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Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community

Kristin AndersonMike Goetz

Sarah RotariusMary Gawlik

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Who is Alfie Kohn? He has written extensively on education. Titles include:

No Contest; The Case Against Competition (1986/1992)

The Brighter Side of Human Nature (1990) You Know What They Say… (1990) Punished by Rewards (1993) What to Look For In a Classroom (1998) The Schools Our Children Deserve (1999) The Case Against Standardized Testing (2000) What Does It Mean to Be Well Educated? (2004) Unconditional Parenting (2005) The Homework Myth (2006)

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One analyst says this about Alfie Kohn (Joseph Milnes, 2001)

“Alfie Kohn firmly believes that students need to be taught how to be responsible and respectful. Once this is accomplished, all other "content" can be learned at a more "reasonable" rate, with a greater threshold of proficiency. "Adults who are respectful of children are not just modeling a skill or behavior, they are meeting the emotional needs of those children, thereby helping to create the psychological conditions for children to treat others respectfully" (Kohn 1997a). The goal of education is to help students realize that they can think, learn, act, and change things.”

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One writer who does not agree with Alfie Kohn (Daniel Willingham,

2009) “Kohn specializes in attacking conventional wisdom

in education.  He takes a common practice that people think is helpful and then shows it’s not helpful, and in fact is destructive. Most people think that homework helps kids learn, praise shows appreciation and makes them more likely to do desirable things, and self-discipline helps them achieve their goals.  Kohn argues that each of these conclusions is wrong or over-simplified. Homework may bring small benefits to some students, but it incurs greater costs and overall is likely not worth assigning.  Praise doesn’t help academic achievement, it controls children, it reduces motivation, and makes them less able to make decisions. Self-discipline is oversold as an educational panacea, and in some contexts may actually be undesirable.”

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What makes classrooms extraordinary? Some classrooms never seem to

have discipline problems So what are these teachers doing

or what are they not doing?

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Is this the only style of classroom management that works?

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Definition of classroom management – in Kohn’s wordsThe raison d’être of discipline or classroom

management is almost always to secure children’s compliance with adults’ demands (Kohn, p xii).

It is ... a teacher-directed model, one in which expectations, rules, and consequences are imposed on students. (Kohn, p xii).

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Why do teachers assume that bad things will happen when we don’t impose rules?

Why do we blame the students when things go wrong in our classrooms?

Kohn, p xiii

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In Kohn’s view, classroom management is a short term fix and only stops bad behaviors.

It does not help children become “good people.”

Kohn, p xv

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The nature of children Is there chaos without rules? Do children need to be told each

and every rule to know what to do? Is positive reinforcement the only

way? Do children need to be taught to

control their impulses?

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Other theorists say…. Dreikurs – Children act out to feel

significant. Jones - Working independently is a

problem – while the cat’s away, the mice will play.

Canter – Children are not motivated to behave in school.

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So do we blame the kids? Or should we blame what we are

asking of them?

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What about the curriculum?Many problems in classrooms stem

from what students are being asked to learn.

Is the work too boring?Or too hard?Or not meaningful to the student(s)?

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Do students act up…. to pass time? When students are off task, our first response should be to ask,“What’s the task? “

(Kohn, p 19)

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“How students act in class is so intertwined with curricular content that it may be folly itself even to talk about classroom management or discipline as a field unto itself.” (Kohn, p 21.)

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Chapter 3 Bribes and Threats

If you punish a child for being naughty, and reward him for being good, he will do right merely for the sake of the reward; and when he goes out into the world and finds that goodness is not always rewarded, nor wickedness always punished, he will grow into a man who only thinks about how he may get on in the world, and does right and wrong according as he finds either of advantage to himself.

-Immanuel Kant, Education

Disciplinary TechniquesCoercion=Power

When an adult has the power, they can

compel the student to do whatever they

want.17

Punishment It must be deliberately chosen to

be unpleasant.

It must be intended to change the student’s future behavior.

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Incarcerating students = detention

Exiling students = suspension

Forcibly isolating students = time out

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The Price of Compliance Returning to the same strategy means it isn’t

effective. Research shows punishment not only fails to

solve problems; it can make them worse. It teaches a disturbing lesson= power It warps the relationship between the punisher

and the punished. Punishment impedes the process of ethical

development.

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Why We Punish Quick and easy Temporary compliance We live what we know It’s expected It makes us feel powerful Desire for justice

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RewardsDo this! --------------------------Get that!Do rewards work? Yes! They give us temporary compliance.Are we genuinely concerned about helping students become caring people? Rewards and punishments only manipulate someone’s actions.

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Chapter 4

Punishment Lite:”Consequences” and Pseudochoice

Repackaged PunishmentLogical consequences: When you do this, then that

will happen.

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Pseudochoice

Obey or suffer You punish yourself Choose……and sufferWhat message do adults send when they deliberately allow something unpleasant to happen to a child even though they could

have intervened? 25

Conventional Punishment vs. Logical Consequences

With conventional punishment, a child is left with a sense of self intact and the capacity to stand in opposition to the punisher. Unlike logical consequences which tries to turn the child against herself.

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Chapter 5 How Not to Get Control of the Classroom

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What are our actual goals?(in the classroom)

Conformity and obedience? Maximize “time on

task”? Promote depth of understanding? Quiet behavior?

Promote life-long learning? Promote concern for others?

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What are our actual goals?(in the classroom)

Alfie Kohn’s contention is that our actual goals are rarely identified.

The idea of classroom management enfolds within it certain goals, and these goals may be problematic.

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Traditional discipline programs Assertive Discipline

The chief concern is getting students to obey. The methods recommended include dictating, controlling, threatening (except not using those words).

We are encouraged to “tell children exactly how we want them to behave”, to impose “limits” as we see fit, and to announce exactly what will happen to anyone who disobeys.

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Traditional discipline programs Assertive Discipline

Additional goals that are mentioned include developing “responsibility” and “self-esteem”.The underlying principle is that the teacher ought to have unilateral control. This is never explicitly stated.The belief that the teacher should be in control of the classroom just to get students to comply is the common assumption.

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Traditional discipline programs Assertive Discipline

Overall, (according to Kohn) most of the published research shows the technique to be detrimental or, at best, to have no meaningful effect at all (Emmer and Aussiker 1990; Render, Padilla, and Krank 1989).

p. 57

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New discipline programs Assertive Discipline

(“Sit down and shut up”)

New Disciplines (“Be seated and refrain from talking”)

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New discipline programs New Disciplines

(“Be seated and refrain from talking”)

These programs still accept the premise that the teacher must be in control. The only issues are how benevolent that control will be, and how respectfully that control will be maintained.

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The problems with the goal “Compliance”

When children are rewarded or threatened into compliance, they will likely feel no commitment to what they are doing.

The more we “manage” students’ behavior, the more difficult it is for them to become morally sophisticated people who think for themselves and care about others.pg. 62

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Making Moral Meaning Constructivist model of learning –

for both academics and morals:Students must be brought in on the process of devising and justifying ethical principles!

1.Maximize the opportunity for students to make choices.

2.Create a caring community in the classroom.

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Making Moral Meaning

Discipline programs can (temporarily) change behavior, but they cannot help people grow.

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Chapter 6 A Classroom of Their Choosing

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Story(pg. 79)

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Beyond Self-Discipline Accepting someone else’s

expectations is a far cry from developing one’s own.

If we want children to take responsibility, we must first give them responsibility, and plenty of it.pg. 84

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Beyond Self-Discipline Structure versus control

What distinguishes an acceptable classroom structure from a mechanism of control is the input students have.

Use classroom meetings as a vehicle for developing the classroom structure.

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Reflections on Decision-making

Voting is just “adversarial majoritarianism”

It is experience with decisions that helps children become capable of handling them.

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Reflections on Decision-making

Classroom meetings: ... a place for sharing ... a place for deciding ... a place for planning ...and a place for

reflecting

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Paradox A curriculum that urges problem

solving and critical thinking...and

a management system that requires compliance and narrow obedience!

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Chapter 7

The Classroom as Community

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What is a Community?

“It is a place in which students feel cared about and are encouraged to

care about each other. They experience a sense of being valued and respected; the children matter to one

another and to the teacher.”- Kohn

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PREREQUISITES FOR BUILDING A COMMUNITY

True and authentic communities are best created:

1. Over time where trust can be developed. 2. When there are fewer numbers in the classroom and ideally in smaller schools.

3. When the teacher is also a member of a community of adults within the school.

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Strategies for Building a Community

1. Student relationships with the adults.* Be a person first* Is it alright to leave yourself vulnerable?* Remember details about your students

2. Student to student relationships* Encourage continuous work, play, and reflection with other students

3. Community within the classroom and entire school* Class meetings: discuss problems and rules together* Look at “misbehavior” as How can we help each other?

4. Using academic instruction* Mini-lessons* Discuss problems from the homework

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CHILD DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

*An elementary school program designed to apply the idea of a caring community.

* Based on how a community can be created and why its important to build this community.

* Stronger the community feel, the more students reported liking school and the more they saw learning as valuable.

* Students demonstrated better conflict resolution and caring for others.

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OBJECTIONS

Why would the idea of community lack support? What are ways a community can be destroyed?

* Can be a challenge

* Goes beyond teacher-student interactions. We need to look at classroom structures.

* How does the classroom system work?

* Competition and grouping by ability are community destroyers

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IS BUILDING A COMMUNITY

THREATENING THE RIGHTS OF INDIVIDUALS?

* Some may set aside their own personal preferences for the good of the group.

* Peer pressure should not be confused with building the dynamics of the community.

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Chapter 8

Solving Problems Together

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SOLVING PROBLEMS TOGETHER

10 possible explanations for situations and ideas for effective problem solving

1.Develop a Relationship2.Have a Set of Skills- listening, experience, calm themselves, see another’s point of view3.Diagnosing what happened and why- play detective4.Question our own practices- ask what is really going on?5.Increase student involvement- ask “What do you think we should do?”6.Have students construct an authentic solution- encourage students to explore possibilities and reflect7.Making restitution- restore, repair, clean up8.Check back later- Did the plan get solved?9.Flexibility- Timing may not always be perfect10.Minimize the impact- speak calmly and confidently about solving the problem together

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Resources Picture of leaves used as background: Google images:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://dannyseo.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/09/23/fallleaves.jpg&imgrefurl=http://dannyseo.typepad.com/my_weblog/television/&usg=__15AjOrjhwea0KV_PKQ_dR0aIwiA=&h=360&w=468&sz=68&hl=en&start=11&um=1&tbnid=0XhhUVtRZ8-NtM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=128&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpictures%2Bof%2Bleaves%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26um%3D1

Title page graphic: amazon.com http://www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Kohn.html

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Resources cont. http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2

009/02/alfie-kohn-is-bad-for-you-and-dangerous-for-your-children/

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/clipart/clip/classhands.html

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/clipart/category/stud0001.html