students new skills
• inclusive rather than exclusive
– includes ALL relevant people (students, parents, and other school
personnel)
Purpose of behavior management
• To maintain a well run and cohesive
classroom in which all students will learn
• The ultimate goal of behavior management is
to transfer control of teacher maintained
contingencies to student self-discipline
What is Teaching?
According to Skinner:
“We are on the verge of a new educational method a new pedagogy in
which the teacher will emerge as a skilled behavioral engineer. He will be
able to analyze the contingencies which will arise in his classroom and
design and set up improved versions. He will know what is to be done and
will have the satisfaction of knowing that he has done it.”
Skinner
•A teacher arranges contingencies under which a student acquires
behavior which will be useful to him later on.
White
•Teaching is the process of building an environment so that a learner will
attain preset instructional objectives.
These definitions of teaching should
remind teachers that:
• teaching should have objectives that can be
measured.
• to be aware of the elements within their classrooms
which might influence learning
• we are responsible for arranging their classrooms so
students will learn.
Teaching and Learning
• Six faulty notions about teaching and
learning
– Teachers do not need to measure student
performance
– Building self-esteem is an important goal
– A good teacher is creative
– Every child learns differently (the learning style
fallacy)
– Drill and practice is harmful
– A good teacher is a patient teacher
Faulty notions
•Teachers do not need to measure student performance
“The teacher who cannot or will not pinpoint and measure the
relevant behaviors of the student he or she is teaching is probably
not going to be very effective…Not to define precisely and to
measure these behavioral excesses and deficiencies, then is a
fundamental error; it is akin to the malpractice of a nurse who
decides not to measure vital signs (heart rate, respiration rate,
temperature, blood pressure), perhaps arguing that he or she is
too busy, that subjective estimates of vital signs are quite
adequate…The teaching profession is dedicated to the task of
changing behavior-changing behavior demonstrably for the better.
What can one say, then, of educational practice that does not
include precise definition and reliable measurement of behavioral
change induced by the teacher’s methodology. It is indefensible.”
-James Kauffman (1997)
Faulty notions
• Teaching self-esteem is an important goal
– Nothing succeeds like success
• Self-esteem is not amenable to reliable measurement
• Self-esteem is a product of an accomplishment
• Self-esteem cannot be taught
– In order to be creative (effectively) one must first
learn how to do what has worked in the past
Faulty notions
• Every child learns differently
– If this were true schools would be useless, there would be no way
to teach except in didactic teaching (one on one)
– There is no hard scientific evidence that supports the existence of
different learning styles
• Instead “learning styles” often become a convenient excuse for why a
student did not acquire the skill that was supposed to be taught
• A “learning style” is only useful to the extent that it describes the
environmental conditions under which optimal learning occurs-and then
only to minor degree
– Although every child is a unique individual, there is a strong and
continuing body of evidence that suggests that humans learn in
relatively the same way.
Faulty notion
• Drill and practice is harmful
– No one questions the coach or music
teacher who has the student practice freethrows or scales
– Drill and guided practice is one of the most
effective methods for ensuring the student
acquires the intended material
Faulty notion
• A good teacher is patient
– Students need to learn more in less time not less in more
time
– The idea that a teacher must be patient translates into:
• Low expectations
• Fewer opportunities to respond
• Low achievement
– A teacher should expect her procedures to work and be
stubbornly committed to the belief that her students can and
will learn
– Humans are not flowers who require water and sunlight in
the right amounts to bloom.
Teaching and Learning
• Five useful assumptions about teaching
– These students have the right to an effective
education
– Programs should be based on the individual
academic needs of the student
– Programs should be goal directed
– Programs should be data driven
– Programs should be research proven
PREFERRED PRACTICES FOR
EVERY STUDENT
•
Students want to succeed in school.
– Students can succeed if they are provided effective instruction.
•
One of the most effective classroom behavior management systems is
a well-designed academic program.
– Assess the student’s repertoire to help identify and prioritize important
instructional objectives
– Define and task analyze the new skill to be learned
– Design instructional materials and activities so the student has frequent
opportunities to actively practice the skill
– Provide systematic feedback (praise and error correction)
– Conduct direct and frequent measurement of student performance
Teacher mindsets to be motivated for
success
View education as a profession
– Education is no better or worse than the quality of instruction
provided by the teacher
– Accept responsibility for learning and ask for assistance from others
when it is needed
Ask for the data and evaluate their believability
– Demand effectiveness from your curriculum
– If what you are doing is not working try something else
Use differential acceptance
– Witness or be the victim of acts of anger without responding
similarly
Focus on alterable variables
– Teachers should focus effort on only those variables that make a
difference in student learning and can be affected by sound
teaching practice
8-13
Reinforcement
• Describes the functional relationship between
two environmental events
– A behavior (an observable movement)
– Consequence (the result of the movement
• Reinforcement ALWAYS results in an
increase in the likelihood of the behavior
occurring again under similar circumstances
Negative reinforcement
(SR-)
• The contingent removal of an aversive
stimulus immediately following a
response that increases the future rate
and/or probability of that response
occurring.
With Negative Reinforcement
• The student is "saddled" with an aversive (or
threat of it).
• His way out is to emit the behavior.
Two Types of Negative Reinforcement
• Escape
• Avoidance
• Two Types of Negative Reinforcement
Escape terminates the existing stimulus
Avoidance occurs when a response avoids (rather than
terminates), a stimulus
Escape
Escape terminates the existing stimulus
Examples:
• Teacher is yelling, student follows directions to stop the yelling.
• Child is hitting sibling to get her toy back, sibling returns the toy.
• During math class a student is non-compliant with teacher
directions and gets sent out of class.
• A student hits another student who is teasing him.
• A student hurries through his work making many mistakes just
to get his work done
Avoidance
Avoidance occurs when a response avoids (rather than
terminates), a stimulus
• A threat exists that can be avoided if the student emits a
behavior
Examples
• A student follows a teacher's directions to avoid having to go to
the principal.
• A student engages in disruptive behavior with his peers to avoid
the ridicule of his classmates.
• A student sits in the front of the bus to avoid being teased by his
peers
• A student sharpens her pencil, gets a clean piece of paper,
writes, erases, then re-writes her name to avoid getting started
with her work
Negative Reinforcement Review
1. Negative reinforcement results in a(n) _________ in the future
probability of a of a response. (increase or decrease?)
• Increase
2. In negative reinforcement a(n) _______ stimulus is removed/ avoided.
(aversive or pleasant)
• Aversive
3. Jason, you must stay in the house and clean your room. before you can
play with friends is an example of escape or avoidance
• Escape
ASR
4 __________ occurs when a student follows a direct so as not
to be scolded by teacher (avoidance or escape)
•
Avoidance
5. If you are able to keep your desk neat for three days in a row you
will no longer have to stay in for recess. Is this escape or avoidance?
•
Escape
6. True or False. Negative reinforcement has the same results as
punishment
•
False
7. A teacher is yelling in the classroom, and the student runs away
from school. Is this escape or avoidance?
•
Escape
8.
Negative reinforcement results in an increase or decrease in the
future probability of a behavior occurring
•
Increase
Positive Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement (SR+) can be defined as
• when a behavior is immediately followed by the presentation of
a stimulus and, as a result, occurs more often in the future.
Positive reinforcer refers to
• a stimulus that follows a response and increases the future
likelihood of that response occurring
Teaching Behaviors that indicate
sensitivity to cultural and linguistic
differences
• Learn key words in the child’s native
language
• Help the student learn basic routines in
class
• Use visual aids when teaching
Becoming a Culturally Proficient
Educator
• Teacher awareness and development
– Cultural self-awareness is the bridge to learning about
other cultures
– Learn to understand differences in verbal and nonverbal
communication styles
– Knowledge of the different significance attached to touch,
interpersonal distance, silence, dress, and gestures is
important
• Understanding multicultural terminology
– The term “minority” represents an attempt to categorize
by race, not by culture
– The term culturally diverse implies no judgment of a
culture’s value and does not equate cultural diversity with
disability
Working with Culturally and
Linguistically Diverse Families
• Barriers that might exist in working with families from diverse
backgrounds include:
– Parents may be English-language learners, less well educated,
have low socioeconomic status, or be undocumented
immigrants
– Families may have differing views about disability, and some
may hold idiosyncratic ideologies and practices about the cause
and treatment of disability
– The educational system may be extremely intimidating to the
family
• To overcome these barriers, teachers should have a general
understanding of the cultural background of the student
Appropriate Assessment of
Culturally Diverse Students
• Alternative assessment supplements the
results of standardized tests
• Alternative methods of assessment
–
–
–
–
–
Direct observations
Portfolios
Self-reports
Inventories
Interviews
• Alternative assessment allows for
exploration of the numerous factors and
confounding variables that may be
responsible for the child’s difficulties
Culturally Responsive
Curriculum and Instruction
Questions a teacher should ask about a new
culture
1.What is the group’s history?
2.What are the important cultural values?
3.Who are outstanding individuals who claim
group membership?
4.What are the group’s major religions and
beliefs?
5.What are the current political concerns?
6.What are the group’s political, religious, and
social celebration days?
7.What are the educational implications of the
answers to the preceding questions?