Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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 isnt 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 dont do what theyre 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
doesnt 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, Whats 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 students future behavior.
0 REWARDS- Do this, and youll get that. Do rewards work?
Yes, for short term compliance.
0 Why do we punish?- Its quick and easy. Works to get
temporary compliance. Its familiar to us. Its expected.
Gives us control. If we dont punish, students might think
they got away with it.
PUNISHMENT LITE:
CONSEQUENCE AND PSEUDOCHOICE
0 Punishment vs. Natural Consequences.
0 PSEUDOCHOICE-
1. Obey or Suffer- Do what I tell you to do or Im
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 Its 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 thats why we use it.
0 Do we really give students a choice?
Effective...But at What?