A classroom management problem could be defined as any event, behavior,
pattern, feeling, or thought that keeps us from being able to teach to our
fullest potential or keeps our class from learning in the most liberated,
satisfying and effective manner.
Most classroom management problems typically result from one
of the following 3 causes:
In this chapter, we will examine
each of these 3 sources of problems. Each area is important to our overall
success. First, if we do not act purposefully to develop a set of effective
practices, no amount of effort or good intention will be sufficient to achieve
the kinds of results that are possible. Second, if we do not discontinue using
practices that are harmful and/or counter productive we will continue to take
one step forward and two steps back in our efforts. And finally, we need to
examine the ways in which our thinking is often responsible for not only real
problems, but for making our experience of teaching an often joyless chore,
leading to ongoing stress, burn out, and resentment towards our students.
You might be asking, “What about a fourth area – students’ behavior?” Aren’t Students the reason we have problems? That is a compelling idea. It is true that the students bring a great deal into the equation that is problematic. However, there are at least 2 reasons why it is not listed among the causes of classroom problems. First, it does not so much characterize a source of problems as much as it identifies a part of our job as teacher. Teaching students to function in more effective and healthy ways is simply one of the responsibilities of teaching. Second, as you examine the effects of each of the other 3 areas, you will recognize that in many ways we as teachers create our own problems or perpetuate them with ineffective practices and thinking, and for the most part, blaming students will not lead to positive results.
It is tempting to
think of classroom management as a relatively common sense practice and the
existence of problems as a function of students being students. Yet, as you
reflect on the following set of ideas, you will begin to notice that most
problems are first explainable, and second, largely avoidable. Below is a list
of practices to adopt as soon as possible.
1. Create Clarity with All
that You Do
2.
Be a Model of Consistency
3. Incorporate Pedagogy that
Supports Your Management Goals
4. Develop a (Basic) Needs
Satisfying Learning Environment
5. Facilitate the Collective
Social Bonds and Social Contract Among the Students
6. Teach and Practice your
Management Procedures
Transformational Ideas:
Moving to the Next Level
7. Intentionally
Promote a “Psychology or Success” in Your Students
8. Move From the role of a
Manager to that of Leader
9. Create Communal Bonds
and Community among the Students in the Class
Most classroom management problems are related to a lack of clarity in some form. A close examination of any class will bear this out. Let’s examine 4 areas where clarity can be seen to mitigate problems. First, students need clear expectations. Without them, they are forced to guess. Much of what we call misbehavior is simply students guessing how to act (or we could say, guessing wrong) in ways that we do not like. Second, the teacher needs to infuse a sense of intention and movement to the class. When the class experiences the deliberate movement toward a goal they are much less likely to be bored, distracted, or feel their work lacks purpose. Third, students need to be given clear boundaries. Boundaries help students understand where lines exist. In their absence, problems arise. In part, this is due to the fact that inevitably students come to any class with a wide range of previously learned behavior and expectation for boundaries. Fourth, abstractions such as respect, listening, effort, responsibility, etc, need to be “operationalized” or they will remain only abstractions. Many teachers complain that their students lack these traits, yet do not make the concepts concrete and practical for their students. Clarity can only exist in a concrete and observable world. Words can only point to behavior. Clarity, therefore requires concrete purposeful action.
Chapter Reflection – Recall the last class that you observed that you would call well managed. Did you get the sense that the students had a clear sense of the expectations? Recall the last class that you observed that you would consider poorly managed. Did you get the sense that the students had a clear sense of the expectations?
Along with Clarity, if the element
of consistency exists in a classroom, things will run relatively smoothly. Even
a flawed set of strategies, if applied consistently, will result in relatively
effective results. How are problems and
the idea of consistency related? Let’s look at 3 of the main ways. First, the
consistency of one’s actions promotes or detracts from other’s sense that a
person is trustworthy. Part of being trusted by students is being reliable.
When our decision making process is perceived as too subjective, or random,
students lose trust in us. The loss of trust usually translates ultimately into
a loss of commitment on the part of the student. Second, when the teacher
follows through and consistently implements consequences, it makes the
(concrete and practical) statement that the agreement (our social contract,
class rules, bill or rights, etc.) is primary and the teacher’s subjective
interpretation is secondary. Third, when
we are working with a student or a class to help shape behavior, reinforcing
more functional behavior is necessary. In many cases, even a small amount of
contradictory reinforcement can undermine our efforts. Consistency helps
clarify the cause and effect thinking we are trying to build. Inconsistency
confuses it.
Related to consistency, a useful
principle to maintain as a teacher is that “it is not the severity of the
consequence that will make it effective, it is the certainty.” Consider the
consequences that we negotiate everyday. Typically we take those that are
certain more seriously than those that are more severe but less likely.
Chapter Reflection: Imagine,
if you we a driver who had a tendency to like to drive faster than the speed
limit, which intervention would be more likely to modify your behavior
3. Incorporate Pedagogy that
Supports Your Management Goals
If you offer students a curriculum
defined by monotonous tasks, mindless busy work and exclusively teacher
directed learning, expect problems. Students involved in passive learning often
use disruptive behavior to achieve a sense of control, engagement,
satisfaction, and fun. Students who are engaged, challenged, and see a real
world value to the work will be much more interested in learning than creating
problems for you. When students feel
successful, they associate that success with the source (you the teacher), when
they are bored and unsuccessful they associate that failure experience with the
teacher as well. Teachers who accumulate positive association over time, are
able to use that “emotional capital” later when they need to make request. We will examine this idea in more detail in
chapter 13.
If the students’ basic needs for power, competence, belonging, freedom, and fun are not met by what you intend for them to experience, they will find ways to meet those needs by other means. Often those other means include unwanted/problem behavior. If we look at a student’s actions from within the lens “Is this student doing what I want?” When that student misbehaves, we have little useful insight for how to solve the problem. However, if we examine student’s actions within the lens “What basic needs are the students attempting to meet with this behavior?” We are well on our way to making sense of the problem, and identifying solutions.
We are the primary force in the
room that can help the students become responsible to one another and develop a
set of social bonds that support the group’s capacity to function. Rules answer
the question, “What am I supposed to do in here?” The Social Contract answers
the question, “What –if I did it – would help the class function more
effectively, and best ensure my rights as a member?” Few students feel a sense
of ownership over rules. However, bonds, by their very nature, are owned by
those that share them, and are therefore are much more likely to lead to
responsible behavior.
6. Teach and Practice your
Management Procedures
If your students do not know how
to behave, listen, transition from one thing to another, interact respectfully,
work cooperatively in a group, resolve conflict, process failure, line-up, act
when you leave the room, etc. It is ultimately your responsibility to teach
them these things, or stop complaining when they do them poorly. In chapter 12,
we will discuss strategies for promoting this area that we might call
“Technical Management.”
As you become more skilled at recognizing and executing the 6 ideas listed above, you may find yourself ready to stretch your efforts toward a more advanced set of ideas for achieving effectiveness. These next 3 ideas represent avenues for not only reducing behavior problems but for helping your students transform their current level of functioning into one in which they can truly thrive.
In chapter 8, we will explore in-depth the 3 core psychological orientations of the successful learner, and how to promote them. They are an internal locus of control, a sense of acceptance and belonging, and a mastery orientation to learning. As you will recognize upon examining the factors that promote or detract from one’s psychology of success, much of what are accepted as common discipline practices actually act to promote a “failure psychology” in students.
As you progress through the book you will be given ideas for thinking about classroom management as not simply a process of keeping students on task and motivated, but for helping them become self-responsible. These ideas are synthesized in chapter 17.
9. Create Communal Bonds and
Community among the Students in the Class. Societal bonds answer the
question, “What am I required to do, and what can I expect from others?” These
bonds are critical for helping reduce problems and providing a structured
environment. Yet, if students experience their class as a community it opens up
a wide range of new ways that they can grow both personally and
collectively. Communal bonds are
characterized by the question, “What can I do to make the collective better?”
As students increasingly take on this mindset, there will be a corresponding
decrease in the number of classroom management problems. Moreover, problems
themselves become opportunities for growth. Developing community is discussed
specifically in chapter 18.
Things That We
Need To Stop Doing – They Promote More Problems than They Solve
Most ineffective classroom management practices are done under the assumption that they are on some level “working.” As we later examine the notion of the phrase “it works,” as in “it works for me,” or “it is the only thing that works for my students,” we will begin to recognize the fallacious logic that keeps us bound to practices that don’t work, or operate to maintain a dysfunctional dynamic in the our classrooms. While the practices listed below are relatively common, when observed in action, the problems that they eventually generate become evident. All of them appear to the user to have a desired effect, and in many cases will help the user experience a sense of efficacy in the short term, but each will inevitably leave a long-term residue that is counterproductive to one’s ultimate success. For many of us, these ideas may have been modeled by or suggested to us by teachers whom we respected. Even so, that is no reason to keep hindering our own success. And as we recall those teacher’s practices more critically, we will likely recognize that while they may have been generally effective, they paid a price for the use of any of the practices listed below.
Figure 2.2: Things that You
Need to Stop Doing if You Want Fewer Management Problems
1. Relying on Bribes,
Gimmicks and Short-term Fixes
2. Incorporating Negative
Strategies, Assuming they will Eventually Produce Positive Results
3. Using Punishments and/or
a “Pain-Based Logic” in Your Discipline
4. Intermingling the
Personal with the Performance
1. Trusting
Bribes and Gimmicks to Motivate Students
Short-term fixes such as bribes and gimmicks may obtain an apparent desired outcome today, but in most cases they will erode the long-term quality of the classroom discipline and/or motivation. Bribes such as prizes for desired behavior, giving preferred activity time, rewarding students with inactivity (free time or avoiding work), stickers, stars, and gimmicks such as names on the board, or colored behavioral charts seem like good ideas on the surface. But as we progress further in the book, you will better recognize that each of these strategies actually does more harm than good, in the long-term. Bribes by definition make the statement “you need to be given something of no educational value to con you into doing something educational.” The students’ need for bribes will inherently grow, as their intrinsic appreciation for learning will become suppressed. Later, in chapter 9, we will explore how extrinsic rewards used purposefully can promote clarity of expectations as opposed to operating as bribes. Bribing students with “Preferred activity time” makes the implicit statement that “I know that what you are learning is not meaningful or engaging, but do it because you must, and later you will get to do something that you really like to do.” In chapter 13, we will discuss how creating an engaging learning environment will make the idea of preferred activity time obsolete. Colored cards and names on the board work on the principle that public shame will modify behavior. For some students this might be true in the short-term, but in the end, these strategies will work against the development of responsible behavior and the reduction of misbehavior. While they are common and seductive, in chapter 22, we will explore the many reasons why they create more problems than they solve.
2. Incorporating
Negative Strategies, Assuming they will Eventually Produce Positive Results
If you are waiting for your complaining, lectures, guilt, shaming, put downs or any other negative actions (or more accurately characterized as passive and hostile, inactions) to translate into better student behavior, it is a safe bet that you will be waiting forever. These strategies may provide the teacher a momentary relief from the feeling of responsibility, and feel like action, but they are at best useless actions that students become immune to very quickly, and at worst, toxic and destructive influences that erode the motivation and emotional climate in the class. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction and these actions will breed a negative response from students that exhibits itself in a whole range of classroom problems from apathy to conflict. You can’t lose these practices soon enough. Chapter 8, and others will offer practical alternatives.
Chapter Reflection: Recall someone you knew who constantly told you what you did that was (according to them) wrong. How did it make you feel? Did it motivate you to succeed?
3. Using
Punishments and/or a “Pain-Based Logic” in Your Discipline
The deliberate use of punishment presumes that if one administers enough pain to a student(s) it will result in that student changing their behavior (assuming that the teacher is trying to be helpful and is not merely sadistic) This same logic goes for showing disapproval, put downs, or anything else that implies the use of grief in attempt to modify behavior or “teach a lesson.” There are 2 problems with this logic. First, punishment does not do a very good job of teaching lessons, unless the lesson is how not to get caught and/or how to avoid the source of the punishment. Second, introducing more pain into the equation of a class environment will inevitably create a ripple effect that will manifest itself in such behavior as rebellion, displaced aggression toward among students, negative identity promotion (see chapter 16), as well as increasing the level of fear and anxiety.
In chapter 20, we take a closer look at why this “pain-based logic” has remained so prevalent, and how to move away from it to something both healthier and more effective. In chapter 10, we will examine why logical and related consequences are a vastly more desirable alternative to punishments for both changing behavior and encouraging more self-responsible thinking and actions on the part of the students.
4. Intermingling the Personal with the
Performance
It is tempting to try to leverage our relationship with the students into better performance and/or behavior, but in the end, it will work against all 3 – the relationship, the level of performance, and the quality of behavior. Let’s examine why. When a student is given personal praise (i.e., you are good because you are done) for desired performance, or given personal criticism (i.e., you are not good because you are not done) for undesirable performance, the line between self and actions is confused. There are a whole series of problems that stem from this practice, yet, let us briefly identify two of them. First, it results in a student who spends an unnecessary amount of time thinking about if they have pleased the teacher rather than learning to love the process of learning for its own sake. In the younger grades this is experienced as love and the loss of love depending on one’s performance. In the later grades this is experienced as the teacher’s public comparison of students, playing favorites with those that perform better in their course, or threatening to lower grades for students that “act up.” Second, it introduces an external and random/subjective logic into the class. The result is a diffusion of the clarity of classroom expectations and students’ internal locus of control, in which students think and act tentatively, keeping one eye on the teacher, as opposed to developing their own sense of self-direction. This invites more misbehavior. Instead of students learning to function for self-responsible reasons, they behave to the degree they want to please the teacher. This is a merely unhealthy in situation in which the students desire to please the teacher and a nightmare in situations in which they do not. Alternatives to this problem-making practices are explored in more detail in chapters 8 and 9, and include maintaining a high personal regard for all students, focusing practical and specific feedback on their work, and keeping the personal and the performance messages distinct and separate.
Assessing student participation can be a healthy and effective strategy. It can help clarify and reinforce student effort and investment in the process. But 9 times out of 10 in practice, it is used as a subtle of not so subtle form of manipulation. It needs to be done intentionally and thoughtfully or not done at all. Appendix X, outlines a positive and effective system for assessing student participation.
Short-term fixes like any form of immediate gratification will be difficult to give up. If you try, you will likely be tempted to resort to them once again. However, if you are successful in resisting their appeal, and put your efforts into developing a set of effective long-term practices, you will eventually see that they were keeping you stuck in a rut. Yet, if you do not reflect on the beliefs and misconceptions that first attracted you to these ineffective strategies, you may find an irresistible desire to revert to them once again.
Thinking That
Leads to Problems
If you are having classroom management problems it is not enough to find a set of new practices. It is also important to understand why you were drawn to the ineffective practices in the first place. As Eckhart Tolle writes in the Power of Now, “If we do not change the thinking that has created the problem making conditions in our lives, even if our situation changes, we will soon find a new set of problems to replace the old ones” Often just the way that we think can be a produce the experience of problems and unhappiness. Sometimes our thoughts can be our own worse enemy. Lets examine a few of the primary sources of thinking that keep us ineffective and limit the enjoyment of our work.
Figure
2.3: Types of Thinking That Lead to Management Problems
1. Faulty Assumptions and
Misconceptions
2. An Accidental and/or
External Mindset
3. Destructive Mental
Patterns, Dramas, and Games
4. A Problem-Loving
Lifestyle
5. The “It works” Fallacy
30. Faulty
Assumptions and Misconceptions
Many of the practical as well as emotional problems that we experience in the area of classroom management stem from our faulty assumptions about our role as teacher. Here we examine a few of them.
Faulty Assumption 1: I have
to choose between being nice or mean?
Why is it faulty? – because
effectiveness has almost nothing to do with being nice or mean. It has
everything to do with consistency and clarity. But if we had to choose, there
is a great deal of research to suggest that students work harder for teachers
they like, so being mean is simply counter productive. So when you hear the
advice, “Don’t smile until Christmas,” offered by someone with good intentions,
you might want to ignore it.
Faulty Assumption 2: I have to choose between
being strict or easy
Why is it faulty? – because this is a false choice.
There is a 3rd option. Be effective. Attempting to be strict (4-style
teacher) or easy (3-style teacher) will be inherently stressful, and neither
will be particularly effective. Chapter 4 will help you conceive this 3rd
option more clearly.
Faulty Assumption 3: It’s me against them.
Why is it faulty? – because it is simply not true.
Seeing the students as the enemy is a mental projection. If you believe they
are against you they will be against you. If you believe that they are on your
side, and you let them know that you are firmly on their side they eventually
will be.
Faulty Assumption 4: If I let students know how
inadequate their behavior is they will realize it is no good and will find a
more effective behavior.
Why is it faulty? – because it is a poor strategy, and
will do little to improve unwanted behavior and a lot to encourage it. In
Chapter 8, we will discuss this practice, which could be termed “chronicling
failure,” or “negative recognitions,” more carefully as well as its more
effective alternatives.
Faulty Assumption 5: It’s the students’ fault.
Why is it faulty? – because, in most cases, the
conditions of the problem behavior were manufactured by the teacher. Students
are responsible for their behavior. And helping promote accountability is an
important pillar of good management, but one of the signs of a good teacher is
that they take responsibility for the conditions that are contributing to
problems.
Faulty Assumption 6: Being passive aggressive
will work eventually.
Why is it faulty? - because indirect means to “getting students back,” is a cowardly and ultimately ineffective strategy. If the teacher fears confrontation, or following through with what they have set out, the social contract is destined to fail. And no amount of complaining about your students to others will improve their behavior.
31.
An Accidental and External Mindset
Good teachers exhibit an internal locus of control. Their mindset is one of “I will find a way to accomplish my goals.” Those that blame, externalize, play the victim, look for excuses, wish and hope for a better day and generally view life as fatalistic, will flounder in every area of teaching. A useful principle to maintain is that in any situation, we have 3 good choices, and an endless number of bad choices. Our positive choices are, 1) take action, 2) genuinely accept what is, or 3) remove yourself from the situation. Any other choice will lead to problems or unhappiness. In chapter 19 we will explore this idea further.
Chapter Reflection: The next time you are in the faculty room of your local school, take the opportunity to listen to the discussion. How quickly does it turn to bashing and blaming students? Do you hear more internal or external locus of control?
32.
Destructive Mental Patterns, Dramas, and
Games
In the next chapter, we will
examine some of the implicitly operating negative unconscious games,
psychological dramas, and emotional reactive patterns that profoundly effect
life in any classroom. Power struggles, ego contests, victim dramas and
obsessing on the past, are examples of problems that are rooted entirely in our
thinking. They are the result of unconscious and reactive mental conditioning.
The experience of a problem condition may seem very real to us, but until we
recognize that we are the one that is keeping it active, it will keep us in its
grip. To the degree that these implicit games and dramas operate, we will act
reactively/accidentally as opposed to intentionally/consciously, and our class
will suffer. They function to destroy the sense of clarity and the emotional
safety in a class.
4. The “It Works” Fallacy
Beware of any phrase that includes the term “it works.” Such
as “this is what works with these students” “or “it is the only thing that
works,” or “Well it works for me.” Much like the term the “Real World,” it acts
as a rhetorical red herring (i.e., diversion and/or
apology). Strictly, by definition just about anything that anyone or any
organization does has worked or works to some degree. For example, a life of
crime works for many people for a while. Medicating one’s problems “works” for
the addict. It could even be argued that
slavery “worked” in this country for hundreds of years. But the question is,
does something work to achieve a truly desirable outcome? And even if the
outcome seems to be desirable, in the short term, or within some narrow
perspective (remember all those that will defend really bad or evil ideas like
slavery because they have been working for a long time and would be too much
trouble to change), it may require a broader examination or a consideration of
what that practice is producing in the long-term that is necessary to recognize
the function or dysfunction of any practice.
The following chart (2.x) depicts a comparison of two
concepts. One represents the practical and psychological epistemology of the phrase
“it works” referring to classroom management practices. The other is what could
be considered the empirical reality related to what classroom management
practices actually could be judged to work.
Chart 2.x: Deconstructing the Psychology Behind Phrases that
include “It Works.”
|
The “It Works” Fallacy |
What Actually Works in Reality |
|
Practices that are justified by such phrases as “it works
for me,” or “it works with my students,” or “it is the only thing that works
with the students at this school.” |
Practices that demonstrate efficacy in both theory and
practice. |
|
Mental constructions/concepts. |
Bases in Empirical Reality. |
|
Practices that make the teacher feel like they are doing
something and having an effect |
Grounded in the laws of human behavior, and cause and
effect. Takes into account human needs and nature. |
|
Helps the teacher reinforce and confirm their constructed
view of reality – usually characterized by the concept “the real world”
described in chapter 3. |
Through trial and error, praxis, hypothesis testing, and a
process of reflective analysis the teacher learns what actually produced
desirable effects. |
|
Typically produces a short-term effect that superficially
confirms that there is a desired effect |
Produces a long-term positive effect. In essence makes
tomorrow more functional as a result of what was done today. |
|
Like
other subtle addictions or coping mechanisms, there is some cyclical relief
from the perceived problem condition as a result of implementing the
strategy. But the cycle (problem, relief, dormant period, reappearance, need
for coping mechanism) will repeat itself unless the teacher experiences some
need for it to change (usually coming from a cause external to the
situation). |
As with any functional behavior, teacher interventions are
consciously and freely chosen to meet the specific demands of the situation.
They are neither reactive nor compulsive. |
|
Is familiar enough to students that they do not resist or
question the logic. Often this is due to the strategies being similar to
strategies that are used in the students’ home lives. |
May or may not feel initially familiar to students, but
after a period of use, the are inherently more satisfying and recognized for
their ability to promote more functional and healthy behavior and
relationships. |
|
Practices typically achieve the (often superficial)
appearance of having an emotional impact. Practices work to display the power
of the teacher on a surface level. |
Practices lead to real learning on the part of the
students and therefore eventually true behavior change and maturity.
Practices work to display the teacher’s intentions to promote more functional
behavior. |
|
Requires an ongoing “cognitive rationalization” to self
and others to maintain. Therefore, conscious awareness is essentially an enemy, as
it illuminates the faulty reasoning and unconscious motivations behind the
strategy. |
Is consistently confirmed in both principle and outcome. Therefore, conscious awareness is essentially a friend in
the process. It leads to greater levels of understanding. |
|
Examples include: Punishments Public Shaming (names on the board or colored cards) Teacher as boss/judge Use of excessive extrinsic rewards Personal Praise and disappointment |
Examples include: Promoting a success psychology Meeting basic needs Taking meaningful action Promoting Responsibility Promoting clarity of expectations Promoting Intrinsic motivation |
Invariably the use of practices defined by the “it works with my
students” mentality is accompanied by a corresponding view of human nature and
the nature of classroom management. This view is characterized by a fixed view
of behavior (see examination of Self Theories in chapter 8) and an
external view of causality. This
mentality is defined by phrases such as “Students just are (a certain way).”
For example “these students just have trouble listening.” This external and
fixed ability/intelligence mentality assumes that problems are inevitable and
so by definition perpetual. As a result the teacher accepts the practical reality
that solutions will require a form of perpetually necessary short-term
interventions, and the psychological reality that that is the best that one can
do.
Does a practice work? Innately everything “works.” Yet that
is not the essential question. If one wants to become more effective, the
question should be “Is the practice helping me accomplish, in the long-term,
what I are trying to achieve as a teacher?”
Much like phrases that include the words “it works,” phrases that
include the words “It does not work” can be just as based in flawed logic. Sound practices will work. Someone is
currently using that sound practice to get positive results with their
students. When we use such phrases as “I tried that but it did not work,”
especially related to the type-1 teacher brand of strategies, we might listen
for one of the following excuses. First, a lack of commitment to the
practice. Second, a lack of skill
necessary to make it work. Third, a lack of understanding of the practice or a
picture of what it looks like when it is coming to fruition. With enough time, skill and knowledge of what
we want in the end, any practice will work with any set of students, with a
very rare exception.
Chapter Reflection: Recall
the last time you heard a teacher include the phrase “that won’t work with
these kids.” Do your own investigative research and see if you can discover any
teachers that are in fact succeeding with that strategy with similar students.
One the one hand, occasional problems just come with the job
of teaching. On the other hand, many of our problems are actually manufactured
by us - the teacher. That is a difficult pill to swallow, for many of us, but
as we examine our own practices and thinking, we begin to uncover many of the
reasons why we face the problems with our classes (or children, or teams) that
we do. When we incorporate a more
effective set of practices, stop believing flawed practices are “working,” and
spend less mental energy creating our own imaginary problems, we will be free to
be the kind of teacher that we are capable of being. And our students will
thank us.
Reflection/Journal Prompts:
1.TBD
2.
1. TBD
2.