Skill # 1 The Ability to Teach Expectations
In classrooms where teacher’s expectations are reasonable and understood, the behavior of students tend to be appropriate. For expectations to serve the roles they are intended the following 6 conditions must be met:
1.Teach expectations situationally. Reed (1993) found when children are taught exactly
what is expected of them when entering school in cafeteria, recess, class, etc. referrals
for behavior problems decrease 40%
2.Expectations should be taught in a formal manner. Modeling, Role-playing, etc.
3.Expectations should be kept to a maximum of 4-5. Long lists don’t work
4.Expectations should be stated in instructive vs. prohibitive language. Ex. "Speak
quietly" vs. "Don’t shout"
5.Expectations should be emphasized over rules. Emphasize the ‘positive’ vs. ‘negative’
6.Expectations should be respected by teachers. (teachers must consistently reinforce
their expectations)
Skill # 2 The Ability to Get and Keep Students on Task
The ‘key’ to on-task behavior is to quickly engage students in the learning activity. The sooner teachers get students on task, the easier it is to keep them on task. If more than 1-minute elapses from the time instruction is to begin and when it actually does begin, students will engage in distracting behaviors. Begin immediately. Teachers need to engage in ‘active supervision’ This means:
moving around the
class and being close to students
looking about the
class
interacting with students
Manage by walking around is a powerful management tool. The closer a teacher is to the student the better the student’s behavior.
Skill # 3 The Ability to Maintain a High Rate of
Positive Teacher-to-Pupil Interaction
Research suggests that behavior responds better to Positive than Negative consequences. HOWEVER, there is still a strong tendency by teachers to manage classrooms coercively. This approach destroys the quality of learning environment, since students want to escape coercive classrooms. Sidman (1993) states 1,000,000 students drop out of school per year in large part because school environments are coercive and they want to avoid that environment.
Research shows that teachers allow 90% + of all appropriate behaviors to go unrecognized; when students misbehave, teachers are 2-5 times more likely to pay attention to that behavior than appropriate behavior.
It’s worse for children with disabilities. 82% of students with disabilities never receive positive feedback when they comply w/ teacher requests. (Disapproval statements outnumber approval statements 15-1 (Shores, Gunter, & Jack, 1993). Larson (1994) reported "many LD and ED students are afforded greater dignity when they are incarcerated in youth prisons that when they are enrolled in school.
Bijou (1990) said "most effective way to reduce problem behaviors is to strengthen desired behavior through R+, vs. trying to weaken undesirable behavior using aversive/negatives". Latham (1997) observed in classrooms where the ratio of negative to positive interactions is never greater than 1 ‘negative’ to every 8 ‘positives’, the learning environment is non-coercive and student behavior is more appropriate.
Hart & Risley (1995) reported similar findings in the home environment. Low Risk homes were characterized by environments in which parents said 5 times more positive things than negative things to children. High Risk homes were characterized by parents saying twice as many negative things as positive.
Skill # 4 The Ability to Respond Noncoersively to Inappropriate Behavior That Is Consequential
Occasionally, students will do things in class that are so disruptive and potentially dangerous, they
can’t be ignored. If responded to appropriately eg. Remaining calm, voice low, empathy, understanding, close proximity, composed, etc. 81% of such incidents are over within 30 seconds or less and 94% are over within 1 min. 45 sec. (Latham, 1996). When teachers/school personnel are reactive, coercive, and angry the student rage will continue escalating with each angry exchange between student and teacher.
Skill # 5 The Ability to Maintain a High Rate of Risk-Free Student Response Opportunities
In classes where students have frequent opportunities to respond free of the risk of criticism and free of the risk of failure, student behavior problems are at a minimum (Heward et. al. 1995 and Binder, 1996). Classroom teachers have reported that in settings where students are "safely" involved, free of risk, academic success increases as well (Pigford, 1995). Failure is a terrible teacher, and to use it as a teaching tool is irresponsible. It is true we learn from our mistakes and failures, but to use these as teaching tools should be avoided.
Skill # 6 The Ability to Serve Problem-Behavior
Students in the Primary Learning Environment (regular classroom)
There is a trend in the US to develop programs that are designed to remove students from the regular classroom as a means of managing inappropriate behavior. There are times this does need to happen.
Research suggests if classroom teachers follow sound
behavior management strategies, the need to remove students will be greatly
reduced. It is suggested that such
programs are functioning as little more than a "quick fix" for
educators lack of effective behavior management skills. If out-of-class alternatives are needed for
dealing inappropriately behaving students, 3 conditions must be monitored:
1.Student’s in-class behavior should steadily improve. There needs to be solid data and
evidence that the out-of-class alternative is teaching students to behave better
2.The need for such a program throughout the year grows steadily less. In other words
fewer and fewer students are being referred for out-of-class placement.
3.Teacher’s ability to manage student’s behavior in the classroom steadily increases.
Teachers become increasingly more skilled at managing the classroom environment so the
need for out-of-class placement options declines.
Latham (1998) states "in all my visits to schools across America, in not one single instance was I
ever shown data that documented a positive remedial effect of out-of-class placement alternatives".
Latham calls this another approach to shaping educational programs in a data-free environment in
which "we have our feet planted squarely in midair". A basic principle of human behavior says that behavior is largely a product of its immediate environment. What that means for educators is that students must be taught to behave in the primary learning environment. Taking students out of the regular classroom to teach appropriate behavior without fixing the classroom environment, will only find these students regressing to previous levels of behavior.
Skill # 7 The Ability to Avoid Being Trapped
The following 8 traps seem to be the most common
1.Criticism: finding fault
2.Sarcasm: meaning to make fun of a student through ridicule
3.Threats: meaning to warn students of some hostile action by the teacher
4.Questioning: meaning asking students to explain why they misbehave
5.Logic: trying to reason with students in an attempt to improve behavior
6.Arguing: trying to convince students that the teacher is right, student wrong
7.Force: meaning to hit, shout, etc. to make students behave
8.Despair: to portray a sense of hopelessness
Skill # 8 The Ability to Manage Behavior "Scientifically"
Historically, our attempts to improve education has focused on "outcome findings" rather than
"treatment-outcome research" where the emphasis is on what produces outcomes. When emphasis is only on "outcomes" the approach to remediation is to increase goals and raise standards as the means of improving outcomes. Virtually nothing is said in education about how one improves outcomes except to address such broad generalizations as "improving teaching", "decreasing dropout rates", "reducing violence", etc. Until educators begin paying serious attention to "treatment-outcome" research rather than
"outcome" research nothing will improve (Slavin, 1996 & Biddle, 1997). Wang (1994) states "an analysis of 50 years of research reveals that direct influences like classroom management affects student’s learning more that indirect influences such as policies". Wang found that the very thing educators spend the great majority of their time addressing in efforts to improve education—crafting policies—was the weakest influence on how students learn. Further research suggests politicians and educational policy makers are spending their time looking in the wrong place as learning takes place in the classroom and the home and is not affected by policy change. Ironically, the profession of education has a database comprehensive enough to know exactly how to maintain an effective learning environment.
Latham suggests education refuses to use what they know. Why? Consider the following:
1.Changing how a teacher teaches is too difficult for most teachers to handle
2.Coupled with the fact of lack of incentive to change, this spells doom for instruction that is different.
3.Teachers who perform particularly well, using effective methods, are the ones who find themselves teaching the most difficult children.
4.Teachers indicate that they do themselves no favors when they become recognized as being effective because they soon find themselves having the most difficult-to-teach students in their rooms.
Latham sums up the question "Why aren’t effective teaching tools widely adopted"?
Answer: "Myth and bigotry". He suggests schools tend to be narrow minded, intolerant, and unwilling to change the way they have always done things.