Chapter 1 A POSITIVE APPROACH TO CLASSROOM DISCIPLINE t Kevin Wheldall a 7k ement that, whilst courses of tray. for teaching universally lay ae des ‘ and content, on the philosophical, ne ologic® and psychological perspectives on educa pears on the (tt depth study of one's main academic subject, relatively 1.4)" time is spent in preparing the teacher-to-be in the art op... we would prefer it, the science of teaching. Very 1it,i0 Gnstruction is given in what the teacher actually ought to 4, in the classroom, how she or he should behave. This particularly noticeable in the context of handling troubleson, or disruptive behaviour in the classroom. Many studen: teachers are still told the myth that, provided you have sper enough time preparing your lessons properly, you will never have discipline problems. The falsity of this advice iy exposed by the countless number of both student and practising teachers who have had lessons, which were impeccably prepared, destroyed beyond redemption. Many have been reduced to tears by classes of children which no amount of prior lesson preparation could control. It is a source of amaz Teaching practice itself is a curious idea whereby student teachers are left alone for large periods of time to cope, as best they can, with whole classes of children, with little or no guidance as to how to proceed once they are actually in the classroom. The lucky ones may receive useful (or otherwise) tips from more experienced staff. The most common advice given is "Give them hell for the first week, show them who's boss, and then you can relax." Others rapidly acquire the skills of sarcasm and 'put down’, learned from teaching colleagues (who should really know better) or perhaps dimly remembered from their own school days. Many will fervently wish that an effective model of teaching was available which offered practical advice about what one should actually do in (the classroom. We believe that the behavioural model is tte | ae eae The behavioural approach to teaching heoretical basis for understanding what is happeninéthe ice o's the ing ply Roe erode etna more importantiy, hap "e importantly, it i a3 an technology f. Y for solving then, “Re amalysing ‘1 ‘us hope to and ‘the behavioural approach offers “a Bositive alternativ discipiii snempiaseroom ne. We belie ie tearned, visit ¢ Ficus yMaeitnonier tes _mecegimore rewarding Wprerrae ed effective coaching 7 ng ex fe teacl F tte sgvecching im howavern exactly what’ the bebe firat apprmapter two of & Perici ee sndihen eos on coming book by Wheldall and Merrett Ce jall and Merrett [pERAVIOURAL APPROACH TO TEACHING nying methodology f, ‘°F _approachiy ng and pehavioural approach to teachi: ‘ng is based eetnnaol af tue whch 2 Sata arene viourism, and hence the behavioural concern of psycho: arn psychology (and hence teaching) is with the means that teachers who adopt th Me cee seacs) ocusees thenaminee wath a child actually does, i.e, his behaviour, rather Speculating about unconscious motives or the sses underlying his behaviour. The behavioural ch is objective and is concerned with the observable Of life. For example, a teacher might report tnat yorked well for the first half of the lesson but a her concentration lapsed." In behavioural terms what ned was that Sally completed ten sums correctly in Petpet twenty minutes of the lesson, but only two in ieuenty minutes. The teacher's reference to her tration lapse is an attempt at explanation based ‘on speculation. and certainly for most practical the most part, is learned. 5, behaviour what people do, is assumed to result of the individual nt, rather than being Yt mean that behavioural hers do not believe in genetic SC deve that anybody can be words behaviour, as a is environme! sts and teac! ‘or that they do bel Yyen time. Rather they believe BE tosis nt may set the limits piological endowmel a 5 can learn, put that behaviour is an2M OUNEP wor, ning. esult Of tee there 18 very 1ittig’,the, , etill etical Fee ene slt oeeeerce or the fey a, ra "s B but that yo Ogr t feet Ae eRrOE ST era ys cure by ecereist™ tats | pexel aboe of Nis Meret earn behav CAsing “Ae vere sta hi © cor 1 er £0) ments * penas pars nis environ! a bene ie change tn /behavtours with ng meant att 3. Learnil the first point really. The om, The follows from Vy that learning has taker, 1," , that ot, (that we 280 Moe in a child's behavig,? lac" the! 01 ol aaa ! ry observ 6 cher will not See ieute’ co with clang a ioura better a 01 now’ behavioura has a i tha as "I think she patisfied if the Seas ROW diay} ott will oN “mnich she was not showing befor,” a penaviour(s) might be eeeraer in her ineress’* we 1e ures. 4 Srremunoajandrorypunctuality fe o .e. learning) are go 4. changes in pehaviour Cee Yorn, * primarily by the ‘law ¥ ans that children (and aduits, In simple See cen that BeeeGdeiinicon the Beets : Ce eee s which are followes ° { ‘ eat behaviour: tending to reich they find desirable or Pewarding, ences W! Open they tend not to repeat behaviours, 1,) consequences of which they find aversive or punishing, 1, other words the consequences of behaviour are critical 1, learning. 5. Behaviours are also governed by the contexts in which they occur. In any situation some behaviours are more appropriate than others and we learn which situations are appropriate for which behaviour. If a child's behaviour is appropriate for the circumstances in which it occurs it is likely to be rewarded; if it ocours in inappropriate circumstances reward is less likely and the behaviour may even lead to punishing consequences. As a result of this we rapidly jearn not only how to perform a certain behaviour, but when and where to perform it. For example, the new boy in sbabeitoenn School will soon learn to cheer on the hints Sodeasiias touchline but merely to clap politely announced in assembly. The five Points s features of the ae May be seen as the essentia operant 1, earning theory has been very influential. Opera 12 1 part thi approach to teaching. In larse ey derive a the psychology of B.F, Risener, whose ntseule ° By oth, ing Mattes agit nology is a sci opt 8 poye ence of ben ne aviour which looks tat Ponotional, that is to say, causal relationships between att jours and factor: y penavio 3 in the envir Bperscare a, fener in che onvivonnenGs ‘As we bave eiready pee ees at almost all of the behaviour a, with’ whic! kely to be concerned is learned, and ti 'y ft'f's learned and maintained by environmental sonsequences, os a aremets then we can change or control children’, Sree rere ng it Sarde Saptase, Savever, Uh" th oOo in ue yy, Sugy a child finds himself will also influence his behaviour and Peale Spy he that we can also change the child's behaviour by al me PL {Mer aspects of the child's environment. This sSiseiee frequently overlooked but is, in fact, extremely important as 1 creas we shall see. Teaching is about Changing Children’s Behaviour Ve, b a ci) If we believe that teaching is concerned with helping children to learn new skills and gain new information, and if we believe also that learning implies a change or changes in ts sis ang behaviour, then it follows logically that teaching is about baat changing children's behaviour, whether we are talking about Bia by the acquisition of appropriate social skills or the learning ‘ding; of new academic information. Moreover, if teaching is about > the changing behaviour then the role of the teacher is, quite Bs Th simply, to bring about changes in the behaviour of the Cal ty children in her class. There are many points which we will need to discuss which | they follow directly from this premise but let us initially establish the remit of this chapter, what we are trying to cover and what we are not attempting to present in the context of this short introductory overview. Basically, our concern is with the classroom management of children's social behaviour. The behavioural approach may also be applied in curriculum design and in the teaching of academic skills and this is dealt with in more detail in the y to subject matter but nees following chapter. We must immediately stress, however, that d to improved social behaviour in the classroom has enormous dly implications for children's academic progress. Our aim will put be to present a positive approach to the perennial problem of in classroom discipline and to demonstrate how the behavioural the approach yields benefits for teachers and children. By mploying effective, positive behavioural methods of ely establishing control in the classroom, the teacher is freed in large part from the often time-consuming chore of chiding children for disrupting lessons or for not getting on with ble to spend more of his al their work. The teacher is then al ge time planning and directing effective lessons and advising and se explaining with individual children. As a result of this we at 13become con: ‘once they have Siete, mignt also expect cht ee to begin to finds more successful own right. This 19 @ chang schoolwork rewas nd is the ultimate aim of”: behaviour of @ a good teaching dt 18 important to consider brig ating principles underlying y.) sie fe Remember that in this chapter we .,* behavioural aPProee gy. Readers who become interested only provity *phould read an introductory text on this to)\" this appr’ ri (ag. Wheidall and Merrett, 1982)+ the Behavioural Teacher's ABC ing is based on sever, al approach to teach .. ate of which we have already referred to trier, Pr aruaioy wodea jembodying the orucial elements of t). Ea EEEHaeaatioue pamnown es tusithree tere anelyais or behaviour or the ABC model. nt, howevers ents pot a tty Pehe baste oper i.e. the context ; A refers to the antecedent conditions, 4 ‘ghich a behaviour occurs or what is happening in tha environment prior to a behaviour occurring. B refers to the behaviour itself, i.e. what a child 1, Zetually doing in real physical terms (not what you think he is doing as a result of inferences from his behaviour). c refers to the consequences of the behaviour, i.e. what happens to the child after the behaviour. ABC is a convenient way of remembering the constituents of the three term analysis of behaviour and also the logical sequence of antecedent, behaviour and consequence. For reasons other than sheer perversity, however, we will not consider them in this order here, but will start with B, the behaviour, since behaviour is the primary concern of the whole approach. Behaviour. What do we mean when we talk about a child's behaviour? And why do we place such great emphasis on specifying exactly what behaviour a child is producing? These questions are fundamental to the behavioural approach. As we said in the introduction to this section behaviourism as 2 Philosophy of science arose as a reaction to the highly sponte ve approach of early psychologists who attempted to explain’ man's behaviour by recourse to inborn ‘instincts’ and to irrational, uncontrollable, unconscious forces within or Beech rejected such notions and demanded that the reine, 0! mor should be based on the observable. Consequently ivocat that behaviour should be studied directly since 4be observed objectively, 4b could ready said that a child's benavi haviour refers ually doing and we atte - ae gan ao precise a way a0 posesibt te say what a oniia is eeiiding @ tower with bricks, we adit Me observe a consis bubtive play’ since another observer or someo area motes might interpret ‘creative play’ aipee ter ane fe and imprecise. We would record that tne shits Imucted a tower of four bricks. To say that it is tive! and/or that it is ‘play’ is to ender it is rpret, is prone tor 6 vaguene. (ei racouracy and vagueness and is unlixel e Mailerly, 1f 2 teacher tells us that Jason ious ieceting we have to ask the teacher to define the 1 in class, aviour more clearly. What you rd as? Deharteiye what he regards as ‘messing about’. “Noresvers Af Pera yagueldefinition there is no guarantes thet it is’ the Uefort of behaviour we are categorising in this way oa ye running. SO we would ask the teacher to list any-oF | Sason's behaviours which he finds objectionable and then t define them as precisely as possible. A behaviour wnicts as frequently found at the top of many teachers’ lists is | ‘teetking out of turn’. If we define this as “any talking by e gnild when the teacher has requested the class to get on with | Get work in silence", then we are moving closer towards an : jective definition. The more objective our definition, the | Gibter it is for two observers to agree that a certain behaviour has ceurred and the easier it is to count instances | of such behaviour. Counting instances of behaviour can be an extremely useful, if not essential, component of the behavioural approach to teaching. | Precise definition of behaviour also helps us to avoid the danger of over-interpretation and giving non-explanations as eases of behaviour, Non-explanations sometimes take the form of what are known as ‘explanatory fictions’. These are (generally unhelpful whilst providing a veneer or gloss of ‘scientific’ explanation. They can also be dangerous insofar Labelling is often as they can be used to label a child. tion that little can be done about it; coupled with the assump the problem is seen as the child and not his behaviour For example, if Darren keeps hitting other children his teacher inay describe him as being aggressive, but if we ask her how she knows this, she may reply "He keeps hitting other | children". The word ‘aggressive’ is simply a label for a child who frequently hits other children but is sometimes used | as if it were an explanation of this behaviour. Consequences. The next item in the three ter® analysis is C, efers to the fact for consequences. As we said earlier, this r that we tend to repeat behaviours which bring us what we want 15 we —ana soe) toile eteadin from repeating behaviours leaay cnanmnences which we want to avoid. This appears as eon stic of all animals but we differ from animal, °° * Bee Can gaan other an items of whatie seek out and whee Sasa void, In common with other animals, we tena t.\ ** cut food and will repeat behaviours which have lea tote Provision of food when we are deprived of it. Moreover mete Af not most of us) will work for money. Similariy "“, eco of people find praise and approval rewarding find ne ehave in a way which is likely to be followed by an) approval. On the other hand, perhaps few of us go Sitice i way to collect train numbers and, thankfully * four seriously, even fewer seek out and behave ina way cer ”* ¥ to secure the ‘reward’ of drugs such as heroin. ° within the behavioural approach to iene. oo ee identatieation’ of things and venta: which childres :°"* rewarding and to structure the teaching environment so oc"! = make access to these rewards dependent upon behaviour whi” = the teacher wants to encourage in his class. Since this” psel obviously a major issue we will return to it in more deta;, m later. At this stage, however, it is important to attempt 1, Z| provide a summary of the effects of the various types consequence upon behaviour. 4 In simple, everyday language consequences may be described 25 ‘rewarding’ or ‘punishing’. Rewarding consequences, which ve call positive reinforcers, are events which we seek out or 'g for', whilst we try to avoid punishing consequences; neutra} consequences are events which affect us neither way, Behaviours followed by positive reinforcers are likely to increase in frequency. Behaviours followed by punishers tent to decrease in frequency whilst neutral consequences have m the behavioural approach to teaching, infrequent effect. In behaviours (for example, getting on with the set but desired work quietly) are made more frequent by arranging for positive reinforcers, such as teacher attention and approval, to follow Undesired behaviours may be decreased in frequency by ensuring that positive reinforcers do not follow their occurrence, i.e. a neutral consequence is arranged. Occasionally it may be necessary to follow undesired behaviours with punishers (for example, a stern 'telling off") in an attempt to reduce the frequency of behaviour rapidly but there are many problems associated with this procedure. Contrary to popular belief, punishment plays only a minor and infrequent role in the behavioural approach, not least because what we believe to be punishing could, in fact, be reinforcing to the child. For example, the child who receives es attention from adults may behave in ways which result in adul disapproval. This child may prefer disapproval to be ignored and will continue to behave like this because ac” attention is positively reinforcing. This is known 16 their occurrence.note that terminating a punishing consequ sinforcing and can be, and often 1a, uses to increase ‘beha - s is known as negat: Mthis has problems associated with its Ge ae may rapidly learn other, more effective, ways of the negative consequence than you had in mind. For a teacher may continually use sarcasm and ridicule pupils. He ceases only when they behave as he “Another way of avoiding this unpleasant consequence, other than by doing as the teacher wishes, is to stay school. ‘one can punish by removing or terminating positive ences (for example, by taking away a child's sweets). known as response cost but again there are similar associated with this approach. The following diagram relationships between these various consequences and ffects. "Good things' i.e. rewarding with smiles, sweets, toys, praise, etc. Technical term: Positive Feinforcement ‘Bad things’ i.e. g escape from TO DECREASE BEHAVIOUR(S) "Bad things! i.e. punishing with smacks, frowns, reprimands, ete. Technical term: Punishment ‘Good things! i.e. losing privileges, house points, money, opportunities to earn "good things' etc. Technical term: Response CostOy hp oY i if , Wy is important to remember that We are ony at vide an overview of the general Dehaviouray Seng, 4 if i setae cat iar ato conmoreconat aay Me Gotinteions of what constitutes a punisher op athe pa tao Fr this chapter. We must now, however, tun info, gt f eo te aspect of the ABC model, A or the antecedent oon one ts, It is not sufficient to at, sot e cee simply in terms of bebaydeurs and ape =a well as considering what happens after a behay att r consequence) we must also consider what happeney occita behaviour occurred. We must examine events Whign ef well as events which follow behaviour, Antecedents conditions i.e. events which precede behavignn ® influence its occurrence. They can serve to prompt behaviour. Take the example of when a teacher tease’ and his class is left alone. For some classes thiv's will have become a cue for noisy, disruptive bensyo® there is no-one around to reprimand the chiigy, classes even post a look-out to give a war teacher is returning! disruptive behaviour will cease, specific antecedent condition has control oye particular behaviour. This control is derives try association with certain consequences. Take anothen which highlights how this might occur, The teacher asks a child a question in class (ant stimulus), the child gives a silly answer (the behaviow his classmates laugh (the consequence). If this e, is positively reinforcing, we may expect the child silly answers upon subsequent similar occasio probably be less likely to do so, however, when hi are not there. The presence of his peers stimulus for his misbehaviour. This example giy idea behind the need to consider the conte behaviours occur. The relationships between antecedent conditions, the behaviours and the known as the contingencies of reinforce important consideration which we must bear in is the frequency of reinforcement. Frequency of Reinforcement When we want to teach a child to do somethin encourage him to behave in a certain way more fre he normally does, it is important that we ensure oF positively reinforced every time he behaves as we wall This normally leads to rapid learning and is continuous reinforcement. When he has learned gil behaviour and/or is behaving as we want him to do ™ annis we may maintain this behaviour more e Gitereruesor of. reinrorcemants. Aucthers imparvant wanting to reduce the frequency is that the child Fesepecome less responsive if the positive reinforcer becomes easily available. Consequently, once a child is regularly ‘ing in a desired way we can best maintain that behaviour pensnouring that he is now reinforced only interai ttently, ittent reinforcement can be arranged so that a child is reinforced every so often (i.e. in terms of time) or, Titernatively, after so many occurrences of the behaviour. The different ways of organising the frequency of Aeinforcement are known as reinforcement scl following this brief summary of basic behavioural theory, we “now turn to a consideration of what the behavioural woh to teaching is all about. With some children the four that concerns us has not yet been learned, with behav ‘thers the behaviour is learned but does not occur frequently enough whilst other children frequently behave in The behavioural approach to teaching is jate ways. nging the frequencies of behaviour. It can be used inappropr: chal "teach new skills or to increase or decrease existing rates beh: of jour. It is important to emphasise that the approach to teaching is primarily concerned with — i IVE REINFORCEMENT EFFECTIVELY theory, if it is a theory, seems painfully obvious. the frequency of desirable behaviour in the behaves as we want him to behave, we simply create a on he likes, or remove one he doesn't like. As a lt the probability that he will behave that way again goes p, which is what we want." (Skinner, 1948). d be simpler? But if it is common sense and we all Kenow it, why do children not behave in the way we want ? The main reason is that parents and teachers, whilst claiming to use the behavioural approach, are often y inconsistent. It is commonplace to see people methods of reward and punishment totally ically and then wondering what went wrong. At proves difficult to convince people of the damage ng or where they are going wrong. A good example aviour we call ‘showing off" in young children; ts are often the arch-villains here. Not only do ts tend to shower children with edible reinforcers tpop', ete.) and social reinforcers, they also non-systematically or, worse, systematically 19s not desired by the parent. After countless lectures on behavioural methods to my Ovm mother, 1 finally persuaded her that although mY (then young) son Robin's ‘showing off behaviour amused her 0S being ‘cute’, it did not evoke the same response in others; especially his parents! Later she told me proudly that neu she did not pay Pra attention every time he was showing off, only sometimes, As you will probably realise, far from being an improvement, she had effectively changed his reinforcement schedule from continuous reinforcement to an intermittent schedule - 4 cchedute swhdiohlis (far more poverfuls 4m maintaining the behaviour! but upon behaviour which i Similarly, few parents seem to realise that they often bring tantrum troubles upon themselves. How often have we observed the following incident ina shopping precinct. A toddler passing a shop window with his mother sees a toy or lollipop and shouts, "I wannit, I wannit!" Mother says, "Not today dear" and moves on. The child stays behind, begins to stamp his feet and repeat his demand more volubly. The mother again refuses and there follows a series of increasingly vociferous demands, each followed by refusal. At this point the mother often smacks the child in desperation which immediately results in a tearful, screaming fit. The mother embarrassed by the noise and the looks of the passers-by (nearly all of whom sympathise with the child) eventually gives in and buys the child the toy or lollipop. The child stops erying, beams triumphantly and the mother is only too glad that the incident fs over. Unfortunately, of course, the problem has only just begun. The mother has quite definitely reinforced the Eegduuine andidemanding by giving the child’a reward. The ext time they go shopping the same situation is more likely Deadecupiea bheloniid has"2earned that screaming in public Serngsetgosdies’,* or that “long term ‘pestering’ will eventually bring a reward. The best solution to the problem is not to reinforce that behaviour in the first place, but given that the problem exists the only remedy is to employ an extinction procedure, i.e. stop reinforcing the child by refusing to buy goodies in such situations. An ingenious mother will make "goodies" contingent upon good behaviour throughout the shopping trip ive. the child will only get a present at the end if he behaves satisfactorily throughout. She might also, however, sensibly use praise to reinforce his continuing good behaviour during the trip. An even more ingenious mother who has read up on reinforcement schedules will realise that if she then later only reinforces "being good at the shops" with sweets occasionally, then she will not only save money spent on lollipops but will also have brought good behaviour under greater control. 20 “a ae Odne ed or op Ay np in 1s Pr Ly “a if S 1s t rt e — alent ee a qipops are a fairly safe poll Ponildren, but on spree tabiat fore caida pa: eines Yetermine or define appropriate + may prove difficult to fenenber tmatreinforcere can be derined postihoo cel any eteas pe as any ev ee ssc sacri, everest promt ot tmyanatory fictions’ is open to oubabepete contsiencen JORlees than useful in a practical pnt ag mente n 42 gested that what an animal or child a aaape arcane aged indicator of a reinforcer. This 4 ieee ae >teice, a8 is an extension of this idea pupoaasaiincotas Prgnoipie or colloquially as ‘grandma's Faia weiner corit primut to play after you've done the Lee eaieare Se cufically, this principle states that a Scalevesubie SPraviour can de used to reinforce a less specie) Sassy Keing the more frequent behaviour contingent pen ei PYeporaance of the less frequent behaviour. For exam piewegon Poy want a child to practise the piano, which he only: does Pepely in preference to listening to rock music on one nase. rerorder to shape up piano practice you merely make aeavecding ek contingent upon piano practice i.e. he can listen te the radio only after he has completed his practice session. : In determining reinforcers the golden rule is " Te *(yithin reason!). The most unlikely rife uarieson cae prove reinforcing; on the other hand, 'obvious' reinforcers may not always work. It is important to remember that feinforeers are defined by their consequences - do they {nerease behaviour(s) or not? Tom Crabtree, in an article in Guardian, once described how a hyperactive six year old's txtrenely distractible (and distracting) behaviour was rapidly q over seventeen days by reinforcing "sitting still, quiet, getting on with his work." Reinforcers ed included being allowed to water the plants or ring the bell for morning break and, more creatively, a token d be exchanged "for the privilege fae ten stars coul : the guinea pigs"! Similarly a correspondent to the Seas a few years ago, apparently ignorant of behavioural is, nevertheless provided a delightful example of a “highly successful behavioural progranne she had inaugurated. Driven to distraction by her two children's incessant T.V. ‘she devised a system whereby eens school holidays, ion time had to be ‘bought’ by doing jobs around the each of which had a certain value ranging from ten ‘to one hour's T.V. viewing time. Not only did helping house increase dramatically, including the taking on of their mother would not have believed them capable ing out, but also the co-operation between the two sed and they became much more discriminating they watched on television. ‘This procedure is an demonstration of the 'Premack Principle’, i.e 21