Teacher A: Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we didn’t have to use any aversive procedures. Punishment is such a drag.
Teacher B: Yes! I agree. Positive reinforcement is sooo powerful—shaping, schedules, maintenance, and all that. You can do just about everything with it.
Teacher A: Really. I mean, we should make our classes totally positive this year. No negatives. None!
As strongly as I advocate the use of positive strategies in classroom management (“Catch ‘em being good!”), I have to acknowlege that there are at least three reasons it is impossible to create behavior management systems that exclusively employ positive reinforcement. Here’s why reasonable folks should resist the superficial appeal of the all-positive or positives-only Chimera.
Continue reading ‘Why not only positives?’
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Look under ‘posters & stickers’
I am pleased to call readers’ (both of you) attention to NoSpank.net. Although much of the advocacy presented there promotes parenting and teaching practices that have limited scientific bases, the organizing feature is a rejection of the use of physical violence as a disciplinary method. I support that effort.
There are at least 40-11 better alternatives, starting with teaching the child or youth what to do. More specifically and technically, here is a list of alternative methods for reducing the chances that a behavior will occur in the future:
Continue reading ‘No spanking’
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One mistake that adults sometimes make in giving directions to children and youths is to phrase directions as questions. Another is to give directions as if they are advice. Here are some examples of each:
- Asking questions:
- O.K., everyone, why don’t you turn in your work now?
- Where are your pen and paper supposed to be?
- Jimmy, don’t you think it would be a good idea to clear your desk and get ready for reading?
- If you think about it just a little bit, wouldn’t you think that other people would rather you put your trash in the trashbasket?
- What should you be doing right now?
- What part of ‘get a move on’ don’t you understand?
Continue reading ‘Better and Worse Ways of Giving Directions’
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Over on Smart Classroom Management, the site where he presents tips based on his book, Michael Linsin offers three reasons for not using behavior contracts. After a brief introduction that is generally pretty accurate, he argues that (a) “behavior contracts label students,” (b) “external rewards are short term,” and (c) “follow through is a bear.” He recommends employing a consistent behavior management plan for classrooms and adhering to it faithfully.
I certainly agree with the recommendation that teachers adopt and faithfully execute a carefully conceived and evidence-based classroom management plan, but I disagree with Mr. Linsin’s rejection of use of behavior contracts both because I think that contracts may be a component of a comprehensive management plan and because I think the objections he raises are specious.
Continue reading ‘Behavior contracts that work’
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In “Controlling a classroom isn’t as easy as ABC” Seema Mehta of the Los Angeles (CA, US) Times describes teachers’ struggles and successes with classroom management. She also reports what teachers say are important and unimportant components of management.
Not only does she describe conflicts in the classrooms, but the recommendations she received about management show conflicts, too. She captures this disagreement concisely with this example: “Some teachers, for example, offer rewards for good behavior; others believe that creates a false motivation.”
Here are recommendations I gleened from the teachers in Mr. Mehta’s article:
- Consistency
- Follow through
- Caring
- Clear behavioral expectations
- Automatic consequences
- Address misbehavior quickly and dispassionately
- Ignore what you learn in teacher education
For the most part, these seem sensible and appropriate. But, they also seem platitudinous and generic. If teachers are served this sort of stuff in teacher education, then I can even agree with the last one.
Instead, we need to teach more operational and evidence-based practices. I hope that’s what I accomplish in my classes. Mayhaps I don’t. Sigh.
Link to “Controlling a classroom isn’t as easy as ABC.”
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Over on The Adventures of Miss Behavior, Enedelia Sanner has a post about getting data on her children’s behavior before introducing interventions. As I suspect is true for most folks, she doesn’t always gather baseline data, even though she’s an informed behavior analyst. In the post she makes some good points about the value of data in informing practice, but there’s another feature of the post to which I want to point.
Continue reading ‘Positive-negative ratios’
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