A Rational Approach to Classroom Management

1
Chapter 12

• A Rational Approach to Classroom Management
• Lizveth Guerra Alicia Marin

2
Chapter organization

• What is the Rational Approach to Practical School
  Discipline?
• Section 1- what the teacher can do to prevent
  disruption
• Section 2- response to disruption
• Section 3- techniques

3
RAPSD

• Rational Approach to Practical School Discipline
  an eclectic philosophy in which management
  decisions are guided by sound behavioral and
  humanistic psychology (see chapter 11)

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RAPSD

• Behavior management- Consequences following
  positive and negative behavior
• Behavior Management- External reinforcers-
  student has choice to behave/misbehave

5
RAPSD

• Humanistic constructive expression of students
  wants and desires, shared authority, warm
  environment
• Humanistic- Students are involved in the
  management of the classroom

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RAPSD

• Rational philosophy- emphasis on the classroom as
  a society
• Responsibility to the community
• Accountability
• It is more responsive to students cultural,
  ethnic and social backgrounds
• Must stick to a management structure

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Structure of RAPSD

• Proactive- student and teacher needs considered,
  physical organization, rules routines social
  skills taught through a discipline curriculum
• System for responding to misbehavior- Dreikurs
  classification system, records misbehavior,
  quality circles, student decision-making,
  positive moments, procedures for emergencies

8
Proactive Strategies to Prevent Disruptions

• Understanding teacher and student needs
• Maslows Hierarchy of Needs
• Level 1- Physical Needs
• Level 2- Safety/Security Needs
• Level 3- Love/Belonging Needs
• Level 4- Self-Esteem Needs
• Level 5- Self-Fulfillment Needs

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Needs

• Student misbehavior from-
• Level 1- hunger (inattentiveness)
• Level 3- peer pressure (defiance)
• Level 4- academic recognition (cheating)

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Teachers Needs

• ? I dont want hassles/ I want them to have
  positive attitudes
• Level 1- fatigue, hunger
• Level 2- personal safety
• Level 3- want to be liked by students
• Level 4- Cool, strict or nice teacher
• Level 5- strive to improve teaching

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Classroom Arrangement

• Visibility, Proximity, Accessibility, Safety
• Students should be visible from all areas
• Teacher able to move close to students easily
• Supplies and educational materials within easy
  access
• Students should be able to hear and see
  presentations, demonstrations, displays

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Classroom Arrangement

• High traffic areas are free of congestion
• Safety- do not block or interrupt movement to
  exits, lights, safety equipment
• Traditional arrangement-
• Little opportunity for eye contact
• Front and center rows get attention
• Restricts movement

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Classroom Arrangement

• Visibility, proximity, accessibility and safety
• Placement of teachers desk should reflect
  teachers style of teaching
• Learning resources- charts, maps, books
• Projector
• Audiovisual equipment
• Teacher supplies
• Computers

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Discipline Curriculum

• A persons ability to get along with others and
  to engage in prosocial behaviors determines
  popularity among peers and with teachers, parents
  and other significant adults
• Teach two units 1.classroom rules of conduct and
  routines- reasons and consequences 2. social
  skills

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Discipline Curriculum

• RAPSD
• 3-5 rules- students can help/ but teacher decides
• Day 1- present rules and consequences
• Day 2- students can express in their own words
• Day 3- provide simulations to practice
  routines/procedures

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Discipline Curriculum

• 5. 1 to 3 weeks- Continue practice and feedback
  until behaviors and routines are established
• 6. Post rules in a visible place
• 7. Periodically review and practice

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Social Skills

• Teach students social skills
• Example given is about reacting to bullying
• Social skills curriculum using role-playing
  simulations, cooperative learning, classroom
  meetings, direct and inductive lessons are all
  appropriate
• The Morning Meeting Book, Positive Discipline,
  Cooperative Discipline

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Section 2- Responding

• Pattern disruptors- students who misbehave
  repeatedly
• Dreikurs Classification System of Misbehavior
• Attention seeking
• Power seeking
• Revenge seeking
• Sympathy seeking

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Attention Seeking

• Attention seeking misbehavior- student needs to
  belong and be accepted by peers
• Lacks social skills
• Response
• Provide appropriate avenues for attention
• Teaching social skills, cooperative groups

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Power Seeking

• Desperate attempt to be recognized as an
  important member of the group
• Response
• Refuse to argue- broken record technique
• Give student legitimate status by assigning them
  roles as discussion leader, errand runner,
  monitor

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Revenge Seeking

• As a result of losing a power struggle with the
  teacher (or from an outside event) the student
  feels that he/she has lost status in the eyes of
  peers
• Response
• React with humor
• Reply with understanding- John, that comment is
  not like you. Is there anything I can do?

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Sympathy Seeking

• Learned helplessness- student has given up
• Passive resistance, defiance and personal defeat
• Response
• Praise, prompt and leave
• Table 12.1 page 383

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Information System

• Detect, respond appropriately, communicate with
  parents and admin.
• Behavior log containing-
• Name
• Description of Behavior
• Place
• Date and time
• Teacher response

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Positive Moments

• Equity- Fair time, Teacher Proximity, Questions,
  Rephrasing and Cuing
• Fair time- spend more time with disruptive
  students, 15 seconds per hour of positive time
• Teacher Proximity- spend time near disruptive
  students

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Positive Moments

• Questions- pattern disruptors are asked fewer
  questions- especially higher level questions
• Rephrasing and Cuing- teachers rephrase and cue
  cooperative students more often
• Feedback
• Sensitivity to Ripple Effect
• Give praise- each student each day

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Positive Moments

• Rule enforcement
• Be consistent
• Observing- scan room, observe and respond to
  positive and negative behavior and demonstrate
  that you appreciate effort and appropriate
  actions
• Employ Desists

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Positive Moments

• Courtesy and Caring-
• Model Courtesy- be courteous even in dealing with
  disruption
• Nonverbal expression should be sincere
• Verbal and nonverbal expression in sync
• Take notice of student interests
• Listen Accept feelings
• Touch

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Organizing and Conducting Quality Circle Meetings

• Quality circles are used to reinforce
• Personal and group responsibilities, to process
  the causes of the alternatives to misbehavior, to
  recommend changes in past behavior, and to
  discuss community issues that affect school life.

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Organizing and Conducting Quality Circle Meetings

• The student whose behavior is being discussed
  should not stated in the meeting.
• The circle seating arrangement should be a closed
  circle, with the teacher seated as a group
  member.
• No names should be said unless when giving
  positive reinforcement.

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Responding to Emergencies

• It is recommended teachers develop a set of
  predetermined procedures in the event of a
  classroom emergency.
• Since emergencies are handled in different ways
  in different schools, you must know the schools
  emergency procedures.

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Responding to Emergencies

• You should always consider 4 factors when
  developing an emergency procedure
• Personal Behavior
• Incentives
• Standards
• Analysis

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Personal Behavior

• Be firm and consistent
• Remember that developing a disciplined life is
  not a dramatic event
• Focus your actions on improving your relationship
  with the disruptive student(s)

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Incentives

• Use an incentive system as a first step to
  prevent emergencies
• Incentives should be phased out
• Students should be taught the value in a
  disciplined-environment rather than to behave to
  secure token rewards

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Standards

• Teach students the socially acceptable behavior
  in your classroom.
• Be sure that students know what behaviors are
  unacceptable
• Dont permit students to avoid responsibility for
  their actions

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Analysis

• Emphasize low- rather than high-control
  management
• Keep Dreikurs 4 types of misbehavior in mind as
  you analyze what the disruptive student did to
  create the emergency

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Additional Management Techniques

• The rational management approach recommends and
  makes us use of all of them.
• Consider which ones are most consistent with your
  discipline philosophy and give you the most
  confidence as a classroom manager.

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Nonverbal Classroom Management Techniques

• The teacher continuously communicates in every
  classroom through verbal and nonverbal messages.
• These messages conscious or unconscious,
  purposeful or inadvertent prevent, help,
  control, or encourage discipline problems.

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Teacher attire

• The stiff-collar-and-tie fashion, may convey an
  image of an uptight headmaster or headmistress
• On the other hand sloppy clothes may indicate
  sloppy attitudes toward students, academic, or
  order in general
• Modesty , professionalism, and appropriateness
  should be goals of the rational manager.

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Eye Contact

• Teachers who develop the skill of doing periodic
  sweeping surveys of their room usually control
  marginal problems by that alone.

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Eye Contact

• An eye survey may be slow and deliberate with no
  specific student as a target
• Or
• It may be swift and certain in order to jog
  memories that the still there and in charge.

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Eye Contact

• Eye contact with an individual says something
  different from what eye contact with a group
  says.
• The situation and severity of the behavioral
  problem will dictate the method of eye contact
  that you use.
• Expressions of approval or disapproval may be
  communicated in brief flashes of eye contact.

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Facial Expressions

• Facial expressions can indicate concern or anger,
  in order to give students the opportunity to
  change their behavior before the teacher must
  resort to verbal cues.

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Facial Expressions

• Smiles can be powerful means for showing approval
  and can be more personal than verbal cues,
  particularly in some cultures.

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Movement in the Classroom

• When teachers movement are thoughtless teachers
  have disruptive effects on the classroom
  environment.
• Control of movement as a form of nonverbal
  communication is an important aspect of the
  disciplinary encounter.

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Movement in the Classroom

• A teacher has to make a quick appraisal of the
  problem and decide on its potential to erupt into
  something more serious.
• Do not turn away from the class for a long period
  of time

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Using Your Hands

• The appropriate use of you hands is a highly
  effective management technique .
• Hand messages can be as precise as verbal
  messages.

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The Power of Posture

• The teachers posture affects classroom
  management
• Standing tall during the execution of a
  discipline procedure may suggest command
• Slouching shoulders indicate defeat and
  hopelessness

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The Power of Posture

• Leaning over students to supervise their work or
  social behavior is threatening.
• Moderately slow, deliberate steps, with an
  upright frame, and a businesslike facial
  expression indicates that the teacher is in
  command.

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Verbal Cues in Management Techniques

• Verbal cues may consist of complete sentences,
  phrases, exclamations, grunts, laughter, ect.
• Verbal cues stand as good a chance of being
  misinterpreted as nonverbal cues.
• Quite unconsciously, a teacher may use a word
  that is loadedculturally, sexually, or racially.

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Verbal Cues in Management Techniques

• Care in the choice of verbal cues is especially
  crucial at the beginning of the term, because the
  student and teacher dont know each other.

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Verbal Cues in Management Techniques

• When properly used, verbal expressions can open
  doors to communication
• What a teacher says, how it is said, and to whom
  it is said are all significant elements in a
  verbal management technique.

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Voice is the Crucial Element

• Through tone and volume, voice communicates
  meaning during an interaction, particularly in a
  stressful, disciplinary situation.
• The tone and volume of the voice can create,
  increase, or lessen stress.

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Voice is the Crucial Element

• Teachers must enunciate clearly.
• When commands are given, they should be brief and
  specific.
• Speak in a pleasant friendly voice
• The teacher who yells is likely to find that the
  student will yell back.

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Voice is the Crucial Element

• Feelings such as disapproval, annoyance, and
  anger should be carefully expressed with an
  appropriate voice tone and volume.
• Know your students.
• Some students are very sensitive, whereas nothing
  seems to bother others.

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Content and Control

• The content of verbal communication can become
  the essence of a teachers management technique.
• The message should not be focused on personal
  approval but on task accomplishment.

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Content and Control

• Coercive threats are bad management techniques .
• The use of threats will not lessen the chance
  that the disruption will be repeated.

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Content and Control

• Instead of using threats we should use warnings.
• The teachers message should be delivered with
  firmness.
• Respect and high expectations enhance power by
  establishing a relationship between effort and
  the achievement of a worthwhile goal.

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Responding to Student Blockers

• When teachers are accused of being racist or
  having favorites
• Some teachers unwisely try to explain how much
  they have worked for or supported desegregation
  efforts.

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Responding to Student Blockers

• You must remember 3 points in responding to such
  accusations
• The students know you, and if you are racist,
  there is nothing you can say at this point that
  will disprove that belief. If you are not, they
  know that and are merely trying to anger you.
• The students main objective is for you to feel
  guilty and begin to defend yourself.
• When you begin to put up a defense, you are
  responding to students manipulation.

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Cultural Continuity and Discontinuity

• As teachers consider students behavior, it can
  be useful for them to reflect on the students
  culture of origin before making a decision.
• This reflection may be by race, but it should not
  be assumed that a students race is enough to
  predict his or her culture.

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Cultural Continuity and Discontinuity

• For many white students cultural continuity
  provides for them an environment that is less
  forbidding than it would be for a minority child.

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Cultural Continuity and Discontinuity

• Cultural discontinuity is the process through
  which education as a cultural transmission agent
  impinges on the normal culture of the students
  home and imposes an institutional culture on the
  child.

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Sources

• Graphic organizers- http//www.eduplace.com/graphi
  corganizer
• Graphic organizers- http//www.region15.org/curric
  ulum/graphicorg.html