If a teacher was using Harry Wong’s pragmatic classroom management strategy four things would take place. The teacher would begin by developing and planning a script for the first day of school. Next, they would teach exactly what was expected for every situation. Then the students would be given the chance to practice the situations through role-playing. Finally, the teacher would enforce the routines and expectations that have been taught and practiced by the students.
Glasser’s – Discipline Guided by Choice Theory
William Glasser (1996) believes, “That students can control only their own behavior, and that they all need a sense of belonging, freedom, power and fun. These needs motivate student behavior” (p. 1). I believe that this strategy would best fit middle school and high school students because of the significant amount of student involvement and decision making that is entailed. Charles (2008) stated that,
“Belonging is met by involving students in class maters and seeing they receive attention and recognition from teachers. The need for power is met by giving students responsible tasks to carry out in class and allowing them to participate in decisions about curriculum, activities, and class procedures. Need for fun is met by allowing students to work and talk with others, engage in interesting activities, and share their accomplishments. And the need for freed is met by allowing students to make choices concerning what they will study and how they will demonstrate their accomplishments” (p. 74).
Other elements of the choice theory that lend themselves toward the middle school and high school include: teachers respecting their students, a warm, supportive classroom climate, an environment that is student-centered, school work that is useful and real world, student encouragement, and an opportunity for students to evaluate work they have done and improve it.
I like the fact that within the choice theory model teachers help students make positive choices by making a clear connection between student behavior and consequences. If a teacher was using this strategy in their classroom, “Teachers work together with students to establish class standards of conduct” (Charles, 2008, p. 76) or rules. They also would help the teacher determine what the consequences would be if the class standard of conduct or rules would be broken. For example, if Chris refuses to open her textbook for class the teacher would ask if she has a problem and how they can help them solve it. If the student refuses to open her textbook the teacher would respond by saying that they would like to help, but can’t until they open their book. The teacher would give the Chris about twenty seconds to comply with the instructions, if they don’t comply then the teacher would give them a time-out from the lesson, but not threaten or warn them. The teacher would say, Chris, “I wanted to help you work this out. I am not interested in punishing you. Whatever the problem is, let’s solve it. But for now you must go sit at a table. If you change your mind, come back to your seat” (Charles, 2008, p. 77).
Kalgan, Kyle, and Scott’s - Win-Win Discipline
Kalgan, Kyle, and Scott’s Win-Win Discipline “primary goal is to help students develop long-term, self-managed responsibility” (Charles, 2008, p. 151). There are three pillars that create the strength of the discipline model and they include: the fact that the teacher, parents, and students are all working together to enhance the educational experience, teachers and students work together to create collaborative solutions to problems, and learned responsibility which means putting an emphasis on self-management and self-directed life skills development (Charles, 2008, p. 152-153). I believe this discipline strategy is best fitted for middle school and high school students because of the focus on self-managed responsibility and self-directed life skills development. The Win-Win Discipline strategy requires the teacher to put in place certain preventive measures such as establishing a interesting and challenging curriculum, include cooperative activities where students can work together, and a teacher that adapts curriculum to students needs and interests (Charles, 2008, p. 155).
When a disruption occurs in the classroom, the teacher that uses the Win-Win Discipline strategy would first try to determine which of the seven positions the student seems to be coming from. These can include anything from attention seeking, avoiding failure, being angry, control seeking, being energetic, being board, or being uninformed. Then the teacher would apply the appropriate configuration that will assist the student in behaving more responsibly (Charles, 2008, p. 155). For example, if Shannon is constantly interrupting instruction. The teacher would have to determine Shannon’s position. If her position is attention seeking the teacher could use positive interventions during the moment of disruption. These strategies could include, “Proximity, i-messages, hand-signals, personal attention, appreciation, and affirmation” (Charles, 2008, p. 158). They might follow-up with the situation by talking privately to the student about their need for attention and how they could go about in a more positive behavior (Charles, 2008, p. 158).
Moorish’s - Real Discipline
Ronald Moorish believes that compliance helps students behave properly and provides a basis for later decision-making. Along with this, teachers need to make the rules and ensure that they are obeyed. The second phase focuses on teaching students the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for “proper behavior.” When students do not comply, simply have them redo the behavior in an acceptable way. In phase three, students must learn to consider the needs and rights of other students and school personnel. Teachers have to make some choices, while students may be allowed to make others (Charles, 2008, p. 230 – 234). I believe this discipline strategy would probably work best with elementary aged children because students have very little input in the rules and consequences and in middle school and high school this is necessary.
Moorish recommends eleven steps in his discipline system to teachers. The steps for teachers include:
1. Decide in advance how you want your students to behave.
2. Design the supporting structure.
3. Establish a threshold for behavior at school.
4. Run a two-week training camp.
5 Teach students how to behave appropriately.
6. Teach self-discipline.
7. Give practice in developing concentration.
8. Teach students how to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.
9. Ask students to think about others.
10. Teacher perseverance to students.
11. Teach students to be a good role model for younger students and a good ambassador for the class and school.
The students in this model do very little critical thinking of any kind, this is left up to the teacher. The basis is that when students misbehave the teacher has to analyze if they could have done something different to prevent the problem from occurring in the first place.
Canter’s – Assertive Discipline
The Canters believe that the students have the right to have instruction in a calm, safe environment that doesn’t have any disruptions. They believe that students want and need limits to enforce the proper behavior and it is up to the teacher to make sure this happens (Charles, 2008, p. 69). Charles (2008) stated that the Canters also believe that, “Building trusting, helpful relationships with students, providing positive recognition and support, and taking a proactive approach to dealing with problems of behavior” (p. 69) is important.
The Canters believes that a behavior hierarchy needs to be developed by teachers. This hierarchy, “Lists corrective actions and the order in which they will be imposed within the day and each consequence in the hierarchy is a bit more unpleasant than its predecessor” (Charles, 2008, p. 67). For example, if Tom is disrupting the class, the first time the teacher might say: “Tom, our rule is no talking when the teacher is talking. That’s a warning.” The second or third time Tom continues the behavior the teacher might say to Tom: “Tom you know our rules about interrupting the teacher when I’m talking. You have chosen five minutes time-out at the back table.” If the behavior continues after that, the teacher might say to Tom: “Tom, you know our rules about interrupting the teacher when I’m talking. You have chosen to have your parents called.” (Charles, 2008, p. 67).
I believe that this strategy might be most effective for the elementary level. I find this to be true because the students have very little say in the rules or consequences set up by the teacher. Also, teachers might set up a reward component for this strategy. If students are producing good behaviors then they might get a treat or an extra privilege. Basically it means that, following rules equals privileges. Another reason that this would work best in the elementary is because the teacher is in-charge and the classroom isn’t student-centered.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I have looked at five different classroom management strategies and what developmental level I feel they would be appropriate for. I have given hypothetical misbehavior situations and how they might be handled using each strategy. Also, I have briefly touched on students critical thinking within each strategy. I believe that the key factor for students thinking critically is to ask them their thinking for their behavior and have them assist in the rule making and consequences that follow when you break a rule.
Resources
Charles, C. M. (2008). Building classroom discipline (9th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Glasser, W. (1997). Choice theory and student success. Phi Delta Kappan, 16-21. Retrieved on November 20, 2010 from http://www.weteachwelearn.org/2010/05/%E2%80%9Cchoice-theory%E2%80%9D-and-student-success-glasser-w/
Glasser, W. (1996). Then and now: The theory of choice. Learning, 25(3), 20 – 22.
