Research Paper on "Principles Behind a Behavioral Approach and an Assertive Approach to Classroom Management"

Research Paper 3 pages (1005 words) Sources: 3 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Classroom Management

High School history teacher Mr. Bilyeu has a problem with his 5th period class. At the start of the semester, a few students were tardy for class, now almost 1/2 the class is tardy.

The behavioral approach to classroom management focuses on establishing expectations, monitoring behavior, reinforcing positive behavior and redirecting negative behavior. In most classroom situations, it is vital to create the expectations during the initial part of the semester, since it is much more difficult to add rules after the fact. Essentially, the idea to follow the following:

Establish rules, state those rules clearly, state expectations clearly, state reasons for rules

Practice and model positive behavior

Establish consequences to positive and negative behavior

Establish method of delivering reinforcement (usually needs to be age appropriate).

Monitor behaviors; reward positive, redirect negative

Hold students accountable, but focus on the positive

Too much attention to negative behavior reinforces it.

Praise will be contingent upon positive behavior

Find meaningful consequences to negative behaviors (Huitt, 1996).

Solutions- Using a behavioral approach in an 11th-grade classroom is a bit more difficult than with younger children. At this age, peer pressure and social activities take precedence over teacher rules. One way to reward those that are on time is with chits (poker chips, etc.) that allow the on-time students to "purchase" extra credit questions, extra time on assignments, movie tickets, paperback books dealing with the subject, etc. For instance, if the instructor gave out a chit to every student who was on time, at the end of a month, a student with perfect attendance might have 20 chits. Those 20 chits could be exchanged for a bonus question worth X points on the next test, or an additional 2 days for a research paper assignment. In this way, the rewards for being on time are proximal to the behavior. Those who remain tardy do not have these options.

Part 2 -- it seems logical to praise the good behavior and not be overtly nagging about the negative behavior. For my classroom, I would adopt an approach that the first 5 minutes of class are a short quiz-based either on the previous day's lecture or the course readings. The quizzes might only be worth 5 points, but given every day, they would add up to 20-25% of the final grade. There are no make ups for these quizzes, and if students are tardy, then they do not get to take the quiz. The quizzes should be designed to be simple, 5 questions with 1-2-word or 1 sentence answers.

Finally, one of the reasons for such tardiness must be that there are no consequences to being tardy. Perhaps the instructor has not let those expectations be known, nor has he followed up on the tardiness issue. If the instructor makes the first part of the class especially meaningful (short exams or lecture hints), then those who attend on time will be rewarded, those who don't will have negative consequences without overt punishment.

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