Classroom Management

According to specialists in the field of education, school and classroom management aims at encouraging and establishing student self-control through a process of promoting positive student achievement and behavior. Thus academic achievement, teacher efficacy, and teacher and student behavior are directly linked with the concept of school and classroom management. Classroom management focuses on three major components: content management, conduct management, and covenant management. Each of these concepts is defined and presented with details in a list of observable elements in effective teaching practices. Research shows that a high incidence of classroom disciplinary problems has a significant impact on the effectiveness of teaching and learning. In this respect, it has been found that teachers facing such issues fail to plan and design appropriate instructional tasks. They also tend to neglect variety in lesson plans and rarely prompt students to discuss or evaluate the materials that they are learning. In addition, student comprehension or seat work is not monitored on a regular basis. In contrast, strong and consistent management and organizational skills have been identified as leading to fewer classroom discipline problems. In this light, content management "does not refer to skills peculiar to teaching a particular subject but rather to those skills that cut across subjects and activities" (Froyen & Iverson, 1999, p. 128). Doyle stressed that the core of instructional management is gaining and maintaining student cooperation in learning activities (as cited in Froyen & Iverson, 1999, p. 128). Related to content management, Kounin (as cited in Froyen & Iverson, 1999, p. 129) places a special emphasis on instructional management skills, sequencing and integrating additional instructional activities, and dealing with instruction-related discipline problems. Conduct management is centered on ones beliefs about the nature of people. By integrating knowledge about human diversity (and individuality, at the same time) into a particular instructional philosophy, teachers could manage their classrooms in a better, more effective way. Researchers have pointed out the importance of assisting students in positive behaviors. In planning classroom management, teachers should consider using an assertive communication style and behavior. In addition, they should always know what they want their students to do and involve them in the respective learning activities, under the general conditions of clearly and explicitly stated schoolwide and classroom rules. According to Iverson and Froyen (1999), conduct management is essential to the creation of a foundation for "an orderly, task-oriented approach to teaching and learning" (p. 217),

thus leading to granting students greater independence and autonomy through socialization. An effective conduct management plan should also refer to teacher control and administration of consequences. The following components of such a plan are focused on in this summary: acknowledging responsible behaviors, correcting irresponsible and inappropriate behavior, ignoring, proximity control, gentle verbal reprimands, delaying, preferential seating, time owed, time-out, notification of parents/guardians, written behavioral contract, setting limits outside the classroom, and reinforcement systems. All of these components are presented so they can be identified in examples of best teaching practices. Covenant management stresses the classroom group as a social system. Teacher and student roles and expectations shape the classroom into an environment conducive to learning. In other words, the culture of any given school is unique to that school. However, it is directly influenced by the culture of the larger community whose educational goals are to be met. A strong connection between school and community must be constantly revised and modified according to the requirements of societal dynamism. As schools become very diverse, teachers and students should become aware of how to use diversity to strengthen the school/classroom social group. Quality schools are defined by teacher effectiveness and student achievement under the auspices of building strong interpersonal skills. In this light, teacher and student relationships are essential to ensuring a positive school/classroom atmosphere. Classroom management discipline problems can be dealt with either on an individual basis (between teacher and student) or by group problem solving (class meetings). As mutual trust builds up between teacher and students, the latter are gradually released from teacher supervision by becoming individually responsible. This is how both educators and students become co-participants in the teaching-learning process, striving to make the most of themselves and their collective experience" (Froyen & Iverson, 1999, p. 256). Reference Froyen, L. A., & Iverson, A. M. (1999). Schoolwide and classroom management: The reflective educator-leader (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Content Management
Definition "Content management occurs when teachers manage space, materials, equipment, the movement of people, and lessons that are part of a curriculum or program of studies" (Froyen & Iverson, 1999, p. 128). Checklist of Observable Behaviors Instructional management skills:

___1. Movement management a. Avoidance of jerkiness: thrusts, dangles, flip-flop, truncations b. Avoidance of slowdowns: task and behavior overdwelling, actone overdwelling, prop overdwelling, fragmentation ___2. Group focus a. Management of group format b. Management of the degree of accountability c. Management of attention ___3. Avoidance of satiation a. Progress b. Variety c. Challenge Sequencing and integration of additional instructional activities: ___4. Management of daily review sessions ___5. Management of daily preview sessions ___6. Management of lectures/presentation sessions ___7. Management of individual/group in-class work: a. Presentation of assignments b. Monitoring of performance c. Selection of assignments d. Evaluation of assignments ___8. Management of individual/group work during a field trip ___9. Management of homework ___10. Management of discussion sessions ___11. Management of projects and problem-solving sessions Dealing with instruction-related discipline problems:

___12. Off-task behavior ___13. Talking without permission (during lectures) ___14. Talking without permission (during class) ___15. Failure to raise hand ___16. Poor listening and failure to follow verbal directions ___17. Late or incomplete assignments ___18. Tardiness or absenteeism ___19. Failure to be motivated/doing nothing ___20. Cheating ___21. Test anxiety References Boboc, M. (2000). [Content management in the classroom]. Unpublished raw data. Froyen, L. A., & Iverson, A. M. (1999). Schoolwide and classroom management: The reflective educator-leader (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall Applications/Examples Content Management Definition Content management occurs when teachers manage space, materials, equipment, the movement of people, and lessons that are part of a curriculum or program of studies (Froyen & Iverson, 1999, p. 128). Examples Teacher: Kimberly Bradshaw Grade: Pre-Kindergarten Kimberly Bradshaw demonstrates content management by beginning the day by leading her students in a very short hand routine. The hand movements focus the students

attention on the teacher and signal that it is time for a learning activity. Then, before going on a field trip, Bradshaw tells the students about the activities they will do for the day. Her management of a daily preview session helps prepare her students for the experiences they will have. This also demonstrates Bradshaws content management. Teacher: Kathleen Alexander Grade: 3 Kathleen Alexanders mathematics students are studying graphs and graphing. The students will be collecting information about the number of different colored candies in a bag of M& Ms. During the course of the lesson, the students work in partners in the schools computer lab to develop a graph. Alexander circulates around the room and monitors students as they work cooperatively on the computer. She helps them through the process of interpreting and graphing their data. Alexanders management of in-class group work demonstrates her content management. Teacher: Terri Vennerberg Grade: 3 In her Habitats activity, Terri Vennerberg manages group work by creating a signaling system that enables her to help her students more efficiently. She manages the movement of people by having her students place a red cup on their desk if their group has a question and is in need of assistance. A blue cup means that there are no problems. By managing the lesson, space, materials, and the movement of people, Vennerberg demonstrates content management. Teacher: Patty Bounous Grade: 7-8 Patti Bounous students use heart-rate monitors and Digi-Walkers to monitor their performance during aerobic exercise. After the students have exercised, Bounous asks them to recall how they can use monitors and Digi-Walkers to find specific information, such as their average heart rates, and the amount of time they kept their heart rates in the target zone. The teacher demonstrates content management as she manages the review session. Teacher: Julie McLaughlin Grade: 9 In her Ocean Exhibits activity, Julie McLaughlins ninth grade students divide into small groups and present ocean exhibits they have created to a group of

elementary students. She describes the nature and content of the learning activity in which the high school and elementary students will participate, tells the students how long they will stay at each exhibit, and gives them clear instructions on how to move from one exhibit to the next. By directing the students rotations to different exhibits, McLaughlin manages space and the movement of people while using class time efficiently. References Froyen, L. A., & Iverson, A. M. (1999). Schoolwide and classroom management: The reflective educator-leader (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: PrenticeHall.

Conduct Management
Note. The Definition and Checklist sections below are adapted from Schoolwide and Classroom Management: The Reflective Educator-Leader, by L.A. Froyen and A.M. Iverson, 1999, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, pp. 181, 194-208. Definition "Conduct management refers to the set of procedural skills that teachers employ in their attempt to address and resolve discipline problems in the classroom" (Froyen & Iverson, 1999, p. 181). Checklist of Observable Behaviors ___ 1. Acknowledgment of responsible behaviors ___ 2. Correction of irresponsible and inappropriate behavior ___ 3. Ignoring ___ 4. Proximity control ___ 5. Gentle verbal reprimands ___ 6. Delaying ___ 7. Preferential seating ___ 8. Time owed ___ 9. Time-out ___ 10. Notification of parents/guardians

___ 11. Written behavioral contract ___ 12. Setting limits outside the classroom ___ 13. Reinforcement systems Reference Froyen, L. A., & Iverson, A. M. (1999). Schoolwide and classroom management: The reflective educator-leader (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Applications/Examples Conduct Management Definition Conduct management refers to the set of procedural skills that teachers employ in their attempt to address and resolve discipline problems in the classroom (Froyen & Iverson, 1999, p. 181).
Examples

Teacher: Terri Vennerberg Grade: 3 In her Habitats activity, Terri Vennerberg uses the strategy of re-directing a group that displays off-task behavior and focuses their attention on their assignment. Vennerbergs correction of inappropriate and irresponsible behavior illustrates Conduct Management. Teacher: Vicki Oleson Grade: 6 Vicki Oleson monitors the students as they work together in their groups. As the learners try to reach consensus on the topic, Oleson encourages them to remember ways of solving disagreement within the group. This demonstrates Conduct Management. Teacher: Lyn Countryman Grade: 7 Lyn Countrymans students are learning about the human heart by gathering and analyzing data on their own heart rates. The teacher demonstrates Conduct Management as she corrects irresponsible and inappropriate behavior by reminding her students that

one of the goals of working together is to respect one another. In addition, she encourages them to respond one at a time. Teacher: Teresa Farrell Grade: 5-6 Teresa Farrell redirects inappropriate student behavior during her group work activity. A student complains about another student kicking him underneath the table. Farrell uses conduct management to get the students back on task and focused on the lesson. This demonstrates conduct management. Reference Froyen, L. A., & Ive]rson, A. M. (1999). Schoolwide and classroom management: The reflective educator-leader (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: PrenticeHall.

Covenant Management
Note. The Definition and Checklist sections below are adapted from Schoolwide and Classroom Management: The Reflective Educator-Leader, by L.A. Froyen and A.M. Iverson, 1999, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, pp. 221, 243-254. Definition "Covenant management focuses on the classroom group as a social system that has its own features that teachers have to take into account when managing interpersonal relationships in the classroom" (Froyen & Iverson, 1999). Checklist of Observable Behaviors Problem-solving as a solution to discipline problems: ___ 1. Get involved with the student. ___ 2. Deal with the students present behavior. ___ 3. Get the student to make a value judgment about the behavior. ___ 4. Help the student develop a plan to change behavior. ___ 5. Get a commitment from the student to stick to the plan. ___ 6. Do not accept excuses for a failed plan.

___ 7. Do not punish or criticize the student for broken plans. Reference Froyen, L. A., & Iverson, A. M. (1999). Schoolwide and classroom management: The reflective educator-leader (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Applications/Examples Covenant Management Definition Covenant management focuses on the classroom group as a social system that has its own features that teachers have to take into account when managing interpersonal relationships in the classroom (Froyen & Iverson, 1999). Examples Teacher: Vicki Oleson Grade: 6 Vicki Olesons student resists working with his peers because he didnt get to play the role he wanted. The teacher demonstrates Covenant Management in an attempt to solve the discipline problem. The teacher expresses concern for the student as an individual, trying to build a relationship of trust. She reviews the process the group used to assign roles, and reaffirms its fairness. Oleson gives the student an alternative that would allow him to play the role assigned to him in class, and the role that he wanted on his own. She also prompts him to reflect on the importance of his contribution to the group as a whole. Teacher: Nancy Hemphill Grade: 4-6 Nancy Hemphill uses covenant management as she talks to her students about solving problems that may come up in their groups. She encourages them to work together to find possible solutions and reinforces the learners efforts to work cooperatively. Hemphill also emphasizes the importance of working together toward achieving a common goal, gives specific praise, and invites students to reflect on their work as a group. References

Froyen, L. A., & Iverson, A. M. (1999). Schoolwide and classroom management: The reflective educator-leader (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: PrenticeHall.

Pedagogy
Summary
Note. Printed with permission from National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, (Early Childhood/Generalist Standards, 1998), www.nbpts.org. All rights reserved. Effective teaching necessitates making difficult and principled choices, exercising careful judgment, and honoring the complex nature of the educational mission. In addition to the technical knowledge and skills teachers have to use in their daily practice, they must also be aware of the ethical dimensions of their profession. In this light, the primary mission is to foster the development of skills, dispositions, and understanding, while acknowledging thoughtfully and responsibly a wide range of human needs and conditions. Thus, teachers must master a repertoire of instructional methods and strategies, yet remain critical and reflective about their practice. Their professional responsibilities focus on educating students, in addition to participating in wider activities within the school and in partnership with parents and the community. Based on the latest developments in pedagogy, teaching has become more than an activity that conserves valued knowledge and skills by transmitting them to succeeding generations. Therefore, teachers also have the responsibility to challenge existing structures, practices, and definitions of knowledge; to invent and test new approaches; and, where necessary, to pursue organizational change in a constant attempt to improve the school. As agents of the public interest in a democracy, teachers through their work contribute to the dialogue about preserving and improving society, and they initiate future citizens into this ongoing public discourse. The professional teaching standards represent the teaching professions consensus on the critical aspects of the art and science of teaching (pedagogy) that characterize accomplished teachers in various fields. Cast in terms of actions that teachers take to advance student outcomes, these standards also incorporate the essential pedagogical knowledge, skills, dispositions, and commitments that allow teachers to practice at a high level. These standards rest on a fundamental philosophical foundation comprised of five core propositions:

Teachers are committed to students and their learning. Teachers know the subjects they teach and have the necessary pedagogical knowledge.

Teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning. Teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience. Teachers are members of learning communities.

Effective teachers display skills at creating curricula designed to build on students' present knowledge and understanding and move them to more sophisticated and in-depth abilities, knowledge, concepts, and performances. They calibrate their responses to the interests and ability level of students, designing activities to the latter's "proximal zone" based on Vygotsky's concept, for learning and development. In addition, these educators employ a range of instructional strategies and resources to match the variety of student skills and to provide each student several ways of exploring important ideas, skills, and concepts. They understand how to work as facilitators, coaches, models, evaluators, managers, and advocates. Moreover, teachers know how to utilize various forms of play, different strategies for grouping learners, and different types of media and materials. Teachers observe and assess students in the context of ongoing classroom life. They are skilled in collecting and interpreting a variety of types of evidence to evaluate where each student is in a sequence or continuum of learning and development. They know how to move from assessment to decisions about curriculum, social support, and teaching strategies, to increase the prospects for successful learning. Teachers understand and respect the diverse cultures, values, languages, and family backgrounds of their students, use community people and settings as resources for learning, and involve parents and families as active partners in the students' total development. Each moment presents the opportunity for teachers to respond creatively to the unique challenges of classroom life. They are highly sophisticated analysts who apply observations of individual students and the overall environment to guide their judgments and responses. They reflect on their own performance in light of student progress, seek the views of colleagues and parents, and think about trends, options, and the consequences of their options. The Five Propositions of Accomplished Teaching The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards seeks to identify and recognize teachers who effectively enhance student learning and demonstrate the high level of knowledge, skills, abilities, and commitments reflected in the following five core propositions. Teachers are committed to students and their learning

Effective teachers are dedicated to making knowledge accessible to all students based on their belief that all students can learn. Thus, they treat their learners equitably by acknowledging individual differences among students. Moreover, they adjust their practice according to these individual differences based on observation and knowledge of their students' interests, abilities, skills, knowledge, family circumstances, and peer relationships. Accomplished teachers understand how students develop and learn. Therefore, these educators incorporate the prevailing theories of cognition and intelligence in their practice. In addition, they are aware of the influence of context and culture on behavior. Under these general circumstances, teachers develop students' cognitive capacity and their respect for learning. Equally important, they foster students' self-esteem, motivation, character, civic responsibility, and their respect for individual, cultural, religious, and racial differences. Teachers know the subjects they teach and have the necessary pedagogical knowledge Accomplished teachers have a thorough understanding of the subject(s) they teach and appreciate how knowledge in their subject is created, organized, linked to other disciplines, and applied to real-world settings. While faithfully representing the collective wisdom of our culture and upholding the value of disciplinary knowledge, they also develop the critical and analytical capacities of their students. Effective teachers master pedagogical knowledge used to convey and reveal subject matter to students. They are aware of the preconceptions and background knowledge that students typically bring to each subject and of strategies and instructional materials that can be of assistance. In addition, they understand and solve the possible difficulties likely to arise in the classroom and modify their practice accordingly. Their instructional repertoire allows them to create multiple paths to knowledge, in general, and to the subjects they teach, in particular. Teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning Accomplished teachers create, enrich, maintain, and alter instructional settings, materials, and strategies to capture and sustain the interest of their students and to make the most effective use of time. They also strive to engage students and adults in assisting their teaching as well as to enhance their practice with their colleagues' knowledge and expertise. Effective teachers command a wide range of generic instructional techniques and use them appropriately. They manage efficiently both the students and the learning environment. Thus, instruction is organized and implemented to allow the schools' goals for students to be met. Educators are able to set the norms for

social interaction among students and between students and teachers. Moreover, they understand how to motivate students to learn and how to maintain their interest even when facing temporary failure. Accomplished teachers can assess the progress of individual students as well as that of the class as a whole. They employ multiple methods for measuring student growth and understanding and can clearly explain student performance to parents. Teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience Effective teachers are models of educated persons, exemplifying the virtues they seek to inspire in students--curiosity, tolerance, honesty, fairness, respect for diversity, and appreciation of cultural differences. They also exemplify the capacities that are prerequisites for intellectual growth--the ability to reason and take multiple perspectives, to be creative and take risks, and to adopt an experimental and problem-solving orientation. Accomplished teachers draw on their knowledge of human development, subject matter and instruction, and their understanding of their students to make principled judgments about sound practice. Their decisions are grounded not only in the literature, but also in their experience. They engage in lifelong learning that they seek to encourage in their students. Striving to strengthen their teaching, quality teachers critically examine their practice, seek to expand their repertoire, deepen their knowledge, sharpen their judgment, and adapt their teaching to new findings, ideas, and theories. Teachers are members of learning communities Exemplary teachers contribute to the effectiveness of the school by working collaboratively with other professionals on instructional policy, curriculum development, and staff development. They can evaluate school progress and the allocation of school resources in light of their understanding of state and local educational objectives. They are knowledgeable about specialized school and community resources that can be engaged for their students' benefit, and are skilled at employing such resources as needed. Accomplished teachers find ways to work collaboratively and creatively with parents, engaging them productively in the proper functioning of the school. Reference National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. (1998). Washington, DC: Author. Available: http://www.nbpts.org

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Classroom Management
developed by Jaya Vijayasekar Lakshmi4@excite.com

This module in intended to give prospective teachers a guide to classroom management. http://www.ecsu.ctstateu.edu/depts/edu/yes/management.html Goal To review the strands of effective classroom management Objectives

To define the components of classroom management To review the daily routines in a teachers day To establish a positive classroom environment To establish and enforce appropriate standards of behavior To engage the students in the classroom activities To review tips for effective classroom management

Materials & Resources

Classroom management involves a positive classroom environment, appropriate standards of behavior for students, student engagement, and effective management of routines and transitions. Daily Routines Establishing daily routines early in the school year is essential to effective classroom management. The following tasks will require a routine, in which students have to be trained: listening to announcements, collecting papers, distributing papers, using their planners, recording homework and

grades, lining up to walk to specials and to the cafeteria or playground, answering questions in class, etc. Positive Classroom Environment Establishing a rapport with students starting with the first day of school is essential. Setting a friendly tone from the beginning will enable students to ask questions when they are doubtful or confused; they will be more eager to come to class. The teacher should demonstrate caring and concern by displaying student work, commenting about improvement, and consistently providing praise and support. Appropriate Standards of Behavior Students should be aware of the teachers expectations. While we may not be able to spell out the rules and regulations for every single circumstance, general guidelines should be distributed in writing for both students and parents during the first week of school. To consistently enforce the standards of behavior can at times be challenging, given the busy and unpredictable nature of our profession. To conference with students calmly and patiently will help in maintaining consistency and fairness to all students. Classroom activities Engaging the students throughout the lesson is essential to effective classroom management. Whether students work individually or in groups, they should be held accountable for engagement in and completion of the task at hand. Proximity to students, reminders to stay on task, an awareness of their attention span for lecture, etc. will help sustain student engagement. Tips for effective classroom management

Assign tasks ahead of time Train students in routines Always plan ahead and over plan Label necessary materials Color code for easy access of necessary materials Set clear expectations for your students Discussing, debating, and providing consequences are more effective than nagging, lecturing, and threatening Review rules and standards of behavior periodically Greet students at the door Use humor daily Treat your students with respect Make eye contact Provide plenty of opportunity for participation Involve the students who are disruptive

Learn about students interests Make your classroom not just physically, but emotionally safe

Back to Main Behavioural Views of Learning

Understanding Learning (pp. 197-199)

Knowledgeable Behaviour

In the text, learning is defined as a change in knowledge and/or behaviour that occurs exclusively through experience. (p 197) For example, the experience of reading a textbook brings about additional factual knowledge. This learning is deliberate. On the other hand, the experience of placing ones tongue against a frozen metal post for the first time may prompt the avoidance of a similar situation in the future. Interestingly, in the latter example, both new knowledge (tongue sticks to frozen metal) and new behaviours (dont do it) are gained. This learning is inadvertent. Thus, learning may be intentional or unintentional; however, it is always initiated by the learners interaction with his or her environment. It follows that changes attributed to natural development, such as maturation, do not qualify as learning. (p 197) This condition is logically sound with respect to physiological developments such as growing taller or turning gray. However, it could also be understood to suggest that learning benefits often associated with mental maturation are actually a product of experiences accumulated with age. While it is clear that neurological development does not in itself constitute the act of learning, its exclusion undermines the significance of the constantly-changing adolescent brain. For example, if the ability to reason is associated with the development of the frontal lobe, can critical thinking be considered a learned skill? What are the implications for abstract thought? Given the dichotomy of knowledge and behaviour, the study of learning is divided into cognitive and behavioural points of view. Cognitive psychologists emphasize internal mental processes such as thinking, remembering and problemsolving. Conversely, the behavioural perspective assumes that learning causes observable changes in behaviour. (p 197) It is not clear why there is such an insistence on favouring one position over the other both knowledge and behaviour are clearly essential to learning. Furthermore, it could be said that behaviour is enacted knowledge and that knowledge is potential behaviour. --Artursedov (talk) 04:17, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Early Explanations of Learning: Contiguity and Classical Conditioning (pp. 199-202)

I was very intrigued by the discussion in the chapter about classical conditioning and how it can relate to learning in the classroom. Discovered by Ivan Pavlov, who was able to train dogs to salivate at the sound of a tuning fork, classical conditioning is described as an association of automatic responses with new stimuli (Woolfolk et. al, pg. 199-200). In the classroom students emotional reactions to different situations are often viewed as a result of classical conditioning. In particular, I was interested in how emotional reactions will often disrupt learning. For example, the stress and anxiety that many students feel during tests or presentations, which can often result in a poor performance. I wonder if there is a way to apply the theory of classical conditioning to eliminate the stress and possibly evoke a different emotion during a test or performance time. In the Guidelines on page 201 of the text book, the authors suggest giving un-graded tests so that students can practice daily. My concern with this suggestion is that firstly it seems unrealistic to test students so frequently, and also that perhaps this continuous testing will just perpetuate the anxiety for the student. Perhaps pairing a test with a positive stimulus could decrease the stress that is created in this situation. In my own experience my high school sociology teacher would give us candy as we took a test. A testing day was much less dreaded by the class because we knew that we would be given a treat. In theory this seems like a potential solution to the negative emotions that a test can produce. However, is it merely setting up students to perform poorly in a testing situation that doesnt provide a positive stimulus? Can a teacher use classical conditioning to reduce negative emotional reactions, or would the use of reinforcements, such as in operant conditioning, be more effective? --JollyJamie (talk) 06:40, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

In response to the above question, I think that the use of both methods can be effective. However, since an example of operant conditioning has already been provided I will touch upon classical conditioning. I think testing can be something not feared if it is introduced from the very beginning of classes as a positive experience so that it creates feelings of pleasure instead of pain. One way that this could be accomplished is by providing an atmosphere that is peaceful and calm as well as providing tests that are fair (i.e. including material that has been taught, and not providing trick questions). The former can be accomplished in two ways. The first is the the teacher's demeanour. If the teacher is calm, cheerful and optimistic she can help to alleviate some pre-test anxiety. Secondly, if the test space provided is peaceful and comfortable while the testing is being administered (ex. soft relaxation music) this can also help. If from

the very beginning of the year, the setting for testing is associated with positive variables, the students should not associate testing with fear. --Acardona (talk) 23:53, 28 January 2008 (UTC) Perhaps a way to overcome this sense of fear is by continually assessing students. By incorporating small quizzes, tests, or assignments, which will simply be used as an assessment tool by the teacher and students (and not graded), students may begin to feel comfortable and more at ease during a graded quiz/test. People often feel anxious in unfamiliar environments. They especially feel anxious when they are being evaluated. I remember the first time I had to play in a recital, I was so nervous I could not control my shaking hands and made countless mistakes from over-thinking. However, over the years, I have had many opportunities to perform in public. Now, not only am I relaxed and comfortable when I play in public, I actually enjoy the experience. By providing students with ungraded tests (written in the same format as their upcoming-graded tests), students may be more relaxed during the graded tests. They are now familiar with the format, phrasing of questions, and have a firm understanding of the types of questions the teacher may ask. Another option to overcome fear is to change the format of the tests. For example, open book tests, take home tests, or allow students to bring in one small-cheat. All of these formats still require the students to apply their knowledge, however, students may feel more control over their end product. User:Belshawm|Belshawm]] (talk) 19:48, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

In response to the two above postings, (especially the one on operant conditioning)I think that making testing more positive for students also ties into the section on Mastery Learning on pages 215 and 216 of the text. This idea that all students can master a skill, or achieve an 80-90% mark in a testing situation, before moving onto the next level. I know one teacher who does not allow her students to fail an evaluation. She allows them multiple tries of a similar task, until they get it right. Instead of going in thinking they will fail, these students know that they will eventually succeed, which eliminates some of the pre-test panic. As the text states, there are problems with this system, but I have seen this system work when it is adapted for only certain struggling members of the class. As students know they will have many tries to succeed, this could be another way to condition students to associate tests with positive consequences instead of the negative consequence of failing.

--Liz P (talk) 02:48, 29 January 2008 (UTC) Perhaps a way to overcome this sense of fear is by continually assessing students. By incorporating small quizzes, tests, or assignments, which will simply be used as an assessment tool by the teacher and students (and not graded), students may begin to feel comfortable and more at ease during a

graded quiz/test. People often feel anxious in unfamiliar environments. They especially feel anxious when they are being evaluated. I remember the first time I had to play in a recital, I was so nervous I could not control my hands from shaking and ended up making countless mistakes from over-thinking. However, over the years, I have had many opportunities to perform in public. Now, not only am I relaxed and comfortable when I play in public, I actually enjoy the experience. By providing students with pre-tests (written in the same format as their upcoming-graded tests) and take up the questions in-class, students may be relaxed during the graded tests. They are now familiar with the format, phrasing of questions, and have a firm understanding of the types of questions the teacher may ask.

In accordance with Liz's response, I have seen a similar system work where a teacher has allowed for students to re-submit their work once the teacher has done a 'basic' marking on the assignment. This practice was particularly used in music theory class for those students who were able to grasp the concepts, but were having trouble applying them to the 'big picture'. This way students were able to see their mistakes, and were given opportunities to re-write the assignment, this time making a connect as to why their result was wrong, and could seek further help how to do it properly. Assignments became more than just a 'grade', because it was the satisfaction of mastering a technique and being able to move on to the next step. This was a very smart idea as the teacher encouraged not only independent learning, but also it was a form of operant conditioning (touching on the next topic-pg. 202), as the students would learn as much as they wanted to (i.e. could choose to re-do the assignment or be satisfied with the original mark) and because of the constant learning in music theory, students would realize sooner or later that they would need to fully grasp concepts before being able to move on.

As teacher's, how far should we go to see our students succeed?

To make matters more interesting, this same teacher allowed students to bring in a 'cheat sheet' into their test. One single-sided, blank piece of paper where they could write anything except for examples. Because students went to such detailed lengths when filling up this piece of paper, when it came to the test, students no longer needed to use this sheet, as they had done a through job of studying and already new the material inside and out. Obviously this method would not work with all students, but for those students who have the tendency to 'freeze' in test situation, it was the perfect way for students to feel more competent. --Winchell (talk) 05:43, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

As a music major in university we were given as many chances to perform in a friendly, supportive, low-stress environment as possible. Though my instructors never used the term "Classical Conditioning" I believe that this is exactly what they were attempting, in hopes of aleviating performance anxiety in students. The problem with this is that a performance situation is an unconditioned stimulus which evokes a very primitive "fight or flight" response that is hardwired into every human individual. In short, when a person is experiencing performance anxiety part of their brain is telling them that their lives are in danger. This is obviously an irrational, unconditioned response, but overcoming such a strong basic instinct is near impossible for some people. Some performers are able to channel the "fight" instinct into creative energy that drives their performance, while others devote several hours before a performance to meditation in order to convince their mind that what they're about to experience is not a life or death situation. Are there methods we, as teachers of the arts, can use in the classroom to extinguish the unconditioned responses associated with performance anxiety? --Elewis (talk) 03:36, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

It is interesting to explore how a teacher can best use conditioned stimulus defined as "stimulus that evokes an emotional or pshychological response after conditioning" (Woolfolk et. al, pg. 200) in the classroom to promote focused learning and also eleviate anxiety. The desired result is a conditioned response from the students, defined as a "learned response to previously neutral stimulus" (Woolfolk et. al, pg. 200), to optimize their learning potential in the classroom setting. In response to the above question regarding performance anxiety, I believe the power lies with the teacher and their ability to create an environment condusive to support and comfort for students in the performance setting. Simply put, I believe the teacher needs to put the subject on the "table", which is so seldom done in the context of performance classes, and discuss the subject in a group context. By shifting the conditioned response within students, an environment is created condusive to open, creative, and artistic expression. Christopher Wilson --chuckstopher (talk) 10:13, 29 January 2008 (UTC) In response to Eli's question above, I think there are some things you can do. I suffered (still do, I guess) from performance anxiety and I tried many different strategies to combat it. One that helped was practicing a concert program in a big, open room--ideally, the room where the actual concert will be performed. I think this helped because part of the anxiety comes from the performance environment: the nerves REALLY start kicking in when you walk through the doors, hear your

footsteps echo through the hall, you can't see anyone but you hear a roar of applause--once I sat down and looked up, I usually felt pretty small in this giant hall. The idea is if you perform in a big, open space, practice in a big, open space (whether it's the performance hall during off hours or somewhere else). Your relationship to the practice space mimics the performance situation. I would often practice in a normal practice room and when I felt ready, walk straight into a lecture hall (ensuring beforehand that there was no class in there, of course!) and perform my concert program beginning to end, just as if it was the real thing. The conditioning comes into play get used to performing in that environment without any stress--you're dulling the conditioned response. Of course, the audience won't be there (although inviting friends to watch you practice certainly helps), but it's a start. --GavinKistner (talk) 03:57, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Operant Conditioning: Trying New Responses (pp. 202-208)

There were a variety of themes in this reading that I found interesting in relation to teaching. One theme in particular dealt with positive/negative reinforcement (which both promote a particular behaviour) and punishment (which weakens and suppresses behaviour) (Woolfolk et. al, pg. 203-204). In my own experience both as a student and as a teacher, I find that teachers overlook the importance of reinforcing positive behaviour among his/her students and focus on punishment. I find that a tendency of teachers is to only catch students being bad. Instead, teachers should try and catch their students being good. For example, if a student who has been talking throughout the entire class has finally quieted down, then the teacher should use this opportunity to acknowledge that students compliance either through praise, a reward (such as more computer time), etc. This acknowledgement will encourage the student to continue with the desired behaviour which in turn, will minimize the teachers need to manage/punish that student during class-time. During my practicum, I was amazed with how easy it was to implement punishment over positive reinforcement. When students were behaving, I had to consistently remind myself to acknowledge this through a reinforcer of some kind, such as praising them, or playing a piece that they loved. Why is it that punishing students seems to be a more of a natural tendency for teachers rather then implementing positive/negative reinforcement? Also, is it possible for a teacher to run a successful classroom on positive/negative reinforcement alone? Or, at times, does punishment need to be enforced? Is it possible to find a balance between the two? Thoughts, ideas, comments? --Colillis (talk) 20:55, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

I'd like to quote an outside text in response to your question, Why is it that punishing students seems to be a more of a natural tendency for teachers than implementing positive/negative reinforcement? In his article Rewarded by Punishment: Reflections on the Disuse of Positive Reinforcement in Schools (cf. [1] [2]), author John W. Magg proposes multiple reasons for punishment having traditionally been a preferred form of treatment.

First, Maag believes that positive reinforcement is often misunderstood because it is rarely associated with discipline. (Maag, 178) Furthermore, positive reinforcement is assumed by many to be coercive; bribing students to behave well, rather than motivating them intrinsically. Because of this, techniques based on positive reinforcement are often understood to threaten personal autonomy. Ironically, punishment seems more acceptable in this sense. People assume that they are free to choose to behave in a responsible way to avoid punishment. (Maag, 173) Moreover, our society views punishment as a highly effective way to control its members. Punishment often can produce a rapid suppression of undesired behaviours. (Maag, 176) Id like to suggest that positive reinforcement is proactive, rather than reactive, and may not demonstrate immediate, identifiable changes in behaviour.

Secondly, Maag proposes that teachers do not use reinforcement effectively because they do not understand important terms related to behaviour modification. The terms and concepts addressed in this section are covered in greater depth by our text, Educational Psychology. As teachers, our actions and interactions encourage behavioural responses, whether we are conscious of them or not. It is important that we recognize the differences between reinforcing and punishing behaviours. A reinforcer encourages a particular form of behaviour, whereas punishment discourages it. Because of our traditional understanding of these words, we may all too readily assume that punishment has negative connotations, and that reinforcement is preferable. This is not necessarily the case. Similarly, the terms positive and negative reinforcement carry their own baggage. They are two means to an end, two ways to modify behaviour. One method is not necessarily preferable to the other. Our text proposes that positive reinforcement occurs when a behaviour has been strengthened by presenting a desired stimulus after the behaviour. In other words, a teacher encourages said behaviour by their response (or lack of response) to it. It is possible that positive reinforcement may not be positive in the traditional sense. Positive reinforcement is a more complicated process than simply giving praise to students. During my practicum, I praised a students work on a diorama, hoping that she would respond to my positive encouragement. Rather, she seemed embarrassed at being singled out for her achievement. As I did not encourage her,

I failed to reinforce her behaviour. Simply because verbal praise sounds like a reinforcer does not mean that it will function as one.

Maag notes that when punishments are effective, they are used infrequently, because they serve to reduce inappropriate behaviours. However, students who repeatedly misbehave and receive reprimands, suspensions and the like are not being punished for their actions. They are instead being positively reinforced. Teachers expect students to behave well, and consequently ignore them when they do so, but they usually give them negative attention when they do behave poorly. Adult attention, even if it is negative, is a powerful reinforcer - especially for students with the most challenging behaviours who typically receive very little positive attention.(Maag, 179)

Maag suggests that many teachers do not use reinforcement to their advantage. Effectively changing students behaviours also requires teachers to modify their own behaviours; but first, they must recognize how positive reinforcement is congruent with the values and techniques they need to apply. These goals can be addressed when teachers prioritize their values (Maag, 183). Changing ingrained techniques are hard. Accordingly, as new teachers, we have an advantage. Maag concludes his article by providing a series of easy-to-implement techniques to encourage positive reinforcement, which I thought I'd share.

1) Catch students being good. Teachers often take for granted when students behave well, and often only react to inappropriate behaviours. Some students have learned that the only way they will receive attention from teachers is to misbehave. Maag suggests that the second time a teacher gives a student a verbal warning, they should also be sure to catch the student behaving appropriately. Whereas punishment is most effective when delivered consistently, teachers only have to catch students behaving well occasionally to generate desired behaviour modification. 2) Think Small. Set small goals for students and reinforce incremental strides towards that goal. For instance, if a student is usually ten minutes late for class, provide positive reinforcement if he is only five minutes late. Once he begins to make improvements, it is more likely that he will achieve your desired result. 3) Have a Group Management Plan. Its easier to manage specific students with challenging behaviours when the rest of class is well behaved. Control the class before focussing on an individual. 4) Prevent Behaviour Problems. Establish classroom rules and the positive reinforcement that will follow them. Dedicate your attention to academically

engaging your students, rather than dealing with problems. Monitor your students behaviours and subtly reinforce them. 5) Use Peer Influence Favourably. Students realize that the easiest way to get peer attention is to misbehave. Teachers should find ways to use peer influence to encourage good behaviour.

I find this last suggestion the least straightforward. Does anyone have any suggestions how we may use peer influence to promote good behaviour? Can anyone provide examples of having used positive and negative reinforcement to their advantage? --Mjcaskenette (talk) 18:22, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

This story is extreme but gives a powerful example of positive peer influence.

Jacob was withdrawn and pretty low-achieving from an academic standpoint. His home life was not the best and outside of school he tended to hang with the "wrong" crowd. At the very end of practicum Jacob was arrested for aggrevated assault when he got into a fight with the owner of a SUBWAY restaurant who had accused Jacob of stealing. Jacob was transfered to another school, but before he left Vanier my associate teacher sat down and spoke with Jacob about why the fight at the restaurant was maybe not a good idea and why the people he chose to run with weren't necessarily the best choice in friends. This teacher continuously let Jacob know that he was capable of good things, and that the transfer was a chance for a fresh start with a clean slate, a chance to make better choices and do positive things. He let him know that from this bad situation, good things could arise. At the end of this conversation, another student was brought in and asked if he would take Jacob to church with him on Sunday. The studentwho knew Jacob but was not real tight with himagreed, and was genuinely thrilled at the idea of helping Jacob get back on his feet. Jacob also seemed convinced that good things were in store for him, and started to make better choices for himself. This practicum placement was in the One World Youth Arts Project at George Vanier. My AT regularly made connections like this for his students, usually not on such a large, life-altering scale, but, little connections that did wonders for students' self-image and appreciation for fellow classmates. The OWYAP setting focuses on musical composition, and lends itself veryreadily to these kinds of collaborations, but the power of peer influence in any classroom is a tool we can all use to positively affect to motivate our students. Self-image is a huge issue for adolescents and is often the reason for bad behavior. Facilitating peer connections that promote positive self awareness will often diminish disruptive behaviour and foster academic success.

--Elewis (talk) 04:31, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Here is another example of positive peer influence.

In my practicum, I tried a number of methods to "tame the beasts". I tried to make a connection with the students who enjoyed challenging me. One way that I did this was to try to understand where they were coming from. I also tried to get to know them (i.e. interests etc.) so they wouldn't see me as just another authority figure. Once I became familiar with these specific students, I tried to personalize my lessons. For instance, in one lesson, I asked the students to mime their favourite thing free-time activity. This allowed some of the more unruly students to put a bit of themselves into my lesson. As a result, these "problem" students became engaged with the material, which created a ripple effect throughout the class. In turn, the students who usually followed the bad behavior, began to follow the good behavior. In turn, I acknowledged the good behaviour by thanking them individually for their great work in my class. As far as I'm concerned, positive peer influence really does promote good behaviour. --Acardona (talk) 23:26, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

When contemplating Mark's question, I came across a discovery that may seem cynical, but practical in reference to peer motivation for positive behaviour. My conclusion is that you can't have it. I've read many a chapter on psychology and 'school and society' and have come to the realization that a student's behaviour in the classroom is ever-evolving, and the notion that this can be controlled by a theory or a set of standards is preposterous.

My first notion to reinforce good behaviour was, "why don't I praise a group that is doing an assignment well, therefore enacting positive reinforcement by promoting the good behaviour". I believed that this would lead to other students to recognize this praise and cause them to strive to do better in hopes of receiving praise themselves. However, I found the opposite reaction occurs. Under-praised students are repulsed by the praised students for their conforming nature. The symbol of a class "goodie two-shoes" can alienate the rest of the class into a "whatever, I don't really care" attitude. This creates a dangerous learning environment. The teacher loses credibility and any sense of control they may have had. What's the solution? Generalized reinforcement. The old teacher's college adage of "what's good for some is good for all" applies to our classroom dynamics when dealing with reinforcement. By generalizing your reinforcement, students will not single a student out as the prize student creating less social stigma within the classroom.

That being said, I don't believe this will completely solve the situation, but it will help for a more equitable classroom. To conclude, I realize that you can try to balance your positive and negative reinforcement techniques, but the more balanced you try to make it, the greater the l imbalance amongst students. I realize that my opinion is based on my high school experiences, both as a student and teacher, and, the fact that they are only a few years younger than myself. --Mr. Magoo (talk) 16:25, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

The power of positive reinforcement shows up in my personal life daily with my fourteen year old daughter in grade nine, especially as it relates to her study habits, and her ability to concentrate on her homework. She responds well to positive energy. Period. An intermittent reinforcement schedule (page 204) is the most constructive approach to her attitudes towards study, and schoolwork.

During my practicum, I was faced with an unruly, yet talented, grade ten performance vocal class. By encouraging their individual abilities, their skill set, as well as their ability to work as a group, they quickly developed a focused work ethic during class. This was accompanied by positive energy and overall enthusiasm for musical task at hand. I was fortunately able to "accentuate the positive" (page 208) in order to clearly communicate to the students which behaviour I was reinforcing to promote positive, repeated classroom patterning. The results were tremendous and highly rewarding! - Christopher Wilson --chuckstopher (talk) 10:20, 29 January 2008 (UTC) I agree with Chris. It is vital to highlight students individual strengths. I found that during my practicum students began to respond better to my lessons once I began to develop some sort of relationship with each of them individually. I found walking around the classroom and conversing with them while they were doing seatwork to be a great tool for me in terms of classroom management. Engaging with students during that time allowed me to develop a strong mutual respect between the students and myself. I remember at the beginning of my practicum I got weighed down by constantly attending to those students who required a lot of personal attention. They would monopolize class time and time with me, with their never-ending questions. At first I didnt realize the impact it was having on the class because I was so overwhelmed by the mechanics of teaching a lesson. I was more worried about what I was doing. Then, as I began to feel more comfortable with the class and started to observe the dynamics within the classroom, I started to notice that those studentsapart from the four or five extremely extroverted studentshad shut down mentally; some even physically! It was then that I realized I had to start becoming more even-handed in my teaching. After that, I made it a point to say at least one thing to every student every day, especially the introverted students. One student was so astonished, dazed even

not surprizing, because I think I woke him up. He said I dont know. I said, "ok", and continued my lesson. Immediately after, he sat up in his chair and began to look on with the person sitting next to him. After awhile I came back to him with another question and he answered it perfectly! Because I made that small gesture of grace towards him, he became engaged. --Thomas20 (talk) 19:59, 30 January 2008 (UTC) Something I learned while on practicum to go along with this point, is to always have one ear on the class and one ear with your students. Being in a drama setting, the class was often divided into groups for group projects and I would circulate and give feedback to groups. My AT told me to use, what she called, "The Cowboy Method"; this is always keeping your back to a wall when talking with a group so that even though your focus is on a couple individuals, your always facing the entire group. This allows you to still have some attention on the rest of the class and give the needed attention to individuals. In regards to postive or negative reinforcement, I have always found postive reinforcement to be the most effective, especially when dealing with behavioural students. When I was volunteering as an Advisor with a program called Junior Achievement, we had one grade 9 student that was continually disruptive and halted the work of the rest of the members. The lead advisor tried various methods of discipline, until one day I stepped in and took this student into the hall for a one on one discussion. When talking to him, I addressed the areas of his disruptive behaviour that were concerning me and reinforced the great potential I saw in him and asked if he could be my ambassador in the company and use his outgoing and vibrant personality to rally the company to be more productive. My focus was to highlight his postive qualities and instead of putting him down encourage him to use his skills to the best of his abilities. I let him know that I believed in him and wanted him to succeed and that the only person he was failing was himself. This was very effective in managing his behaviour. I'm not saying that he did not act out again, but when he did I was able to just say "Max, can you focus?" and he would start working towards the task at hand. Kids never want to fail, but sometimes they lack someone to believe in them, so they stop trying to succeed. I know this may not work with every student, but I did witness my AT use a similar method in my practicum with one of the more difficult students and it proved effective in that case too. It is the difference in saying "No, you're bad." to "You're really good, why are you being bad?" --Ajlaflamme (talk) 13:19, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Applied Behaviour Analysis (pp. 208-214)

This section addresses methods for encouraging existing behaviour, such as praise, the Premack principle, shaping and positive practice. It states that to increase a particular behaviour, we must reinforce it. I was particularly interested in the part about reinforcement with teacher attention. Many psychologists advise teachers to accentuate the positive- to literally praise students for good behaviour.

I would like the address Using Praise Appropriately (on page 209), it suggests not to single students out for praise because it tends to backfire (because you risk embarrassing the student you have chosen to praise.) During my practicum experience, I was asked by my Associate Teacher to single out students that were doing the assignments as asked/a phenomenal job. Basically, I was asked to hold up a students work (in front of their peers) and to point out what aspects were working well (E.g. For gesture drawing- good use of line, fluid movement etc). I was hesitant to use this technique because some students may be more technically skilled than others and I felt like I was being ask to compare students work rather then assess them on their individual growth and development. In conclusion, some students appeared to like the attention and others were embarrassed. The entire class did in fact work harder, they were extremely focused and their individual drawings improved drastically by viewing the work of their peers. However, after class one of the students that didnt receive public praise approached me and said: Im sorry Miss that I didnt do a good job for you. My heart was absolutely shattered- I suddenly thought: This is a horrible technique; I had to reassure the student that she worked hard, did a great job and that I noticed a tremendous amount of growth within the period (which was true). I found that this girl in particular was always seeking my help and looking for affirmation. This sort of demonstrates what the book states: Psychologists have suggested that teachers use of praise tends to focus students on learning to win approval rather than on learning for its own sake. It makes me wonder, the kids worked harder and improved but did they do it to win my approval? I didnt particular care for the technique of singling out individual students but obviously there was major benefits to having the students examine each others work during the creation process. Later during practicum I tried a different method, I began to have students casually take turns walking around the class to examine each others work. I found that this approach was extremely affective because no one was depicted as superior to the other. They were able to learn from one another without feeling bad about themselves or embarrassed in front of their peers. Q: What type of experiences have you all had with praise? --SuzieQ (talk) 00:16, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

In response to the above question, I believe in the power of praise and agree that it needs to be handled with care, especially when it begins to promote a dependency on the students part. As teachers we are responsible for facilitating the growth and independence of our students and praise is one of the tools we can use to help us facilitate this. Unfortunately, some institutions do not fully understand the power of praise and rely solely on systems such as token economies to shape behavior. In some situations this system of earning tokens to be turned in for rewards works, however only for a short time, then it usually becomes meaningless (unless the reward is money that can be accumulate and spend on

numerous seductive consumer goods). This is where the power of praise comes in. In reviewing an individual students progress on the token system I observed that they did well for a while until they stopped buying into it, then their behavior took a turn for the worse. On interviewing the student I discovered that the rewards were meaningless to them, the student viewed the system as for a one year old. When I surveyed the student on what was interesting or meaningful for them they told me that they wanted to earn quality time with their teacher and E.A. as an alternate to items. This student was looking for interaction, opportunities to learn, and feel good about himself, buying trinkets from the treasure box at the end of the week just didnt cut it for him. I mentioned that praise is one of the tools we can use to develop growth in our students, the above example shows not only how ineffective a reward system can be if you do not know what motivates the individual but also the value of consciously adding praise to such a program. As the parent of this individual student I was proud to see that human interaction was my sons main motivator. I have worked in situations where the staff working with extremely behavioral individuals wore buzzers that went off every five minutes, for example, to remind the staff to praise that individual. It is my understanding that it is best to praise for the correct behavior in ABA. However, their is another element to this whole behavior modification phenomenon, one that is often overlooked in the sciences, a human element being that in this example the staff were required to interact with those individuals in a positive way. They were all on a program where they were responsible for filling their clients emotional tanks on the basis that this would have a positive effect on their overall behavior. Pretty simple! --Lisa chupa (talk) 17:41, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I find the amount of consideration and intentionality with which we need to oversee our classrooms incredible. Many times now we have all heard that more than half of the emotional battle for teachers is classroom management, and such skills are valued highly by employers. In addition to the above, I want to mention that the praise guidelines on p.208 make a lot of sense. Specifically, praise needs to be given appropriately--not sporadically. To add to this, I would assert that there also needs to be consideration for individual student personalities. For example, in my years of piano teaching I have noticed that while all students require at least some amount of praise, there are some students (usually those who are especially gifted) for whom there sometimes comes a point when praise can actually become detrimental. Such kids are typically praised by their parents and circle of peers 24/7 and have completely lost their sense of humility within their area of giftedness--an effect I have seen as the catalyst to the complete atrophy of a students' motivation and ability to function independently.

This dangerous consequence of indiscriminate praise is also known as performance addiction--a state in which students' self-esteem is linked to the tone of feedback they receive from those in positions of authority over them. Those of us who followed the music path (and also those who didn't, I am sure), know full well the danger of this mindset, and many of us (including myself) have had to break free of it in order to gain an independent, healthy self-motivation with which to fuel our development as artists (or still have yet to break free of it!) Of course, when it comes to teaching teenagers the arts--people whose identities are still very liminal--we can only praise and hope to encourage them into the kind of rigorous pursuit that one day might enable them to transcend that issue. Ahhhh the joy of music for its own sake!!! I think that only in that place have we truly reached freedom, and the fullest expression of our artistry. --JonathanisFTMFW (talk) 20:47, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Like many others, I have difficulty with the concept of a token reinforcement system, as I worry about the fact that many students will place emphasis on the reward and not the task itself. One possible solution to this problem was mentioned briefly in the text book on page 210, The best way to determine appropriate reinforcers for your students may be to watch what they do in their free time. This seems almost deceptively simple and, depending the approach, does have the potential to degenerate into a simple material reward system. However, it holds great promise because it provides the teacher with the opportunity to reward students with classroom-based, learning focused activities. This idea works very well with the Premack principle, wherein low-frequency behaviours must precede those of high-frequency. As a gymnastics coach, this is something I use fairly frequently. There are some skills (or even apparatuses) on which my students are hesitant to work for a number of reasons, and others that my students favour and consistently request. I often let my students know that while we will begin with one of the less-preferred activities, once this has been accomplished we can move on to some of their favourite things to do. I find this strategy extremely effective and students seem to respond fairly positively if only because the end is in sight. The thing I most appreciate about this approach is the fact that it demonstrates recognition of the students needs and desires on the part of the teacher. I know that, though they may be unhappy with the order in which I have assigned the tasks, my students appreciate the fact that I am aware of and acknowledge their preferences. Additionally, if the teacher is able to observe the students preferences without his/her students articulating them at all students may also, though likely not consciously, be appreciative of the fact that the teacher knows and understands them as individuals. Furthermore, students may also enjoy having input and control over their own learning. --Ayanda (talk) 04:03, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

At the risk of sounding repetitive, I agree with a lot of what's been said here, including the principles for Using Praise Appropriately. In general, I believe praise, appropriately used, is a great way to build a positive self-image and positive experience in general for students. Yet, I'd like to echo Jonathan's point about praise sometimes being detrimental to certain students, and add to it that sometimes while it's not detrimental, it doesn't seem to make a difference. I'm thinking of my practicum when I would praise certain a high-achieving student and she seemed rather indifferent to it. I kind of got the impression that she received a lot of praise and that although she wasn't being smug or anything about it, it seemed like it didn't make that much of a difference to her. I think ultimately, you just have to know how to give praise to certain students-some students will thrive with even a minimal amount, while other students don't even seem to notice it (I should stress that "seem" is key here--I'm not suggesting you stop giving praise to these students). As another example, there was another student--a student my AT had mentioned to me as having a few academic/engagement issues--who I gave some praise to early on and I found that I had no problems at all with her. I should mention the context of the praise: I was distributing a handout in the middle of a class when I noticed that all the "writing" she'd been doing was actually an illustration that had nothing to do with my lesson. When I saw it, I instantly told her how cool I thought it was; when she looked up, she seemed pleasantly surprised and said "thanks." I asked her about the drawing after class and spoke with her briefly about her drawing skills and that type of thing. At the end of the conversation, I politley mentioned that as cool as it was, I'd still like her to at least TRY to pay attention to the lessons. She smiled and said "ok," and I never had any problems with her after that. I think there were two things going on here: 1) I opened up our relationship with praise (my comment about her illustration was the first thing I'd ever said to her). By simply praising her genuinely (I truly was impressed by the drawing) and unconditionally (I made no mention of the fact that she shouldn't be ignoring the lesson or whatever) I think I created a positive space for us, so that when it came time to discuss that she needed to pay attention to the lessons, there was little resistance; and 2) I think there was some of what Ayanda mentioned above about taking an interest in their lives outside the classroom (or at least the course content). I also use the Premack Principle in structuring my private music lessons: I almost always do the "not-so-fun" stuff first, and finish with the "fun" stuff. I find that when if I finish with something "dry" like some kind of intense theory stuff, or something really difficult (learning bar chords for beginner students) the students become quite disengaged. Eventually I took this a step further and began telling the students the format of the lesson at the outset and this helped--once they knew that whatever difficult task was over, they could enjoy or sail through the rest of the lesson. --GavinKistner (talk) 05:27, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

The notion of shaping (or successive approximations) struck me as particularly relevant to students of the arts. Woolfolk et al describe shaping as a method of reinforcing progress through the successful attainment of smaller goals in order to achieve some larger goal (211). Student scan often become frustrated because they do not receive any reinforcement from their efforts because the end goal is not yet within reach. Task analysis (the system of breaking down skill hierarchically into sub-skills) would seem to be particularly relevant in artistic areas that are governed by the reproduction/creation of repertoire and specific techniques. My experience as a music student and teacher has shown me the benefits of using shaping as a strategy to employ positive reinforcement. Perhaps because music practice is readily dissectable across a multitude of planes (temporally, vertically through pitch/harmony, spatially through a performers location in the ensemble), it seems to yield itself intuitively to an array of shaping strategies. Musicians are often isolating smaller sections of a piece, or groups of instruments within a larger band, in order to master an isolated element of a piece before moving on to its larger elements. More difficult are the individual problems that occur with students that do not yield themselves as obviously to task analysis. Lets take ear training as an example. How do you help the student who is having trouble identifying or singing various intervals? Or perhaps a student might be having trouble with a rhythmic passage because their counting gets mixed up. In some cases, the overall goal does not necessarily yield itself to hierarchical sub-division. What then? In music, we often call on additional types of exercises that isolate and strengthen a skill. For example, if you having trouble singing a major 6th, try hearing a perfect 5th first, and then moving up a tone to the major 6th. After some practice, one eventually begins to hear the 6th without having to go the 5th first. I dont think this is necessarily at odds with what is being suggested by task analysis. It would be a misnomer to equate task analysis directly with chunking. Often the identification of the sub-skills entails understanding the skill set in a more abstract manner. --Maurosavo (talk) 05:28, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Behavioural Approaches to Teaching and Management (pp. 214219)

The section offers a variety of methods for encouraging good behaviour, aimed at controlling and changing behaviour by offering a reward of some sort. Two methods with which I have come into contact are the group consequences and the token reinforcement program. First, I volunteered in a math classroom where the teacher was attempting to curb lateness by offering 5 bonus marks if all students were in class on time for the term. Any student who came to class late resulted in a half-mark being deducted for the entire class. Though this program seemed to motivate students to arrive in class ontime, often students who were

always on time were made to lose marks because of their punctuality challenged peers. Naturally, this frustrated students who made greater effort to follow the rules. As well, some students, fearing the annoyance of their classmates did not bother coming to class at all if they were running late. This is an example of Woolfolk et al.'s warning that group consequences should not be used when students do not have influence of the group. Perhaps this idea could be tweaked slightly, so that each student was responsible for their own bonus marks, which would only be deducted if they were late. This way students who used the bonus marks as extrinsic motivation would continue to be motivated to be on time, even when their peers were late. I introduced a form of the token reinforcement while running a reading program last year. I learned that the children in the program were often extremely reluctant to read and that their behaviour was difficult to control. In hopes of rewarding the behaviour of those who read more, I set up a program so every student who read 5 books got a small prize. If they got to 10 or 15 books they got a bigger prize. This definately motivated them to read, however, I soon discovered that students were often choosing short books below their reading level or adding false entries to their log sheets to get prizes. After having read this section of the book, I realized my experience was a very good example of this type of system's strengths and weaknesses. First, since the group I was working with was difficult to control, unmotivated and were not making progress in school the token system gave them a reason to change their behaviour and set reading goals. Secondly, after a few months, and far too many prizes, I recognized that I needed to offer the rewards less frequently, so I required students to read more books before receiving any prizes. (I wish I had read that sooner!) Though this system worked for me, it would not work in every situation. Does anyone have an example of times when behaviour incentive programs were not successful and why? --Liz P (talk) 02:27, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

I have always been hesitant of using obvious forms of reward or punishment with my students because I worry that it could inhibit the development of intrinsic motivation by taking the students attention away from the importance of the task itself. I find the approach that works best is to assume that all students want to do well and find ways to help them do that. This involves what our text refers to as cueing, prompting, applied behaviour analysis and praise (206-8). Firstly, the teacher needs to clearly set up the expectations and then using cueing (and prompting and feedback) to assist students in developing an understanding of how to implement the expectations. In my mind, feedback is the essential aspect of applied behaviour analysis or any learning goal for that matter. Students need to have a clear idea of what they are doing right and how they can improve. Providing students will clear feedback gives them the impression that you care

about their success and that whatever criticism you give them is for their benefit and whatever praise you give them is genuine. I think that in most cases it is better to avoid obvious positive or negative reinforcements with secondary students. If you set things up so that you are helping them to achieve the high level of learning (which they will likely see in terms of the highest possible mark), they already have a reward to work toward. Even in situations where students are having behavioural issues, I think encouraging students to develop metacognitive skills by having them reflect on their behaviour and giving them feedback is more effective. For example, if a student is often late to class, assume they would rather be on time. Talk to them about what cause them to be late, have them write ways to avoid this, and then give them encouraging feedback on their plan. I use a considerable amount of praise in my teacher because I think it is more useful for students to start from what they are doing right and work toward improvement. I do agree however, that there are risks with overusing praise and I think the Guidelines for Using Praise Appropriate in the text are useful (15). Teachers need to be careful that students do not get the impression that the teacher is just being nice. Giving empty praise could undermine the encouragement you have given students in previous experiences. --Malexander (talk) 04:17, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Recent Approaches: Self-Regulation and Cognitive Behaviour Modification (pp. 219-224)

As I see it, the central problem with the behavioural approach to learning is one of oversimplification. In its understanding of pedagogical dynamics, teacher and learner are reduced to the roles of controller and controlled, with learning and the pursuit of knowledge a secondary concern. Chomsky has critiqued Skinner as a reductive empiricist because his theoretical framework is limited to "observables." In other words, he ignores the complex inner processes of the the human psyche, instead reducing them to their lowest common denominator -- that which can be addressed (figuratively speaking) by a pat on the head or a slap on the wrist. This section of the book would seem to validate the above critique. Its point that "students taught with classic behavioral methods seldom generalized their learning to new situations"(218) is highly relevant, especially in today's classroom where the notion of transferable skills and lifelong learning are becoming more and more pertinent. Clearly we must do more than encourage students to exhibit "good" behavior through a system of rewards and punishments. Students need to learn how to manage their own behavior. What interests me about the "cognitive behavior modification" approach is its potential ability to give students the tools by which they can adjust and improve their behavior, and through this their academic performance. This is done through a partnership model, so both teacher and student are in a position of control. And, as we learned in Chapter 10, when students feel that they are in control they are more likely to be motivated to succeed.

Unfortunately, the text doesn't give many concrete examples of this in action in a secondary school context, and I have had no first hand exposure to it as a methodology in the classroom (although it's pretty amazing to watch my 5-year old "self-talk" himself out of an emotional melt-down.) I can envision integrating various goal-setting mechanisms into a future classroom, as well as guiding students individually or as a class to self-generate various checklists. Any other ideas? Has anyone seen "cognitive behavior modification" in action? --Tearney (talk) 22:08, 28 January 2008 (UTC) The idea of cognitive behaviour modification is very intriguing, especially since it allows the student to actively monitor or coach their behaviour by themselves. I can imagine a teacher using this strategy when it comes to independent lessons, and self-instruction can be encouraged in the way that lessons or assignments are delivered. They work especially well when creating rubrics that are formulated as questions. For example, you can create a checklist as part of the rubric or lesson; here are some sample questions: Is my spelling and grammar correct?, Have I re-read this assignment?, Does my argument hold up against opposing viewpoints?, etc. Having the students ask themselves these types of questions on their own helps them put themselves in the teacher mindset during the process of an assignment or lesson. --Irenedongas (talk) 19:50, 2 February 2008 (UTC) The Difficulty of knowing WHEN to use Punishments

I have a strong belief that one of the hardest things to deal with as a teacher regardless of how many years experience you have is the choices you have to make in regards to punishment. Page 215 of the Educational Psychology textbook illustrates the complexity of the use of punishment within the classroom. It illustrates how complicated the understanding and use of punishments are. What was interesting to me was how many things a teacher can do to avoid punishing a student by provide the student with options. Many of these things are things we learn about when dealing with children of any age but for me I never really think about it when I am doing it. When I am dealing with a student and they are doing something that I do not really like I usually provide that student with options in order to avoid "punishment." According to the textbook I now know that what I am doing is called negative reinforcement. When the student does not accept one of the options provided and I need to enforce some form of punishment, the hardest things that I find I have to deal with is keeping with the punishment and not being persuaded to change the punishment. Maybe I am being stereotypic by saying that perhaps what I am doing in terms of not sticking to the punishment is something a lot of women teachers tend to do. One thing I have learned this year is how to evaluate a situation and when to step in. As we have always heard, when a situations comes up in our classroom we have to think to our selves "does this behaviour disrupt the other students ability to learn or does it prevent me from teaching." I think this is really key but so hard to learn because every situation we are presented with is different and as a result the reaction you have to the situation

will be different. For me even though I do think about the misbehaviour and how it affects the students or my ability to teach I still find it really hard to determine the response to the infraction.

--Naddles (talk) 23:36, 28 January 2008 (UTC) I agree with the above comment that dealing with punishment is one the hardest things for a teacher. I find that teachers, especially beginning teachers or teachers that are beginning to burn out, have difficulty in knowing if they are inadvertantly reinforcing the misbehaviour and also with maintaining the consistency. This will especially become the case during very stressful times of the year when both the teacher and the students become very busy with school assignments and activities. When I was a kindergarten teacher at a very small private school, I noticed a real lack of consistency in punishment between the different teachers at the school and also a lack of follow through with threatened punishments. The teachers spent most of the time threatened the students rather than teaching because the students knew that the threats were empty and continued to misbehave. As a result, the teachers at the school were becoming very tired and stressed and making escalated the nature of their threats in an attempt to scare the students. A colleague and I attempted to implement a new school wide system of punishment that all teachers were required to follow. This system meant that all classes faced the same punishments and rewards for the same behaviours in every class with every teacher. It was an uphill battle, for the students did not like that the punishments were actually being issued and became worse in their behaviour for a period of time, but evetually the students began to change their behaviour and in the end became more happy and productive. There were teachers that wished to quit the new system during the beginning stages due to the escalation of bad behaviour, but after sticking with it they did see the improvement in the students. This just shows that punishment must be thought about and planned prior to beginning a class and not something to dole out randomly as the class progresses.

--Ali.dormady (talk) 13:47, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Problems and Issues (pp. 224-229)

"What do you think about using rewards and punishments in teaching?" (pg.225)

I had some concerns regarding the overuse of rewards in the classroom. We hear quite a lot about not being overly critical of students so as not to damage their fragile sense of self. While I think this has merit, I also think that students will quickly see the diminishing value of reward or praise that is handed out too frequently. It is often the case, especially in the arts, where students would rather hear an honest opinion about their work rather than empty praise that does not help them learn or improve in the least. Woolfolk, Winne and Perry substantiate my concerns by stating, "some psychologists fear that rewarding students for all learning will cause them to lose interest in learning for its own sake. Studies have suggested that using reward programs with students who are already interested in

the subject matter may, in fact, cause students to be less interested int the subject when the reward program ends..." (pg. 221, 1st Ed.). --Elewis (talk) 05:05, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

1. Rewards can be used to celebrate student achievement or to motivate students to aim for higher goals. However, it is problematic when the reward becomes the purpose of learning. Few years ago, I got a beginner Grade 1 boy as a private piano student. The boy was pushed by his mother to learn piano, and I had to find some way to engage him into music. Then I started to use sticker as reward - giving one sticker after completing one piece. Giving sticker seemed like a successful attempt at the first few weeks. After a month, I realized that the boy was spending more time on choosing sticker from my sticker book rather than playing piano. He wanted to play piece through once and move onto another piece in order to get more sticker when there were much more music elements that had to be polished in the piece. 2. Teachers must be careful about what to use as rewards. The example of exempting students from homework as a reward (pg. 225) is a bad example of choosing the right rewards. By making homework exemption as a reward, the teacher implies that homework is a punishment rather than a learning practice. A teacher must consider the implication of the reward before presenting it to the class. 3. Punishment should be used carefully. Classroom should be an enjoyable place with quality learning experiences for the students. Therefore, a teacher must be aware of the negative emotional reactions that punishment might bring. The teacher should start from positive approaches to more complicated procedures (pg. 227). Firm punishment should be used only in the situation with the issues that cannot be tolerated. 4. Give constructive feedback to students. I totally agree with Eli's idea of giving 'an honest opinion about student work rather than empty praise'. If reward encourages certain behaviours and punishment suppresses, constructive feedback should be used effectively to guide students into the right direction which helps them to higher achievement. --GraceHa (talk) 05:10, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

The use of rewards in any teaching strategy often has a tricky catch to it at the end of the day. The ultimate reward one would assume a teacher hopes to inspire in his or her students is that of knowing ones stuff and being able to use the information wisely. It may sound redundant, but usually the only reward students are looking for in a secondary situation is the marks and the break. No matter what kind of other incentive the students are given (i.e. free resin for your violin, gift certificates, food, paint brushes, tickets, etc.), if the marks dont follow up, your reward will seem like a gimmick and will fall flat if

attempted again. As a teacher who likely will enjoy the material he or she is teaching, especially since we have our respective teachable subjects in the secondary program, there will likely be no need for any reward other than the students success at completing the task. Only as an act of desperation to try and hook the students to do an assignment would rewards help. The students will likely see this, however, and will get the impression that the lesson itself is not good enough to stand on its own. At the end of the day, perhaps rewards work as unexpected perks, but should not carry the lesson.

Rewards and punishments come in all shapes and sizes. As a teacher it isn't our job to decide whether or not we need to give rewards or punishments, but mearly when and how we should do it. In my opinion a reward can be broken down to positive reinforcement. A positive response to a positive behaviour is the basic idea of a reward. On the other hand, a punishment is the exact opposite. A negative behavior should be met with negative reinforment, or in other words a clear response to that behavior, that pin points it as being unacceptable. The decision lies in the "size and shape" of the reward or punishment. The simplest reward in education is a good mark for the effort of studying and applying that knowledge to a test or assignment. Is this enough? If the expectation is that the students should be doing this then that should be reward enough to motivate the students to continue that behavior. The difficulty presents itself when a student exceeds expectations. In this case it is questionable whether or not a reward will be necessary for that behavior to continue. It seems to follow that it will lead to future expectations being exceeded if this type of behavior is reinforced in a positive way. The reason I think this topic is vital in today's classrooms is because of the ever increasing move towards the need for youth to have immediate gratification. It isn't enough to have a reward, it needs to be given right away. That is why connections to future rewards should be an emphasis on a consistent basis. As with the example of a student that exceeds expectations they will most probably be rewarded in the future with a better job, a schlarship, etc. Rewards and punishiments therefore need not be something physical and immediate, but instead can be in the form of a reminder that rewards come with hard work and patients. In the case of punishment the same idea can be applied. If a student can be taught to appreciate what will happen if a negative behavior continues they will actually be pushed in the direction of positive behavior. It becomes a case of knowing the consequences and being able to understand how those consequences will come about. Anti-smoking advertising is a great example of this. These types of commercials focus on what will happen if the behaviour continues and have been known to be effective, even though in the short run it is extremely difficult to quit smoking.

It is important to remember that a reward or punishment need not be big, extravegant, or extreme. A positive word and a smile can go along way. In turn, a frown and a word of disappointment can have a lasting effect as well. --Hassan (talk) 20:08, 27 February 2008 (UTC) I think that conditioning comes into play in classrooms in many different ways. In both of my practica, the teachers had different cues that they used to maintain their classroom management. One of my ATs kept the classroom set up almost like a stage, which gave him physical prominence in the classroom, and gave the students the impression that they were there to observe him. My other AT showed me his conditioning of his students that they were trained to recognize signals when he wanted attention. He uses several cues that clearly reenforce his position of authority in the classroom, but dont CLEARLY say hey students, Im the boss here. When he wanted the students attention, he would stop talking. By not overusing this technique, and only using it when he was telling them important information, the students realized that it was a cue that he was telling them something important and they needed to listen. Also, to get students attention, he would clap his hands in a rhythm, which the students would echo. There are a lot of benefits to this method of conditioning it illustrates a hierarchy to students without having to spend time dictating it. Its a little sneaky, but perfectly effective, Id say. And it was interesting in both practica, coming into a class where they had been conditioned to certain behaviours as signals for please listen. Both times, I realized very quickly that it was important for me to work within the conditioning of the students that Id been given, especially because itd been built up for a long time before I started teaching at the school, and its hard to break conditioning like that. When I tried to do a drama activity with the English class, I had them move their desks the clear a space for the activity, and naturally, after that, chaos held sway. I wonder how much of that came from breaking their classroom conditioning? --Chareth Cutestory (talk) 04:18, 8 April 2008 (UTC) Retrieved from "http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/PsycholARTSical:_Psyched_about_the_arts/Behavioral_Vi ews_of_Learning"

Melissa Standridge Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology, University of Georgia

Behaviorism is primarily concerned with observable and measurable aspects of human behavior. In defining behavior, behaviorist learning theories emphasize changes in behavior that result from stimulus-response associations made by the learner. Behavior is directed by stimuli. An individual selects one response instead of another because of prior conditioning and psychological drives existing at the moment of the action (Parkay & Hass, 2000). Behaviorists assert that the only behaviors worthy of study are those that can be directly observed; thus, it is actions, rather than thoughts or emotions, which are the legitimate object of study. Behaviorist theory does not explain abnormal behavior in terms of the brain or its inner workings. Rather, it posits that all behavior is learned habits, and attempts to account for how these habits are formed. In assuming that human behavior is learned, behaviorists also hold that all behaviors can also be unlearned, and replaced by new behaviors; that is, when a behavior becomes unacceptable, it can be replaced by an acceptable one. A key element to this theory of learning is the rewarded response. The desired response must be rewarded in order for learning to take place (Parkay & Hass, 2000). In education, advocates of behaviorism have effectively adopted this system of rewards and punishments in their classrooms by rewarding desired behaviors and punishing inappropriate ones. Rewards vary, but must be important to the learner in some way. For example, if a teacher wishes to teach the behavior of remaining seated during the class period, the successful student's reward might be checking the teacher's mailbox, running an errand, or being allowed to go to the library to do homework at the end of the class period. As with all teaching methods, success depends on each student's stimulus and response, and on associations made by each learner. This chapter introduces behaviorism's principal advocates and their distinct approaches to the theory. Some implications for classroom management are also presented, along with methods for maintaining and eliminating behaviors. This paper presents information useful to instructional designers, media developers, and, especially, classroom teachers. [edit]

Behaviorism Advocates
John B. Watson (1878-1958) and B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) are the two principal originators of behaviorist approaches to learning. Watson believed that human behavior resulted from specific stimuli that elicited certain responses. Watson's basic premise was that conclusions about human development should be based on observation of overt behavior rather than speculation about subconscious motives or latent cognitive processes. (Shaffer, 2000). Watson's view of learning was based in part on the studies of Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936). Pavlov was studying the digestive process and the interaction of salivation and stomach function when he realized that reflexes in the autonomic nervous system closely linked these phenomena. To determine whether external stimuli

had an affect on this process, Pavlov rang a bell when he gave food to the experimental dogs. He noticed that the dogs salivated shortly before they were given food. He discovered that when the bell was rung at repeated feedings, the sound of the bell alone (a conditioned stimulus) would cause the dogs to salivate (a conditioned response). Pavlov also found that the conditioned reflex was repressed if the stimulus proved "wrong" too frequently; if the bell rang and no food appeared, the dog eventually ceased to salivate at the sound of the bell.

Classical Conditioning

Figure 1. This illustration shows the steps of classical conditioning. 1. Food= salivation 2. Food + Stimulus = salivation (conditioned stimulus) 3. Bell alone produces salivation (conditioned response) Expanding on Watson's basic stimulus-response model, Skinner developed a more comprehensive view of conditioning, known as operant conditioning. His model was based on the premise that satisfying responses are conditioned, while unsatisfying ones are not. Operant conditioning is the rewarding of part of a desired behavior or a random act that approaches it. Skinner remarked that "the things we call pleasant have an energizing or strengthening effect on our behavior" (Skinner, 1972, p. 74). Through Skinner's research on animals, he concluded that both animals and humans would repeat acts that led to favorable outcomes, and suppress those that produced unfavorable results (Shaffer, 2000). If a rat presses a bar and receives a food pellet, he will be likely to press it again. Skinner defined the bar-pressing response as operant, and the food pellet as a reinforcer. Punishers, on the other hand, are consequences that suppress a response and decrease the likelihood that it will occur in the future. If the rat had been shocked every time it pressed the bar that behavior would cease. Skinner believed the habits that each of us develops result from our unique operant learning experiences (Shaffer, 2000). Operant Conditioning

Figure 2. This illustration illustrates operant conditioning. The mouse pushes the lever and receives a food reward. Therefore, he will push the lever repeatedly in order to get the treat. [edit]

Educational Implications
Behaviorist techniques have long been employed in education to promote behavior that is desirable and discourage that which is not. Among the methods derived from behaviorist theory for practical classroom application are contracts, consequences, reinforcement, extinction, and behavior modification. [edit]

Contracts, Consequences, Reinforcement, and Extinction

Simple contracts can be effective in helping children focus on behavior change. The relevant behavior should be identified, and the child and counselor should decide the terms of the contract. Behavioral contracts can be used in school as well as at home. It is helpful if teachers and parents work together with the student to ensure that the contract is being fulfilled. Two examples of behavior contracts are listed below:

A student is not completing homework assignments. The teacher and the student design a contract providing that the student will stay for extra help, ask parents for help, and complete assigned work on time. Teacher will be available after school, and during free periods for additional assistance. A student is misbehaving in class. The teacher and student devise a behavioral contract to minimize distractions. Provisions include that the student will be punctual, will sit in front of the teacher, will raise hand with questions/comments, and will not leave his seat without permission.

Consequences occur immediately after a behavior. Consequences may be positive or negative, expected or unexpected, immediate or long-term, extrinsic or intrinsic, material or symbolic (a failing grade), emotional/interpersonal or even unconscious. Consequences occur after the "target" behavior occurs, when either positive or negative reinforcement may be given. Positive reinforcement is presentation of a stimulus that

increases the probability of a response. This type of reinforcement occurs frequently in the classroom. Teachers may provide positive reinforcement by:

Smiling at students after a correct response. Commending students for their work. Selecting them for a special project. Praising students' ability to parents.

Negative reinforcement increases the probability of a response that removes or prevents an adverse condition. Many classroom teachers mistakenly believe that negative reinforcement is punishment administered to suppress behavior; however, negative reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behavior, as does positive reinforcement. Negative implies removing a consequence that a student finds unpleasant. Negative reinforcement might include:

Obtaining a score of 80% or higher makes the final exam optional. Submitting all assignments on time results in the lowest grade being dropped. Perfect attendance is rewarded with a "homework pass."

Punishment involves presenting a strong stimulus that decreases the frequency of a particular response. Punishment is effective in quickly eliminating undesirable behaviors. Examples of punishment include:

Students who fight are immediately referred to the principal. Late assignments are given a grade of "0". Three tardies to class results in a call to the parents. Failure to do homework results in after-school detention (privilege of going home is removed).

Table1. Reinforcement and punishment comparison REINFORCEMENT (Behavior Increases) Positive Reinforcement POSITIVE Something is added to increase (Something is desired behavior added) Ex: Smile and compliment student on good performance NEGATIVE (Something is removed)

PUNISHMENT (Behavior Decreases) Positive Punishment Something is added to decrease undesired behavior Ex: Give student detention for failing to follow the class rules Negative Punishment Negative Reinforcement Something is removed to decrease Something is removed to increase undesired behavior desired behavior Ex: Make student miss their time Ex: Give a free homework pass in recess for not following the for turning in all assignments class rules

Click Here to Play the Movie Caption: This video illustrates negative reinforcement, positive reinforcement, and punishment. In the first example, the teacher sees that one student has turned in all of her homework assignments. He gives her a free homework pass as negative reinforcement for her behavior. The student explains that receiving a homework pass made her want to turn in all of her homework on time. In the second example, a student is distracting another student during class time. The teacher asks the disruptive student to go stand outside. He comes out and asks the student how she should be punished. They decide that she should go to study hall while the other students go outside for recess. The student explains that it made her feel very badly to be punished for her behavior and it made her not want to get in trouble again. In the last example, the teacher asks a student to complete a problem on the board and she completes the problem correctly. The teacher tells her she did a very good job and he smiles giving her positive reinforcement for her behavior. The student explains that it made her feel good when the teacher told her she did a good job and it made her want to do well again. By Keith Connor, Chesley Cypert, and Anne Meyers. (2004) Extinction decreases the probability of a response by contingent withdrawal of a previously reinforced stimulus. Examples of extinction are:

A student has developed the habit of saying the punctuation marks when reading aloud. Classmates reinforce the behavior by laughing when he does so. The teacher tells the students not to laugh, thus extinguishing the behavior. A teacher gives partial credit for late assignments; other teachers think this is unfair; the teacher decides to then give zeros for the late work. Students are frequently late for class, and the teacher does not require a late pass, contrary to school policy. The rule is subsequently enforced, and the students arrive on time.

[edit]

Modeling, Shaping, and Cueing

Modeling is also known as observational learning. Albert Bandura has suggested that modeling is the basis for a variety of child behavior. Children acquire many favorable and unfavorable responses by observing those around them. A child who kicks another child after seeing this on the playground, or a student who is always late for class because his friends are late is displaying the results of observational learning. "Of the many cues that influence behavior, at any point in time, none is more common than the actions of others" (Bandura, 1986, p.45)

Figure 3. In this picture, the child is modeling the behavior of the adult. Children watch and imitate the adults around them; the result may be favorable or unfavorable behavior! Shaping is the process of gradually changing the quality of a response. The desired behavior is broken down into discrete, concrete units, or positive movements, each of which is reinforced as it progresses towards the overall behavioral goal. In the following scenario, the classroom teacher employs shaping to change student behavior: the class enters the room and sits down, but continue to talk after the bell rings. The teacher gives the class one point for improvement, in that all students are seated. Subsequently, the students must be seated and quiet to earn points, which may be accumulated and redeemed for rewards. Click Here to Play the Movie Caption: This video illustrates a teacher using shaping to modify a student's behavior. The student is being taught how to accept criticism appropriately by not throwing a temper tantrum, looking at the teacher, answering when spoken to, and asking for help. Only when the student demonstrates the first step of not throwing a temper tantrum is the second step, looking at the teacher introduced. As the desired behaviors are demonstrated, the new expectations are introduced until the student masters all of the steps. Click here to download a Word document. By Candi Chandler, Leigh Davis, and Kristen Sabo (2006) Cueing may be as simple as providing a child with a verbal or non-verbal cue as to the appropriateness of a behavior. For example, to teach a child to remember to perform an action at a specific time, the teacher might arrange for him to receive a cue immediately before the action is expected rather than after it has been performed incorrectly. For example, if the teacher is working with a student that habitually answers aloud instead of raising his hand, the teacher should discuss a cue such as hand-raising at the end of a question posed to the class. [edit]

Behavior Modification
Behavior modification is a method of eliciting better classroom performance from reluctant students. It has six basic components:

1. Specification of the desired outcome (What must be changed and how it will be evaluated?) One example of a desired outcome is increased student participation in class discussions. 2. Development of a positive, nurturing environment (by removing negative stimuli from the learning environment). In the above example, this would involve a student-teacher conference with a review of the relevant material, and calling on the student when it is evident that she knows the answer to the question posed. 3. Identification and use of appropriate reinforcers (intrinsic and extrinsic rewards). A student receives an intrinsic reinforcer by correctly answering in the presence of peers, thus increasing self-esteem and confidence. 4. Reinforcement of behavior patterns develop until the student has established a pattern of success in engaging in class discussions. 5. Reduction in the frequency of rewards--a gradual decrease the amount of one-onone review with the student before class discussion. 6. Evaluation and assessment of the effectiveness of the approach based on teacher expectations and student results. Compare the frequency of student responses in class discussions to the amount of support provided, and determine whether the student is independently engaging in class discussions (Brewer, Campbell, & Petty, 2000). Further suggestions for modifying behavior can be found at the mentalhealth.net web site. These include changing the environment, using models for learning new behavior, recording behavior, substituting new behavior to break bad habits, developing positive expectations, and increasing intrinsic satisfaction. This informative website's URL is http://mentalhelp.net/psyhelp/chap11/. [edit]

Classroom Importance
Using behaviorist theory in the classroom can be rewarding for both students and teachers. Behavioral change occurs for a reason; students work for things that bring them positive feelings, and for approval from people they admire. They change behaviors to satisfy the desires they have learned to value. They generally avoid behaviors they associate with unpleasantness and develop habitual behaviors from those that are repeated often (Parkay & Hass, 2000). The entire rationale of behavior modification is that most behavior is learned. If behaviors can be learned, then they can also be unlearned or relearned. In my own teaching, I have found that a behavior that goes unrewarded will be extinguished. Consistently ignoring an undesirable behavior will go far toward eliminating it. When the teacher does not respond angrily, the problem is forced back to its source--the student. Other classroom strategies I have found successful are contracts, consequences, punishment and others that have been described in detail earlier in this chapter. Behaviorist learning theory is not only important in achieving desired behavior in mainstream education; special education teachers have classroom behavior

modification plans to implement for their students. These plans assure success for these students in and out of school. [edit]

References
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundation of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Behaviorist Learning Theory Term http://mse.byu.edu/ipt/ipt301/jordan/learnterm_b.html. Brewer, E.W., Campbell, A.C., Petty, G.C. (2000). Foundations of Workforce Education. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. Huitt, W., & Hummel, J. (1998). The Behavioral System. Retrieved via the World Wide Web, February 15, 2002. Available at: http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/behsys/behsys.html Parkay, F.W. & Hass, G. (2000). Curriculum Planning (7th Ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Shaffer, D. (2000) Social and Personality Development (4th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thompson Learning. Skinner, B. (1972). Utopia through the control of human behavior. In John Martin Rich, ed., Readings in the Philosophy of Education. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. What is ABA? http://rsaffran.tripod.com/whatisaba.html Classroom management is a term used by many teachers to describe the process of ensuring that classroom lessons run smoothly despite disruptive behavior by students. The term also implies the prevention of disruptive behavior. It is possibly the most difficult aspect of teaching for many teachers and indeed experiencing problems in this area causes some to leave teaching altogether. In 1981 the US National Educational Association reported that 36% of teachers said they would probably not go into teaching if they had to decide again. A major reason was "negative student attitudes and discipline".(Wolfgang and Glickman) Classroom management is closely linked to issues of motivation, discipline and respect. Methodologies remain a matter of passionate debate amongst teachers; approaches vary depending on the beliefs a teacher holds regarding educational psychology. A large part of traditional classroom management involves behavior modification, although many teachers see using behavioral approaches alone as overly simplistic. Many teachers establish rules and procedures at the beginning of the school year. They also try to be

consistent in enforcing these rules and procedures. Many would also argue for positive consequences when rules are followed, and negative consequences when rules are broken. There are newer perspectives on classroom management that attempt to be holistic. One example is affirmation teaching, which attempts to guide students toward success by helping them see how their effort pays off in the classroom. It relies upon creating an environment where students are successful as a result of their own efforts[citation needed]

Contents
[hide]

1 Techniques 2 Systematic approaches 3 External links 4 See also 5 References

[edit] Techniques
Corporal punishment Until recently, Corporal punishment was widely used as a means of controlling disruptive behavior but it is now no longer fashionable, though it is still advocated in some contexts by people such as James Dobson. Rote Discipline Also known as `lines`, Rote Discipline is a negative sanction used for behavior management. It involves assigning a disorderly student sentences or the classroom rules to write repeatedly. Among the many types of classroom management approaches, it is very commonly used.

[edit] Systematic approaches

Discipline with Dignity According to its founders, Discipline with Dignity is one of the most widely practiced behavior management philosophies in the world. Founded by Dr. Richard Curwin and Dr. Allen Mendler, the program is utilized in more than 12 different countries. Discipline with Dignity, provides an in-depth flexible approach for effective school and classroom management. With a strong focus on developing responsibility, it is a comprehensive, practical program that leads to improved student behavior through responsible thinking, cooperation, mutual respect, and shared decision-making.

Tools for Teaching is a classroom management method created and taught by Fred Jones on speaking tours and in the eponymous book series Positive Classrooms developed by Dr. Robert DiGiulio sees positive classroom management as the result of four factors: how teachers regard their students (spiritual dimension), how they set up the classroom environment (physical dimension), how skillfully they teach content (instructional dimension), and how well they address student behavior (managerial dimension). http://www.geocities.com/learningenvironments/learningenvironments.html#B Behaviorism equates learning with changes in either the form or frequency of observable performance. Learning is accomplished when a proper response is demonstrated following the presentation of a specific environmental stimulus. For example, when presented with a math flashcard showing the equation "2+4=?" the learner replies with the answer of "6". The equation is the stimulus and proper answer is the associated response. The key elements are the stimulus, the response and the association between the two. Of primary concern is how the association between the stimulus and response is made, strengthened, and maintained. Behaviorism focuses on the importance of the consequences of those performances and contends that responses that are followed by reinforcement are more likely to occur in the future. No attempt is made to determine the structure of a students knowledge nor to assess which mental processes it is necessary for them to use. The learner is characterized as being reactive to conditions in the environment as opposed to taking an active role in discovering the environment. Which factors influence learning? Although both learner and environmental factors are considered important by behaviorists, environment al conditions receive the greatest emphasis. Behaviorists assess the learners to determine at what point to begin instruction as well as to determine which reinforcers are most effective for a particular student. The most critical factor, however, is the arrangement of stimuli and consequences within the environment. What is the role of memory? Memory, as commonly defined by the layman, is not typically addressed by behaviorists. Although the acquisition of "habits" is discussed, little attention is given as to how these habits are stored or recalled for future use. Forgetting is attributed to the "nonuse" of a response over time. The use of periodic practice or review serves to maintain a learners readiness to respond. How does transfer occur?

Transfer refers to the application of learned knowledge in new ways or situations, as well as to how prior learning affects new learning. In behavioral learning theories, transfer is a result of generalization. Situations involving identical or similar features allow behaviors to transfer across elements. For example, the student who has learned to recognize and classify elm trees demonstrates transfer when (s)he classifies maple trees using the same process. The similarities between the elm and maple trees allow the learner to apply the previous elm tree classification learning experience to the maple tree classification task. What types of learning are best explained by this position? Behaviorists attempt to prescribe strategies that are most useful for building and strengthening stimulus-response associations, including the use of instructional cues, practice, and reinforcement. These prescriptions have generally been proven reliable and effective in facilitating learning that involves discriminations (recalling facts), generalizations (defining and illustrating concepts), associations (applying explanations), and chaining (automatically performing a specified procedure). However, it is generally agreed that behavioral principles cannot adequately explain the acquisition of higher level skills ore those that require a greater depth of processing (e.g. language development, problem solving, inference generating, critical thinking). What basic assumptions/principles of this theory are relevant to instructional design? Many of the basic assumptions and characteristics of behaviorism are imbedded in current instructional design practices. Behaviorism was used as the basis for designing many of the early audio-visual materials and gave rise to many related teaching strategies, such as Skinners teaching machines and programmed texts. More recent examples include principles utilized within computer-assisted instruction (CAI) and mastery learning. Specific assumptions or principles that have direct relevance to instructional design include the following (possible current ID applications are listed in brackets[ ] following the listed principle):

An emphasis on producing observable and measurable outcomes in students [behavioral objectives, task analysis, criterionreferenced assessment] Pre-assessment of students to determine where instruction should begin [learner analysis] Emphasis on mastering early steps before progressing to more complex levels of performance [sequencing of instructional presentation, mastery of learning]

of cues, shaping and practice to ensure a strong stimulus-response association [simple to complex sequencing of practice, use of prompts] Use of reinforcement to impact performance [tangible rewards, informative feedback]

How should instruction be structured? The goal of instruction for the behaviorist is to elicit the desired response from the learner who is represented with a target stimulus. To accomplish this, the learner must know how to execute the proper response, as well as the conditions under which that response should be made. Therefore, instruction is structured around the representation of the target stimulus and the provision of opportunities for the learner to practice making the proper response. To facilitate the linking of stimulusresponse pairs, instruction frequently uses cues (to initially prompt the delivery of the response) and reinforcement (to strengthen correct responding in the presence of the target stimulus). Behavioral theories imply that the job of the teacher/designer is (1) to determine which cues elicit the desired responses; (2) arrange practice situations in which prompts are paired with the target stimuli that initially have no eliciting power but which will be expected to elicit the responses in the "natural" (performance) setting; and (3) arrange environmental conditions so that students can make the correct responses in the presence of those target stimuli and receive reinforcement for those responses. For example, a newly-hired manager of human resources may be expected to organize a meeting agenda according to the companys specific format. The target stimulus (the verbal command "to format a meeting agenda") does not initially elicit the correct response nor does the new manager have the capability to make the correct response. However, with the repeated presentation of cues (e.g. completed templates of past agendas, blank templates arranged in standard format) paired with the verbal command stimulus, the manager begins to make the appropriate responses. Although the initial responses may not be in final proper form, repeated practice and reinforcement shape the response until it is correctly executed. Finally, learning is demonstrated when, upon the command to format a meeting agenda, the manager reliably organizes the agenda according to company standards and does so without the use of previous examples or models.

Classroom Management Plan

A. Theoretical Introduction

I believe in a progressive classroom where management and learning is student centered. My role as a teacher is to be a leader, not an authoritarian or dictator. A classroom environment needs to be supportive and must be able to meet a students basic needs in order for learning to take place. The foundation of a good management plan must be built on the following essential elements: positivity, consistency, and most important of all, respect. I believe in a management plan that avoids any form of punishment at all costs. Students work much harder for rewards than to avoid punishment. Instead, with student input, I plan to implement a system of logical consequences for when students break classroom rules. It is very important for students to contribute and have some control over their classroom environment because they want power and freedom. Students need to see a cause and effect relationship in order to understand the consequences of their actions. These consequences will be enforced in a fair and consistent manner throughout the year. Students also need recognition. They take pride in their work, but without recognition they easily lose motivation. Part of my role as a teacher is to provide positive feedback and recognition for work and effort. Providing recognition gives students a sense of accomplishment, which helps to promote intrinsic motivation. Students are mostly motivated at this age by extrinsic forces. They do things for rewards or to avoid punishment. I believe in using rewards at certain times to motivate students, but in the long run students need to be intrinsically motivated so they will do things for themselves. Overuse of rewards will not promote intrinsic motivation and those rewards will lose effectiveness. By using rewards sparingly, I can keep my students motivated on the short term while helping them to develop intrinsic motivation. Organization is also a key component of a good management plan. Part of my role as a teacher is to plan and present the curriculum in such a way as to keep students engaged and to maximize student participation. Student engagement minimizes student misbehavior. Also, if students get bored, then they stop paying attention which means theyre not learning. Students want and need to have fun to remain engaged. I plan to teach using as many hands-on activities with real life applications as possible. By minimizing traditional lectures and using a variety of different interactive activities, my students will be too busy and be having too much fun to misbehave. Another important part of keeping students engaged and creating a fun atmosphere is being enthusiastic about what youre teaching. Enthusiasm will rub off on students (and so will boredom). Students are also extremely social creatures. They want to fit in and be a part of a group. I will promote social interactions between my students by providing them with a variety of opportunities to work in groups. Flexibility, diversity in activities, and good assessment techniques are other important organizational and instructional components of a good management plan. The theorists that best support my philosophy of classroom management are Gordon, Kounin, and Glasser. Gordon believes that the best learning and classroom environment happens when students are able to use their inner sense of self-control. Gordon has come up with helping skills that prevent misbehaviors and he is against the use of a discipline system based on rewards and punishment. In his theory, Gordon discusses the use of helping skills. Gordon says that teachers should avoid communication roadblocks such as criticism, orders, and lectures. These roadblocks lead to a break down in communication between students and their teacher, which in turn can

lead to misbehaviors. I believe its very important to keep an open line of communication with your students so they know exactly where you stand on issues and so they can feel like they can talk to you. Gordon also discusses the use of preventive skills, which include rule setting, participative problem solving, use of I-messages and decisionmaking. I think these techniques are all good ways to prevent problems before they ever start, which is much easier than dealing with a problem once it happens. Gordon is also against the use of a discipline program based on rewards. While rewards here and there can help to motivate students, when you use rewards all of the time the effect soon wears off. A teacher needs to help students become intrinsically motivated in order for motivation to last and for students who will continue to want to learn. Kounin uses various methods that promote student involvement in learning and he attempts to minimize misbehaviors through various techniques that emphasize teacher organization and student responsibility. In Kounins theory there were different techniques for effective classroom management. Withitness, where a teacher knows what is going on in the whole classroom, is extremely important in good management. A teacher needs to be able to identify a problem right when it begins in order to prevent it from escalating. Students are also less likely to misbehave if they think youll catch them. Another idea of Kounins is that you have to keep the momentum of your class going. Any downtime or abrupt transitions allow time for student misbehavior. A teacher must be well organized in order to keep a good momentum going. Kounin also discusses the importance of keeping students accountable for their work. This is especially important because students wont try that hard if they know that their work isnt counting towards their grade. Accountability promotes responsibility. Another good point Kounin has is that a teacher needs to show a lot of enthusiasm for whatever they are teaching. Enthusiasm will rub off onto your students and inspire them. He also says you should challenge your students. Glassers theory involves the fulfillment of students needs. These needs are belonging, power, fun, and freedom. It is when these needs arent met that misbehaviors occur and student work will not be of the highest quality. The need of belonging can be met by being involved in the class during activities and discussions. Receiving attention or recognition from the teacher can also satisfy this need. Students will feel that they have power and freedom when they are allowed to give input and make choices within the classroom. Allowing student input on things like classroom rules and classroom environment (i.e. let them decorate the walls or bulletin boards) will give them a sense of power and freedom. A students need for fun can be met by using interesting, hands-on activities, to teach instead of traditional lecture-style teaching. Sharing student success will also promote a fun atmosphere within a classroom. Glasser sees a teachers role as being a leader who is responsible for providing a warm and supportive atmosphere.

B. Expectations/Policies/Rules/Boundaries
1. Expectations of students: I expect my students to act with the utmost respect towards one another and myself at all times. Disrespect of any kind will not be tolerated in my classroom. I expect my students to come to class ready and willing to learn. This means that they will come prepared with the required supplies and completed homework assignments. I

expect 100% participation from my students. This means that they are all listening when someone else is speaking and that during activities everyone participates and does the work. I expect my students to follow the rules on their own (without always being reminded) so learning can take place. I expect my students to work cooperatively as a class and in groups and provide help and support for one another. Lastly, I do not expect students to be perfect. I understand that things happen and people have bad days. I will be understanding as long as students always try to do their best. 2. Expectations of classroom climate: My classroom atmosphere will be positive and supportive where students will feel safe and welcome. Students will be responsible for keeping the classroom clean and will also help to decorate walls and bulletin boards. I plan on displaying student expectations, rules and consequences on the wall so students have an easy reminder for what is expected of them. This also makes for a useful reference when someone breaks a rule. I also plan to display student work to help promote a sense of accomplishment and to give students the recognition they deserve. I will use cues in my classroom (not a loud voice) to get students attention. I will stay positive and consistent when enforcing consequences with students. I will arrange desks to allow easy movement in between them so I can have easy access to each student whenever someone needs helps. I will use supportive language that is neither derogatory, nor condescending. 3. Rules and Policies: I will develop classroom rules and policies with the help of my students. I will teach them the difference between a punishment and a consequence and together we will come up with reasonable consequences for violations of each rule. Students will copy each rule into their notebook and will have both themselves and their parents sign it so everyone knows what is expected. When a student breaks a rule I will remind them of which rule they broke by pointing it out on the display. Then I will remind them that we agreed as a class not to break that rule and I will then issue the consequence. I will do this in a positive and consistent matter throughout the year. The most important rules that I will make sure are a part of the class rules are: 1. Respect one another- remain quiet and attentive while others are talking, be kind to one another, work cooperatively as a team and help each other out 2. Come to class ready and willing to learn- be sitting in your desk with all needed supplies ready to go when the bell rings, homework will be completed and ready to turn in at the beginning of class, come with an open mind and enthusiasm for learning and do your best 3. Keep the classroom clean- pick up all trash, treat classroom supplies (especially expensive equipment) well and keep them organized and in good shape

C. Instructional and Assessment Strategies that Promote my Management Goal

Once Ive provided for my students basic needs of belonging, power, freedom, and fun, learning needs to take place. I will structure my curriculum around the California State Content Standards for Biology and Life Science. I will communicate my very high expectations to my class. Students respond directly to a teachers level of

expectation. If they know that you dont expect much, they wont try as hard. I will design my lessons to be as engaging and fun as possible. I will try and make the curriculum as relevant to real life as possible so students understand why it is important to learn. Students are more willing to learn when they know that the knowledge will be useful later in life. I will also try to work creativity into activities and assignments. Students take more pride in their work when allowed a creative outlet. I plan to have my lessons very well organized in order to prevent students need to act out. Kounin states that maintaining smoothness and momentum throughout the lesson is essential in minimizing misbehavior. Any downtime in a lesson is a chance for students to socialize or misbehave. Downtime happens when the lesson is dragging, during transitions, and if students finish work early. Flexibility is an important tool in combating down time. If I sense my students getting restless with something weve been working on for awhile, Ill simply move on to something else and go back to it later. Or, Ill try a different way of teaching the same thing (ex. instead of lecturing have students present the material to the class in groups). By breaking up lessons into different activities you dont give students the time to get bored with what they are doing. I plan on giving my students adequate warning before a transition is going to happen (ex. In five minutes you need to begin cleaning up so we can go over you homework.). Then I will give them a time limit for the transition (ex. You have two minutes to clean up and get your homework out.). If the students dont make the time limit Ill have them practice until they do. When students finish work early Ill either have them start that evenings homework or assign them to help another student who hasnt finished. Other techniques of Kounins Ill use to prevent misbehaviors are withitness and overlapping. Withitness simply means Ill be aware of everything going on in my classroom so I can catch things early before any situation escalates. Over lapping is the ability to handle more than one situation at a time. I will also use some of Gordons techniques to prevent communication roadblocks. By keeping an open line of communication with my students they will feel comfortable and wont need to act out as much. Per haps the most important thing I can do to prevent students from acting out is to give them the attention they want and need. My assessment promotes my management goals in a number of ways. My assessment is going to focus just as much on the learning process as on the final product. This makes students more accountable for all the work they do and helps to promote intrinsic motivation because they are rewarded just as much for their effort as for their quality of work. This helps prevent students from giving up if they think something is too hard. My assessments will be authentic and will determine whether students have developed a meaningful understanding of the subject. This encourages students to look at how information fits into the big picture which in turn makes the learning more relevant which is motivating. I will always hand out rubrics before an assignment so students understand exactly what is expected of them and so they have a goal to work towards. Rubrics can be very motivating as well because students can self or peerevaluate their work and then improve upon it. Flexibility and awareness are the two most important factors in allowing for the various learning styles, cultures, and diversity in your classroom. I plan on using as many different techniques as possible when teaching to account for different learning styles. For example, some students are more visual learners where others are more

tactile. For a given subject I would give a power point lecture (visual and verbal) and then follow it with a hands-on lab or group activity that demonstrated the same thing (tactile). By mixing up each lesson with various techniques each learning style is going to benefit from instruction. Whenever possible I will adapt my curriculum to meet students special needs. When this is not possible I will try and give those students extra help and make sure they understand what is going on. One way I plan on doing this is through peer helpers. I will always try to be aware of any cultural differences that may affect learning styles in my class and will take those into account.

D. Motivation
Ive found that students are generally extrinsically motivated. They usually work for rewards (good grades, prizes, candy, awards, praise etc.) and avoid punishment. Using some type of a rewards system for good work and behavior is definitely motivating to students in the short-term. For example, I had a teacher who used to reward us with fake money (or punish us by taking it away). The money could later be used to buy grade points, gift certificates, candy and more. While extrinsic motivation works fine for the short-term, students need to develop intrinsic motivation to do well in the long-term. Intrinsic motivation is doing something just for sense of accomplishment, or because even though you might not enjoy it, you know youll benefit from it in the long run. Intrinsic motivation is what helps students work towards their goals. Feeling a sense of accomplishment and achieving or working towards ones goals is what motivates students in the long term. I plan on using rewards sparingly (when overused they become less effective) to help keep students motivated for the short-term. I will do this by praising and giving recognition for good work. I will also surprise my students from time to time with tactile rewards like candy for good work and behavior. I will use a variable ratio enforcement schedule so my students dont know when to expect their rewards. This means that I will randomly reward good work, not every time it happens but on occasion. This motivates them to work hard all of the time, not just when they know they will be rewarded. This way the rewards remain effective because youre only doing it some of the time. I will not punish my students but I will enforce consequences when they break a rule. I will do this consistently, which will motivate students to behave and follow the rules. To motivate students for the long-term I will have them keep a portfolio of their work where they can track their progress and accomplishments throughout the year. I will also display good work on classroom walls so students have a visual reminder of accomplishment. I will have students set academic goals and list the steps they need to take to accomplish them. I will do everything I can to help my students meet those goals. I would characterize this approach as a mixture of behaviorism and a humanistic approach. The short-term motivation technique of random rewards utilizes part of Skinners theory of behaviorism. The techniques to foster intrinsic motivation would be better characterized by Gordons or Kounins theories where rewards and punishment systems are avoided and students inner sense of control and power are promoted. They both strongly believed that only through intrinsic motivation would students continue on their quest for knowledge.

E. Vision
Im here today to observe Miss Allens class for teacher reviews. I sit in the back of the class and gaze in amazement at the walls and ceiling. There are bright posters on the walls showing everything from cell parts to nutrient cycles. Student work is displayed on bulletin boards around the room. There is a life-size model of a human torso with removable organs in the back and Jerry, a real skeleton, hangs out next to Miss Allens desk. There are shark, fish, and whale models hanging from the ceiling, which gives the effect of being underwater in the ocean. There is an aquarium with colorful fish as well. The atmosphere is fun and warm, you can tell the students and Miss Allen take extreme pride in the classroom decorations. The desks are actually lab benches arranged in wide rows with plenty of room for movement between them. Miss Allen greets each student as they begin to trickle into her classroom. She takes the time to ask the students questions about their lives like how the football team did at the game last night. She is very warm and encouraging in the way she speaks and the students feel very comfortable talking with her. You can tell they know she truly cares about them as a person and this makes them feel important, like they really belong in this class. As the minute hand clicks closer to the hour students begin to settle down into their desks and they get out their supplies that they will need for the day. By the time the bell rings each student is ready for class and has already begun working on the vocabulary words they need to know for the units lesson. Miss Allen puts a starter activity on the board each morning for the students to work on the first five minutes of class. Miss Allen uses this time to silently take roll. Next to the starter activity is the days schedule so students already know what is in store for them today. A student strolls in two minutes late. Miss Allen does not say anything she simply notes it in her roll book and the student sits down and begins working knowing that it is useless to give her an excuse. Students are allowed two freebie tardies for the semester and after that they lose participation points. Miss Allen notifies students of their tardies, participation points, and grades periodically throughout the semester or whenever a student asks. We have about one minute left before we move on to the next activity so start wrapping it up, Miss Allen warns her students of the upcoming transition. I see some students talking but on closer inspection I realize that those students that have already finished are actually helping those students who havent, kind of like they are all one big team. After one minute Miss Allen cues the students by turning the lights off for a second. When they come back on everyone is looking at her except two students who are finishing up. Miss Allen waits a few seconds and the two students get nudged by their classmates and they also turn their attention to Miss Allen. What did one mushroom say to the other mushroom? Miss Allen asks her class with a grin. After a pause, Hey, youre a pretty fun guy (i.e. fungi)!) The students groan in laughter at the cheesy joke. Today we are going to begin studying the Kingdom Fungi. Well go over the vocab words you just wrote down and Ill give a power point presentation showing different types of fungi and the different parts of a mushroom. Then well divide up into our lab groups and well be finishing our plant dissections from yesterday and well also dissect and label mushrooms. While reviewing the vocabulary words Miss Allen randomly calls on students for answers. She asks if there are any questions and students say no. Just to make sure she randomly calls

on a few students and asks them about what they just went over. Satisfied that everyone understands she begins the power point presentation. Students take notes and label diagrams on handouts that correlate to each power point slide. The lights are turned down low for the presentation. Two students take advantage of this by passing a note to each other while another student begins doodling. Without missing a beat Miss Allen walks over to the note passers (while still giving the presentation) and sticks out her hand. The students hand the note over blushing and get back to their work. Miss Allen then walks to the other side of the classroom and taps the doodler on the shoulder to get him back on task. During the presentation Miss Allen asks questions to ensure that her students are understanding everything. What do you think this part of the mushroom is called? She pauses a good three to five seconds even though five hands immediately shot into the air. Bobby? Thats right, this part of the mushroom is the cap. She rewards Bobby with a smile. After the presentation is complete, the students quickly get together with their lab groups without any direction from Miss Allen. When I asked her about this amazing feat she told me that they had to practice this transition numerous times at the beginning of the year but now the students are very efficient. The students work very well in their groups, everyone is participating and helping each other out and they need little if any guidance from Miss Allen who circulates between groups to monitor student progress. As the hour is almost to a close, Miss Allen tells students they need to begin clean up which should take five minutes. Students clean up and sit back down at their desks. Miss Allen gives them their homework assignments and goes over it thoroughly, asking questions to make sure students know exactly what is expected of them. There are a few minutes left in class so they do the first problem together as a class. The bell rings and Miss Allen excuses the students who leave to go to their next class. She pulls aside the two note passers and speaks to them privately in her office. In a calm quiet tone Miss Allen states, I dont appreciate it when students pass notes when I am giving a presentation. It shows a lack of respect towards me, which is our number one class rule. This is the second time I have had to speak with you about this so I will have to deduct points from your participation grades. I dont like doing this because you are such good students most of the time but that is the consequence we decided on as a class. Is there a reason why you were passing notes? The students reply no and they apologize. I accept your apology and please remember that if this happens again Im going to have to call your parents (consequence for third violation), which I really dont want to do. The students promise it wont happen again and Miss Allen excuses them to go to their next class. She moves back into her classroom to great her next class. Classroom Management Resource Page Shindler School Climate PLSI Teaching - Workshops by JVS

From Chapter 7: Transformative Classroom Management. By John Shindler. Allyn Bacon Publishers (2008)
Reproduction is unlawful without permission

Extrinsic Motivation Techniques

The following section examines what could be considered the leading principally extrinsic motivational strategies used in classrooms historically. These include grades, rewards, praise, punishments, public recognition and phone calls home. This section also includes recommendations for applying these strategies in a manner that produces more beneficial and effective results.

Grades
Grades are the most prevalent example of a formal extrinsic motivator used in schools. Their primary purposes are to 1) provide a concrete representation of either the completion of a task and/or the quality of a performance, and 2) act as an incentive for later benefits and opportunities. As representations of the level of quality performance, grades have only a symbolic meaning. They only represent something of value (e.g., quality work, scores on a test, assignments completed, etc.), and have no inherent value. Therefore, in practice, grades become more effective when they are clearly related to a meaningful outcome. This is why grading systems that incorporate more authentic measures such as performance assessment rubrics will be more motivational than more artificial uses such as a total of the number of correct responses on a worksheet. Moreover, the way that a grade is derived can help it become more meaningful and tap into an intrinsic source, rather than being entirely an extrinsic reinforcement. Grades also act as an incentive. As students progress in their academic careers, grades have the effect of creating future opportunities. These opportunities vary greatly depending on several variables (e.g., importance to parents and/or schools, scholarship or financial aid opportunities, etc.). Moreover, as we know, only some students are much more influenced or even aware of these incentives. As a result, grades are a more motivational influence on some students than others. A survey of a typical high school will support the wide discrepancy in how students view the importance of grades. And those teachers who rely primarily on students being motivated by grades are commonly frustrated with the number of students who are unaffected by the threat of a poor grade if their performance does not improve. In most cases, students who see a relationship between their grades and their ability to reach their personal goals will be most influenced by this source of motivation and therefore more concerned with the kinds of grades that they receive. However, students commonly see grades as something given to them by the teacher (the external agent). Too often they view grades as a representation of their aptitude, ability, or even self-worth rather than the quality of their investment. While this is rarely the intention of the teacher for giving the grade, it is common for students to perceive the grade as such. So, for example, when a student gets a C on a paper they may perceive that grade as a reflection of themselves or their ability in that subject. Given this reaction they find themselves in the position that they must respond to the level of the grade by either accepting or rejecting it as an accurate reflection of their ability. While each of these two responses--accepting the grade as consistent or rejecting it as inconsistent may appear somewhat different, they are similar in that neither will result in motivation to do better in the future. If the student views the C grade as consistent with their academic self-concept, they will find no need to do any better or adopt any different strategies in

the future. If the student perceives the grade as inconsistent with their academic selfconcept, they will likely feel shame, confusion, and inadequacy along with resentment toward the teacher. Even if there is a great deal of intensity to the emotion connected to this second response, if the cause is viewed externally and the student does not feel that their grade reflects concrete and constructive feedback, the result will be little motivation to change future behavior. The result is the all-too-familiar phenomenon the student gets used to getting Cs. As we will discuss throughout the remainder of this chapter and in the next, there are very effective strategies for helping the student desire excellence. Giving more Cs is not one of them. Chapter Reflection 7-c: Recall your response to various grades that you were given as a
student. Did they motivate you to do better? Did you view them as including a personal component (i.e., the teacher either liked or did not like you)? Did they confirm or conflict with your expectation and academic self concept?

In Chapter 13, we will discuss how the assessment of meaningful learning targets that are clear and standing will produce better student performance as well as higher quality behavior. When students recognize their grade as resulting from a valid representation of their performance as assessed in relation to meaningful criteria, they are more likely to experience the assessment process as meaningful and a process that leads them on a clear pathway to achievement. Rewards Such as Tokens, Sticker, Stars and Prizes Another common extrinsic motivational strategy, used primarily at the elementary level, is to give tokens and other prizes to student when they perform a desired behavior. These extrinsic rewards act as concrete representations that something of value has been accomplished. Therefore they are intended to act as the reinforcement in the process of operant conditioning. This technique originated in the field of psychology called behaviorism, and is most associated with one of its pioneers, B.F. Skinner. In operant conditioning, the operant--or desired behavior that is being conditioned--is reinforced by an extrinsic reinforcement/reward. In this case the operant is the act of desirable behavior on the part of the student, and the extrinsic reward is the token or prize.

Incentives
Incentives can take many forms such as prizes at the end of the week for successfully performing a task or refraining from an undesirable task, or group privileges for being first or best, or rewarding students who do well on one task the chance to opt out of a further task. They concretize the non-verbal bargain: If you (the student) do something that the teacher has determined is good, you will get something that you should like. In this way, incentives can be helpful in clarifying what is desirable behavior. At their best they can help promote good habits and shape more functional patterns of action. For example, if a mother provides a child an incentive to make the bed every day, the child may become comfortable with that behavior and continue it throughout their lifetime, even after the incentive is not longer present. In the case of healthy behaviors that

become intrinsically satisfying once they become habits, this can lead to positive longterm benefits. However, with any extrinsic reward, we must question whether the incentive has contributed to the development of good behavioral patterns, or has just bribed students to do something that they would not have done without the bribe, and will not do once the bribe has been removed. And if over time the students do not experience any internal satisfaction from the behavior being induced, the incentive will eventually lose its power.

Chapter Reflection 7-d: Recall situations in which you were given rewards for doing a task
others wanted you to do, or to do better. Were you motivated? What is your association with that task today?

One popular incentive strategy is that of Preferred Activity Time (PAT) (Jones, 2000). PAT sets up the bargain that if you (in this case, the student) apply yourself acceptably to an academic task now, you will be given the opportunity to do something that you really like to do later. On the surface, this strategy works. That is, it motivates the student to do what it takes to attain their preferred activity. However, as we examine this strategy closer, we discover that when put into practice, it has two undesirable byproducts. First, while it may work in the short run, like other bribes it will lose its effect over time. Students will eventually return to their previous level of motivation for the academic activity. Moreover, they will become accustomed to the bribe and likely demand it. Second, it will reinforce the principle that the work that is being done in the academic time is something that is undesirable. If we bribe students with a preferred activity, we actually generate the previously-unconsidered question, preferred to what? What is the association that we are creating? Is it that academics are inherently unenjoyable? While this strategy is attractive, consider its costs and long-term effects. And if you feel you need to bribe your students to engage in learning, you may want to consider the alternative of making the learning activities in your class engaging and inherently motivating (Chapter 13 will offer ideas on how to do this).

Chapter Reflection 7e: Reflect on the following parable:

There was once an old man who lived by a park and worked the night shift at the factory. During the day he liked it to be quiet so that he could get some sleep. He lived alone and did not like children very much. So when the children began to play ball at the park and make lots of noise, it made him very angry. He tried to ignore the noise, but it did not work. As he reflected on his dilemma, he was struck by a cunning plan. The next day, he went to the field and addressed the children. He told them that he loved the sound of their play, and that he once had children and it reminded him of them (neither was true, by the way). Then he told them that if they came to play faithfully, he would pay them each a quarter. The children were pleased, to say the least, and thought the old man was the greatest. The next day the old man arrived and paid each child a quarter. He did the same thing the next day. The children were very happy. The next day he arrived right on time, but gave the children some bad news. He told them how much he loved to hear their voices as they played and how it made him so happy (which was a lie), but he did not have much money and could only pay them a quarter each. The children were a little disappointed, but agreed to come back and play for the smaller amount. As promised, he paid them a dime for the next 3 days, but on the next day he again had some bad news. He told the children that he really hoped that they would come out and play, but that he was out of money and could no longer pay them. At this the children were very upset. After a quick conference, the children decided that

they could not play if they were not going to be paid, and they left, never to return. The old man went home and was able to sleep in peace and quiet that afternoon. Do you think the story represents a valid reality? Can you think of an example of this same principle in your own experience?

Adopting a More Intentional and Effective Approach to the Use of Extrinsic Behavioral Reinforcement It is a well-established reality that human behavior can be conditioned by environmental stimuli. While we can debate the extent to which ones behavior is externally conditioned or has its source in more internal drives, as educators we need to recognize the power of environmental conditioning. If we examine an effectively managed classroom, we will see a teacher who understands behavioral principles. That does not mean the teacher will overuse extrinsic conditioning or even rely on it as a motivational strategy, but will understand that the forces of behavioral conditioning are operating continuously.

The starting point to making sense of behavioral conditioning is to understand that in a conditioning situation there will be something that acts as a focal event/action/operant and then there is something that happens afterward to reinforce it. For example if we wished the family dog to consistently fetch a stick that we throw, we might give the dog a treat each time he/she brought back the stick, and only if he/she brought back the stick. In this case the dog learns that when they do the desired behavior (bringing the stick back), they will be reinforced (obtaining the doggy treat). Yet, it is important to remember that in ones efforts toward behavioral conditioning, especially when it relates to humans, little or none of the actual conditioning/learning that actually occurs will necessarily resemble the conditioning/learning that was intended. For example if we examine most punishments, the intention is to create a disincentive related to the unwanted action. But what is actually learned is much more complex and typically takes the form of a disincentive to interact with the source of the punishment or the creation of a new set of skills to get around the punishment in the future (we will examine punishments in more detail in Chapter 10). When we examine the use of extrinsic rewards in practice, it is understandable why they are so popular, as well as why some would view their byproducts as undesirable. In most cases, they work in the short-term to motivate behavior. But there are several questions that should be asked if one is to use extrinsic reinforcements for an extended period. They include the following: 1. Is the motivation to perform the behavior increasing, or just the motivation to
obtain the reward?

2. Will the schedule of reinforcements be sustainable? Or will a greater amount of

reinforcement be needed in the future (see discussion on weed pulling later in the chapter). 3. What is ultimately being learned?

4. Like the children in the story above, are we replacing an internal source of
motivation with an external one, and as a result extinguishing our students intrinsic motivation? If you are attempting to develop a student-centered 1-Style classroom, the frequent and/or sustained use of extrinsic rewards will be inherently counterproductive. They will work against the development of such outcomes as self-responsibility and the inclination to reflect on what will lead to ones personal growth and/or the common good of the group dispositions that are essential to the 1-Style classroom. On the other hand, they can be part of a very effective teacher-centered classroom and assist the teacher attempting a 2-Style approach in his/her effort to promote more efficient student behavior. For those who feel compelled to include extrinsic forms of reinforcement among their motivational strategies, it may be helpful to consider the following guiding principles for how to use them effectively. Relate the reinforcement to a clearly identified desired behavior. The primary focus should be on the accomplishing the desired behavior rather attaining the reward. The more closely in time the attainment of the reward is to the desired behavior the stronger the effect of the reinforcement will be. Intermittent and/or random schedules of reinforcement will be more powerful than regular and predictable schedules of reinforcement. Reinforcements that are given after the display of an expected behavior will be more effective than arrangements and deals made before the desired behavior is performed. Avoid putting students in situations in which they are competing for rewards, especially meaningful rewards. Only use competition in cases where all students are in an equal position to display the behavior if they so choose. Rewarding effort, good choices, cooperation and other things that students can control can be effective at attaining more of those behaviors. But competition that includes rewarding winners for ability, personality, parental support, and/or academic performance will undermine the level of motivation in the class and can even backfire with many students when it comes to the desired behavior change. Following these guidelines will not lead to higher levels of intrinsic motivation, but they will likely be effective in changing behavior in the short-term. Moreover, they will help reduce the dependency of students on rewards and make it easier to remove them over time. When we do gradually remove the reinforcements, we should be left with a substantial amount of new learned behavior and only a minimal amount of withdrawal from the students who have developed a dependency on the reinforcement. Below are three examples of typical but problematic uses of extrinsic rewards followed by a more effective strategy in the same situation: Typical but Problematic: If you all do your work, I will give the class a prize on Friday. Problems include: the reward is too far removed in time; the probability that a reward is going to be needed for every desirable behavior; and when Friday comes, you will likely be in a difficult spot. It

is a certainty that some students will have met their end of the bargain and others will have not. Do you see the potential problem? Better Idea: You have just spent the entire period focused on a task, that is the first time you have all been able to do that, I am going to give you all ___ (extrinsic reward or removal of a negative reinforcer). This is better because it was random, immediate, and will cause behavior change. The students know what they did, so they will likely repeat it. They will not expect it, but will exhibit behavior that they understand may be reinforced. A lesson was learned, when we ___ (e.g., do our jobs), the teacher will reward us (recall social frame development in Chapter 2). Typical but Problematic: The group that does the best job of ___ at the end of the day will get a prize. Problems include: this is competitive and there will be some resentful people eventually; the work is done in anticipation of the prize the prize is primary and the purpose of the behavior is secondary; and the reinforcement is not well connected any particular repeatable behavior (good reinforcement promotes the repetition of desired behavior). Better Idea: I asked you to put away ____ and take out ______, this table did it right away without being asked again, so they will get (thing, time, being first, first choice, etc). This is better because: it will change behavior, as the other tables will be much quicker in the future anticipating that something similar might happen again; it reinforces your expectations real learning took place in a very concrete example; it was immediate and clearly related both in time and causality; and the focus is on the expected behavior first and the reward second. Typical but Problematic: A token economy or arrangements where students get points for certain behaviors and the points are added up for some reward at the end of a certain period. Problems include: behavior done primarily for extrinsic rewards. This is essentially paying students to do what they should be doing and what we want them to love to do for its own sake. We are destroying both of those goals. The schedule of reinforcement is continuous. Continuous reinforcement leads to a gradual decrease of motivation. It ends up creating a lose-lose decision, Do I increase the reward to maintain the motivation level, or do I slowly watch my students begin to demand an extrinsic reward for everything and increasingly avoid behaviors that are not rewarded (including just about everything that we want them to care about in our class)? Better Idea: If you are committed to the use of a point system: 1. Use it for a short duration at the start of the year (three weeks or less). 2. Use it to clarify your expectations. Relate your reward system to the critical expectations that are necessary for the class to function, such as listening, cooperation, efficient procedures. This process may be useful when attempting to shift from a 2-Style to a 1-Syle classroom. 3. Use only random and/or intermittent reinforcement schedules. Random is the best. That is, students realize what the desired behavior is supposed to be (working cooperatively, listening, being on task, raising hands, etc.) but they do

4. 5. 6.

7.

not know when the reinforcement will occur (If you compare the level of the desired behavior in a random reinforcement condition vs. a fixed condition, you will be amazed at the difference). Give points and take points away without warning. Warnings always weaken reinforcements. Do not give a large amount of attention to the points. Attach your emotion to the accomplishment of the behavior rather than the attainment of the points. The ultimate reward cannot be meaningful or substantive. It cannot relate to grades, your affection, or something of real material worth. In fact, simply achieving the most points can be enough of a reward in and of itself, and may be a preferable reward in our effort to emphasize that the process was the point, not who won or lost. Make it a game for fun and mutual entertainment, and focus on how it is leading to behavior change. Again the extrinsic is always presented as a material reminder of something of real and intrinsic value such as learning or becoming a better class.

Chapter Reflection 7-f: Recall a situation in which you were rewarded with points or prizes for
certain behavior. Do you remember if you won, or were rewarded with prizes? Do you remember what you were asked to do to achieve those rewards? Which memory is more powerful? What does your memory tell you about the source of your motivation to perform?

Giving students extrinsic rewards for engaging in learning tasks makes the implicit statement that the activity was not worth doing on its own merits. - Alfie Kohn (1999)

Classroom Management Resource Page Shindler School Climate Teaching - Workshops by JVS

PLSI

Chapter 10: Developing Logical and Related Consequences within the Social Contract (and Why to Avoid the Use of Punishments)
From Transformative Classroom Management. By John Shindler. 2008 Reproduction is unlawful without permission
In this Chapter What is a Consequence? What is a Punishment? What is wrong with the Use of Punishments? Creating Effective Consequences within the Social Contract Examples of Effective Logical Consequences An essential part of a well-functioning system of social interactions and bondsthe classroom social contract (Chapter 9)is the development of a clear relationship in the

students minds between their actions and the consequences of those actions. Therefore it is necessary to develop within the context of our classroom social contract a set of logical and related consequences for student behavior that violates the contract. These consequences act to create boundaries and clarity of expectations. Along with providing meaningful cause and effect connections, agreed upon consequences for violating ones agreement act as a practical, concrete manifestation of accountability and what it means to be a responsible member of the class. Without consequences a social contract is merely an abstract ideal, participated in voluntarily, and practically ineffectual. Often we use the terms consequences and punishments interchangeably. However, consequences and punishments are very different things. It may appear that they are different variations of the same idea doing something to or toward students to give them a disincentive to misbehave--but as we examine each more closely, we will see that they are very different and have dramatically varying effects. To illustrate the differences between consequences and punishments, it may be useful to examine two cases related to what might happen if a student misses a school bus. As you compare the two cases, which example would you characterize as a consequence and which as a punishment?

Case #1
The student understands that the bus to school arrives at his stop at 8:00. He gets to the stop at 8:05. The bus has come and gone as scheduled. The student realizes the bus is no longer an option and that he must find an alternative form of transportation to school.

Case #2
Again the student understands that the bus was to stop at 8:00. The student arrives at the bus stop at 8:05. In this example, the bus has been waiting. The bus driver is very angry and lectures the student about the importance of getting to the stop on time. As the student moves to their seat on the bus the other students berate them and shame them for making them wait. Chapter Reflection 10-a: In a group discussion, or on your own, identify all the ways in
which these two situations vary from one another. As you examine them more deeply, you will recognize many ways in which they do. The questions below may be helpful in your analysis.

Reflect on the two cases: Which one is more likely to change behavior in the long-term? Which one teaches the more useful lesson for life? Which one builds the students sense of responsibility and internal LOC? Who is in control in each case? Is that important?

As you likely identified, the first case would best be characterized as a consequence and the second case as a punishment. In the first case, a lesson was learned; in the second, the result was merely discomfort. While both cases may have had an effect on the student in the short-term, and the second case even may have motivated the student to get to the stop on time the next day, as we examine the two cases more closely, we see that only the first case was logically related to the problem. The student was late (cause), and therefore the bus was no longer available (effect), while it would have been if the student had gotten to the stop on time. The lesson to be learned is clear -- get to the stop on time and the bus will be there. The ownership of the problem rests with the student.

Chapter Refection 10-b: Recall a situation in which you missed a bus, flight, deadline, or
arrived at a store after it closed. Did you learn a lesson? Did it change your behavior in the future?

In the second case, we find a lot of difficulty recognizing the logical relationship between being yelled at and taking too long to get to the bus stop. It may seem like a common response to such student behavior, but it is not logical. In this second case, the lesson learned has little to do with a need to change behavior, and has more to do with avoiding the discomfort that may (or may not) come from the bus driver. And like many punishments, there was no real consequence for being late. The bus was still there. The student learned that they could be late to the stop, and the bus would still be waiting for them. There was a lot of sound and fury, but it signified very little. In this situation, the causality was external. It was dependent on the mood and the whims of the bus driver, and so there can be little or no effect on the development of the students internal locus of control and thus growth toward more responsible future choices. Chapter Reflection 10-c: At this point in the chapter, most students begin to realize that
what they received from their parents were mostly punishments. Reflect on whether this is true for you.

What is a consequence? In life generally, consequences are things that happens as a result of our actions. We may choose to describe them with such labels as reaping what we have sown, karmic reactions, sleeping in the bed we have made, emotional bank accounts, etc. But in the natural world all causes have effects. Nothing happens in a vacuum. All thoughts and actions have consequences. And if we are perceptive, we begin to learn which actions and thoughts (causes) bring us the kinds of circumstances (effects) that we desire, and those that bring us unwanted outcomes. In the classroom, students experience countless consequences each day. Most are natural and occur without any teacher intervention. For example, when a student is in a hurry or careless they make a spelling mistake, or miscalculate a math problem. Or a student may be friendly to other students and as a result be perceived as likable. An infinite number of events act as consequences for each of us daily. Most consequences related to most teachers are typically positive. For example, when the student works at a task, the teacher may offer a verbal recognition of effort, or may provide academic or emotional support. And in most classrooms, when the student raises a hand the teacher recognizes them for a response. In each of these cases, there is a fairly apparent cause-and-effect relationship between the thoughts and actions of the student and the consequences they experience. Moreover, when a student feels successful, they associate that feeling of success to a great extent with the person who helped them get there, and that is usually you, the teacher. As we will discuss in more detail in the next Chapter, the most powerful means to developing a responsible mindset in students is to help make them aware of this causeand-effect relationship between their thoughts and actions and the consequent effects that occur as a result. A requirement for helping students recognize this cause and effect is to create it within the logic of the classroom social contract. The keys to this logic are: 1) the use of cause-and-effect in your explanations for why things happen, both academically and managerially; and 2) well-established, natural, related, and logical consequences for both positive and negative behaviors. In other words, students learn that when they make certain choices, a logical and related consequence will follow. Ideally, the best consequences (and inherently most logical and related) are those that are naturally occurring. However, when these are not sufficient given the situational demands, the teacher must create a manufactured consequence that is as related as possible to the situational behavior. For example, in the instance of the student who arrived late for the bus, the consequence was natural. No one needed to implement it. And in that case, the only person affected was the student. In the absence of clear and direct natural consequences the teacher (with the help of the students if they wish) must manufacture one. For example, the naturally occurring consequence of a student getting up and sharpening a pencil several times a day is that others are annoyed and learning is disrupted. Clearly in this case, the natural consequence is insufficient to meet the needs of the class as a whole. Therefore the consequence must be artificial but related. One of the many logical consequences in this case would be that a student might lose the privilege of using the sharpener for a while. The cause of course is the students choosing to misuse a privilege; the effect is that the privilege is withheld for a time. The student may be given the opportunity to try again later, and hopefully they will take a more responsible approach to the use of the privilege in the future.

What is a punishment? A punishment is an external intervention that is intended to give discomfort for the purpose of payback or out of the belief that it will change behavior. There are no natural and/or logical punishments. The locus of control of a punishment is the punisher. In nature there are only consequences, NO punishments. For instance, if we take a wrong turn on a hiking trail, we may get lost, we may run into trouble, experience hunger or feel frightened, but none of the pain we experience could be defined as a punishment. It is always rooted in the laws of nature -- in cause and effect. We made a bad choice -- we did not prepare properly or we underestimated the task -- so consequently, we paid a price. Punishments come in many forms. Some are very overt and obvious, such as writing standards or lines, picking up trash, names on the board, detentions, being sent to the office, angry outbursts, having to sit alone, calls home, losing class points, etc. Some punishments are much more subtle. These include lectures, guilt throwing, public shaming, overt disappointment, being more critical of student work after they have misbehaved, lowering of expectations, etc. In a punishment condition, the pain and discomfort inflicted on the punished is always calculated by an external agent, the punisher. With consequences, the cost or benefit is determined by natural laws, whereas with the punishment the price is determined artificially. Consequences teach lessons, punishments teach avoidance of the punisher. Most consequences are understood before decisions are made and actions take place. Punishments are typically reactive. Table 10.1 Consequences vs. Punishments; A Comparison Consequences Intend to teach lessons Foster internal locus of control Are proactive Are logical and related Work in the long-term Promote responsibility Punishments Intend to give discomfort Foster external locus of control Are reactive Are unrelated and personal Work in the short-term Can promote obedience (but more likely resentment)

What is so Wrong with Punishments? On the surface punishments can appear to work. They produce what appears to be a desirable outcome. But as we examine their effects more closely, we will see that punishments either do not really improve behavior in the long-term, and/or are not the portion of the intervention that had the desirable effect.

Punishment may stop unwanted behavior in the short term. There is therefore an illusion that it works, but the lesson learned is not related to the problem behavior and so will not

lead to learning or behavior change. For example, if a teacher angrily tells the class to BE QUIET! the effect will likely be that the class stops talking momentarily. But if we return to this same class a week later, the teacher will still be required to yell when they want quiet. The lesson that is being learned by the students from this punishment intervention is to tolerate the teachers yelling and anger for a while and then wait for the opportunity to go back to the behavior that meets their previous needs. There is nothing learned that relates to an appropriate use of voice, or a respectful orientation to others need for a peaceful learning environment. So without the fundamental learning (which consequences provide), the teachers external and emotional intervention appears to be the only thing that works. But it only stops the problem for an instant, and worst of all, as the students become comfortable with the negative impact of the punishment they become increasingly immune, so more frequent and more severe forms of punishment are required to obtain the same result. What is the saying about digging yourself a hole? The first step is to stop digging.

Some readers may be saying, But my class is improving, and I do rely heavily on punishments. Lets examine typical practices in such a situation and analyze what is making things better. It is a safe bet that mixed in with the punishments are a lot of high expectations and the implicit message that you believe in the students and will not accept poor behavior. In the end, these positive messages of caring and validation are having the positive effect. Moreover, the use of punishments is only holding the class back from its potential. Try keeping the high expectations and exchange the use of punishments for consequences. You may be surprised at how the students respond with a level of behavioral maturity that you did not think that they had. Moreover, you will find yourself experiencing an emotional ease and lightness that gives you more positive energy throughout the day. As we examine the effect of consequences more closely, we see that they build responsibility in students. Children who are fed a steady diet of punishment (especially guilt, shame, lectures) do not build responsibility because (as was discussed in Chapter 8) the locus of control in punishment is external and responsibility comes from an internal locus of control. So what do punishments promote? For the most part, it is either

obedience or rebellion. You think, Well, if it is obedience, then I am fine with that. Obedience may sound desirable on the surface, and in the role of the teacher, it may seem to make life easier, but it can be a slippery slope down a path that leads to emotionally immature and dependent students. It might be useful to put yourself in the position of the student (a useful cure for most teacher power trips by the way), and consider whether you would want to be put in a position where you were expected to do only what you were told. You can see the benefit of this arrangement for the selfcentered teacher, but it is difficult to see the benefits to the student. The primary skill one learns from a teacher who loves to punish and demands obedience is how to play the game of pretending to be repentant. This is not the kind of skill that translates into high quality relationships over a lifetime. So if our job is to teach and promote our students growth, why would we incorporate a practice that fundamentally stunts personal growth? Chapter Reflection 10-d: In groups or individually, respond to the teacher that suggests that,
consequences are fine for the small things, but for the big things, we need to use punishments. Do you find this to be sound logic? It may help to recall you answer to the earlier question related to the events that changed your life the most, were they consequences or punishments?

Why We Love to Give Punishments (and the Pain-Based Logic)

If we examine why one would have a compelling attraction to the use of punishments (detailed in Chapter 19 in our discussion of the 4-Style appraoch), it has more to do with ones mental conditioning than any evidence of efficacy. Very often teachers (and students in teacher education classes) after examining the consequence vs. punishment dichotomy become upset and feel the need to defend the use of punishments. They often use the phrase I have tried to use consequences, but my students only understand punishments, and they are working for me. On the surface this sounds reasonable. But as we examine the logic a bit closer we can see why these classes are not developing more responsible and desirable behavior, and why the teacher spends a lot of time emotionally miserable. At the heart of their thinking is a pain-based logic. This form of reasoning implies something to the effect that, Because I was personally offended by the students actions, to teach them a lesson, to motivate change, and to pay them back, I need to give them some pain. Its only fair.

Its possible to assume that somewhere in the past of the teacher who clings to a painbased logic and cannot give up defending the use of punishments is an attachment to a past authority figure who used this logic and a high quantity of punishments. As a result, the teacher continually misinterprets the evidence. Like an addiction, while the effects of the use of punishments are to the objective eye (and to their own inner conscience) not very desirable little improvement of behavior, an ever-increasing hostile climate in the class, and a feeling on the part of the teacher that they are more law enforcement than learning facilitator the teacher continues to hold to the belief that the punishments are necessary. The inner dialogue is, If I do not give pain for unwanted behavior, I will be viewed as weak and powerless. There is a fictional and faulty working assumption by the teacher that suggests that people cannot be trusted and that they only respond to pain and domination. Within this mental fiction is misinterpretation of ones own past. If

one regularly receives the message that one cannot be trusted, one comes to internalize the belief that one only responds to punishment. This interpretation is likely giving ones self a great deal less credit for being responsible and trustworthy than one actually warranted, and giving the influence of the punishments far too much credit for promoting positive behavior. Moreover, and most importantly, it is in the current moment keeping this teacher (or parent or coach, or leader) from trusting their students and giving up the illusion that the use of punishments is doing anything positive.
Sometimes it is not what we do, but how we do it that distinguishes a punishment from a consequence.

In practice, what distinguishes a punishment from a consequence can be in how it is perceived by the students. If the student perceives an event as external (you were mad), reactive (you were fed up), or intended to give pain (they needed to be taught a lesson for what they did), it is punishment, and has all the negative impact of a punishment-even if the intent is a clear and logical consequence. This might seem confusing. Keep in mind, however, that management success is not about being able to defend ones self. It is about the results that one achieves. Ask yourself after each consequence implementation intervention (discussed in detail in the next chapter), What did the student learn from that event? and Who and what was it about? If it was experienced as being about their choice and supported the processing for how a better choice could have been made, it was most likely a successful consequence. If was perceived as being about you the teacher, and the student left the situation feeling like they got in trouble and were therefore given some discomfort, it could best be characterized as a punishment. To illustrate the difference between a consequence situation that could be similar to a punishment situation, it may be helpful to compare two interventions with the same basic elements. For this example, those basic elements are: A review is being provided as a service to help the student be prepared for an upcoming exam. Students need to listen during the review, or ask questions. The review will last as long as it needs to. The expectation is that students are quiet during an exam.
Give these basic elements above, consider the following two cases:

Case #1
Teacher reviews with students. After about 40 minutes, the teacher senses that the students are restless. She asks them, I am seeing less attention than I did earlier, does that mean you have had enough review and we are ready to take the test? Some students say yes, and others say no. So she makes the deal, If you are able to be attentive and use this opportunity well, we will continue to review; if it looks like you are getting bored and restless, that will tell me that it is time to give the test out. After a few minutes the students look restless. The teacher says, Okay, lets take everything off our desks and get out a pen or pencil (gives additional instructive and supportive comments related to the material). We have done well on this in class, so lets show it here. And

Remember, we need to be respectful of one another, so please be quiet until everyone is done.

Case #2
Teacher reviews with the students. After about 40 minutes, the teacher hears talking. She tells them, There is too much talking right now. After a couple of minutes talking continues, so she tells them, If you keep talking I am going to give you the test. After a few minutes the teacher again becomes frustrated with the amount of talking and says, Thats it, you are getting the test now! As she passes out the test she angrily tells the students that if they talk during the exam, they will get a big fat 0! As you examine the two cases, they are essentially the same in terms of the teachers actions. In both cases, the teachers made the determination that as a result of the students behavior they seemed not to be taking advantage of the review and therefore were ready to take the test. But would you characterize them both as consequences? Or was the second a punishment?

Chapter Reflection 10-e: In your group or on your own, reflect on the differences in the two
situations. While similar, there were significant differences. What would you label each intervention?

Case One seems to meet the qualification for a consequence. It was proactive, logical and related, and the students were in control of the outcome. As a result, the students felt responsible for what happened. Conversely, Case Two falls into the classification of a punishment condition. It was reactive, the teacher was angry and therefore the students perceived the case of the action as being related to the level of the teachers frustration. As a result, the locus was shifted externally. Moreover, in the end the test was used as a punishment. What does that do to the students association with the purpose of tests and other assessments? If the teacher in Case Two had not resorted to a pain-based logic, a much better result would have been manufactured. In Case One, tomorrow is going to be better as a result of the teachers intervention today. The relationship in Case One stays intact and the students take a step forward in learning to be responsible class members. In Case Two, the relationship is damaged. The teacher has withdrawn a great deal from the emotional bank account that had been accrued. In Case One the lesson learned was that if we (the class) want to have the privilege of having a review, we need to use the opportunity maturely. In Case Two the primary lesson learned was most likely to do a better job of interpreting what does and does not make the teacher mad. In Case One the expectation was strengthened. In Case Two, because the cause and effect was not well established, the expectation will remain vague. And finally, how about the energy level of the teachers? Which teacher used more energy? Chapter Reflection 10-f: The cases above seem to imply that interactions that are driven by
a pain-based logic (anger, punishments, guilt, revenge, shaming, embarrassment, etc.) are more exhausting for the teacher. Is this true in your experience? Reflect on the last interaction that you would characterize as being driven by a pain-based logic. What was the emotional cost to the paingiver?

Chapter Reflection 10-g: Reflect on the following situation:

A teacher decides to let students work together on an assignment. In this case, after a couple of warnings the teacher reached a point of intolerance and implements a punishment, angrily stating, Thats it! I am fed up! You are making too much noise. Everyone is going to have to do (a worksheet) on your own. What in the teachers reaction would you call a punishment? How could they have accomplished a more effective result with a consequence?

Rewards, the Other Side of the Punishment/Reward Coin In his book Punished by Rewards, Alfie Kohn (1999) makes the argument that rewards (e.g., prizes, preferred activity time, stickers, personal praise, awards, and to an extent even grades) are really just the other side of a punishment/reward coin. As we examine the nature of rewards in relation to our concept of consequences, this characterization is well supported. As with punishments, rewards are external, artificial, and do a poor job of teaching lessons related to the learning event. What we learn from rewards is to do what it takes to continue to get the reward. The focus is shifted from the value of the process or even the accomplishment, to an external and artificial object. The source of the reward is not ones own efforts, but someone else the rewarder. So whereas consequences promote an internal locus of control and a success psychology, rewards inevitably promote an external locus of control and a failure psychology. Likewise, beware of the less visible but often more insidious version of this reward and punishment paradigm in practice the use of love and withdrawal of love in the form of praise and disappointment. Many teachers will say that they dont like rewards and punishments, but their interactions with students are defined by are you doing what I want? then I like you, and if you are not, I dont. Recall our discussion of praise in Chapter 6 - it is an external, coercive and manipulative reward given under the guise of positive reinforcement. And its sibling, disappointment, is an external, coercive and manipulative punishment disguised as corrective feedback. Neither is effective in helping students grow or learn, but each is very effective at keeping them in fear of failure, dependent upon praise to perform, and externalizing their cause and effect. Table 10-2. Comparison of Positive Consequences versus Rewards Positive Consequences Rewards Increased Opportunities Personal Praise Examples
Achievement Recognition of Effort Opportunities to contribute Learning Internal to Student Responsibility and a clear cause and effect between ones effort and the outcome. Satisfaction of Needs

Tokens and grades Preferred Activity Time Party at the end of the week Stickers and Stars External from Teacher To do what it takes to get the reward, and to shift attention away from the value of the task to the value of the reward. To get the reward

Locus of Control Teaches Motivation

You Just Dont Know My School It is true that many of our students respond to punishment and a pain-based logic because it is familiar to them. We can hear it in their voices, as we try to explain that their actions reflect that they have made a choice to violate the social contract --Teacher, why are you getting me in trouble? We state the situation as a consequence; they hear it as a punishment. It is likely that these students have never been supported in a cause-and-effect pattern of thinking about their choices and actions. They are often acculturated into a crime and punishment orientation toward those in authority. In many cases, this student is exhibiting a deeply conditioned negative identity pattern. Students with a negative identity are actually habituated to and desire punishment and pain. While this may seem odd, it is critical to recognize if we are to help this student grow in a more functional and healthy direction. Chapter 16 describes in detail how to help a student change a negative identity pattern.

Sometimes we will be given a class that is mostly full of such students. Often in these cases, the group of students will have friends and even family who have very real experience with gangs, crime, and violence. So to them punishment is what authorities use in their real word. When we respond to their misbehavior or observe others responding with abusive language and/or pain-based penalties, they often react with repentance and improved behavior in the short-term. And when we dangle rewards in front of them, we see a seemingly unmotivated student come to life and make a substantial effort toward the task. So the temptation is to accept that this is what works for these students. In many cases, these students can be found in schools in which the discipline culture is defined by a 4-Style mentality. When we ask the experienced faculty for advice, we often are told to become domineering, lower our expectations, and threaten the students with poor grades, calls home, and/or to give awards to the top students to motivate the rest. The logic is that since the students come to us with a well-formed failure psychology (discussed in Chapter 8) that frequently includes a negative identity, we need to give them what they are used to. It is tempting to give in and mete out pain and punishment and take on the 4-Style approach. While it may even seem as though we are getting results in the short-term, there are several reasons not to revert to a 4-Style approach with this group of students. Here are four of them: 1. The behavior in the class will not get better, and will worsen in the long run. 2. We are perpetuating a failure psychology in the students. We are bringing them one year closer to taking that failure orientation out into the world and on to the next grade. 3. Like any 4-Style teacher, we will struggle with a hostile, unmotivated and irresponsible class as long as we keep up this form of practice. 4. We have lost out on a chance to make a difference in the lives of these students. We had a transformative opportunity and we missed it.

Chapter Reflection 10-h: Reflect on the approach Ellen Gruwell took to such a group of students as
depicted in the movie Freedom Writers. When presented with a group of students that was accustomed to a crime and punishment mentality, what did she do? What was the result?

The fact is that students who are used to 4-Style management will adjust to a 1- or 2Style management approach eventually. Furthermore, as they internalize the emerging success psychology the more effective environment is fostering, they will recognize that the 4-Style environment was unhealthy. This was depicted beautifully in the films Freedom Writers and To Sir with Love. I have seen it firsthand in countless classes myself. Yet many of the students who come from these situations do not know how to operate in a 1- or 2-Style approach class structure. We need to teach them how. It will take time, but it is worth it. First, it is worth it for the reasons listed above. Second, it is worth it because we will get results and transform lives. To begin we need to understand the nature of the patterns in which our students are operating. For example, there may be a negative identity pattern. There may be a helpless pattern, or external locus of control, or other manifestations of a failure psychology. Maintaining a working knowledge of how to promote a success psychology will be an invaluable tool in any classroom with any students. The remainder of this chapter and the next will describe practical strategies for creating cause-and-effect thinking, more responsible behavior and the development of functional social bonds, and offer a more effective path toward a system that really works rather than resorting to the use of punishments and bribes.

Creating Effective Consequences within the Social Contract Developing logical and related consequences is crucial to successfully achieving a social contract that feels democratic and is built on promoting responsibility. Without logical and related consequences students can experience teacher interventions as very external and arbitrary. If students view consequences as arbitrary or subjective, the contract will have little meaning and will likely feel imposed and artificial. For the social contract to be effective students must feel as though being faithful to their agreements to the contract is making the class better and helping them become more responsible while achieving their goals of inclusion and achievement.

In the next chapter, we will discuss the importance of how consequences are implemented. The quality and effectiveness of the contract and how successfully it evolves is contingent on the care and deliberateness of the implementation, but in conjunction with that, the success of the contract will depend on the quality of the consequences we build into it. The most successful consequences will be those that are

logical and related, built-in proactively, represent a strong cause and effect relationship to both problems and solutions, and contribute to long term growth and behavior change.

Logical and Related It would be nice if all problems had naturally logical and related consequences built-in to them like our example of the student arriving late to the bus. But the reality is that it can often be a challenge to find a logical and related consequence for some things. It is difficult, but taking the time and effort to come up with quality consequences (alone or with the help of the students) is well worth it. Reverting to punishments will undermine the success of your contract, and developing consequences that are unrelated to the problem behavior do not teach lessons and are essentially quasipunishments. A consequence is by definition related to the problem. If it is not related, it is not a true consequence (no matter how many other teachers call them consequences).

A well-intentioned and fairly common practice in many schools is to have a standardized set of consequences for incidents of misbehavior. This is a step in the right direction in many ways. It encourages the individual teacher (especially those with a 4-Style tendency) to take a less punitive approach and it builds in proactivity and clarity of the policy. Below (Chart 10.1) is an example of a typical school-wide policy chart displayed on classroom walls in many schools.

Chart 10.1 Common uniform school-wide policy chart depicting levels of consequences for each misbehavior
Misbehavior 1st offense 2nd offense 3rd offense Consequence Warning Time at recess or after school Detention and/or contacting parents

As you can see from the chart, the same consequences are applied for all types of problem behavior. The primary problem with this approach is that it eliminates the opportunity to have logical and related consequences. As we have discussed, that means there is little if any cause-and-effect connection between the consequence and the behavior that warranted the consequence, and as a result no meaningful lesson is learned from this set of standardized consequences. Moreover, it is a real stretch to characterize what are referred to as consequences in these school codes as true consequences. By definition, undefined time-outs and detentions are at best merely quasi-punishments. In Chart 10.1 warnings are listed as the first level consequence. Recall our discussion of warnings from Chapter 6. They have their use. When understanding and/or memory are the issue, a warning can be a useful tool to help improve behavior and/or cognizance of the social contract. They are characterized as favors from the teacher to help support students toward the development of functional behavior free of the need for reminders. But they are not consequences. A more effective approach to developing consequences for our social contract is to begin with our most pressing problems. For each problem behavior, select a corresponding consequence that is as logically related to it as possible. Bringing in students (as discussed in Chapter 9) may be a great way to get them to buy into the fairness and legitimacy of each consequence, and to take part in conceiving what would be related consequences. Expect this to be the most powerful and memorable concept attainment exercise that the students participate in all year. For example, if we discover that we have a problem with homework being turned in late, we might ask our students what we can do to promote more work being turned in on time. Make sure that you instruct them to think in terms of logical and related consequences. Be patient, as this is likely very new thinking for them. In professional life, the consequence for being late with work can be that we miss a deadline, causing others to be let down or to have our efforts become less valuable. Therefore, a logical guiding principle could be that work needs to be in on time to get full credit. As a result, a consequence for late work could be that it would only receive partial credit. Or we could take a more hard line stand and say that only work that is turned in on time will be accepted. Either of these options makes sense, as do others. Both are grounded in cause-and-effect, as well as a real-world precedent. In practice, establishing the logic

and relatedness of the consequences we ultimately choose will make all the difference in how well they are accepted by the students, help to improve the behavior, and strengthen the social contract. The time used in the development of creating class consequences is time well spent. Be Proactive: Build Consequences into the Contract from the Start Effective consequences are proactively built into the contract before they are implemented. In the example of the students arriving late to the bus, the consequence would not have been educational if the bus has left at a different time each day, or the student did not know when the bus was supposed to leave.

Making students very clear about the consequences before the fact has many benefits. First, it will make contract violations less common since students know what is expected. Second, it makes it possible to implement the consequence by simply recognizing that a choice was made to violate the contract, as opposed to the students perspective of the teacher getting them in trouble. Third, the focus of the student after the contract violation is much more likely to be on how they can find more effective behavior rather than on what the teacher said or did, or feeling that they were unfairly penalized. Being proactive promotes internal locus of control. When we know what to expect, we have power; when the climate of the class is accidental, our need for power is unmet.

It is a good idea to put consequences in writing. Post them. Review them and give general reminders when you sense that a little prevention could be valuable. But the most valuable teaching tool will be your actions. Recall Chapter 5 and the social learning model; students will learn from what you do.

In addition, the use of verbal clarifications can be invaluable (recall Chapter 6). For example, we might use the mantra, In this class, we actively listen to the other members of our group, and ask clarifying questions when we dont understand. Or the clarifying statement, If we do a good job of taking care of the equipment, we will continue to get the privilege of using it; if we dont we will need to go back to using the old equipment until we can show that we are more responsible. But again, the words can only support the actions. When we follow through, the expectation and understanding of the consequence is strengthened; if we do not it is weakened.

Promote Buy-in and Ownership of Consequences

As was discussed in Chapter 9, if students own and clearly understand the expectations and consequences in their social contract, they are much more likely to carry them out and respect them. Again, there is no better way to do this than to have the students involved in the process of developing the consequences. This is especially true for grades K-8. For high school grades, periodic class meetings during which a problem is discussed and students are enlisted to brainstorm logical and related solutions and consequences for the problem can be a good way to promote buy-in. It cannot be emphasized enough. Over time, the contract and the consequences built into it will only be as powerful as the students sense of ownership of them. When they fully accept the purpose of the contract as being related to them and their welfare rather than being just the teachers set of rules, the results can be remarkable.

Chapter Reflection 10-i: Compare two classes that you have observed at some point.--one in which
there was a great deal of ownership and buy in of the rules and/or social contract, and one in which the rules were imposed upon the students. Was there a difference in behavior? How about motivation?

Keep Your Eyes on the Long-term benefits The test of a good consequence is what it does in the long term. If it does not teach the students to be more responsible and self-disciplined, it needs to be re-examined. It is simplistic to assume that a consequence that deters an immediate behavior is a good consequence. As we discussed earlier in the chapter, this illusion of effectiveness keeps us in the trap of using familiar but flawed consequences and/or punishments. A useful clue to the long-term effectiveness of a consequence is the reaction that one receives from a student when it is implemented. If the reaction implies, I knew not to do that, it has a good chance to be effective. It the reaction is one of repentance, look for the behavior to be revisited; it is therefore not perceived as a consequence but as a punishment.

It may be useful here to recall Chapter 5, Dynamic #6: Make tomorrow better as a result of what you do today. Ask yourself, What is being learned each time this consequence is implemented? If the consequence is logic and related and built-in proactively, it is likely that the student is learning a useful lesson related to the problem behavior. However, we can only consider success if the behavior changes rather quickly and for the right reasons, and makes tomorrow more healthy and functional. Since every class is different and every student in the class is different, finding the right consequences may take a bit of active research on the part of the teacher. It may also require some collective soul searching on the part of the class.

Ascending/Increasing Level of Impact of Consequences for Each Problem Behavior

All contract violations do not have the same degree of damage to the classs health and function. Moreover, a particular student action does not necessarily imply that the student has a problem. Most contract violations will be a result of forgetfulness or immaturity. Some will indicate a need to examine why the behavior occurred or continues to occur. Some require that the student loses an opportunity so that they may experience a clear consequence for their inability to be a responsible member of the group. It therefore makes sense to have within our social contract an increasingly more powerful series of consequences for particular problem behavior. If the problem behavior is minor and it is infrequent, a small consequence may be all that is necessary. If it is prevalent or is a persistent problem for a particular student, more significant consequences may be necessary. Lets take the example of a student who cannot resist talking to the next door student when they should be attending to those contributing in a class discussion. It is not a major problem if it does not happen often, but if it happens regularly, or the particular student cannot help it, it becomes quite significant. Here is one possible series of ascending consequences: First offense (the student turns to a neighbor to talk while the teacher is talking): Consequence - teacher stops talking (when they are interrupted) and waits for 100% attention or says something to the effect, I need everyones attention, so I will start over with the directions. This consequence is simple but effective. It does not take a lot of time or energy, but it is active and gets the message across. Second offense (the teacher notices that the student is talking to their neighbor when they are supposed to be attentive to another student who is contributing): Next level consequence student comes up with a strategy to make sure they are able to pay attention when it is required. Third offense (student does it again): Consequence student is moved to another seat. Fourth offense (student has the same problem in the new location): Consequence conference with the teacher after school resulting in a written contract. Given that this series of consequences implies escalating degrees of power, the student is given logical and appropriate opportunities to solve their problem. It is unlikely that many students would require all four levels of consequences, but it is comforting for both the teacher and the students in the class to know that they are in place. Much of the stress experienced by teachers and the frustration experienced by students comes from

worrying about what particular students may do on a given day. Having clearly established consequences in place eases much of that stress. The ownership for making good behavioral choices rests with the students. The teacher simply needs to be a fair and consistent manager of the social contract. Chapter Reflection 10-j: Are you asking yourself, At what point do we include in the series
of consequences something that will give the student some pain to teach them a lesson? Watch out for the tendency to get more negative rather than more powerful.

An important distinction should be made here between the increasingly powerful (consequences) and the increasingly painful (punishments). In the pain-based logic, if one blow to the head does not do the trick, then maybe two will. The problem with this logic is that no lesson will be learned from the blow (e.g., standards, shaming, lecture, picking up trash, etc.) as it is not related to the misbehavior. Therefore, since the small amount of pain did not change the behavior pattern, a greater amount will work only to make the student more hostile and defiant. Likewise, there is often a misconception that consequences are easier than punishments. Even some teachers who are opposed to punishments for ethical reasons hold this belief. However, it is simply untrue. If one examines the most difficult and painful lessons they have learned in life, they will discover that nearly all of them came in the form of consequences. Close scrapes with nature, losing loved ones, missing the cut, painful relationships, lost jobs, missed opportunities are all examples of lifes consequences. Few of the punishments that have been imposed on us have had the same power to impact or teach. The power of consequences is that they are meaningful. They involve a real price to pay. Punishments may feel bad, but in the end they merely need to be tolerated. Their only price is discomfort. Beware of Punishments that are Sold as Logical Consequences Since the use of the term consequences is attached to all manner of teacher-imposed penalization in schools today, it is common to see punishments and punishmentbased systems sold as assertive discipline consequences. Some examples are negative calls home, being sent to the office, picking up trash, running laps. One of the most prevalent examples of this brand of punishment is the idea of writing names of students on the board, or its sibling, having students move their cards from the green level to the yellow level to the red level. This practice is essentially a systematic shame-based punishment sold as a system of rational consequences. Not only is it a punishment or pain-based system at its core, but like all punishment systems, it does not work. Check in on a class that uses such a system, and you will see the same names on the board or the same cards changed from green to yellow, all year. Like other pain-based systems, its main function is to make the teacher feel better, but it will not do much to change behavior for the better and does a great deal of harm on other levels. Because of the widespread use of this procedure, Chapter 19 is devoted entirely to an examination of it, its fundamental problems and a more effective and positive alternative.

Chapter Reflection 10-k: Observe a class that uses a colored card behavioral system at the
beginning of the year and then months later. Do you see the same students with their cards on a lower color level? What does it tell you?

Avoid Giving Activity as a Negative Consequence Most of us can think of countless examples throughout our schooling where we were given an activity as a punishment. We had to run laps, write lines or standards, memorize capital cities, clean up the room, pick up trash around the school, do pushups, help the teacher at recess or any number of activities that were supposed to teach us a lesson. And even today they can seem somewhat related to our misbehavior. But as we examine this practice more closely, we can see that in the long run the use of activity as a penalty will take us a step backward in our efforts. First, it is difficult to classify activities as something other than punishments. They are based in the principle that if one has a lousy enough time doing the activity, they will be deterred from making the same choice again. Recognize the pain-logic? As we examine why we are attracted to these types of penalties and even perceive that they have a desired effect, its because they appear to deter certain behaviors in the short term and they produce the desired level of repentance in the students, post-penalty. But are they really logical and related? What is the relationship between talking in class and having to write 50 times I will not talk in class? Or what is the relationship between being tardy, and having to run laps?

Second, the actual lesson that these punishments teach is to avoid the activity. The message that we are sending is, Since you did something that we want you to stop doing, we are going to penalize you with a behavior we would like to see you do more of. This acts to create a disincentive to engage in a desired behavior. In the long-term, since no related lesson is learned there will be no desired behavior change, except possibly some avoidance of getting caught. Yet we can be assured that the student will develop a negative association (and therefore a disincentive to perform) with the behavior. If one is given standards as a punishment, one learns that the act of writing is a punishment to avoid. So much for all the time we spend telling our students that they should love to write. Likewise, if we tell them they must run as a punishment we are saying that the only reason that they should ever consider running in their lives is if someone forces them to.

If we punish the student by having them help, clean-up, beautify the school, and so on, then we are saying in effect, never do anything helpful or altruistic unless you are forced to.

Chapter Reflection 10-l: Recall a situation in which you were forced to do work (run laps,
help clean, write, etc) as a penalty for misbehavior. How did it affect your association with that activity at the time? Has that negative association carried on to the present?

A helpful guiding principle might be to use activity as a positive consequence and inactivity as a negative consequence. If the student has a great day, ask them to stay after school and help you clean up. Observe the effect this has on the student. Most likely he or she will consider it an honor. If a student makes an exceptional effort in an area, give them an extra task that stretches and challenges them. When work is seen as a reward, it reinforces the students intrinsic sources of motivation. When work is seen as a punishment, students learn only to do what is externally rewarded. Clarify this principle by creating a clear cause-and-effect relationship in your class. It may help to use such clarifying statements as, When you work hard and invest, I will give you more challenging work; when you show that you are not ready for the challenging work, I will give you work better suited to a less motivated and responsible group. When you show that you can be responsible (recall the social frames discussed in Chapter 4), I will give you more freedom and responsibility; when you show that you are not responsible, you will not be given the same opportunities, until you show you are ready. Watch the student rise to the occasion. In this responsibility-based classroom failing to earn the opportunity to take part is a powerful and related consequence, and if failure does take place, the presence of the clear cause-and-effect logic within the expectation provides an opportunity for reflection. Over time, the result will be the development of more intrinsically motivated students. This idea will be explored further in Chapter 17. Developing social bonds can set the table for communal bonds, but it will not create them. Developing clear expectations, logical and related consequences, and a functioning social contract will ultimately lead to ever-increasing levels of emotional safety, a sense of fairness, and behavior changes for the better, but they cannot by themselves create in a student a cause beyond themselves or community. Nevertheless, it is a wise and likely necessary starting point for most groups. The social contract can transform a class from a self-centered and dysfunctional group of individuals into a selfresponsible and functional collective. However, if we want to foster the transformation of the group into one that is bonded, acts as a team/tribe, and puts the needs of one another first, we must make an intentional effort to promote a success psychology (outlined in Chapter 8) and to foster community (discussed in Chapter 17).

Chapter Reflection 10-m: Recall in your experience a time when you were part of a class or
group that lacked structure. Did it limit your ability to feel a deeper sense of pride and group identity? In other words, did you recognize the need to feel that the social bonds were functional before you could feel a sense of community?

Table 10.3 represents a list of common problems that occur in a class, followed by a list of what not to do but are examples of common punishments that teachers use, alongside a list of possible related consequences for the same problem. As you may notice there is rarely a case when we are able to manufacture a consequence as logical and related as the buss being gone when the student arrived late to the bus stop, but we can attempt to get close. Finally, transformative ideas are offered for each problem-that is, strategies that one can put into practice that make the need for such behavior less necessary.
Table 10.3 Examples of Consequences, Punishments and Transformative ideas for Problem Behaviors:

Problem
Problem lining up

Punishment (What not to do)

-Disappointment. -Shaming, lost points.

Related Consequence
-Practice lining up.

Transformative Idea
Be positive, but as discussed in Ch. 12, help the students learn to be successful and then take joy in their success. Project-driven work and meaningful assignments will reduce the tendency for students to neglect assignments. See Ch. 13 for more ideas. The level of side-talk is usually related to 1) how engaging the work is and 2) whether or not the teacher has created a culture of listening (Ch. 12) Clear directions, assessing the quality of group participation (see Appendix X), and inductive lesson designs will ensure more students are engaged more of the time.

Turning in assignment late

-Public embarrassment. -Asking for an excuse.

-Loss of points.

Frequent talking out of turn

-Writing lines. -Negative recognitions.

-Loss of opportunity to talk. -Problem-solve solutions to fix problem. -Loss of opportunity to take part in activity.

Group can not refrain from conflict that leads to poor performance

-Hovering over the group. -Splitting them up. -Shaming them.

(See Chapter 14: Cooperative Learning)

1st intervention clarify task, confirm understanding. 2nd intervention clarify need to resolve conflict confirm commitment to conflict-free effort. 3rd intervention loss of

opportunity to take part in activity, potentially needing to reflect on solutions for future efforts, and/or need to complete work on own time.

Tapping pencils on desks

-Public negative recognition -spending time after class.

-Have students put everything down and have their hands free while listening

Meet students basic need for power. Create engaging lessons. Develop a culture of listening. Teachers who project the expectation that to cheat is to lose out, and that they have faith that no one will cheat will usually have little cheating. It is best to set an expectation early in the year that there is no reason to have a cell phone out. Zero tolerance early will save a lot of pain later. Student uses them as they see fit, and when they are gone the student is out of privileges to go. Help the students take make wise use of the privilege.

-Public Humiliation. Cheating

No credit for work.

Cell phone

-Public Humiliation. -Angry power struggle.

Confiscate phone for a time.

Going to Bathroom

-Publicly questioning why the student needs to go. -Questioning the students intentions.

Some set amount of bathroom visits per quarter.

Conclusion It is hoped that this chapter has helped you clarify the distinction between punishments and consequences, and has demonstrated why the use of consequences produces more desirable and effective outcomes. A thoughtful and intentional approach to the development of the consequences within the social contract will help in your efforts to promote more responsible behavior and a positive classroom climate. The next chapter will provide a step-by-step system for implementing ones consequences and social contract. Journal Reflections
1. 2. In your experiences have teachers more often used punishments of consequences? What do you see as the effect of each on you personally? Do you recognize the pain-based logic inside yourself and others? Reflect on how in your own experience pain is traded back and forth between parents and children, teachers and students, and

those with whom you are in relationships. (If this idea resonates with you, I recommend that you read Eckhart Tolles Practicing the Power of Now.)

Group Class Activities:

1. In groups of four, brainstorm two common student behavioral problems that you have seen recently or feel are pertinent (it is more effective if they are not severe problems such as fighting or disrespect--those are addressed in another chapter). Pass them to the group next to you. Once you have had your neighbors two problems, develop consequences for them. Be sure that they are true consequences, not simply quasi-punishments. Refer to Table 10.1 (Consequences vs. Punishments) to assess your answers. 2. Discuss the difference between logical and related (but manufactured) consequences and naturally occurring consequences. What criteria would use to decide which it best, in any given situation? 3. In groups, fill in the following chart with teacher practices. When you are done, compare your answers with the rest of the class.
Negative Natural and logical consequences for poor choices. 1. 2. 3. Punishments. 1. 2. 3 Positive Natural Positive Consequences for good choices. 1. 2. 3. Extrinsic Rewards. 1. 2. 3.

Healthy and Effective

Unhealthy and Ineffective

Chapter Activities 1. In groups, discuss the differences between the two conditions in the student missing the bus
example in the beginning of the chapter. What are the differences between a punishment condition and a consequence condition? 2. In groups take part in the following exercise. Start by having each group develop a list of two or three common social contract violations (dont make them too severe--we will save those for a later chapter). When you are done, pass them to another group. This group will need to come up with logical and related consequences for each problem. This is more difficult than it sounds. It will be helpful to use the table comparing consequences and punishments in the chapter. Share your ideas with the whole, and discuss why you felt each was a consequence rather than a punishment.

References: Kohn. A. (1999) Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes. Houghton Mifflin Tolle, E. (2001) Practicing the Power of Now. Namaste Publishing

Questionaires Punishment: 1. I believe that classroom management must avoids any form of punishment at all costs

Reinforcement 1. 2. Part of my role as a classroom manager is to provide positive feedback and recognition for work and effort.