As a result of prowling around the Internet for a while, I’ve been assembling resources about applications of behavioral principles to problems relevant to the content of this blog. Of course, one of the foremost areas of application is improving the lives of individuals with autism. Indeed, applied behavior analysis (ABA) is sometimes misunderstood as a synonym for the discrete trial training procedures associated most closely with the work Ivar Lovaas and his colleagues. Although they shouldn’t be considered synonymous, there is a great deal of communality.
But, that’s a topic for another post. This post is just an opportunity to list a few of the blogs that one can follow and learn about the application of behavior analysis to autism.
Continue reading ‘Some resources’
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In “Calm Down or Else,” (15 July 2008) Benedict Carey reports about a possible increase in the use of restraints, seclusion, and other physically coercive methods to manage disruptive behavior.
For more than a decade, parents of children with developmental and psychiatric problems have pushed to gain more access to mainstream schools and classrooms for their sons and daughters. One unfortunate result, some experts say, is schools’ increasing use of precisely the sort of practices families hoped to avoid by steering clear of institutionalized settings: takedowns, isolation rooms, restraining chairs with straps, and worse.
Continue reading ‘Unrestrained management’
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Over on Another Brick in the Wall, Donna posted an entry about the term “classroom control.” It got me thinking about the concepts of control, management, and teaching. Here’s her lead
Teachers use the term “classroom control” for classroom management techniques. I have also used those terms. Lately I have been thinking about how much control makes sense and if the goal is to keep children simply controlled or to change their behavior in a more lasting way. Change is a process that takes place inside the child before you see it in the behavior.
Continue reading ‘Reflections on control’
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Over on Sines of Learning, Ms. Libb has a post about Fred Jones’ resources on classroom management. In “Tools For Teaching Part I.” Ms. Libb wrote
One of the most useful resources I’ve come across was Fred Jones’s works. Even though the teacher certification program I went through was great in many respects, we had -no- training in classroom management (big surprise, right?). Once I asked the best teacher we had, our math methods teacher who had been a classroom teacher herself, and her response was “The best discipline plan is a good lesson plan.” Riiiiiight. There’s tons of truth to that, but every trainee in the classroom knew we needed more than that!
Ms. Libb, who’s just getting started in teaching, goes on to explain how she then found one of Professor Jones’ books. She provides a review of it, refers to her experience attending a workshop on the methods, and promises a review of Fred Jones Website. Professor Jones’ recommendations about classroom management are good ones. I hope that they serve Ms. Libb well.
Link to Ms. Libb’s post.
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Over on Like Horses to Water, a first-year teacher of English has a post about discipline that caught my eye. In “Thoughts on Discipline #1: Why is discipline so difficult?” the author has captured one of the ideas that I express every semester.
“Classroom management” is one of the biggest challenges for all teachers, and one of the most difficult for us to get help with. In this blog I’ll be harping endlessly on the intensely personal and individualistic nature of teaching, and classroom management is one of the most personal parts of teaching.
It’s harder for new teachers since most of us still have our idealism, and are naturally not mean people. We’re going to win them over with love, we tell ourselves. We will treat them like mature and responsible young people, and they will rise to meet our high expectations. All together now: awwwwwwww…
That’s a noble and worthwhile approach, but it is insufficient. The author goes on to explain that this is an unrealistic view. I’m sure I disagree with some of the other points made in other posts, but there’s a lot of first-person observations that are worth reading in Like Horses to Water.
Link to “Thoughts on Discipline #1….”
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Over on Teachers at Risk Elona Hartjes has a post worth a read. In “Strategies for dealing with kids who get physcially aggressive with teachers- Part 1- Establishing the classroom climate,” Ms. Hartjes explains the value of creating a positive environment with adolescents, including establishing rules (though she prefers to call them “agreements”). Read the entire post.
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