During today’s behavior management class, we spent a little time talking about differential reinforcement of incompatible (DRI) behavior. I asked students to list a behavior they didn’t want to have occur in their own classrooms and then identify an incompatible, pro-social opposite (IPSO) for that behavior. We then talked about using DRI to promote the IPSO. In a later part of the class I harangued the students with the importance of creating a learning environment that promotes academic success for learners, explaining that engaging students in academic tasks at which they can succeed (i.e., learn) was a big-time IPSO.
When I got back to my office, I found that I’d received a notice about a cartoon that makes the same point. Even though I don’t know enough about the success record for Singapore Math, the idea works. Click on the miniature of the cartoon or jump to it on Weapons of Math Destruction.