Behavioral Management & Discipline Proactive Approach vs Counterproductive Approach Proactive Approach Counterproductive Approach

1. Maintain your composure. Students dont know your trigger points unless you reveal them. If you lose your temper students may lose respect for you and regard you as an ineffective teacher. 1. Preaching or Moralizing. Example telling students they should know better than that! If they actually knew better, they might not have behaved in an unacceptable manner in the first place. Students make mistakes because they are inexperienced and learning as they go. Part of learning is making mistakes. Correct mistakes in a quiet and caring manner. 2. Threatening. Threats are ultimatums intended to terminate undesirable behavior, even though you know you cannot carry them out. Example If you dont stop that, Im going to kick you out of class, sounds tough but is usually impossible to enforce. If students hear numerous idle threats, theyll start to tune out and their respect will wane. 3. Ordering & Commanding. If teachers sound too bossy, students begin to feel like they are nothing more than pawns to be moved around. Ask students firmly but respectfully to carry out tasks. Courtesy and politeness are requisites for effective teacher-student relationships. 4. Interrogating. When there is a problem (i.e. argument between two students), an initial reaction is to try and figure out who started the argument rather than deal with the feelings of the students. Little is gained by trying to solve who started it. Try calmly saying, You know loud arguing is not acceptable behavior in my class. You must have been very angry to place yourself in this situation. This encourages students to talk about their feelings rather than place blame on others. It also communicates a caring and concerned attitude toward students even when they misbehave. 5. Refusing to Listen. This commonly manifests itself as Lets talk about it some other time. At times, such as during instruction, this response is necessary. However, if you always refuse to listen, students will avoid interaction and believe you dont care. 6. Labeling. Labeling is characterized by telling students, Stop acting like babies or Youre behaving like a bunch of loonies. This is degrading and dehumanizing to students. Often, labeling is done with the intent of improving performance. In actuality, it is usually destructive and leaves students with negative feelings.

2. Acknowledge your feelings when student misbehavior occurs. Do you feel angry, threatened, challenged, or fearful? How do you typically respond when a student defies you? Know and understand yourself. 3. Design a plan for when difficult feelings arise. When you feel anxiety building because of student misbehavior, use a calming approach such as counting to 10 before responding, or take five deep breaths, or avoid dealing with the student misbehavior until you feel your emotions are under control. 4. Know your options for dealing with the challenging behavior. Talking meaningfully with students is best done after class if it is going to take more than a few seconds. Options to use when you have only limited time include discreetly warning the student, removing the student from class, or sending another student for help if a situation is severe or escalating.

Cooperative Approach to Conflict Resolution

1. Stop the aggressive behavior immediately 2. Gather data and define what happened 3. Brainstorm possible solutions 4. Test the solutions 5. Implement the plan 6. Evaluate the approach

Decrease Unacceptable Behavior (know your options)

1. Ignore or gently reprimand the behavior 2. Give a time-out 3. Remove from activity 4. Make a phone call home 5. Send the student to the principal 6. Suspend or reassign the student

Implement Your Management Plan

Develop awareness of class / Be a leader, not a friend / Communicate high standards / Discipline individuals Give positive group feedback / Avoid negative group feedback / Use activities that involve the entire class

Corrective Feedback
Do not reprimand publicly Walk away State your position Dont threaten or bully Speak about the behavior Avoid touching Isolate the student and yourself Reinforce acceptable behavior

Darst, P. W., Pangrazi, R. P., Sariscsany, M., & Brusseau, T. A. (2012). Dynamic physical education for secondary school students (7th ed.). New York: Benjamin Cummings.