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Misbehaviors have always been troubling both experienced and inexperienced teachers and the latter in particular in the class management. Various means are employed to approach this problem only turning out to be ineffectual. In fact, for many educators and educational psychologists classroom management is synonymous with class control. Management should include warmth and caring as well as control. Classroom management, rules and routines should reflect a concern for a secure, safe, orderly environment, but at the expense of communication and trust among students. And warmth and control are not mutually exclusive concerns. Effective teachers who care about their students inevitably combine the quality of warmth with their efforts to control. However, for many years, the concepts of warmth were considered to be at opposite ends of the same continuum. If a teacher chose to be warm, he or she could not be in control, and vice versa.
In so far as my own professional teaching experience in the previous two years, there appear rare behavior disorders in classroom management. Probably it’s due to the fact that I spend most of my leisure time in communicating with my learners. Teaching occurs in after-class conversations and on field outings---whenever the student and I interact with each other inside and outside the confines of class. These activities are essential for building trust and confidence necessary for the learner to accept and assimilate academic information from the teacher. In the practice of teaching, I reconcile care, warmth with control. However, as a professional student and part-time teacher at present, surprisingly, I observe that there are genuinely some “hard-to-manage” students in my class. Talking out of turn or talking at the inappropriate time is what they get used to. Often, their talking distracts me from my delivering of lecture. And I have to cease my lecture to discipline them. “Hey, boys, no talking, please.” The deadly point is that I put it with a gentle smile. They take my warning as anything but something serious and severe. They can even give me a smiling response. It seems to them that rules-breaking is their way to attract my special attention. I spend most of my management time coping with students who pass notes, whisper, stare out of the window, ignore my questions, squirm in their seats, sleep, do work unrelated to my class, or do not work at all. All these things exhaust my patience and energy as well as time. Then my following step is to warn them with a hard face. The effectiveness is immediate but instant. I have taken all reasonable steps to deal with the disruptive behaviors. Anyway, no avail! The story ends up with my losing the control of them, the voice as well as my temper.
In the following weeks, I concern myself on the lecture and the interaction with other well-behaved students without noticing the misbehaviors. To my surprise, those unwanted behaviors decrease. Only on the rare occasions, misbehaviors occur. And whenever it occurs, my approach is to stand quietly and wait for the class to get quiet. Also other students will ask their classmates to behave well in order to proceed with the lecture. A couple of periods later, those rule-breakers can behave themselves though they still lack interest in the lecture. In the teacher-and-student conference, I figure out the reason of their interest-lacking. Owing to their poor English, they just cannot follow and understand me. That is to say, my lecture is beyond their zone of proximal development. Still, my smiling criticism is the primary source. Based on the reflection on the actual classroom management, I take some different steps, ignoring their misbehaviors and praising for their pronunciation or correct answer to my question. At the early stage, they feel pleasant and comfortable with my praise. And gradually, they “stare out of the window again”. Maybe behavior learning theory or applied behavioral analysis approach can present explanations to such phenomenon in my classroom management.
The very heart of behavioral learning theory centers around the concept of reinforcement, and effective teachers understand how student behavior is influenced in the classroom by reinforcers. However, to simply conclude that reinforcement strengthens a response is not sufficient. The learning process is not that simple. Effective use of reinforcers demands an awareness of reinforcement variables, such as types of reinforcement, schedules of reinforcement, and behavior-eliciting techniques. Reinforcers are typically classified as either positive or negative. A positive reinforcer is a stimulus that, when presented, increases the probability of the response or behavior it follows. Such stimuli are often called rewards and are often associated with pleasantness. Some positive reinforcers, such as food, water, and shelter, are biologically significant. Some, such as praise, affection, and approval, are considered to be socially significant. The realm of positive reincorcers in the classroom might include teacher praise, a smile, good grades, and tangible reinforcers. In the classroom, these reinforcers might be earned by students for academic accomplishments and appropriate behavior. Teachers can use positive reinforcers such as good grades, approving smiles, or verbal compliments to produce desired student behavior. Concerning my personal classroom management, when I exercise the positive reinforcer, such as verbal compliment or good grades to their academic work, they actually respond desirably and positively, but only lasting for several periods. When the reinforcer (praise) stops, the desired behavior ceases. According to the educational psychologists, teachers’ use of praise tends to focus students on learning to win approval rather than on learning for its own sake. Perhaps the best advice is to be aware of the potential dangers of the overuse or misuse of praise and to navigate accordingly. Another danger of excessive and inappropriate use of rewards, however, is the creation of an almost suffocating climate in which students have little if any room to pursue a behavior or activity independently. In such a classroom, only those behaviors that the teacher has previously identified are eligible for a reward---all others are deemed less worthy. That’s really the case. When I praise the learners for their oral competence, it turns out that such students are preoccupied with the correct pronunciation of the lexical items rather than the meanings and usages of them.
Applied behavior analysis is the application of behavioral learning principles to change behavior. The method is sometimes called behavior modification. It is closely linked with Skinner’s (1953) theory, called behaviorism or operant conditioning. The techniques underlying the practice of behavior modification derive from behaviorism. The use of behavior modification techniques to change the behavior of animals has been called the experimental analysis of behavior. The use of the same technique to change the socially important behaviors of learners, workers, or the public at large is called applied behavior analysis. The applied behavior analysis approach, as it is used in schools, focuses on changing behaviors that are important for cognitive and social development. These behaviors are actions that can be seen, heard, or counted. Beliefs, values or feelings are excluded. When teachers use applied behavior analysis to improve classroom behavior, consult the following techniques.
1. Identify precisely both the inappropriate behavior you wish to change and the appropriate behavior you want to take its place. So when I say “no talking, please.” I’d better make the students aware of the task they need to accomplish. “No talking please and do the translation exercise with your partner.”
2. Identify the antecedents to both inappropriate behavior and the appropriate behavior and make the necessary changes. I observe the rule-breakers always sit in a group and sitting together is the antecedent to the inappropriate behavior. So I separate them from each other, and the result is what I want.
3. Identify the goal of the inappropriate behavior and discontinue actions on the teacher’s part (or those of peers) that reinforce it. Students typically misbehave with two goals in mind: (1) to gain positive reinforcement from the teacher or their peers or (2) to escape or delay classroom situations that they find boring, unpleasant, or undesirable. One strategy for dealing with misbehaviors is to ensure that student is not positively reinforced for misbehavior. At the early stage, I was distracted by those who misbehaved. They seemed to be pleasant with my attention. This typically involves such teacher actions as ignoring misbehavior whose purpose is to gain attention (a response sometimes called extinction), seeing to it that peers don’t attend to misbehavior, and not giving students preferred activities when they misbehave to get them. When the goal of misbehavior is to escape or avoid classroom activities and responsibilities, the general strategy is for the teacher to be careful not to let this happen. Be sure students are held accountable for work they don’t complete. Do not shorten assignments in response to student complaints.
4. Use punishment as a last resort. If punishment is used at all, it should always be mild. But remember that mild punishment will be ineffective if reinforcers are still available in the situation. That’s why it is best to also reward an alternate, desired response.
Skinner suggests that teachers should focus on appropriate student behavior. He argues that receiving a correct response or a good grade on a paper or a report card can become an insignificant event when compared with anxiety, fear, and aggression---the inevitable products of aversive control. Skinner points out the fact that in grading a paper most teachers place the red marks near the items that are incorrect and ignore those items that the student answers correctly. A preferable method, he suggests, would be just the opposite, calling attention to the correct items on the paper and ignoring errors. This praise-and –ignore approach really works in my classroom management. Whatever methods the teachers employ, the ultimate goal for them should be helping students gain control of their own learning, that is, self-management.
References:
Borich, G..D., & Tombari, M.L. (1997). Educational Psychology: A Contemporary Approach (2nd ed.). New York: Longman.
Coon, D. (2000). Essentials of Psychology: Explanation and Application (8th ed.). U.S. :Wasworth.
Tenson, K. T., & Eller, B. F. (1999). Educational Psychology for Effective Teaching. CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Woolfork, A. (2001). Educational Psychology (8th ed.). Bostan: Allyn and Bacon
In so far as my own professional teaching experience in the previous two years, there appear rare behavior disorders in classroom management. Probably it’s due to the fact that I spend most of my leisure time in communicating with my learners. Teaching occurs in after-class conversations and on field outings---whenever the student and I interact with each other inside and outside the confines of class. These activities are essential for building trust and confidence necessary for the learner to accept and assimilate academic information from the teacher. In the practice of teaching, I reconcile care, warmth with control. However, as a professional student and part-time teacher at present, surprisingly, I observe that there are genuinely some “hard-to-manage” students in my class. Talking out of turn or talking at the inappropriate time is what they get used to. Often, their talking distracts me from my delivering of lecture. And I have to cease my lecture to discipline them. “Hey, boys, no talking, please.” The deadly point is that I put it with a gentle smile. They take my warning as anything but something serious and severe. They can even give me a smiling response. It seems to them that rules-breaking is their way to attract my special attention. I spend most of my management time coping with students who pass notes, whisper, stare out of the window, ignore my questions, squirm in their seats, sleep, do work unrelated to my class, or do not work at all. All these things exhaust my patience and energy as well as time. Then my following step is to warn them with a hard face. The effectiveness is immediate but instant. I have taken all reasonable steps to deal with the disruptive behaviors. Anyway, no avail! The story ends up with my losing the control of them, the voice as well as my temper.
In the following weeks, I concern myself on the lecture and the interaction with other well-behaved students without noticing the misbehaviors. To my surprise, those unwanted behaviors decrease. Only on the rare occasions, misbehaviors occur. And whenever it occurs, my approach is to stand quietly and wait for the class to get quiet. Also other students will ask their classmates to behave well in order to proceed with the lecture. A couple of periods later, those rule-breakers can behave themselves though they still lack interest in the lecture. In the teacher-and-student conference, I figure out the reason of their interest-lacking. Owing to their poor English, they just cannot follow and understand me. That is to say, my lecture is beyond their zone of proximal development. Still, my smiling criticism is the primary source. Based on the reflection on the actual classroom management, I take some different steps, ignoring their misbehaviors and praising for their pronunciation or correct answer to my question. At the early stage, they feel pleasant and comfortable with my praise. And gradually, they “stare out of the window again”. Maybe behavior learning theory or applied behavioral analysis approach can present explanations to such phenomenon in my classroom management.
The very heart of behavioral learning theory centers around the concept of reinforcement, and effective teachers understand how student behavior is influenced in the classroom by reinforcers. However, to simply conclude that reinforcement strengthens a response is not sufficient. The learning process is not that simple. Effective use of reinforcers demands an awareness of reinforcement variables, such as types of reinforcement, schedules of reinforcement, and behavior-eliciting techniques. Reinforcers are typically classified as either positive or negative. A positive reinforcer is a stimulus that, when presented, increases the probability of the response or behavior it follows. Such stimuli are often called rewards and are often associated with pleasantness. Some positive reinforcers, such as food, water, and shelter, are biologically significant. Some, such as praise, affection, and approval, are considered to be socially significant. The realm of positive reincorcers in the classroom might include teacher praise, a smile, good grades, and tangible reinforcers. In the classroom, these reinforcers might be earned by students for academic accomplishments and appropriate behavior. Teachers can use positive reinforcers such as good grades, approving smiles, or verbal compliments to produce desired student behavior. Concerning my personal classroom management, when I exercise the positive reinforcer, such as verbal compliment or good grades to their academic work, they actually respond desirably and positively, but only lasting for several periods. When the reinforcer (praise) stops, the desired behavior ceases. According to the educational psychologists, teachers’ use of praise tends to focus students on learning to win approval rather than on learning for its own sake. Perhaps the best advice is to be aware of the potential dangers of the overuse or misuse of praise and to navigate accordingly. Another danger of excessive and inappropriate use of rewards, however, is the creation of an almost suffocating climate in which students have little if any room to pursue a behavior or activity independently. In such a classroom, only those behaviors that the teacher has previously identified are eligible for a reward---all others are deemed less worthy. That’s really the case. When I praise the learners for their oral competence, it turns out that such students are preoccupied with the correct pronunciation of the lexical items rather than the meanings and usages of them.
Applied behavior analysis is the application of behavioral learning principles to change behavior. The method is sometimes called behavior modification. It is closely linked with Skinner’s (1953) theory, called behaviorism or operant conditioning. The techniques underlying the practice of behavior modification derive from behaviorism. The use of behavior modification techniques to change the behavior of animals has been called the experimental analysis of behavior. The use of the same technique to change the socially important behaviors of learners, workers, or the public at large is called applied behavior analysis. The applied behavior analysis approach, as it is used in schools, focuses on changing behaviors that are important for cognitive and social development. These behaviors are actions that can be seen, heard, or counted. Beliefs, values or feelings are excluded. When teachers use applied behavior analysis to improve classroom behavior, consult the following techniques.
1. Identify precisely both the inappropriate behavior you wish to change and the appropriate behavior you want to take its place. So when I say “no talking, please.” I’d better make the students aware of the task they need to accomplish. “No talking please and do the translation exercise with your partner.”
2. Identify the antecedents to both inappropriate behavior and the appropriate behavior and make the necessary changes. I observe the rule-breakers always sit in a group and sitting together is the antecedent to the inappropriate behavior. So I separate them from each other, and the result is what I want.
3. Identify the goal of the inappropriate behavior and discontinue actions on the teacher’s part (or those of peers) that reinforce it. Students typically misbehave with two goals in mind: (1) to gain positive reinforcement from the teacher or their peers or (2) to escape or delay classroom situations that they find boring, unpleasant, or undesirable. One strategy for dealing with misbehaviors is to ensure that student is not positively reinforced for misbehavior. At the early stage, I was distracted by those who misbehaved. They seemed to be pleasant with my attention. This typically involves such teacher actions as ignoring misbehavior whose purpose is to gain attention (a response sometimes called extinction), seeing to it that peers don’t attend to misbehavior, and not giving students preferred activities when they misbehave to get them. When the goal of misbehavior is to escape or avoid classroom activities and responsibilities, the general strategy is for the teacher to be careful not to let this happen. Be sure students are held accountable for work they don’t complete. Do not shorten assignments in response to student complaints.
4. Use punishment as a last resort. If punishment is used at all, it should always be mild. But remember that mild punishment will be ineffective if reinforcers are still available in the situation. That’s why it is best to also reward an alternate, desired response.
Skinner suggests that teachers should focus on appropriate student behavior. He argues that receiving a correct response or a good grade on a paper or a report card can become an insignificant event when compared with anxiety, fear, and aggression---the inevitable products of aversive control. Skinner points out the fact that in grading a paper most teachers place the red marks near the items that are incorrect and ignore those items that the student answers correctly. A preferable method, he suggests, would be just the opposite, calling attention to the correct items on the paper and ignoring errors. This praise-and –ignore approach really works in my classroom management. Whatever methods the teachers employ, the ultimate goal for them should be helping students gain control of their own learning, that is, self-management.
References:
Borich, G..D., & Tombari, M.L. (1997). Educational Psychology: A Contemporary Approach (2nd ed.). New York: Longman.
Coon, D. (2000). Essentials of Psychology: Explanation and Application (8th ed.). U.S. :Wasworth.
Tenson, K. T., & Eller, B. F. (1999). Educational Psychology for Effective Teaching. CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Woolfork, A. (2001). Educational Psychology (8th ed.). Bostan: Allyn and Bacon