Poor behavior by one student in the classroom disrupts lessons and deprives the other children of their opportunity to learn, but a competent behavior modification strategy can alleviate the problem. Techniques that inspire the right kind of behavior, either in a standard classroom or in special needs cases such as with developmentally disabled children or Alzheimer's patients, can save time, maximize effort and produce desired outcomes.
Assertive Discipline
The assertive discipline model was developed by Lee and Marlene Canter of Canter and Associates, a company founded in 1976 to spread knowledge of the model. Lee Canter is a social worker from California and author of 40 books on classroom sociology and management.
The Canters maintain that a failure to be assertive creates unclear expectations. Teachers must begin by reviewing the classroom rules with students and ensure that each and every one of them understands the rules. Stage 2 involves positive reinforcement while stage 3 outlines punishment techniques for those that consistently break the rules. According to the Canters, punishment should be delivered in five stages. First, teachers must warn the offending student and issue a 10-minute timeout for a second violation. Continued rule breaking warrants a 15-minute timeout, followed by a call to the parents for persistent cases. Serial offenders are to be sent to the principal's office.
Effective Momentum
The effective momentum management model relies entirely on the competence of the teacher. As head of the class, the teacher must be aware of every activity taking place in the classroom at all times. Further, teachers must be able to "overlap," as it's called by program developer Jacob Kounin, a psychologist who believed that the seemingly unconnected duties of disciplining and instructing must actually occur simultaneously. They must overlap.
Keeping the momentum in the classroom depends on this type of multitasking. A teacher, according to the model, must keep the instruction moving while disciplining rule breakers. The last tenet of the model is "smoothness," or the ability to switch seamlessly between issues, be they instructive or disciplinary.
Contingency Management
The concept of contingency management is built largely on the idea that behavior is a function of the expected consequences of that behavior. When students have reasonable expectation that a certain behavior will yield positive reinforcement, the desired behavior is incentivized. In this model, negative reinforcement strategies are an outgrowth of positive reinforcement, but instead of positively reinforcing good behavior, negative reinforcement seeks to remove negative consequences. For example, a piece of candy given for a job well done is positive reinforcement, while helping a student struggling with a math problem who asks for help removes negative consequences. Struggling to perform causes anxiety. Asking for help removes that negativity, so asking for help becomes an incentivized behavior.
In addition to positive and negative reinforcement, the modality includes two more techniques for moderating behavior through its consequences. One is called extinction, whereby the teacher or parent offers no response to an undesirable behavior on the theory that the behavior was meant to elicit a response. Refusing to "play that game," so to speak, makes the offender less likely to engage in the same disruptive behavior since it failed to achieve the desired results. The last strategy is punishment, which should always relate to the behavior itself to inspire the expectation of negative consequences. For example, a student caught passing notes in class could be made to read that note allowed publicly.
References
- University of Delaware: Instructional Strategies and Reflective Practice: Behavior Management and Discipline in the Classroom
- LEARNet: What is Contingency Management?
- eMints National Center: Instructional Practices and Effective Behavior Management
- University of Washington Alzheimers Disease Research Center: Behavior Management Techniques
- Ask Dr. Sears: 10 Techniques to Shape Children's Behavior
