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
