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1 Introduction to Strategies

Managing student behavior … is a delicate balance between maintaining social order and meeting the unique needs of each student.

—Richard Curwin and Allen Mendler

(Discipline With Dignity, 1988, 1999)

In the original Discipline With Dignity (Curwin & Mendler, 1988, 1999), a “three dimensional discipline” model was presented with three components: prevention, action, and resolution. We suggested numerous ways to prevent problems from occurring, to act when problems occur, and to resolve issues with more challenging students. In daily classroom life, two types of strategies make for effective discipline—prevention and intervention. Prevention involves understanding why students behave inappropriately and then doing things to prevent problems. After problems occur, prevention is also concerned with what can be done to keep the same thing from happening again. Intervention involves stopping misbehavior quickly so that little precious time is lost to instruction. The strategies offered here are with the rubric of prevention and intervention.

PREVENTION

The vast majority of factors leading to chronic discipline problems have their roots outside of school. Dysfunctional families, unsupportive parents, violence in our culture, media messages, drugs, exposure to toxic substances, lack of community support for educational goals, and preoccupation with survival issues are among the many sociocultural factors at the core of most discipline problems. As educators we have little, if any, control over these factors. The foremost tool of prevention we have is ourselves, because despite all of these negative factors, we can and often do make differences in the lives of our students. I frequently say in seminars that our challenge is to make our voice as interesting, harmonious, and inviting as we can because all kinds of factors compete for the hearts, minds, and souls of our students. The daily challenge is to make our voice stand out from the crowd.

Discipline prevention is less about addressing the out-of-school causes of poor behavior and more about addressing basic human needs, which when neglected lead to problem behavior. It might help to think of one of your former students who struggled behaviorally, was troubling to you, showed improvement, and eventually turned out all right. What kinds of things did you do? Why do you think changes occurred? As detailed in What Do I Do When … ? How to Achieve Discipline With Dignity in the Classroom (1992, 2007), not satisfying a student’s basic needs will trigger problem behaviors. These basic needs include:

• Feeling and believing that I am capable and can be successful here

• Knowing that I am noticed and cared about

• Realizing that I have influence because others are interested in my opinions and actions

• Seeing that I can make a difference in the lives of others because they look to me as a source of knowledge and help

• Experiencing the relevance of school to my life or seeing how it might be relevant at some future time

• Having fun and being stimulated by school

• Being secure that I am in a physically, emotionally, and intellectually safe place

When we use our understanding of these basic needs to guide our instructional strategies and interactive moments, fewer discipline problems occur because students want to behave.

Can you think of specific things that you are currently doing through the curriculum or in your interaction with students that are designed to address each of these basic needs? When you were a student, were there teachers or administrators who really seemed able to connect with all kinds of students? Are there any teachers or administrators like this at your school? What do they do?

INTERVENTION

Intervention is what we do when misbehavior occurs. The four goals of an effective intervention are outlined below.

Stop Misbehavior

This is the most obvious goal. Instruction is interrupted when a student says or does something offensive and inappropriate. The aim of all good discipline methods is to stop the misbehavior quickly.

Maintain Leadership

It is important to portray yourself as capable of dealing with inappropriate behavior. For us to remain effective and worthy of respect, our students need to believe we can effectively handle difficult situations in the same ways we want them to behave when faced with similar circumstances. For example, if I kick a student out of class for using an offensive gesture, then I have not taught my students anything useful for them to do should that same gesture be used to provoke them. Being a leader means presenting ourselves and handling the situation in a way that causes others to feel secure in our presence during difficult times.

Preserve Dignity

This is often the hardest goal to achieve because it is quite natural to have a “knee-jerk” reaction when our buttons are pushed. We must fight the impulse to strike back emotionally for three reasons:

1. We should use moments of conflict to model how we want our students to react when their buttons are pushed.

2. The misbehavior and knee-jerk responses will escalate because neither the teacher nor the student wants to appear weak in front of the other students. It is usually easier to end a power struggle when neither side feels that they have lost or been defeated.

3. Methods that preserve dignity are usually much more effective in the short term and long term. Destroying someone’s dignity may force immediate compliance, but it virtually always builds resentment that will eventually lead to further escalation.

Recapture the Instructional Moment Quickly

It is vitally important to keep focused on recapturing the instructional moment as quickly as possible after a disruption has occurred. Otherwise, minor irritating moments can dominate the classroom climate and can have the undesirable effect of contagion. This is especially true with groups of challenging students. Keep in mind that most conflict is not going to be adequately resolved in the presence of an audience. The lion’s share of effective long-term discipline occurs in the processing of the incident when adequate time is available to explore the confrontation with the student(s) involved. Effective intervention strategies essentially buy us time so we can return to instruction and postpone further exploration and discussion of the disruption with the student to a more appropriate time and place. For example, you are likely to more fully understand and resolve problems with an arguing student after class, when neither you nor the student feels compelled to “play” to the audience.

Some educators have difficulty knowing what to do when misbehavior happens, while others have a hard time maintaining self-control. Both knowing what to do and staying in control of oneself are necessary to being most effective during particularly challenging moments. What is most difficult for you when students are misbehaving?

SIX KEY CRITERIA TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING A DISCIPLINE METHOD

Too often, discipline is a knee-jerk response that comes from frustration, anger, and the desire for retribution. There are six key questions educators need to ask when determining the effectiveness of a good discipline method:

1. What outcome do I want to achieve?

2. Is anyone getting better results?

3. Is the method working?

4. Does the method dignify or humiliate?

5. Is the method based on obedience, or does it teach responsibility?

6. How does the method affect the student’s motivation to learn?

These criteria provide all the guidance needed to determine what to do with our students in order to facilitate better behavior.

1. What Outcome Do I Want to Achieve?

It is very important to begin with the end in mind. What is it you really want to accomplish? Be especially clear about what you are trying to do. Do you want the student to behave today during the test, come to class on time, or sit for a longer period of time during class than she has during the last 3 weeks? Be as specific as possible. It is common for difficult students to do a variety of things that we may find irritating. It will probably be easier to get a student to take his feet off a chair than it will be to have the student show a positive attitude throughout class. As Covey (1989) advises, “Begin with the end in mind.”

2. Is Anyone Getting Better Results?

If you want to be successful at something, it is usually prudent to find people who have already attained the success you desire and examine what they did to get the results you seek. Are there teachers who have had or now have a troubling student in class and are achieving good, or better, behavior than you are achieving? Does this student have a favorite class or teacher? Can you free up some time to observe this teacher’s style so that you can see what techniques might work for you?

I have worked with many “alternative” education teachers and students during my career. Many alternative programs have a primary goal of getting the student to perform and behave sufficiently well in the curriculum to warrant return to the “regular” program. Sadly, most students who earn their way back into the regular program fail to achieve success there. Inflexibility within the regular program is a major contributing factor to this lack of transfer of success from one program to the next. Too often success depends on the alternative student adjusting to the demands of the regular program. While this is a viable goal, it is interesting that the regular education staff virtually never reaches out to the alternative education staff to find out what was done to achieve success. Instead of attempting to adjust behavior and environment to replicate the success experienced elsewhere, many educators keep doing the same old things and then become angry or frustrated when kids fail to improve. Chances for behavioral success dramatically improve when we keep in mind the behavior we desire to achieve, look around to see what techniques have been successful, and are not afraid to mimic or apply those successful methods with our students.

3. Is the Method Working?

The most practical consideration is to ask yourself if your method is working. Clearly, an effective discipline method should lead toward better or improved behavior and less undesirable behavior. Once you develop a plan for improving behavior, implement it at least five times or for a trial period of 3 weeks. During this time, you should begin to see some evidence that better behavior is increasing, although the student may occasionally continue the undesirable behavior. Almost all change includes backsliding; as students improve their behavior, expect to see periodic returns to the old behavior. Change is a roller-coaster ride of ups and downs. When we see this roller-coaster pattern, we have evidence that the method is working, and that it is wise to continue using it. However, if there is little or no evidence of behavioral improvement during this period, be flexible and move on to another strategy. For example, if detention results in more evidence of better behavior lasting for a longer interval, continue to use detention with that student. If there is no indication of positive change, it is wise to try something else.

4. Does the Method Dignify or Humiliate?

Whether or not a method works is insufficient in deciding if it should be continued. For example, a severe threat from you to the student may achieve immediate results due to the fear the student instantly feels, but this quick result may lead to payback later. Therefore, it is equally important for us to assess how we might feel and be affected if we were on the receiving end of our method. For example, if we believe that a consequence would attack our dignity, we should consider something else. Ask yourself, “If somebody did this to me while trying to get me to behave according to his or her standards, would I feel his or her actions were an attack on my self-esteem, or would I leave with my dignity intact?” Think of all students as having tenure in your classroom, and treat them accordingly. When they misbehave, realize that your response needs to both stop the problem and keep the students motivated to learn. How we affect their dignity is perhaps the factor over which we have the greatest control in determining whether or not the problem continues.

5. Is the Method Based on Obedience, or Does It Teach Responsibility?

We need to consider whether or not the method teaches responsibility or merely elicits compliance. Although compliance is better than chaos, it is not as good as responsibility. Virtually all methods of behavior modification are about obedience, since we control all of the rewards and punishments. In the hands of caring educators, behavior modification methods can be very helpful in motivating students to change quickly. Most people will alter their behavior quickly if they know what is expected, have the ability to do what is expected, and value a promised reward for making the change. Unfortunately, these changes do not last unless they are eventually “owned” by the person for whom they are designed. In fact, it is common for students to behave in order to earn that first reward, but they will eventually resent the approach because they feel they are being controlled. Proper behavior is a worthy goal of all discipline methods, but the bigger job is to help students make choices and learn from the consequences of the choices they make. Responsibility is achieved by implementing methods of discipline that offer limits with choices. Good long-term discipline that teaches responsibility focuses on getting students to do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. Therefore, methods of behavior modification can be used to change behavior fast, but in order to make these changes last, methods that teach responsibility are necessary. Our work is not done if students comply in our presence but misbehave in our absence.

6. How Does the Method Affect the Student’s Motivation to Learn?

When a discipline method is implemented at school, it is important that the technique positively affect student motivation. A method that controls behavior but turns students off to learning is harmful. For example, a suspended student who is overloaded with worksheets to be kept busy is likely to hate learning even more than he did before the suspension.

The best learning occurs when students are aroused and awakened to ask questions and challenge themselves, their teachers, and each other. If a discipline method gets a student to behave but scares her away from asking questions because she thinks humiliation will be the result if a mistake is made, then what might be viewed as an effective method of behavior control is, in fact, destructive to the very learning process we must encourage. When exploring a method of discipline, ask how the method might affect your desire to learn. Search for, observe, and learn from fellow educators who seem to promote good discipline while keeping students motivated to learn.