Critique
of skinner’s theories
Because skinner did not
address classroom management in his work,he also did not addres the instrucsional
implications of his theory and did not show the relationship between management
amd instrucion.most effective classroom educators realize the importance of
combining effective management with good teaching and believe that it is
difficult to have one without the other.
Looking specifically at
the behavioral aspect of operant conditioning,not all classroom management
theorists agree with skinner’s ideas about rewards.in fact some believe reward
are counter productive because they are extinsic bribes rather than internal
motivation.
As Alfie kohn
explains,the more people receive rewardsfor doing something,the more likely it
becomes that they will lose the intrinsic motivation to continue the behavior
that produced the reward.thus,when a stdudent works for the extrincis reward
reather than the inrinsic reward.other educators believe that student might
firts be motivated by extrinsic motivation begins to disappear and the
individual learn to perform the behavior solely to get the reward.other educators
believe that students might first be motivation by extrinsic reward,but they
eventually will perform the desired behaviors without the reward or with only
anintermittent reward.in other words,as the behaior is shaped,the motivation
becomes intinsic rather than extinsic.other criticisms of skinner’s behaviorist
the theories arise from a general dissatisfaction with any theory that believes
punishment is ineffective and that positive reinforcement is better.
How might skinner’s
theories fare in our nation’s increasingly diverse school as educators strive
to address cultural group,socioeconomic class,geographical region,or devel
opmental period can vary significantly.however,different groups can,in
general,have certain characteristics that teacher need to consider in the
classroom.
Although educators
generally believe that competition improves behavior and achievement,the
opposite might be true for some cultural groups.for example,manning and baruth
explained that some latinos or hispanic americans might avoid any competition or
activity that sets them apart from their group.for some latinos to stand out
among their peers is to place themselves in considerable jeopardy and is to be
avoided at all costs.other people believe competition means that someone has to
excel at someone else’s expense.extrinsic reward such as a homework
pass,token,or stiker might be seen as a personal affront to someone who did not
receive one.also feminists are concerned that the reward system is unfair to
females,who sometimes place value on collaboration rather than competition to
receive reward.
Overview
of redl’s and wattenberg’s theories
In mental hygiene
teaching,redl and wattenberg offered several theories that have contributed to
classroom management concept and provided the foundational work for many later
theorists.their explaination of group dynamics or group life in the classroom
has particular relevance to today’s educators,who need to understand that
individual behavior affects group behavior,and vice versa.in addition they
indetified management strategies,including the techniques of supporting
self-control,situasional assistance,reality apprasial and the pleasure-pain
principle,which educators can use to influence student behavior.
In discussing group
dynamics,redl and wattenberg noted that differences occur in the behavior of a
student as an individual and the behavior of the same student as a member of a
group.within a group,they found that individuals assume roles,including
leader,clown or entertainer,fall guy or blame taker,and instigator.they also
identified group actions such as contagious behavior that individuals assume
roles,including actions such as contagious behavior that spreads throught the
group members scape goating or blaming a weak or unliked individual reactions
to strangers,wich usually cause tension throughout the group teasing the
teachers pet or showing a negative or the breakup of the group.
Readl and wattenberg
also identified a number of influence techniques that educators can use to
manage behavior in aa classroom.their technique pf supporting self control is
based on the beliefe that individuals control their own conduct and that much
meisbehavior result from a temporary lapse of an individuals control system
rather than from a motivation to be disagreeable.another mainstay of redls and
wattenbergs theories is the concept of appraising realty,or realty appraisal.they
maintaned that students need to appraise realty in an effort to understand whether their actions are
guieded by intellingence and conscience or by fear or prejudice.to guide
students,educators should appeal to students sense of fairness and also
“strengthen their ability to see the consequences of their actions”.
Two other influence
techniques are the pleasure-pain principle and the concept of situational
assitance.if a student hast lost his or her self-control,a teacher steps in
with situational assitance to help the student regain control.when using the
pleasure-pain principle the teacher deliberately provides experiences to
produce plesant to unpleasant feelings.in able behavior,and an unpleasant
experience will induce an individual to reapeat a desiring that unwanted
behavior.however,redl wattenberg make it clear that this pleasure-pain
principle does not mean that a teacher,in the heat of anger,can lash out at a
student.likewise,pain or punishment should not be in the form of revange.
Contribution
of reidl and wattenberg theories
With their study of
group life,redl and wattenberg contributed to our understanding of the ways
students function as members of groups within classroom and the effect that
groupe expectations have on individual group members.a worthwhile project for
any teacher is to obesrve the groups within the classroom,as well as within the
total classroom group,in order to identify the roles being played by each of
the student.it is also important for a teacher to be awere of group behaviors
such as the tension that often accompanies the entrence of a stranger into a
room or the hostility over a percieved pet,or favorite,student.a perceptive
teacher is awere of the functioning of the class as a whole group,as well as of
each smaller group within the clasroom and monitors the actions of each group
and its members.
In addition to their
work on group dynamics,redl and wattenberg identified many influence principles
that are important for educators.most students want to behave appropriately,but
they sometimes need help contolling their actions.perhaps because they
forget,are uncertain about the rules,are bored or are just tired of
sitting,some students lose self-control and need the teachers assistance.often
this assistence can be minimal and can help student regain or keep from losing
their control.at other times,situational assistance requires more action on the
part of the educator.although this asstance can take many forms,redl and
wattendberg cautioned that corporal punishment can accomplish nothing that
cannot be achieved better by some other methood.although this attitude is not
unusual today,redl and wattenberg position probably resulted in considerable
criticism when it was stated originaly.figure 2-1 provides several examples of
ways teacher can help student control their own action and provide situational
assistance.
In addition to helping
students deal with their behavior in an individual situation,educators can use
several strategies to help student learn to appraise or understand reality.for
example,teacher can use direct appeals an explain to student the connection
between their conduct and its consequences.they also can use criticism and
encouragement,wich can be done in private or within thee hearing range of the
entire class.in addition,educators can cleary define classroom and school
limits.one advantage of appraising reality is that these techniques help
student developed the values and the feel for realty that should govern their
behavior.activity 2-2 offers you can opportunity to developed some
questionsthat you might ask to encourage students to appraise realty.
Aaplication
of redl’s and wattenberg’s theories
Redls and wattenbergs
theories have contributed significantly to classroom management and to ideas
about god teaching.unlike skinner,who looked only at the psychological aspects
of behavior,redl and wattenberg focused on aspect of classroom management that
have the potentionalfor improving instructional practices as well.understanding
group dynamic,providing situational assistance,and supporting self control relate
to effective management practices and to good teaching.redl and wattenberg
realized the difficulty of having effective management without good teaching
and built upon the connection and realitionship between the two.
The following are some
of ways teacher have followed or disregarded redls and wattenbergs
theories.after reading them,use these theories to respond to the situation in i
low would you react 2-2.
When ellen pandorski
began her student teaching,she had a rule that student had to raise their hand
to answer one of her question.that way,she could call on the right
person.however,as the school year progressed,cory began to answer question
without raising his hand.because ms.pamdorski thought the rule
infraction.soon,other student began to call out answer,many of wich we
wrong.then ms.pandorski made another mistake.knowing cory usually had the right
answer she allowed him to continue but reprimanded other who called out.not
only did this take time away from isntruction,it led other student to resent
cory and call him the teacher pet.red and wattenberg would have explained the
group dynamic of this situation to ms.pandorski by stressing that misbehaviors
can spread. Once one student initates the first inappropriate behavior.
Managing
tammi’s behavior
Redl and wattenberg had
serveral ideas dealing with group dynamics,supporting self control,realty
appraisal,situasional assistance and the pleasure pain principle.think about
these as you read the following scenario.
Ms. Caprio does not
have any problems with tammis academic achievement in fact,tammi frequently
finishes her work before other in her class and it is usually correct.what
ms.caprio does have a problem with is tammis behavior.because she is one of the
first to finish class work,tammis startsto tal,giggle,and distrubs
others.knowing that something must be done about tammis behavior,ms.caprio has
considered giving tammi more work,calling her parents,or moving her to an other
part of the classroom.
Which of the ideas of
readl and wattenberg could ms.caprio use with tammi ? justify your decision and
explain how ms caprio could implement thes ideas.
In addition,this group
resented the favored treatment shown to cory.thus,a small management problem
grewand impacted the instruction in the classroom.
Gabe sanchez is teacher
who supports self control and helps student maintain appropriate
behavior.during whole group instrution,he constantly observers the entire class
for signs of misbehavior with a goal,whenever possible,of correctingmisbehavior
without verbally correcting the student.when mr.sanchez notices something,such
as a student playing with a game isntead of paying attention to the lesson,he
catches the student eye and maintains eye contact for a few momens.usually,letting
the student know that he is awere of the behavior is enough.when it is
not,without interrupting his intruction,mr.sanchez walks to the student side
and continues talking to the class.this is usually sufficient for the student
to put the game away and begin concentrating the classroom inctruction.
Gail tarron,a ninth
grade spanish teacher,encourages students to appraise reality in an effort to
change their behaviors.after on class,she questioned four girls to get them to
realize how their cliquish behaviors affected other in the clique as well as
the entire class.rather than traying to break up the group or seat them in
different parts of the classroom,she sougght to show them effects of their
behavior on their learning and on other student in the class.
Crituque
of redls and wattenbergs theories
in spite of the contibutions
of redl and wattenberg theoris and potential they hold for helping teacher
manage classroom,several drawbacks should be mentioned.the proposal that
teacher look student in the eye as a means of supporting self control can be
unconfortable and insulting for student
of some cultures,especially those who have been taught that such behavior shows
disprespet.for example,some african american childern and adolescents and
members of some american indian tribes consider looking and adult or authorty figure
in the eye to be rude or discourteous.thus,for some student in the
eye as means of supporting sel control could be disconcerting to the
student rather than being helpful.
Also,it can be
dangerous for a teacher to use phsycal proximity,such as standing near a
student or touching a student on the shoulder,especially when student feel they
been threatened or touched in a harmful manner.in addition,althougt student in
some cultural groups might prefer standing close to other,student of other
cultural groups mighht consider close proximity to be threatining and even
insullting.
Another problem is that,althought understanding group life in
the classroom im importanr,a teacher might not know appropriate management
techniques to use with a group,and a situatuion can get out of hand.
In one school,a clique
of intellectually bright and motivated girls shunned all others,but they
significantly influenced the class by spreading rumors,as a group,they were
leaders,yet the velues they advocated were not always best for the class,nor
were they conducive to positive classroom behavior.althougth the teacher
identified the group dynamics in motion,he did not know how to help the group
members realize the negative effect of
their behaviors or to encourage them to change.
Redls and wattenbergs
theories provide aan understanding of the girls roles,but determining the
appropriate management actions is difficult and requires considerable
skill.finally,redl and wattenberg wrote prior to the safe schools
movement.schools have always had bullies and fight but the level of violence
faced by educators in the 21st century was not prevalent in the mid 1900s.however,even thoughtredl and
wattenberg did not adress the issue of safety in school,their theories,such as
group life in the classroom heve potential for promoting safe schools.
Thus,even with these
criticims,redls and wattenbergs management theories are sound and support good
instructional practices.providing situational assistance,supporrting self
control,and understanding group dynamics are important for classroom management
and isntruction.
William
Glasser
Overview
of glasser theories
Working primarily
juvenile offenders,william glasser at first based most of his writings on
freudian psychoanalytic,but he later switched to a more behavioral approach
that focused on helping people look to present coonditions to find solutions to
problems.glasser is well known fpr his realty therapy and control theory
but his choise theory seems to have the
most relevance for educators who are interested in classroom managment.glasser
believedd that students have specific human needs and motives and should accept
responsibilty for their behavior.he also changed the terminology from control
theory because he found choice theory to be a better and more positve sounding
name.
Choice theory,according
to glsser is based upon the beliefe that the only person whose behavior we can
control is our own.the psychology of external contorol psychology destroys
humamn relationships and pervents individuals from getting along with each
other.in contrast,choice theory explains that adults and childern choose to do
everything they do.from birth to death,people behave in specific ways,based
upon their choice of behavior,or what
they thinkis most appropriate at the time.because the only behavior we can
control is our own,it is only the closeness of
the relatinship that a parent or teacher has with a child that will lead
to a change in that student maladaptive or destructive behavior.
To glasser,student are
driven by five basic psychological needs :
The
need for survival,the need to belong,the need for power,the need for
freedom,and the need for fun.once teacher meet these psychological
needs,student will choose to demontrate appropriate behavior result.using coercion
or external controls,whether reward or punishment is harmful because the
student are not choosing their behavior,their are changing behavior to get the
reward or avoid the punishment.glasser believes that coerction does not work
and should be replaced with choice theory.
