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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Under the title “Should Kids Be Bribed to Do Well in School?” Amanda Ripley of Time Magazine reported about the outcomes of the large-scale study led by Roland Fryer Jr. that tested whether incentive systems affected students’ achievement. Professor Fryer, who collaborated with many others on this ambitious project (> 270 schools), found that rewards for outcomes (e.g., grades and test scores) were less effective than rewards for what he calls “educational production functions” (activities, such as reading and participating, that led to better learning).
Here is how Ms. Ripley characterizes the outcomes:
Continue reading ‘Fryer’s incentives study’
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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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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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Some time ago, blogger Doug Belshaw had a post providing guidance about managing behavior that I just discovered. In the post Mr. Belshaw gives tips about classroom management that are worth repeating. Although there are 10 items in his list, I’ll just illustrate them using a couple here:
Continue reading ‘Mr. Belshaw’s tips’
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