Dr.

William Glasser is a modern-day psychologist and educator who theorizes that behavior is a choice driven by such circumstances as feelings and needs. Glasser's Choice theory suggests that teachers cannot directly control the behavior of students, but that students choose how to react to their feelings. In the Glasser theory, the teacher can help students identify the circumstances that drive their behavior. This empowers the student to change the reaction to such feelings, thereby changing the behavior. The Glasser approach to classroom management teaches students that success and achievement are the result of good behavior, not the cause.

History
William Glasser was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1925. William Glasser became a doctor of psychology in 1953. After completing his residency, Glasser found employment at the California Youth Authority, where he lectured on mental health versus mental illness. He questioned why psychiatrists labeled misbehavior as various mental disorders instead of blaming the behavior on simple unhappiness. Glasser published his first book "Mental Health or Mental Illness" in 1960, which expanded on the idea that some misbehavior is due to unhappiness and can be controlled. In 1962, Glasser put these ideas in to practice as a psychiatrist and teacher. In that same year, Glasser coined the term "reality psychiatry" to describe his method of managing behavior. Glasser met theorist William Powers, author of the book "Behavior: The Control of Perception." Glasser was so influenced by Powers' ideas, that he developed the Control Theory. The Control Theory is synonymous with Glasser's Choice Theory; he changed the name in 1996 because the word "control" suggested that people could be controlled externally. Today the choice theory is widely used as a classroom management technique.

Practice
The first step in implementing the Glasser method is clearly defining rules and consequences. It is imperative that educators not deviate from these guidelines. Teacher's must not accept excuses. Glasser's theory explains that while excuses may explain negative behavior, the behavior is still unacceptable. Glasser's method uses guided questions to deal with an individual student's behavior. The teacher should first ask the student what he is doing. After the student answers, the teacher asks how the behavior is helping the class. Finally, the teacher asks the student how she can change her behavior to help the class. If the student reacts to these questions in a negative manner, the student has broken a rule and must receive consequences. Repeated misbehavior results in progressive disciplinary action in the Glasser theory of classroom management. In order for the theory to work, the teacher must foster an environment that is nonthreatening, student centered and honest.

Benefits
The benefits of the Glasser theory of classroom management are clear; students learn the life skill of controlling their behavior to change their circumstance. In return, the teacher can enjoy a class that is receptive to the learning process. Glasser suggests that the class hold meetings each time a new topic is introduced. During these meetings, the students decide what they would like to learn about the topic as opposed to the teacher forcing topics upon them.

Considerations
In order for the Glasser method of classroom management to work, the teacher has to rely on the integrity and honesty of the students. If just one student repeatedly misbehaves despite consequences,

the method will fail. Furthermore, students may choose to learn about topics that are completely outside of the school curriculum.

Potential
The Glasser method can work if it is tailored to meet the individual needs of the class and the rules are strictly enforced. Educators must consider the students' personal values and sense of accountability. Potentially, the Glasser method of classroom management, when used correctly, can create a respectful and well-managed classroom.

Glasser Theory of Classroom Management

By William Lynch, eHow Contributor

The Glasser Theory of Classroom Management, created by psychiatrist William Glasser, is an effective blueprint to help teachers organize and maintain a successful learning environment. The Glasser Theory calls for teachers to instruct students on how to make good choices and take responsibility for their behavior. If followed, the Glasser Theory can make education a rewarding experience for students and teachers alike.

1.
Classroom

Facts
2. Born in 1925, William Glasser grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and graduated with a chemical engineering degree from CASE School of Applied Science. He later earned a master's degree in clinical psychology from Western Reserve University. Glasser worked for years as a psychiatrist before publishing is his first book, "Mental Health or Mental Illness?," in 1960. A year later, as a board-certified psychiatrist, he began applying his ideas to public schools in Sacramento, Los Angeles and Palo Alto, California. He gained fame with subsequent books like "Reality Therapy," "Schools Without Failure" and "Choice Therapy."

Features
3. The Glasser Theory of Classroom Management is based on the principles that the classroom environment and curriculum should create a safe place for learning by meeting the needs for belonging, power, fun and freedom. Glasser also stressed helping the students achieve success by teaching them to make appropriate behavioral choices. According to Glasser, behavior is a matter of choice. A student's behavior stems from the choices he or she makes. It's the teacher's responsibility to help the student make good choices, resulting in good behavior.

The Glasser Theory states teachers should stress student responsibility, establish rules that lead to success, accept no excuses, call for value judgments, suggest suitable alternatives, invoke responsible consequences, be persistent, and carry out continual review.

Benefits
4. Glasser believed in providing students with a choice in deciding the curriculum and classroom rules. This helps the students take ownership of the learning process, leading to increased enthusiasm, confidence and participation.

Considerations
5. Teachers employing the Glasser Theory may need to deviate from the classical classroom structure in order to achieve success. Glasser favors having the students work together in small groups. This fosters a sense of belonging, motivates the students to work for the group, and reduces the reliance on the teacher. When divided into smaller groups, stronger students will help the weaker students, improving relationships and classroom harmony.

Warning
6. The Glasser Theory alone won't eliminate all classroom behavioral problems. Glasser suggests the teacher organizes the classroom the best way possible to meet the students' needs and then intervene with the supplied strategies to improve behavior. Even when the theory is followed, Glasser concedes up to 25 percent of students may remain unproductive.

Hierarchy of needs
In 1943 Abraham Maslow wrote an article that set out a system of living. This system is known as Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. Today it can be used to develop time management in your life.
Overview

The hierarchy of needs assumes that you are motivated by your needs. These are things that you want, to enable you to enjoy life. If you fail to meet these needs then you might become depressed, sick, or even angry. There are different levels of needs, basics such as food and shelter to more complex needs such as a sense of belonging and accomplishment.

The Abraham Maslow theory says that our needs can be divided into five different levels. They are laid out in a sort of pyramid. The needs at the bottom are the most basic needs. These form the foundation and they need to be met first. Once they are met we can focus on the next level and so on.
Physiological Needs

The bottom of the pyramid is Physiological needs. These form the foundation of the needs pyramid. These are the basics that every individual must have to survive. Before any higher level needs can be addressed, the basics must be sufficiently met. These particular needs include food, water, air, sleep, and shelter. Without these basic needs you could you not survive. In addition you wouldn't be able to motivate yourself. You'd struggle to survive. To be able to focus your time and abilities on other needs these basic life essentials need to be taken care of first.
Safety Needs

The next level in the Abraham Maslow pyramid is Safety needs. These are more complex than physiological needs. However they are still some of the most basic needs that exist. These are the things that help you feel more secure in your life. They help to give you a push towards achieving higher level needs and goals. Needs in this category include job security, living in a safe home, having good health, obtaining financial savings, and so on. If these needs are not met, all of your time is spent trying to obtain them. While you are striving to achieve this lower level need, the higher-level ones are being ignored. This can lead to emotional and physical problems. If you, for instance, do not have a stable job your free time is spent searching for a better position. You become totally focused on this basic need until a better situation is achieved. Meeting safety needs is essential to living a happy life.
Social Needs

After your physiological and safety needs you focus on social needs. Social needs are what keep you connected to the outside world. Filling these needs helps with personal happiness. It is the interaction with others that is important to avoiding depression and

loneliness. To meet the complex needs, firm relationships must be established. Social needs include; love, friendships, family happiness and belonging to groups and societies. The time you spend with others helps you to fulfill your social needs. When one or more of these has not been met, it can keep you from moving forward.
Esteem Needs

Towards the top of the Abraham Maslow pyramid are the esteem needs. These can be hard to achieve. But they are worth aiming for. Successful and fulfilled people have learned to obtain them and you can too. The qualities found at this level are the ones that help you to be sure of yourself. They can help you to become better at what you do. At this level you are free to begin bettering yourself and your situation. You won't take away lower level needs by improving at this level of need. Esteem needs include recognition, reputation, self-respect, and achievement; things that help to boost your self esteem. They help the way you feel about yourself and they must be met before you can move on to the highest level of needs.
Self-actualization

Self-Actualization is at the top of the needs pyramid. Most individuals will live their whole lives without completely meeting these complex needs. These are the needs that you will strive to achieve most of your life. To become self-actualized, you must live up to your full potential. Since you are always growing both emotionally and mentally this is very hard. There is always something new to learn and so often this most complex need is never fully met. Those people who do learn to achieve self-actualization live satisfied and fulfilled lives. They obtain levels of complete happiness.
Hierarchy and time management

The hierarchy of needs is only one of many time management theories. You can read more about theories in this complementary text to Abraham Maslow. It is worth looking at other theories and time management activities. They will help you learn how to achieve a happy and balanced life. By following the Abraham Maslow needs pyramid, you can achieve the things you need to get done. It lays out a path for you, so that you know what to focus your time on. As you succeed at each level you can move upwards until all your needs are successfully met. Abraham Maslows hierarchy of needs theory can set the guidelines for your time management schedule. Follow the theory and outline what needs you have met and which ones still need to be met. Set yourself accurate goals and work towards achieving them. Now instead of wasting your time on

needs or goals that cant be met, you can effectively use your time to meet your needs in a productive order.

Success Percentage of Students with Good Time Management Skills

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The most valuable result of education is the ability to make yourself do things that you have to do and needs to be done, whether you like it or not. That is the quote from Thomas Huxley, a biologist and Darwins bulldog for being an advocate of Charles Darwins theory of evolution by natural selection. Who will ever think that someone like Huxley will have a quote about student time management? It is quite true. Success in your studies will also depend on the things you have accomplished. To be successful, you must have self-motivation to complete the tasks that need to be accomplished. Many students are always fond of saying that they will try to do a particular task (homework, for instance). Unfortunately, you will find later on that the word try really means forgetting to do that particular task and never having that enthusiasm to work on it. Furthermore, when you ask him of his progress, he will just keep saying all the possible excuses in this world just to cover his failure of doing that particular task. He might say that there are other times to do it. If you are one of those students with that kind of attitude all year round, what can you attain later on? What favorable result can you get? That is why there is time management for everybody, especially for students like you. Employing effective time management strategies can help you to fix those attitude problems towards time and be successful throughout your student career. In other words, it leads to overall success. It is just simple as that. Have you ever wondered if time management is successful? Maybe you are looking for some figures to prove that claim. Fortunately, there are organizations, which include time management planners who spend their time conducting studies on the effects of time management to students. They try to get the percentage of students whose success is attributed on effective time management. Here are some of the figures to prove that the success of time management is evident to students. Rural students in Idaho and Colorado achieve success

Often, you will associate success on being able to study in large schools or universities found in key urban areas across United States. Almost all successful professionals or graduates so far are product of these schools in urban areas. Time management do not choose students whether they are from urban or rural areas. Take for instance the states of Colorado and Idaho, which are large rural areas with small school districts. In one rural school district located in southeastern Idaho, 45 percent of the rural students have garnered honors while 10 percent of it received community recognition. Studies show school district administrators have included in the curriculum time management subjects. The students develop their time management skills to cope up with different activities both on and off the school campus. A student from Idaho Digital Learning Academy took up an online course in English literature and Composition. Although working as a clerk in a law office at the same time, she managed to earn a grade of 93 in that course. Asked what her secret on success is, she says that time management skills help her to get through with her studies. She confessed that it is hard to work as a student and at the same time a part-time worker. However, she did not let that to be an obstacle in her goal. Transformation: From Freshman to Successful Student Change in education level is quite difficult. From your elementary years, you will now be facing your freshman status in high school. In addition, the same will apply when you go to college. Placement or entrance tests are usually conducted to screen incoming freshman students (whether high school or college). Students with deficient study habits and poor time management skills are having difficulty in passing entrance exams. That is one of the reasons why there are many students failing the exam, or although passing it, but they are just on the average rating (between 83-85 percent). Students who tend to develop good time management skills are keeping up with his studies even though some of high school or college freshman subjects are not familiar with them. Statistics shows that 54 to 62 percent are performing well in mathematics and science subjects. Another fact, 56 to 73 percent of total freshman population are engaging themselves to different nonacademic activities despite of tremendous pressure during their first year. The above-mentioned percentages of success is a proof that time management is indeed a vital factor in being successful in studies.

Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning

Greg Kearsley & Ben Shneiderman

Engagement theory has emerged from the authors' experiences teaching in electronic and distance education environments (see Shneiderman, 1994,1998; Shneiderman et al, 1995; Kearsley, 1997). The fundamental idea underlying engagement theory is that students must be meaningfully engaged in learning activities through interaction with others and worthwhile tasks. While in principle, such engagement could occur without the use of technology, we believe that technology can facilitate engagement in ways which are difficult to achieve otherwise. So engagement theory is intended to be a conceptual framework for technology-based learning and teaching. Although not directly derived from other theoretical frameworks for learning, it has much in common with many such frameworks. For example, with its emphasis on meaningful learning, it is very consistent with constructivist approaches. Because it emphasizes collaboration among peers and a community of learners, it can be aligned with situated learning theories. Because its focuses on experiential and self-directed learning, it is similar in nature to theories of adult learning (i.e., androgogy). Basic Principles By engaged learning, we mean that all student activities involve active cognitive processes such as creating, problem-solving, reasoning, decision-making, and evaluation. In addition, students are intrinsically motivated to learn due to the meaningful nature of the learning environment and activities. Engagement theory is based upon the idea of creating successful collaborative teams that work on ambitious projects that are meaningful to someone outside the classroom. These three components, summarized by Relate-Create-Donate, imply that learning activities: 1. occur in a group context (i.e., collaborative teams) 2. are project-based 3. have an outside (authentic) focus The first principle (the "Relate" component) emphasizes team efforts that involve communication, planning, management and social skills. The modern workplace demands proficiency in these skills, yet historically students have been taught to work and learn on their own. Research on collaborative learning suggests that in the process of collaboration, students are forced to clarify and verbalize their problems, thereby facilitating solutions. Collaboration also increases the motivation of students to learn,

a significant consideration in settings with high drop-out rates (e.g., teen-agers, distance learners). Furthermore, when students work in teams, they often have the opportunity to work with others from quite different backgrounds and this facilitates an understanding of diversity and multiple perspectives. The second principle (the "Create" component) makes learning a creative, purposeful activity. Students have to define the project (problem domain) and focus their efforts on application of ideas to a specific context. Conducting their own projects is much more interesting to students that answering sterile textbook problems. And because they get to define the nature of the project (even if they don't choose the topic), they have a sense of control over their learning which is absent in traditional classroom instruction. Project orientation is the essence of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) approaches which are often used in medical and others types of professional education (e.g., Barrows & Tamblyn, 1980). The third principle (the "Donate" component) stresses the value of making a useful contribution while learning. Ideally each project has an outside "customer" that the project is being conducted for. The customer could be a campus group, community organization, school, church, library, museum, government agency, local business, or needy individual. In many cases, the projects can be work-related, i.e., an activity that fits into a team's occupational or career interests. The authentic learning context of the project increases student motivation and satisfaction. This principle is consistent with the emphasis on school-to-work programs in many schools systems and colleges, as well as the "service" philosophy of contemporary corporate training efforts (e.g., Jacoby & Associates, 1996). Engagement theory is different from many older models of computer-based learning in which the emphasis was on individualized instruction and interactivity. Engagement theory does promote interaction, but human interaction in the context of group activities, not individual interaction with an instructional program. The latter form of interaction tended to be measured by single responses (e.g., key presses or mouse clicks) whereas engagement requires assessment of larger units of work (e.g., reports, programs, user satisfaction). The difference between engagement and interactivity reflects the shift in thinking about computers in education as communication tools rather than some form of media delivery devices. Furthermore, engagement theory places a great deal of emphasis on providing an authentic (i.e., meaningful) setting for learning, something not present in previous models. About Collaboration Collaboration can be as simple as a two-minute in-class exercise involving pairs of students or as elaborate as a multi-year curriculum development project involving

many teams. Term-length projects done primarily outside the classroom are the most popular form of collaboration since they require minimal changes to the usual classroom routine. While a few disciplines such as laboratory science or fine arts make regular use of in-class collaboration, most courses do not. Yet collaborative learning is a technique that applies to any domain. Math students can work on problems, English students can review each other's work, Computer Science students can develop or debug programs together, and so on. Email is one of the most important collaborative tools and it usually serves as the communication backbone for all activities. Web conference boards or chat programs may also be important means for collaboration and sharing of results. The web will probably play an important role in terms of acquiring information. Students are also likely to make use of telephone conferences and fax communications, although these are not as convenient or cost-effective as online interaction. In the future, we may see desktop video become popular as a means for inexpensive face-to-face interaction in a distributed learning environment. Since collaborative methods may be novel for many students and teachers, there is likely to be a high level of uncertainty at the beginning of such activities. Students will need guidance in working together including skills such as project management, scheduling, time management, leadership, consensus-building, etc. Teachers will need practice in organizing and conducting collaborative activities, particularly the facilitative role that is needed. A lot of attention has to be devoted to ways in which student teams can most effectively present and share their results with each other. And both students and teachers will need training and support in the use of all online communication tools. Project-oriented learning Probably the most difficult aspect of project-oriented learning is the initial definition of the project (and corresponding formulation of teams). The instructor can provide a list of suggested topics which helps give students an idea of possible projects. Alternatively, the instructor can provide lists/descriptions of past projects (including links to the actual project materials if available on the web). In addition, students should be provided with a description of the criteria that will be used to evaluate the projects to help them determine the appropriateness of their project ideas. Unless the assignment of team partners is done arbitrarily (usually acceptable for short in-class activities but not longer projects), students need a way to get to know each other quickly. For this reason, it is important to have students create some sort of bios

or background statements, especially in the form of an online directory, as the initial class activity. Ideally, students can complete a number of brief group activities with different partners in the first few classes so they can make a good choice of team members for full-scale projects. In this context, students need to be sensitized to issues such as gender/racial bias, personality conflicts, and different work habits. A good starter activity is to assign pairs of students to research a question or problem and report their results to the entire group. A further step is to ask teams to evaluate each other's work. Alternatively a team can be composed of three individuals, one of whom is charged with proposing an initial answer, the second provides a alternative answer, and the third provides a critique or synthesis of the first two responses. The web provides a tremendous resource for collaborative efforts since it is easy to quickly uncover a lot of information about any topic. A natural project for students is to produce an online textbook or encyclopedia for their course. With a class of 10-100 students, this becomes a major effort with an editorial board to develop an outline, specify the audience, produce a style guide, manage assignments, and arrange reviews. For example, students in the second author's graduate seminar on Virtual Reality produced EVE (Encyclopedia of Virtual Environments) which continues to be available online [http://www.hitl.washington.edu/scivw/EVE ]. As another example, students in the first author's courses on distance education are asked to produce case studies of distance education programs to be assembled into a directory of distance education. When student projects are put up on the web, this provides an incentive for them to do the best possible work, since they know that their work will be viewed by their classmates and possibly the whole world. It also provides an easily accessible source to show their work to friends, co-workers, or potential employers. Authentic Focus The third component of engagement, doing projects with a realistic focus, also requires some new techniques for teaching/learning. For students without much work experience, the idea of doing a project for an "outside" customer (even it's an oncampus group) is a bit daunting. For students who have jobs and work experience, it is a little easier since they can identify a project within their own organization which is familiar to them. The instructor must screen all potential projects to ensure that they are appropriate for the subject matter involved and that the scope of work is feasible within the timeframe available. The instructor also serves as the student-client inference and must ensure that expectations (on both sides) are realistic for student projects completed in an academic context. In the second author's courses, students have worked on campus related projects such as developing online systems for scheduling bus service and a television station,

keeping records for a scuba club, designing a student ride board, organizing car pools, and creating an accounting system for the physics dept. Off campus projects have included donor and volunteer list management for a major charity, scheduling for a country recreation office, information management for a day-care center, and many others. Other projects have included a guide to science education software for parents, a hypermedia guide to computer viruses, and a plan for computer usage in a local high school. In the first author's courses, students often do projects related to their work environments (they are part-time graduate students with full-time jobs). However, these are usually projects that they would not tackle as part of their regular job duties. Instead they tend to pick ideas that are outside their usual area of expertise or responsibility. This includes projects for self-help groups (e.g., smoking cessation or stress reduction), pilot tests of innovative technologies, development of strategic plans, comparative studies of other organizations, employee orientation programs, community outreach efforts, or alternative modes of training. There are many payoffs to students from having this kind of realistic focus to course activities. Since learning takes place in an authentic context, students learn skills and knowledge with higher transfer to work settings. They also learn many skills associated with team work and client interaction that are often not taught in courses (but probably should be). Doing authentic projects provides a higher level of satisfaction to students than working on artificial problems since they can see the outcomes/impact of their work on people and organizations. Finally, the results of their efforts may bring them professional recognition or awards which are ultimately much more motivating than grades. Research Issues The basic principles of engagement theory just discussed are based upon the teaching experiences of the authors and grounded in well-established learning theories. However, engagement theory has not been subjected to empirical test. Each tenet of the theory needs to be investigated and examined via research or evaluation studies. Some examples of research questions to be addressed include:
y y y

What curricula, disciplines or age groups is engagement theory most/least effective with? What skills do students need in order to effectively participate in collaborative activities? How should they acquire these skills? How should individual differences be addressed in collaborative work?

y y y y y

What kind of student evaluation methods are most appropriate to the application of engagement theory? Which component of engagement theory (i.e., relate, create, donate) is the most important in terms of different aspects of learning? How do we best prepare (retrain) instructors to apply engagement theory? What kind of groupware (collaborative software tools) would best support engagement theory? How does engagement theory "scale up" for large classes and many simultaneous courses at the same or different institutions?

While not conducted in the specific context of engagement theory, a study conducted by Alavi (1994) on collaborative learning is suggestive of the kind of research that needs to be done. In this study, graduate business students taking classes in an electronic classroom were compared to those taking classes in a traditional classroom (all taught by the same instructor). The teaching/learning activities of the classes were the same except that the electronic classroom students used a groupware program (VisonQuest) for their collaborative learning exercises. A post-course questionnaire was used to measure student's perceptions of their learning experience. The findings indicated that the technology-mediated collaborative learning resulted in higher levels of perceived skill development, self-reported learning, and utility than the traditional classroom. Furthermore, the test grades of the group of students who were in the electronic classroom were statistically higher (t[125]=3.92, p<.001) than those of the groups of students in the traditional classroom. Another body of research also highly relevant to engagement theory, although also not specifically conducted in this context is the work of Hiltz and others (e.g., Hiltz, 1994, Harasim et al.,1995) related to online/virtual learning environments. Hiltz reports on a extensive evaluation of the New Jersey Institute of Technology virtual classroom project that spanned many years, courses and instructors. Their network capabilities included messaging, conferencing, online notebooks, online databases, online exams, and online gradebooks. They concluded that the virtual classroom environment resulted in better mastery of course materials, greater student satisfaction, and a higher level of student-reported learning than traditional classroom experiences. It may be worth noting that the focus of engagement theory on meaningful and realworld learning activities is consistent with a more general trend in education. For example, the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Labor jointly fund the National School to Work program (see http://www.stw.ed.gov) aimed at helping young people make the transition from school to careers and lifelong learning. Research and evaluation studies emerging from this domain may be relevant to engagement theory.

Recent work on a virtual learning environment based upon the principles of problembased learning is also very relevant to engagement theory (seehttp://www.staffs.ac.uk/COSE ) Conclusions Engagement theory is presented as a model for learning in technology-based environments which synthesizes many elements from past theories of learning. The major premise is that students must be engaged in their course work in order for effective learning to occur. The theory posits three primary means to accomplish engagement: (1) an emphasis on collaborative efforts (2) project-based assignments, and (3) non-academic focus. It is suggested that these three methods result in learning that is creative, meaningful, and authentic. The role of technology in the theory is to facilitate all aspects of engagement. The use of email, online conferencing, web databases, groupware, and audio/videoconferencing significantly increases the extent and ease of interaction amongst all participants, as well as access to information. The vast array of software tools available for analysis, design, planning, problem-solving and making presentations make enable students to do sophisticated and complex tasks. Technology provides an electronic learning mileux that fosters the kind of creativity and communication needed to nourish engagement. We believe that engagement theory represents a new paradigm for learning and teaching in the information age which emphasizes the positive role that technology can play in human interaction and evolution. We challenge others to examine this theory and test it in their own teaching efforts. Note:
This material is based upon work supported by the Naval Sea Systems Command, under Contract No. N00024-974173, to Instructional Science and Development, Inc. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Naval Sea Systems Command. We wish to thank, Dewey Kribs, program manager, for his support and encouragement of this effort.