Ch+5+notes

** Three Bridges to 21st Century Discipline ** Between the late 20 th century and the early 21 st century, the general approach of teachers to   classroom discipline changed from // controlling // student behavior toward // working together with // students toward responsible behavior and positive classroom. Chapter 5 focuses on three significant approaches to behavior management that established trends that now play strongly in   almost all systems of discipline.
 * Chapter 5 **
 * WILLIAM GLASSER **

//__ Discipline through Choice Theory __//
For decades William Glasser, psychiatrist and educational consultant, has written and spoken extensively on issues related to education and discipline. After achieving national acclaim in   psychiatry for his theory called reality therapy (1965), which shifted the focus in treating personal problems from past events to present reality, Glasser extended his work to education and schools. In // Schools without Failure // (1969), Glasser wrote that teachers could help students make better personal choices that would result in better behavior. The book is considered to be one of the 20 th century’s most influential books in education. His ideas in education evolved into a different emphasis in // Control Theory in the Classroom // (1986). Here he asserted that for students to   continue working and behaving properly, they must “believe that if they do some work, they will be able to satisfy their needs enough so that it makes sense to keep on working” (p. 15). Since that book, Glasser has focused on meeting students’ basic needs as the primary means of   encouraging participation and desirable behavior. Glasser’s ideas about “Choice Theory” (originally called “Control Theory”) are presented in several books // : Choice Theory in the // // Classroom // (1998), // The Quality School: Managing Students Without Coercion // (1998), // The // // Quality School Teacher // (1998), and // Every Student Can Succeed // (2001). The Glasser website: [|www.wglasser.com]. Additional information about the work of Kathy Curtiss and Steven English, consultants and trainers of Glasser’s choice theory, can be found at these websites: www.choicetheory.org/directory.html and www.choicetheorycom/links.htm. Glasser says that most classroom misbehavior occurs when students are bored in school or   frustrated by class expectations. He says that discipline depends upon meeting students’ basic needs for survival, belonging, freedom, fun, and power. He also says that curriculum and instruction must be aimed at meeting those needs, teaching should be done in a leading manner using noncoercive techniques, and that throughout the process teachers should emphasize quality in teaching, learning, and curriculum • All behavior is our best attempt to control ourselves to meet five basic needs: • // Survival // : the school environment is safe and free from personal threat. • // Belonging // : students participate in class matters and receive attention and recognition from teachers and others. • // Power // : students have class responsibilities and opportunities to cooperate with the teacher in making decisions about curriculum, activities, and class procedures. • // Fun // : students work and talk with others, engage in interesting activities, and share their accomplishments. • // Freedom // : students make choices about what they will study and how they will demonstrate their accomplishments. • // External control // (what teachers // do to // or // for // students) does not motivate students to learn. Students will do what is most satisfying to them at any given time, if they can. Key to   motivation is // choice theory // : we only can control our own behavior, and we cannot successfully make a student do anything. We can, however, help students envision a quality existence in school and plan the choices that lead to it. Student involvement and responsible behavior come from that vision. • Present-day curriculum emphasizes memorization of facts that are irrelevant to students’ lives, and is judged as quality by how many fragments of information students can retain long enough to be measured on tests. In contrast, a // quality curriculum // consists of topics students enjoy and find useful. • // Quality learning // requires both depth of understanding and a good grasp of its usefulness. For evaluating the quality of learning, students should be able to explain why the material they have learned is valuable and how and where it can be used. Additionally, they should assess regularly the quality of their own efforts. • Teachers should provide the following for // quality teaching: // • A warm, supportive classroom climate • Lead teaching rather than boss teaching • Schoolwork that is useful, that centers on knowledge and skills that are useful in   students’ lives • Encouragement for students to do the best they can • Student self-evaluation and ongoing improvement of the work they do. // SIR // is a process of self-evaluation, improvement, and repetition, until quality is achieved. • // Boss teachers // set tasks and standards for student learning, talk rather than demonstrate, rarely ask for student input, grade work without involving students in the evaluation, and use coercion to try to make students comply with expectations. • // Lead teachers // provide a stimulating learning environment; involve students in identifying topics of interest to explore in depth, and the kind of schoolwork that might result; and encourage and help students as much as possible to produce quality work. • Teachers and students should work together to establish class standards of conduct that will help students get their work done in a satisfactory manner, and consequences and remedies when behavior agreements are broken. It is likely that the Golden Rule will be the foundation for this, and that teachers will ask, “What could I do to help?” • When trying to control behavior, teachers should avoid // seven deadly habits // : criticizing, blaming, complaining, nagging, threatening, punishing, and rewarding. • // Seven connecting habits // serve teachers well: caring, listening, supporting, contributing, encouraging, trusting, and befriending. • Quality classrooms embrace: • Habits: seven connecting habits • Teacher’s message: “We are in this class together.” • Friendships • Class rules: fundamental is The Golden Rule, courtesy • Intervening: where teachers talk and listen to students • Knowledge: students learn what is useful to them • Competency: students work at assignments until they are brought to competent levels • Quality: students are encouraged to work for still higher quality • Tests: for learning only • Understanding and using: students use the information and skills being taught • For older students, teach and test for educational competence, to improve and strengthen knowledge • Competence ������ Stressed meeting students’ basic needs as the key element in teaching and discipline. ������ Emphasized the importance of choice as a motivator to learning. ������ Developed the concepts and practices of quality curriculum, quality teaching, and quality learning. • Valuable information about basic needs and how they relate to the school environment. • The importance of choice theory to teaching and learning. • Quality curriculum, learning, teaching, and classroom. • Present-day education continues to design school curriculum that emphasizes memorizing facts that are irrelevant to students’ lives and that is judged as quality by how many fragments of information students can retain long enough to be   measured on tests. • Glasser has identified few schools and teachers that model fully his ideas for quality curriculum, learning, teaching, and classrooms.
 * Main Ideas **
 * Glasser’s Contributions to Classroom Discipline **
 * Strengths of Glasser’s Work Challenges of Glasser’s Work **
 * THOMAS GORDON **

//__ Discipline Through Inner Self-Control __//
Clinical psychologist Thomas Gordon (1918-2002) pioneered the teaching of human relation skills and conflict resolution to parents, teachers, youth, and managers of organizations. His books and training programs offer parents and teachers strategies for helping children become more self-reliant, self-controlled, responsible, and cooperative. Gordon Training International: www.gordontraining.com Gordon believed that classroom discipline is best accomplished by helping students acquire an   inner sense of self-control, with teachers influencing rather than controlling students. His plan for classroom discipline involves six major elements: (1) influence rather than control, (2) preventive skills, (3) problem ownership, (4) confrontive skills, (5) helping skills, and (6) no-lose conflict resolution. • Classroom behavior is accomplished best by helping students acquire an inner sense of self control. • // Non-controlling methods // of behavior change for influencing students to behave properly: modifying the environment; sending I-messages; practicing no-lose conflict resolution; acknowledging feelings and perceptions; actively listening to students; and avoiding roadblocks to communication. • // I-messages // are statements in which people tell how they personally think or feel about another’s behavior and its consequences. They should be used when attempting to influence future actions of others. • // You-messages // are statements of blame leveled at someone’s behavior. They activate coping mechanisms, and should NOT be used when attempting to influence others. • // Coping mechanisms // are strategies that students use when confronted with coercive or   controlling power: // fighting, taking flight, and submitting //. Coping mechanisms cut off communication and willingness to cooperate. • // Misbehavior // is behavior that produces undesirable consequences for the adult. • Gordon’s plan for classroom discipline has six major elements: • Influence rather than control • Preventive skills • Problem ownership • Confrontive skills • Helping skills • No-lose conflict resolution • Preventive I-messages, setting rules collaboratively, and participatory classroom management can prevent most discipline problems. • The ability to identify // problem ownership // can help teachers and students toward resolution. • When the // teacher owns the problem // (is upset by student behavior) s/he should use // confrontive discipline skills // : modifying the physical environment, sending I-messages, shifting gears. • When the // student owns the problem //, teachers are advised to use two main // helping skills // : listening and avoiding communication roadblocks. Listening skills include passive listening, acknowledgement responses, door openers, and active listening. Communication roadblocks include giving orders, warning, preaching, advising, lecturing, criticizing, name-calling, analyzing, praising, reassuring, questioning, and withdrawing. • // No-lose conflict resolution // is a way of ending disputes by enabling both sides to emerge as   “winners” with agreements that satisfy everyone. ������ Championed participative management, where teachers and students share decision-making. ������ Popularized the no-lose method of conflict resolution, which preserves self-esteem. ������ Identified roadblocks to communication that suppress students’ willingness to discuss problems. ������ Demonstrated how to clarify problems, determine ownership, and deal with the problems. • Valuable additions to our knowledge about maintaining positive discipline in the classroom. • Detailed attention to his beliefs of problem ownership and communication. • The procedure of no-lose conflict resolution. • Never a total approach to discipline. • Generally teachers seemed to find the detailed attention to concepts tedious and not immediately germane to their concerns, i.e., problem ownership and ways to open communication and avoid communication roadblocks.
 * Main Ideas **
 * Gordon’s Contributions to Classroom Discipline **
 * Strengths of Gordon’s Work Challenges of Gordon’s Work **
 * ALFIE KOHN **

//__ Beyond Discipline __//
Alfie Kohn, a former teacher, now is a full-time writer and lecturer. In addition to radio and television appearances, Kohn has written several thought-provoking books, including // Punished // // by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentives Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes  // (1999), and // Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community // (2001 // ). // Kohn’s website: www.alfiekohn.org The major emphasis of Kohn’s work is on developing caring, supportive classrooms where students are able to pursue topics of interest in depth and fully participate in solving class problems, including behavior problems. He criticizes discipline programs that use rewards and punishment, or that do things // to // students rather than // involving // students as partners in resolving problems. Such programs, he believes, cause students to mistrust their own judgment and hinder their ability to become caring and self-reliant. In their place, Kohn supports programs that transform schools and classrooms into learning communities, where students actively participate in decision making by expressing their opinions and working cooperatively toward solutions for the class. • We should have caring, supportive classrooms in which students are able to pursue topics of   interest in depth, and participate fully in solving class problems, including problems of    behavior. • Discipline becomes irrelevant if school is organized in line with // constructivist theory //, which holds that students cannot receive knowledge directly from teachers but must construct it   from experience. • In place of teaching and discipline that do things // to // students, teachers should // involve // students as partners in the process. This can be done when schools and classrooms become learning communities, where students are taken seriously, involved in decisions, and helped to explore in depth topics they consider important. • In // learning communities // • Teachers and students build relationships, adults behave respectfully toward students, and students know they are cared about. • Connections among students are enhanced through activities that involve interdependence: cooperative learning, getting-to-know-you activities and interviews, and // perspective taking, // when students try to see situations from another person’s viewpoint. • Classroom meetings offer the best forum for addressing questions that affect the class. • Everyone collaborates on group endeavors and participates in class-wide and school-wide activities. • Academic instruction and study that utilize cooperative groups enable students to learn from each other. • Teachers must look beyond the techniques of discipline and ask questions: What are we   attempting to accomplish with discipline? What are my long-term goals for the students I   work with? What would I like them to be—to be like—after they’ve left me?” (2001, p. 60). And, teachers must understand their responses. • Virtually all popular discipline programs are based on threat, reward, and punishment. They are used to gain student compliance, using varied degrees of humanistic-sounding language. • Most teachers feel the need to place // structure and limits // on student behavior if the class is to   function efficiently. When assessing the defensibility of structure and limits, consider: • // Purpose // —to the extent the objective is to protect students from harm (as opposed to   imposing order for its own sake) • // Restrictiveness // —less is better • // Flexibility // —must be ready to modify the structure in accordance with student needs • // Developmental appropriateness // • // Presentation style // —students are more accepting if restrictions are suggested respectfully, rather than if they sound like orders • // Student involvement // —student input makes structure acceptable • The // trouble // with today’s teaching: • Curriculum and instruction give little attention to exploring ideas, seeking new solutions, looking for meaning or connections, or attempting to gain deeper understanding of the phenomena involved. • Students are relatively passive: they listen, read assignments, answer questions, and complete worksheets. • Instruction and learning are seen as “successful” in the extent to which students show on   tests they have reached most of the stated objectives. • Instruction emphasizes // how well // students are doing rather than // what // they are doing. // How // // well // tends to focus on outcomes that are shallow, relatively insignificant, and of little interest or relevance to learners, and causes students to think of how smart they are instead of how hard they are trying. • The overall result is that while students seem to be learning well, they actually are doing poorly because they are not thinking widely and exploring ideas thoughtfully. • How instruction // should // be done: • Students should be taken seriously. • Because students must construct knowledge and skills out of the experiences provided in   school, teachers must provide challenges and emphasize that making mistakes is an    important part of learning. • To help students move into “deeper levels of thinking,” teachers should ask students for examples or ask the question “How do we know that.” • Curriculum allows students to be purposefully active most of the time, rather than passive, by starting with questions to be answered, not facts or disciplines to be learned or mastered. • Three facts about teaching: • Students learn most avidly and have their best ideas when they get to choose which questions they want to explore. • All of us tend to be happiest and most effective when we have some say about what we   are doing. • When students have no choice or control over their learning, their achievement drops. ������ Urged // constructivist teaching // as the best approach to education. ������ Showed how coercive discipline works against the development of caring human beings. ������ Popularized the concept of classroom as community, where everyone participates equally. • Supports constructivist theory where students must construct their knowledge from experience. • Persuasive arguments against classroom discipline programs that are based on   threat, reward, and punishment, where students comply without any real understanding or desire to act some way in the future. • Supports school and classroom learning communities. • Asks teachers to abandon traditional discipline and provide a truly participative classroom where they share decision making with students. • Avoids direct responses to questions such as: How far should teachers allow students to go if they do not comply with expectations of participation and learning? .
 * Main Ideas **
 * Kohn’s Contributions to Classroom Discipline **
 * Strengths of Kohn’s Work Challenges of Kohn’s Work  **