TCM Table of Contents – Classroom Management
Resources – School Climate
– John Shindler – TCM Workshops
Chapter 4:
Intentionally Promoting Clear and Shared Classroom Expectations: The
Cornerstone of the Effective Classroom
From Transformative Classroom Management. By
John Shindler. ©2008
Reproduction is
unlawful without permission
In
this Chapter:
- What
are classroom expectations?
- Where
do expectations exist?
- Levels
of classroom expectations
- Why
to be concerned with intentionally promoting classroom expectations
- Strategies
which are most effective at intentionally promoting clear, positive, and
shared expectations
- Examining
classroom expectations within the One and Two-Style classroom management
approaches
What
are Classroom Expectations?
In any classroom, expectations are
ever-present. Whether they were promoted intentionally or unintentionally,
whether they exist in the minds of students consciously or unconsciously, they
are there continuously defining the feel and function of the classroom. Students use their expectations to answer
the questions in the class. These include the practical questions such as:
- What
are the directions for this activity?
- How
am I being graded on this project?
- What
would happen if I decided to get off task?
And they include the larger questions, such
as:
- Do
I find the learning in which I am involved meaningful to me?
- Does
the teacher respect me?
- Am
I emotionally safe in this class?
It is useful to recognize that all teachers
are constantly projecting expectations, and all students are continuously
interpreting the expectations for any situation (Hargreaves, Hester &
Mellor, 1975). Things that are said, things that are done, patterns of action,
body language and one’s tone of voice all send out information that students
invariably interpret. Over time these interpretations lead students to
construct answers to their questions and make judgments about what they
understand is expected within the class. Put simply, students learn to expect through what they have experienced and
observed in the past.
Wentzel,
Battle & Looney (2000) found that half the students in middle schools that
they studied reported not knowing what the teacher expected.
Where
do Expectations Exist?
Indispensable to the transformative classroom
will be the presence of intention and
awareness. The means to achieving
these qualities will be dependent on our ability to develop clear and shared
expectations among the members of our class. In fact, any classroom’s
expectations only exist to the degree that they are clear and shared. In the
effective class, students know where things are going, how they fit in, what is
expected of them, and trust that others do as well (Wentzel, Battle &
Looney, 2000).
The idea that expectations exist as shared
concepts and ideas seems rather abstract. However, an examination of a few
classrooms will help validate this view.
For instance, most of us have observed a
class in which all the students seemed to be on the same page and knew what was
expected of them with very little “telling” on the part of the teacher. Contrastingly,
we have observed classes in which there were long lists of rules on the wall
and the teacher made constant pleas for orderly behavior, yet the majority of
students seemed to be working off conflicting scripts and the energy in the
class could best be characterized as divergent and chaotic.
Chapter Reflection 4-a: Recall the classes
that you have observed that seemed to have a shared sense of purpose and
direction. What do you think contributed to that environment?
So how do we create a classroom in which our
students are all in congruence about those practical classroom realities that
would work to their benefit? In this chapter, we will examine various
strategies for creating intentional expectations.
TYPES OF CLASSROOM EXPECTATIONS
Before we examine how one would go about
attempting to promote shared intentional expectations, it is useful to make
some distinctions about the various types of expectations that operate within
any classroom, and the ways that this idea will be used throughout the
remainder of the book. It might be helpful to classify the expectations within
any class from least to most conscious and/or conspicuous beginning with 1)
unconscious expectations, followed by 2) explicit but unwritten expectations,
and finally, 3) written rules, classroom constitutions or social contracts.
Previously, we examined the idea of unconsciously conveyed expectations. We
noted that as teachers, we need not even try to communicate our biases,
preconceptions and motives. They will find a way of affecting what we say and
do (Weinsstein, Gregory, & Strambler, 2004). Recall the Pygmalion in the
classroom study (Rosenthal & Jacobs, 1968), in which the teachres were told
that some of their students were “rising stars.” These teachers were entirely
unaware that their implicit expectations were having such a dramatic effect on
how they were teaching. Moreover, research has shown that students we like get
better grades in our classes (Pianta, Hamre, & Stuhlman, 2003).
Because of the powerful effect our expectations
can have, recognizing and making the deliberate effort to bring our unconscious
expectations to our conscious awareness will be critical. While it is possible
to project primarily intentional expectations to our students, it is important
to keep somewhere in the back of our minds that we will struggle to promote
healthy and functional explicit expectations if we have a substantial amount of
unexamined dysfunctional expectations operating like computer viruses to
corrupt our intentional efforts.
The number of expectations that could
potentially exist in any classroom is countless. If we began to list all the
behaviors that we desired from our students, we could identify hundreds. So
while it is tempting to try to capture all of our expectations in a set of
written rules, it will be ultimately counterproductive. Therefore we need to
make a distinction between the mechanisms for achieving some basic guiding
ground rules/principles and promoting the endless number of other expectations
that we want students to hold. Later we will examine the process for creating
and implementing a formal social contract. While the social contract will
include all levels of expectations in principle, in practice it will focus
primarily on the formal guiding principles in the class. It will include the
basic rules that the class has agreed to follow and the logical consequences
when students choose to violate those rules. For example, the social contract
may include a rule related to being on time, and a consequence for being late.
The rule will include an expectation (i.e., there is a value to being on time),
but it is further formalized when it is termed a “rule” (e.g., when you are
late, then the consequence for violating that rule is that you will lose the
opportunity to do _____.)
In this chapter, we will examine how our
largely unwritten expectations are promoted. While the development of the
social contract will act in concert with our efforts to promote our classroom
expectations in general, we take a systematic approach to the development of
the countless number of unwritten expectations within the class.
Chapter Reflection 4-b: I recently heard two
teachers talking early in this school year. They were each lamenting that they
struggled to get the kind of learning outcomes that they wanted because of some
of the misbehavior exhibited by their students. One of the teachers expressed
the belief that he did not feel he should have to actively help the student behave
better, that “they should be able to do that by now.” The other teacher took
the position that part of his job was to support more functional behavior on
the part of his students. Which teacher would you guess had fewer behavioral
problems as the year progressed? What are your feelings about each teacher’s
position?
The
Benefits of Promoting Clear and Purposeful Shared Classroom Expectations
There are a whole host of benefits to
intentionally promoting clear and shared classroom expectations. A survey of
the research demonstrates many of them that would be largely anticipated such
as:
·
Students know what to expect and they
understand the learning tasks better (Wentzel, 2006).
·
Things in the class run more smoothly
with less confusion (Grusec & Goodnow, 1994).
·
Students have a clearer sense of what
it takes to perform (Hines, Cruickshank & Kennedy, 1985).
However, other benefits of clear expectations
are less obvious, such as:
- Expectations
that are clear and shared are essential to help foster the cause-and-effect
relationship between actions and consequences that are at the heart of
functional frames, an effective social contract, and the logic to the
reasonable and related consequences for that contract. Without clarity and
a shared understanding, consequences feel arbitrary. The result is that
they will have less benefit and be experienced as more punitive and result
in more resentment and less behavior change.
- The
absence of clear expectations will create practical problems and an
environment of uneasiness in the class that will lead to confusion,
frustration and hostility when expectations clash.
- An
intentional approach to promoting expectations helps them become more
concrete and meaningful. When expectations exist as words (or even
less-effective privately held assumptions), they remain abstractions. They
must be “operationalized” to be effective.
- Expectations
help the class interpret events and actions as examples or non-examples of
“things that are making us better.” For example, a funny comment can be either
hurtful or act to amuse the group. The clarity of the expectation provides
a means for helping members of the group understand which it is. The
result is a class that feels more liberated to act, with less fear that
what they do or say will be unwanted or unacceptable to others.
- A
foundation of clear and shared expectations is essential for creating
either a 2- or 1-Style classroom. In the absence of clear expectations,
the teacher-centered class will inherently manifest 4-Style characteristics,
and attempts at student-centered management will descend into a 3-Style
environment.
Chapter reflection 4-c: Examine an environment
in which there is a lot of anger, resentment, and pain-giving. As you examine
it more closely, do you find a desire on the part of those involved to create
clear expectations? Perhaps, if they are tired of the frustration but have
developed a habit of attack and retaliation, you will notice that the
expectations are rather vague, and the parties like to keep it that way. Why do
you think this is?
As teachers, the more deliberate and
intentional we are about promoting our classroom expectations, the more
effective we will be. Moreover, the expectations that guide the class will be
those that are desirable and that lead to the mutual benefit of teacher and
student.
Intentionally
Creating Positive Expectations: Which Strategies Are Most Effective?
As one examines how expectations are
intentionally cultivated in a classroom, it is evident that some strategies demonstrate
a greater capacity to promote quality behavior than others. We could say that
the most effective intentional strategies would be those that function to do
the following:
- Promote
in the minds of students a greater sense of clarity of the expectation.
- Promote
in the minds of students positive associations with the desired behavior
implied in the expectation.
Using this principle, if we were to evaluate the effectiveness of the most commonly incorporated strategies according to their ability to create positive expectations, we would observe a substantial variation in effectiveness. An approximation of the effectiveness ratings for each strategy is offered in Figure 4.1.
Figure 4.1: Approximate rating of common management practices related to their ability to create clarity of expectations and a positive association with the expected behavior, from most (four stars) to least effective (no stars).
|
Practice |
Clarity rating |
Affect rating |
Overall |
related to the management effectiveness continuum |
|
|
Purposeful Action § Consistency § Follow-through Positive Recognition Clarifying Statements/Mantras Clarifying Questions Expectation Cues Debriefing Written Expectations |
+ + + + + + + |
+ + N+ N+ N+ + N |
**** **** *** *** *** **** **½ |
Strategies
that do a great deal to create cause and effect clarity and positive
associations related to expectations Use
promotes movement up the effectiveness continuum |
|
|
Personal Recognition/Praise Warnings Requests |
N N+ - |
N+ N N- |
* * ½* |
Strategies
that do little to promote expectations and create inconsequential or
confusing emotional climates Use
promotes little movement up or down continuum |
|
|
Negative recognitions Irrational or Negative Actions Threats and Put |
N- - - |
- - - |
½ * 0 0 |
Strategies
that do very little to promote clarity and do a great deal to create negative
associations with the desired behavior Use
promotes mostly movement down the effectiveness continuum |
|
|
Boundary Setting Assessing Behavior |
NR NR |
NR NR |
|
Strategies
that vary greatly depending on how they are used |
|
+ demonstrates
high levels of effectiveness in this area
N+ demonstrates
some effectiveness
N is
neutral or inconsequential
N- does
a bit more harm than good but has an effect
- does
mostly harm
NR (no
rating) can vary from + to – depending on how they are used
Each of these strategies rated in Figure 4.1
is examined in more depth in the following sections, beginning with the most effective
and progressing to the least.
Purposeful Action
Purposeful action
on the part of the teacher is rated at the top of the
list for the simple reason that actions really do speak louder than words. No matter
what we say, students learn about our class from what we do. In a sense, words
are technically action, but in an operational sense they can also be perceived
as inaction. Actions demonstrate that we are committed to our words. Actions
take more effort than words, so students learn what we value and who we are by
what we make the effort to do. Conversely, inaction sends a powerful message as
well. When we fail to follow through on our agreements or responsibilities, we
undermine the cause-and-effect relationship between choices and consequences in
the class, and shift the locus of control away from the student (internally) to
ourselves (externally). When we complain as opposed to take action to change
the problem, we show the students that we are more interested in image
management as opposed to the quality of the learning in the class.
Our actions are the primary means by which we
promote the responsibility-freedom social frame in the class. These lessons are
learned in most cases through indirect or social learning. For example, when
there is a classroom expectation that is collectively understood (e.g.,
following directions, show respect to other students, fulfill one’s student
responsibilities, etc.), and students successfully meet it, we can take action
to give the students more freedom or self-determination related to that
expectation. Positive recognitions will also be useful as we will discuss
later, but a change in practical action will have an even greater effect on the
development of the expectation. Conversely, when we have set up an expectation
that implies that if the student does not do A, then as teacher we are
responsible to do B (e.g., deliver a consequence, support the student’s efforts
to improve their behavior, etc.) and do not follow through, it sends a very
concrete and observable message to students that the expectation is weak or
non-existent.
Chapter Reflection 4-d: Recall teachers whom
you have had in the past, or have observed recently. Contrast those teachers
who tended to take action and followed through on agreements versus those
teachers who did a lot of telling but seldom took action. In which classrooms
were the expectations clearer? Which strategy was more effective at changing
behavior?
Positive Recognitions
What we term
positive recognitions are incidents in which the teacher
points out that something that is happening or has happened is beneficial for
an individual student and/or the class as a whole. What is being positively recognized
or encouraged can take the form of good ideas, quality performance or effort,
behavior that meets important expectations, and/or any behavior that is judged
to be valuable. Positive recognitions have a powerful effect. However, we need
to first distinguish them from what we term personal recognitions or praise. Positive recognitions highlight behavior, whereas personal
recognitions/praise call attention to the agent doing the behaving. Praise, by
its nature, leads to dependence on an external source, and is not readily
associated with learning. Positive recognitions create clarity of the task and
encourage the student’s own internal goals and interests.
Let’s examine an example related to
listening. A common phrase that many primary teachers use is, “I like the way
Maria is listening.” Compare that phrase to, “It’s great that we are listening
so well, notice how much easier it is to . . . ” The first phrase may sound
like a positive recognition at first, but let’s examine it more closely. What do
students infer when they hear it? Maria will hear something to the effect, “the
teacher likes me because I am being good.” The other students likely hear, “the
teacher likes Maria because she is being good.” It does little to create
clarity of the expectation or to reinforce the need for the expectation.
Personal recognitions are more effective than negative recognitions such as
mentioning who is not listening, but they run the risk of having negative
effects associated with praise; that is, operating as an emotional extrinsic
reinforcement of persons, not behavior (Kohn, 1999).
Consider the phrase, “I see this group has
taken care to organize all the ideas that they brainstormed before they started
to create their poster; this will help the quality of their end result.” It
represents an example of a positive recognition of behavior, in this case the
collective behavior of a group. Notice the specificity of the feedback. The
effect will be that it will feel positive and encouraging to those that
received the recognition, but it does not sound personal. And it will have the
effect of modeling that quality performance to the other students.
Positive recognitions can be focused
primarily on either the collective, or on particular individuals or groups.
There are advantages to each level of attention.
The advantages of recognizing a collective
accomplishment include:
- The
group feels that, in a sense, it has “won as a team.” This experience will
help develop communal bonds within the group.
- The
members of the group are given the chance to recognize that it is possible
to trust that others will do their part as they do their part.
- The
focus of the reinforcement is more readily associated with the
accomplishment of the behavior rather than personalities.
While these emotions experienced by the
members of the recognized group are subtle, over time they can have a powerful
cumulative effect. The group feels a progressive sense of pride and cohesion as
their efforts are acknowledged. With time, the group begins to associate
collective function with fulfilling the need for belonging. In addition, the
growing level of trust generates acceptance and a feeling of emotional ease.
Chapter Reflection 4-e: Judge the assumption
for yourself use your own experiences. Recall a situation in which you found
yourself working with a group of people with whom you worked well and grew to
trust. Recollect your level of anxiety. How about your acceptance level of what
was taking place? Now recall a situation where you found yourself working with
a group that you did not trust very much. Where was your level of anxiety
throughout the process? How critical were you of the final outcomes in each
case?
When we evaluate the use of positive behavioral recognitions of collective behavior in relation to our two principles for judging the quality of expectation promoting strategies (see Figure 4.1), why it is so effective becomes more evident. Collective positive recognitions have the effect of identifying behavior very specifically and therefore making expectations very clear and concrete. In addition they act to meet student’s basic needs for power, competence and belonging, and therefore create a very positive association with the behavior that is expected. Over time, their use promotes a steady progress up the continuum of management effectiveness to greater levels of function.
Pedagogical suggestion
If generating the language for your
positive recognitions is not coming easily, the following phrases may be
helpful general examples:
·
This group just _______-- that is a great idea that I had
not thought of.
·
I am seeing people doing a good job of taking the time to
______ before they ____ .
·
I love the creative ways that we are approaching _______
.
·
I appreciate that you are putting so much care and
attention into _____, it will pay off when we ________.
·
Do you remember that we had trouble with this two weeks
ago? Now see how well we are doing.
The advantages of recognition of individual
or individual group behavior are:
- The
teacher can specifically recognize a particular behavior that they want
other students to model.
- The
teacher can recognize a student publicly in a way that can be motivating.
- The
teacher can use the recognition to shape a behavior or help a student
recognize a skill, ability, or accomplishment.
Recall the social learning model from the
previous chapter--the power of positive recognition becomes more evident. When
the teacher recognizes a behavior or academic performance demonstrated by a particular
student that exemplifies quality effort or thinking or clarifies the
requirements of the task, the effect is that the other students have
information that they can use. When we silently observe and evaluate student
performance on a task, we tend to learn a great deal about what would help the
students do better. This is typically the case. Students work in isolation and
we gain the benefits of insight as we monitor their learning. However, when we
make audible what we have observed in the form of positive recognitions of high
quality efforts and task clarifications, the students gain the benefit of our
insight.
For example, instead of walking around the
room and giving students simple task completion feedback, such as “You have
five minutes left,” or making praise statements such as “good job,” we will
have a much greater impact if we find concrete behaviors to recognize that will
teach the class as a whole lessons, such as “I notice some groups deciding on
who is going to take on each role before they get into the task, good idea; it
will make your job easier as you go.” The effect of the use of public positive
recognitions has the effect of being both a powerful teacher of the collective
as well as a highly emotionally satisfying form of encouragement, or what we
might term “healthy praise” to those being recognized.
Chapter Reflection 4-f: If you do not already provide your students with frequent and intentional positive recognitions, you may want to take part in some active research in this area. For some amount of time--an hour should be sufficient--find as many opportunities as you can to make positive recognitions. After the hour, note the degree to which the students show a clear understanding of and investment in the task. Also note the affect in the room. Does it feel more positive and focused?
Clarifying
Statements, Directions and Mantras
A clarifying statement is one in which the
teacher (or in some cases a student) simply states the necessary behavioral
expectation. For example, “we are making sure that we are getting all the notes
we need to present our ideas in a couple of minutes.” This kind of statement
does not assume that anything is happening or is not happening currently. It is
not a positive or negative recognition. It is simply a neutral clarification,
stated positively.
Clarifying statements work like focusing a
lens. They do not change the picture, or interpret it. They just help the
students refocus their efforts a bit more intentionally. When the teacher uses
a clarifying statement such as “we are all giving Sandra our undivided
attention right now” (as Sandra is sharing an answer to the members of the
class), there is no judgment about what is not happening, praise for what is
happening, or new information. It is just a statement to help focus the
expectation lens more clearly. It affirms the expectation was already
understood, but may have been a little fuzzy.
Providing good direction in any activity is
critical. And as the use of clarifying statements, “expectation mantras,” and
positive recognition act to further define any task, we have powerful tools for
making our learning targets clear and “standing still” (Stiggins, 2001) without
the need for constant explanations or negativity. In the next chapter, we will
discuss a systematic method for giving directions that promotes accountability
and a culture of responsibility.
Expectation
Mantras
Finally, a highly effective but
under-utilized strategy for clarifying expectations is the stating of
“expectation mantras.” Mantras are repeated phrases that help shape a desired
behavioral expectation. Mantras act on the conscious level as clarifying
statements and on the unconscious level to condition thinking. For example, an
example of a mantra phrase would be, “in this class we . . . listen to one
another attentively, take care of our equipment, say only life-giving
statements to one another, raise our hands when we have something to say,
persist and stay positive without quitting or getting negative, learn from our
mistakes and move on quickly, etc.” No matter how familiar or unfamiliar the
content of the mantra statement is to the students, how accurately it
represents the current state of affairs, or how trite you think you may sound
saying it, give it a chance to work. Mantras work to the extent that they are
stated repetitively.
Regardless of the students’ existing level of
performance in relation to any particular behavior, mantras act to raise the
level of quality of that behavior in the direction of that expectation. For instance,
if you inherit a class that demonstrates a habit of disrespect, it will be
effective to employ the mantra, “in this class we do a great job of listening
to each other and respecting one another’s opinions.” While at first it may
sound a bit odd to the students (as they see evidence that this is not
currently accurate), over time as they hear it repeated, and as you reinforce
respectful behavior and show no tolerance for disrespectful behavior, you will
see behavior change. The mantra begins to become internalized. Moreover, your
use of the mantra sends a message to your students that you believe in them,
will only accept the best they have to offer, and will not give up on them.
Over time you will see not only behavior change but also a change in their
self-concept related to the particular expectation. Ultimately, the evidence
that a mantra has been substantially internalized will be when you begin to
hear them come out of the mouths of the students as they interact with one
another.
Clarifying Questions
Clarifying questions ask students to reflect
on their actions in relation to an operating behavioral expectation. For
example the question, “Looking at the clock, at which stage of the process should
you be right now?” has the effect of prompting the students to consider their
level of progress in relation to the amount of time that they have to complete
the task. When compared to clarifying statements, clarifying questions have the
effect of eliciting not simply recognition of the expectation but also
subjective interpretation.
To illustrate the difference, it may help to
examine an example of each type of statement related to the same expectation:
- Clarifying
statement – “Make sure you are all doing a good
job of your cooperative group roles.”
- Clarifying
question – “How would you say you are doing
fulfilling your cooperative group roles so far today?”
Each statement will have the effect of
focusing the expectation lens. Neither is judgmental or distracting. However,
it is instructive to reflect upon what types of thinking each will elicit. The
clarifying statement effectively brings awareness to the task. However, the
clarifying question adds the dimension of promoting reflection as well. In the
clarifying statement, few students will hear the implication related to the
quality of the task. Mostly they will just hear “make sure you are on task.” In
the clarifying question the students are encouraged to consider the quality and
effectiveness of their efforts to a greater degree.
When is it best to use a question rather than
a statement? It will depend of course on the situation. But a general principle
might be to use questions more frequently when the particular expectation has
already been shown to be clearly understood and demonstrated at least once.
Before then it will likely be more frustrating than useful.
Expectation Cues: Telling vs. Expecting
When we tell a student what to do, we are in essence
keeping them dependent on our instructions to perform. As the classroom
expectations become more internalized, we can begin to simply expect, and then
recognize, rather than tell. We can accomplish this with the use of expectation
“cues.” Expectation cues are key words that represent a broader series of
behavior. (Cues will be discussed in more detail in the next chapter.) A good
example of a cue word is “ready.” If we operationalize the concept of ready
successfully, the result is that this one word can represent an extensive set
of knowledge, skills and dispositions. Consider the following two statements:
Case A: Telling
“I want you all to get ready to go”
Case B: Expecting
“I am looking for a group that looks ready.”
In the first statement, the students are told
clearly what they need to do, and if they understand what “ready” means, it
will function as an effective request for students to act. In the second
statement, the implicit assumption is that the students already know what ready
means, what is required to meet the expectation (in this case to move with a
sense of urgency to get prepared for a new activity), and what potential
consequences might be for meeting or not meeting the expectation.
So what is the difference? It will depend on
how the cue (cause) is supported by consequences (effect). If there is some
advantage or benefit to being ready when the teacher says they are “looking for
a ready group,” the students will move with a sense of urgency. What is the
benefit, advantage or consequence for being ready? It could be getting to go
first, or some other privilege, a common understanding that time is of the
essence, or the awareness that being ready demonstrates respect to the other
members of the class.
Within the 2-Style approach, “ready group”
competition is a powerful technique. Even if the reward is as small as getting
to go first, students will act quickly to get ready. However, it has the effect
of defining the purpose of getting ready quickly as getting to go sooner.
Within the 1-Style approach, it may be effective to incorporate competitive
incentives early in the year, and as students begin to internalize the value of
the expected behavior, weaning them off the extrinsic incentives over time.
For those attempting to incorporate a 1-Style approach it will be helpful to
progressively tap into more intrinsic forms of motivation for meeting
expectation, such as the realization that it shows respect to the other members
of the class, as the year goes on.
When is it best to use expectation cues
rather than directions? As with the choice between clarifying statements or
questions, it is best to be as direct and concrete as possible at first, and as
the expectation becomes better understood both conceptually and practically,
one will find that using expectation cues the majority of the time will get the
best results.
Debriefing
Debriefing with our students after an
activity can be a powerful method for clarifying the expectations within that
activity (Roth & Lavoie, 2002). It is especially effective for clarifying
concepts and skills that could benefit from being operationalized. For example,
we may have an expectation that groups use active listening during a
cooperative learning activity. The concepts and skills related to active
listening are rather abstract and unfamiliar to most students. Debriefing can
help make them more concrete and behavioral. In this case, we may ask students,
“Who can share an example of a member of their group who did an especially good
job of active listening?” Once they identify the person, we will want to
encourage the students to be very specific about what that group member did in
behavioral terms, as well as the benefits the group experienced as a result of
that members actions -- in this case being good active listeners. Debriefing
can be useful to clarity a broad range of expectations from what makes for an
effective procedure to the elements that define quality for a product or
performance. When we debrief we are in essence using the effectiveness of
positive recognition, yet making it even more powerful as it requires students
to generate the concrete examples of the concept themselves. Moreover, when
they are positively recognized by our peers it is typically more rewarding than
when it comes from us. When we examine the potential of debriefing within the
lens of our two principles
for what makes expectations effective, we find that it is exceedingly effective
at promoting both clarity as well as positive feelings related to the behavior.
At
its essence debriefing is an inductive exercise in identifying the concrete,
specific ingredients to a concept of task. In practice it can take many forms.
Therefore, we can use it however it best suits the needs of the situation and the
nature of the task. Debriefing can be especially powerful when used after a
cooperative learning exercise, or to help clarify abstract terms used to define
high quality behavior or participation (see Chapter 20).
Stolovitch
(1990) offers a six-step process for debriefing following highly interactive
activities. As you examine the sequence of steps you will recognize that the
process moves from more concrete and practical to more abstract and general.
- General discussion and
decompression. In this step we set the context for the kinds of
concepts and skills that we are going to debrief.
- Generation of factual
information from the activity. In this step we help
the students recall “what happened?” in concrete, specific, and behavioral
terms. These recollections will act as data for our inductive examination.
- Drawing inferences from
the factual information. In this step we ask
the students to interpret the data. We will want to ask them questions to
facilitate the process of interpretation, e.g., – “What did they/you do
that made you label their actions as effective?” or “When you did ___ what
was the effect?”
- Identifying
generalizations and unifying principles. In this stage,
we will want to help students create generalizations from their
inferences. Again, this will be best facilitated with questions, e.g., “So
given what we have concluded about what worked, what overall principle can
we draw from our experience?”
- Identifying how skills
can be transferred to other situations. Once students
have developed a set of working principles that help promote effectiveness
in one context, we will want to help them see how those same principles
can be applied to other contexts. For example, we might ask them, “How
could you use the principles for conflict resolution within your
cooperative learning groups on the playground?” or “We have generated a
set of principles for giving written feedback in our peer writing process,
is there any part of that that we could apply to the process of verbal
feedback in our class discussions?”
- Looking for “Real
World” Applications. Finally, it will be useful to
help connect the skills and concepts from the classroom context to the
outside world and the students’ daily lives. This process could be as
simple as asking them to think about how this applies to what they
experience outside the class, or what is going on in the world, or as
complex as relating the discoveries within this process to other
assignments, and/or service learning projects.
Debriefing
exercises can be done rather efficiently. Taking even a minute or two to
debrief after an activity can pay for itself many times over in the clarity
that it creates. It helps promote the processes of inquiry and reflection. When
used repetitively for the same kinds of activities, it provides students with
opportunities to reflect upon and then apply the skills that they learned as a
result of previous episodes of debriefing. In addition it provides each student
the opportunity to positively recognize others (or themselves) or be positively
recognized, which not only reinforces the behavior but builds community as
well. Used effectively, debriefing can contribute to a very needs-satisfying
classroom climate, as well as produce clearer expectations.
Chapter Reflection
4-g:
Reflect
on situations in which you were positively recognized by your peers for
demonstrate a skill or action in a group context. How did it make you feel? How
effective was it in reinforcing the skill or action?
Written
Expectations
Putting expectations in writing is very
helpful for many reasons, and should be included whenever possible. The clarity
provided by written directions can spell out the task for all learners more
effectively and may be essential to students who are not strong auditory
learners or second language learners. Be careful not to assume that written
directions are sufficient to clarify and support one’s expectations. When words
are conspicuously displayed in the class, students will read them many times
over. However, if the actions in the class do not support the words, even the
most dramatic and catchy posters will very quickly become invisible. This is
true for both directions for tasks and for broad behavioral expectations.
If we were to examine two groups of students
who were given a task where one group had written directions and the other
didn’t, who would you predict would do a better job of the task? The answer may
seem obvious, yet how often do we trust verbal directions when written
directions would have saved a great deal of misguided effort, the need to
repeat what was said, and frustration for both teacher and students? For early
grades, putting directions at work centers and/or on the board is a very
effective practice. For upper grades, giving individual students or groups
assignment task sheets and rubrics will result in a much higher level product
in the end, as well as a more focused process along the way.
Insert as dialogue box to the right
Pedagogical Suggestion
Other ideas for using the written word to clarify your
expectations:
*Use the walls to help convey your
messages.
*Display student work early. Let them
know it is their space.
*Use bulletin boards to make a
statement or provide information.
*Put up your favorite
sayings/quotes/messages.
Personal
Recognitions
Statements by the teacher such as “I like the
way
Chapter Reflection
4-h
Evaluate the power of this intervention
yourself. Observe a teacher who uses it as the primary source of clarifying expectations,
what do you notice? Do you see a high level of clarity? How about the quality
of affective association with the expectations? It is quite possible you will
notice that it becomes less powerful over time, and at some point the teacher
will (misguidedly) turn to something negative in an effort to gain more
control. In your observation could this frustrating cycle have been avoided by
using a more effective strategy for clarifying expectations for desirable
behavior?
Warnings
Warnings are a very familiar technique to all
of us. They are used to tell us something is coming up of which we need to be
made aware, or that we did not get it right this time, and that we had better
do it right the next time. Time warnings or change of activity warnings are
valuable techniques that help students prepare for a change in activity. They
support the clarity and emotional ease in the room. The “I’ll let is pass this
time,” type of warnings have a much more confusing effect on the quality of the
classroom expectations. When the teacher gives a warning to the class or a
student that an action was problematic, and that this time nothing will happen
but next time it will, he/she feels that he/she is sending a clear message that
there is an expectation in the class and it needs to be respected. Warnings are
typically effective at making the teacher feel a little better for a little
while, but they are not very effective at changing behavior or clarifying
expectations. In fact, if they are expressed in an angry or frustrated tone
they can exacerbate the undesirable behavior.
A warning is intended to portend an action,
but it is in itself an action. Or better said it is a conspicuous and
deliberate inaction. It sends the message that in this class the
cause-and-effect relationship between behavior and consequences is weak or that
the teacher does not have the energy or courage to follow through. If the
teacher makes warnings a routine intervention students learn to assume that
they get a free pass the first time they choose to cross a line (Bluestein,
1999). Students do not need to be malicious to learn quickly that they are able
to take advantage of any system that gives them a buffer between their choices
and accountability for those choices.
Chapter Reflection 4-i: Test this principle
yourself. Consider your own response to a condition in which you knew that the
State Patrol always gave one warning to drivers not wearing a seat belt, versus
a condition in which they gave tickets to all non-belted drivers without warnings.
Would your behavior be affected?
So when is a warning useful? Not very often,
yet when a classroom expectation is new or is only in place for a particular
event, warnings can be a nice consideration to those who did not understand the
direction/expectation very well. Warnings in this case are a courtesy that says
in effect “Since we are all doing our best and acting with good intentions--but
we are human and need reminders of what is expected--let me do you a favor and
explain what we need to be doing at some future time.” But given that many of
the expectations that we have are for things that we do on a repeated basis
(e.g., line up, participate in class discussions, turn in work on time,
cooperate within one’s group, etc.), a reminder is seldom called for. In these
cases, warnings water down the cause-and-effect relationship between what is
expected and what happens when expectations are met or not met. A mere warning
today makes the clarity of the expectation a little weaker for tomorrow.
Requests
Requests are cases in which the teacher asks
the students to do something and holds the assumption that they will do it. In
practice, as in giving directions, a request alone will have very little effect
on promoting an expectation. However, what happens afterward within the context
of the request has a significant effect. For example, if the teacher asks the
class for attention, expects them to be listening, does not speak until they
are attentive, and follows up with consequences if there is not 100% attention,
students learn that the request is meaningful. If the teacher requests
attention, does not get it, and then begins to talk anyway, the students
quickly learn that the teacher really does not have an expectation of being
listened to. And when the request comes in the form of a plea such as “I want
you to listen to me,” students learn that the teacher’s requests are
essentially meaningless (and maybe pitiful).
Requests differ from directions in that they ask,
whereas direction and clarifying statements tell. This difference can be
rendered inconsequential if students learn that when we ask them to do
something we are actually giving them directions. For example, students may
learn that their teacher’s saying “it is time to stop, I want you to put away
your books and open your journals” means that there is now an expectation that
they make the transition from one activity to another, it is not optional, and
implies that they need to move with a sense of purpose or there will be a
consequence. Keep in mind, for students whose parents do not phrase directions
as requests this can be confusing. In most cases, students can adjust to the
style preferences of the teacher, but the teacher does bear the responsibility
of effective communication and making expectations clear to students of all
cultural groups and not penalizing students who are not able to infer that they
use requests when they are actually giving directions or commands.
Chapter Reflection 4-j: What type of language
and inflection did your parents use when they wanted you to do something? Did
it take the form of a polite request? Or was it more of a straightforward
command? Something more neutral? What would you predict the result be if we
were to use this same type of style with children who were used to something
quite different? Have you seen first-hand examples of this?
New teachers especially should keep in mind
an important principle involving the use of requests as related to expectations
-- never make a request that students do
something they are already expected to be doing. An expectation implies
that there is an understanding between parties, and part of that understanding
involves consequences (effect) for when students choose not to meet the
expectation (cause). When the teacher makes a further request instead of taking the action that is implied by the
expectation, the students learn that there is no cause-and-effect relationship
between their actions and the consequences for those actions. Consequently, the
particular expectation becomes weakened. Moreover, they learn that when the
situation requires it the teacher will not follow through but will instead use
a passive tool such as a further request.
Negative
Recognitions
A negative recognition could be considered
any message from the teacher that identifies a particular behavior that they
want to stop. It could also be referred to as the “chronicling of misbehavior.”
Negative recognitions can take the form of comments to individuals, such as
“Cornell, I want you to stop bothering Mahfouz.” Or they can take the form of
comments to the collective, such as “It is getting too noisy in here,” or
“Shshsh!”
As with warnings, negative recognitions of
unwanted behavior may seem like action and in the short term make the teacher
feel that they did something to address the problem. Yet over time the net
result is that the expectations in the class get weaker and the climate in the
class grows more negative. Using negative recognitions to achieve clarity of
expectations is like drinking salt water to quench a thirst. There is a
momentary sense of resolution, but one is just worsening the problem.
If we evaluate negative recognition of
behavior using a two-part standard that sound expectations come from strong
cause-and-effect relationships along with a positive association with the
behavior expected, it fails both parts. First, as with warnings and threats,
pointing out unwanted behavior is essentially conspicuous inaction. We are
showing in a very public manner that we are too lazy or weak to take any
meaningful action. The cause-and-effect relationship that is created in this
case is when there is student misbehavior the teacher does nothing, but just
pretends to do something. Because there is no action that is meaningful, the
students quickly learn to tune out the message that comes with the “inaction.”
Second, consider what negative recognition
does to the association with the behavior. Imagine that the behavior is quality
small group interaction. A typical negative recognition might be something
like, “You guys over there, quit socializing and get to work!” How has the
teacher created a positive association with the desired task? The distressing
fact is that the group (and indirectly the whole class) just heard the teacher
say something to the effect, “Socializing is what you want to do, and this task
is not very enjoyable, but you are supposed to do it because I am in charge and
I decide what we do in here.” The teacher has just contributed to the students’
perception that the work was not enjoyable, thus creating an even more negative
association with the task. The intention of negative recognition is founded in
pain-based logic. If I give you pain (i.e., shame, guilt, or disappointment),
it will change your behavior. This logic will not only lead to a negative
climate and depressed motivation, but will undermine the process of creating
clear expectations.
Chapter Reflection 4-k: Recall
teachers whom you have observed. Reflect on the effect of the use of negative
recognitions and chronicling of behavior and chronicling of student failure by
the teachers whom you have observed. What was the effect on the class? What was
the effect on the clarity of the expectations in the class? Compare the language
of this teacher to one who relied more extensively on the use of positive
recognitions. What did you find?
Threats and
Put-Downs
“If you guys don’t stop goofing off before I
get over there, you are all going to be in trouble.” On the surface a threat such
as this can appear to be a powerful tool to encourage behavior. However, recall
the qualities that give an expectation its power, and consider whether threats
meet those qualifications. By its nature, a threat is both hostile and passive.
It sends the message that the teacher is willing to externalize his or her
negativity, but is too weak to take any meaningful action. Is it apparent to
you why threats were rated “0” stars for their ability to promote intentional
expectations? They are, however, rather effective at creating the implicit and
unintentional expectation that the teacher is not an emotionally safe being,
and is lazy as well. As a result they have the effect of leading a class
downward on the effectiveness continuum toward greater levels of dysfunction.
Put-downs work with a similarly superficial
but faulty logic -- if I tell you enough times and in strong enough terms how
inadequate you are, you will change. Do you recognize the pain-based logic in
this thinking? Unfortunately, most of us have a great deal of day-to-day
experience with put-downs. They do have power. They cause us to retreat or
avoid. They have the power to destroy relationships and deflate the motivation
of others, but they have little to no value in promoting desirable expectations
or changing behavior for the better. Like threats they are hostile and passive.
The pain and hurt that you see on the face of the person that you just put down
is likely the tip of the iceberg. Almost certainly, there is a great deal more
under the surface. And sooner or later all the pain that one gives out will
come back in some form or another -- multiplied by the number of students in
the class.
4.1
Case Study: Tortoises vs. Hares -- Building Classroom Expectations
Byron is a
secondary level teacher and Elspeth is an elementary level teacher. They both
have a great deal of confidence, talent and charisma. They are what many refer
to as “born teachers.” Byron has been a substitute for a year and has gotten
used to using his commanding and persuasive personality to get students to
behave. Elspeth has been a Teacher’s Assistant and is very comfortable with
students. Byron is beginning his student teaching and Elspeth is in her first
year as a full time teacher. Both use a good number of personal statements and
communicate their pleasure and displeasure -- letting students know what is not
going very well and that it makes them feel disappointed. Byron likes to use
phrases like “I would expect better work from high school students,” or “This
level of noise is making it hard to teach,” or “I like it so much better when
everyone is listening and on task.” Elspeth likes to send an affectionate and
caring affect to her students, so she lets them know when what they did makes
her feel good. She also likes to use personal disappointment to modify behavior
with such phrases as “I am having trouble hearing,” “It makes me sad when we
say things to each other like that,” and “It will make me happy if we all do
our best on this project.”
Kahra teaches
secondary and Alberto teaches at the elementary level. Kahra has not spent much
time in a classroom and is feeling rather intimidated by the energy level and
capriciousness of her students. Alberto is very shy and has not had much
success in his life in social situations. Both of these new teachers spend a
great deal of time at night worrying about whether they have what it takes to
be a good teacher. However, each begins the year committed to creating clear
and positive expectations. They find that using positive recognitions,
clarifying statements and expectation mantras feels somewhat unnatural, but
they stick to their principles and refrain from using personal and/or negative
feedback. At first, their students test them and respond slowly to only being
given clarifying language -- they seem to be asking for negative recognitions
and shaming. However, over time the students begin to get used to the way that
the Kahra and Alberto talk to them and realize they like it better than the
teachers who spend a great deal of time telling them what not to do. In
addition, both these new teachers and the students in their classes find that
the expectations for the tasks become very clear and the anxiety level in the
room is noticeably low. Kahra finds that the better she becomes at giving clear
feedback during the task, the better the products from the students. Her
favorite mantra is “In this class, we always put the time into preparing, and
making the effort so we know the products will be great.” What she finds is
that with each project her students internalize that mantra (as well as the
many others that she uses) and she sees the quality of the work getting
progressively better. Both teachers find that they need to use a combination of
effective management strategies including the use of an effective attention cue
and following through with consequences, but each found that they were able to
make it past the first three weeks without resorting to being negative. As a
result of his efforts, Alberto found that he bonded quickly with his students
without needing to use praise and disappointment. He found that the students
could tell that he really liked them, and on an unconscious level they
appreciated that he was empowering them – he made it about their growth, not
about him.
After two months,
Byron and Elspeth were still dealing with a lot of inconsistency. Some days
seemed great and others seemed to require more negative recognitions and
lectures. It seemed that every couple days they needed to give a lecture about
how the quality of behavior and effort should be better than it was. Each began
to shift more and more of the blame for the dysfunction onto their students,
especially a few who consistently misbehaved. Both Elspeth and Byron settled
into a pattern of using a mix of positive, personal and negative forms of
feedback in varying amounts. But over the course of the year the behavior, the
level of focus with activities, and the quality of processes and procedural
execution by their students was inconsistent and often left them disappointed.
After two months,
Kahra and Alberto found that the challenges that they experienced in the first
few weeks have mainly disappeared. Kahra was struck by how much she was now
able to do with her students. She observed other colleagues struggling and
complaining about how their students were incapable of various kinds of tasks
and she wondered if she had just gotten lucky with her group, because they were
now able to work together and execute procedures that she designed increasingly
well. She found that she was able to be creative in her lesson planning (she
worried that she would not be able to after hearing so many horror stories),
because she worries little about overcoming the resistance that so many
teachers complain about. Alberto found that his personality increasingly
emerged and he felt quite confident rather quickly. He found that he was able
to use humor and lightness and did not have to put on a hard shell to send a
message that he was the authority in the room, because students were clear
about what was expected.
It the parable of
the Tortoise and the Hare, the more talented hare lost the race to the less
gifted tortoise because of their overconfidence and lack of effort. Like the
Tortoise, Kahra and Alberto did not rely on their personalities, common sense,
charisma or talent; they relied instead on effective technique and executed it
faithfully.
Chapter Reflection
4-l:
Have you seen an example of the principle of the Tortoise and the Hare played
out in a school? Is it always the most talented and charismatic teachers that
have the effective management? What is it that leads to effective management,
if not simply talent?
Assessing
Behavior
Using a system for assessing student behavior
can have a profound effect on improving the expectations for quality behavior.
Used intentionally and systematically it qualifies as an effective source of
both clarification and to create positive associations with expected behavior.
It works as a systematic way of communicating positive recognitions. In Chapter
20, we will examine a step-by-step process for constructing a system that can
be used by teachers at any level K-12 to help support more healthy and
functional class behavior and their classroom expectations. However, used
unsystematically and carelessly, it can at best be ineffectual, and at worst,
create a negative association with the behavior being assessed. And when
structured as a deficit model such as a names-on-the-board or colored card
system, it acts as a systematic process for delivery of negative recognitions.
Chapter 19 examines these shame-based deficit model systems in more detail.
Figure 4.2. A short phrase that characterizes each of the four management style orientations as it relates to expectations.
|
1-Style – “How does it feel when we
(meet the expectations for the class)?” |
2-Style – “I need you to
(meet the expectations of the class).” |
|
3-Style – “There is not enough
(behavior that is meeting my expectations).” |
4-Style – “There is too much (behavior
that is not meeting the class expectations).” |
COMPARING 2- AND 1-STYLE MANAGEMENT ORIENTATIONS IN RELATION
TO THE INTENTIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF CLASSROOM EXPECTATIONS
To effectively meet their goals, both 2- and 1-Style
management approaches require the promotion of the qualities of clarity and
positivity in how classroom expectations are development. Moreover, each
approach will need to be undertaken intentionally and deliberately. Yet, given
that the goal of each will be different, they will require somewhat differing
strategies which will ultimately lead to different results. The essence of a
2-Style approach to expectations is the clarification of the respective roles,
duties and responsibilities of both the teacher and the students. The ultimate
goal of this approach is for students to become experts in understanding and
exhibiting the behavior defined by the expectation--as defined by the
teacher--to demonstrate that they are a functional part of the class.
The essence of a 1-Style approach to
expectations is the development of the students’ sense of collective
responsibility toward promoting the “common good.” Because the common good of
any group evolves over time with the needs and development of the group dynamics,
in this approach the expectations will need to evolve as well. Therefore, in
the 1-Style class, helping students understand what the expectation is
intending to accomplish can be as important as the fact that the expectation is
known and is being shown. The development of a student-owned social contract,
shifting the focus of one’s technical management from execution to recognition
of value, periodic class meetings, and negotiating boundaries are among the
strategies that will promote of the goals of the 1-Style classroom. These and
other techniques for promoting a self-directed class will be examined in detail
in subsequent chapters.
A technique that can be effective in
supporting expectations within a 1-Style management approach is boundary setting (Bluestein, 1999).
Boundary setting is the process in which the teacher and students work together
to find the most desirable and workable standards for any particular situation.
The reason that it was not rated in Figure 4.1 is that its effectiveness will
vary dramatically depending on how it is led. If it takes the form of random
complaints, changing expectations after the fact because of students’ pleading,
or is generally characterized by selfishness and/or laziness, it will be
counter-productive. It will lead the 1-Style classroom toward the realm of the
3-Style classroom. However, when students respond with a sense of
responsibility to being empowered with a substantial amount of control over the
expectations in “their class,” boundary setting can work as a means to both
increased student ownership as well as clarity of expectations. For example, if
we find that students are having trouble completing a regularly assigned task
in the time that we typically give them, we might take the opportunity to ask
how we as a collective might solve our problem. The potential solution could
take any number of forms that would work for the teacher and that the students
would find acceptable to them as a group. After the boundary setting exercise,
a new expectation has emerged for the situation. The outcome may help solve the
problem, but more than that, the process will have had a powerful effect on the
development of our 1-Style classroom goals, and the clarity and effectiveness
of the new expectation.
As we will discuss in Chapter 15, when
examining the creation of the 1-Style
classroom, if one is committed to a 1-Style approach but has inherited a
group of students who are unfamiliar with being empowered with a high level of
self-direction or engaging in democratic participation, it may be necessary
begin operating early in the year by using a 2-Style approach, and over time
gradually work toward a more internalized and self-directed 1-Style approach.
Any class can learn to be self-directed and exhibit a clear understanding of
shared behavioral expectations. For all students, this environment represents a
context in which there is the greatest potential to have one’s basic needs met.
Nevertheless, for some students gaining an operational knowledge of and
internalizing the value of many of the basic expectations for being a
functional member of a self-directed classroom community will require a great
deal of intentional instruction on the part of the teacher.
CONCLUSION
No matter our personal vision of an ideal
classroom, we will be successful achieving our goals to the extent that we are
ability to promote clear and intentional expectations. Shared expectations must
serve as the cornerstone. In the following chapter we will explore the area
technical management. It is the domain of management that addresses such areas
as creating effective procedures, directions, transition, and gaining 100%
attention from students. High quality technical management is built on clear
and positive expectations.
Journal Reflections
1. In your experience, what methods did
adults use to express to you that they wanted or did not want you to engage in
a particular behavior? Was it effective?
2. When would you use warnings?
Chapter Group Activities
1. Examine a classroom or recall one that
you have observed recently. Does the teacher use more positive or more negative
recognitions of behaviors? What is the result, in your analysis?
2. In small groups, discuss the use of
personal praise vs. encouragement or positive (performance) recognitions. Then
classify the following phrases into the category – praise or positive
recognition.
- I like the way Solidad is listening.
- I see groups locating all their research
before they start writing their reports.
- That looks like a good idea.
-
Good Job, Sven!
- We’ve done so well transitioning from one
presentation to the next, wonderful.
- I’m so pleased with the way the papers
turned out.
- Jorge, way to set your feet early to hit
that forehand.
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