Classroom Discipline and Behavior Management

Discipline in the classroom has been a major issue for many decades. In many schools today, students aren't showing their teachers the respect that they deserve. Throughout the last few students behavior in the classroom. When it comes to managing behavior, a good behavioral decades, many disciplinary strategies and behavioral modification programs have been implemented in classrooms all over the world. Some of these programs have been successful, and many of them have failed. As a future teacher, it's important to know how to manage modification program holds students accountable for their own behavior, rewards student for positive behavior, and provides students with a mentor who will model good behavior.

A very new method of behavioral modification is the Behavioral Objective Sequence. The Behavioral Objective Sequence (BOS) is an easy to use instrument that presents a developmental prospective for countering undesired behavior within an educational model. "The BOS integrates developmental concepts and behavioral task analysis into a scope and sequence of 233 skills that are essential to school success (Wilhite et al,2007)." These skills are structured in a pattern of long-term goals along with objectives in six subscales. Each of the subscales contains a hierarchy of needs that are defined in three developmental levels. The names of levels is based on vocabulary taken from the model of mainstreaming and the range of services model in the 1970s(Wilhite et al, 2007)."

The BOS was originally designed as a controlled skilled-based observation system for the planning of interventions. It was created as a "curriculum" of objectives or behavior skills that are crucial for success in general education settings with nondisabled classmates. Teachers are able to use the BOS the developmental level of their students along with specific skill areas they need to learn. Educators have been ineffective with students who pose challenging behaviors for a very long time. The BOS offers the opportunity for frustrated teachers to immediately execute more effective strategies for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (Wilhite et al, 2007).

A fairly new method that is now commonly used is school-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS). The SWPBS is an "intervention intended to improve the climate of schools using system wide positive behavioral interventions, including a positively stated purpose, clear expectations backed up by the specific rules, and procedures for encouraging adherence to and discouraging violations of the expectations (Cohen et al, 2007)."

SWPBS is a part of the positive behavioral support model which gives school the access to use effective disciplinary practices for every student. The positive behavioral support program involves three layers of intervention which go along with the intensity of the behavioral problem. Since more and more schools are using the positive behavioral support model at an increasing rate, it's been hard for researchers to keep up with all these schools. However, the results have been promising so far, although more research is needed (Cohen et al, 2007).

Another new and widely used method of behavioral modification is the Positive Alternative Learning Supports program. The Positive Alternative Learning Supports (PALS) program was developed to address the targeted need of students with chronic behavioral problems (Arter, 2007). The PALS program seeks to reduce problem behavior of the school's "frequent flyers" while allowing them to stay in the classroom successfully and have more learning opportunities.

The PALS program was an action research project that developed from a need to progress student outcomes, an understanding of the best practices in behavior management, data-based decision making, administrative support and empowerment of school based personnel, alliance of an interdisciplinary team of practitioners disposed to implement change for the improvement of student outcomes. The PALS program treats conditions associated with academic achievement as directly related to the ones associated with antisocial behavior. Since this is something that has never been done before, the PALS program has come up with some new and exciting findings (Arter, 2007).

The PALS program was targeted highly severe behavior problems that weren't responsive to other schoolwide behavior programs. The PALS program teaches students appropriate replacement behaviors, but this does take a good bit of time and effort. A main component of the PALS program was mature/professional mentoring by an adult. The mentoring turned out to be very important since it helped to break the cycle of reactive behavior in students and teachers. Studies show that encouraging adult relationships can be linked to positive outcomes for troubled youth such as increased attendance in school, higher self-esteem, better social skills, and a greater level of achievement. Providing students with adult mentors and academic support can increase both attendance and academic success. When students have a mentor, they have someone who cares for them, which is very important for at risk students. When students are at school, they're not missing out on valuable instruction time, and they're able to get help from the teacher when they need it. When students are learning and getting good grades, they're muchless likely to display inappropriate behavior (Arter, 2007).

Special educators have recognized the power of positive behavior supports in enabling students to optimally partake in school longer than anyone else. A positive behavioral support approach will view the individual in context in order to learn why the behavior is occurring. Positive behavioral supports are a major factor in a psychologically accommodating environment in which students feel valued and are able to have success. Defiant behavior is much less likely to occur in this type of environment (Bondy, 2007).

Teachers may have to provide their students with consequences for their defiant behaviors. These consequences need to be mild, and have the intention of letting the students the students that their behaviors were inappropriate. When consequences are used in the appropriate manner, they can be very effective. However, there will always be the chance that the students might express their displeasure with the consequences. When this kind of circumstance presents itself, the teacher should tell the student that he or she is going to ponder the situation and get back to the students as soon as possible. If the consequence isn't followed through with at all, this is only going to reinforce the undesired behavior from the student (Bondy, 2007).

Teachers need to at least consider logical consequences and natural consequences, which are the two main types of consequences. Natural consequences are the ones that are a direct outcome of the action, and include emotional responses. For example, if one cuts a finger with a knife, one is going to bleed. The natural consequence is going to be more effective than the logical consequence, but the logical consequence is much easier to administer. The logical consequence is administered by another person. If the logical consequence is going to be effective, it needs to make sense and fit with the type of behavior. When the logical consequence is used, it's important to think about what the student ought to be doing and devise the consequence based on that behavior. When consequences are logically associated with the misbehavior, they're very likely to be a deterrent for that behavior. Teachers also need gain insight into the function of the student's defiant in order to know what kind of consequence might be effective. Irrelevant consequences are likely to elicit anger and further defiance (Bondy, 2007).

Time outs are also an effective way to manage student behavior. Since the student will be in isolation, this will give him or her a good opportunity to think about why what he or she did was wrong. Since the student will have to think about what he or she did, the student will realize that he or she is responsible for that behavior, and that he or she is at fault. If he or she doesn't know why the behavior or action was wrong, he or she isn't going to be able to be held accountable for that behavior or action. Since the student will have nothing to do but think about the consequences of the behavior, he or she will most likely be deterred from repeating the behavior. The time out can only be used when the teacher is sure that the student isn't trying to escape the classroom or get out of doing certain work. It's important for the teacher to research the time out strategy in order to create a system likely to help the particular student or students (Bondy, 2007).

A wonderful way to help keep students accountable for their behavior and deter undesired behavior is to use behavior contracts. One of the best things about behavior contract is that they come in several forms, so teachers are very likely to find one to suit their needs. A daily report card is terrific way for students who misbehave on a regular basis. Since the parents or guardians will be seeing the report cards, they'll know what's going on in the classroom and they'll know what type of behaviors to work on at home. Many teachers believe that parents and guardians don't hold their children accountable enough for their behaviors at home, this is a wonderful way for teachers to get parents and guardians to do their part. Another great form to use is the contingency contract. For negative reinforcement, this contingency can use the three strikes and you're out rule. For a positive reinforcement, the student will get a reward for a certain amount of days that the undesired behavior isn't displayed (Bondy, 2007).

There areseveral new methods to deal with defiant students in the classroom. Some of them take longer to work than others, but all of them are very promising. The new methods have already shown some positive results, but more research needs to be done on them. All these methods look at the student as an individual and not just a set of problems. While a viewpoint may seem like a small thing, it really does make a big difference. When the whole student is looked at, the big picture can be seen. The PALS program is the one that looks to be the most promising and the most effective. The one that a teacher chooses will depend on his or her teaching style and educational beliefs. Depending on the situation, a teacher may even want to use a combination of several methods. Whatever a teacher does, the teacher needs to know why the student is misbehaving, and hold the student accountable for that misbehavior.

References:

Arter, Patricia. (2007). The Positive Alternative Learning Supports Program: Collaborating to Improve Student Success. Teaching Exceptional Children, 40, 38-46.

Bondy, Elizabeth, and Smith, Andrea. (2007). "No I won't!": Understanding and Responding to Student Defiance. Journal Of Childhood Education. 84, 151-157.

Cohen, Rachel, Kincaid Don, Kincaid, &Childs Karen Elfner (2007). Measuring School-wide Positive Behavior Support Implementation: Development and Validation of the Benchmarks of Quality. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 9, 203-213.

Wilhite, Kathi, Braaten, Sheldon, Frey Laura, &Wilder, Lynn K. (2007). Using the Behavioral Objective Sequence in the Classroom. Intervention in School and Clinic 42, 212-218.