In chapter 7 of Woolfolk talks a lot about classroom behaviors. I found the couple pages on punishment quite interesting. It talks about how sometimes negative reinforcement is often confused with punishment. The difference between reinforcement and punishment is that reinforcement is always strengthening behavior whether it is negative or positive. Punishment is always trying to decrease or suppress behaviors. (252) There were two types of punishments mentioned. The first type is presentation punishment. This is the type of punishment where students have to do extra work or run extra laps. The second type is removal punishment. This is when students have privileges taken away from them such as classroom help, recess time, and more.
I experienced a time in my class when observing that a student was talking over the teacher. She asked him several times to stop and moved onto teaching. After multiple reminders she finished her instruction and asked him to come to her desk to chat. At her desk she explained to him that she asked him to stop talking and it was not fair that he talks over her. She told him he can decide whether or not he wants to be quite now and do his work or keep talking and stay in during his break and do his work. This is an example of the removal punishment. She told him that if he did not stop talking that he would have his recess taken away from him.
Closely related to behaviors, teachers need to make sure that they are forming an effective environment for learning in their classrooms. In chapter 13, it talks about classroom management, rules, routines, bullying, and discipline. I enjoyed reading about consequences in the classroom and who can set them. I never really considered having my students involved in setting consequences, but after reading, it sounds like a pretty good idea. It would help my classroom become more self-managed and easier to find time for teaching rather than punishing and handing out consequences. Some things that I learned is that in order for this to work, students need to trust the teacher and the situation. Also, it is important to develop rights and responsibilities rather than rules. "'Teaching children that something is wrong because there is a rule against it is not the same as teaching them that there is a rule against it because it is wrong, and helping them to understand why this is so' (Weinstein, 1999, p.154)" (480)
I think is is unbelievably important to make students feel like they are a team. It is also important to have students understand why or why not they do can or cannot do things. This helps them form a better understanding to help them develop and work together to have the best classroom atmosphere as they can.
Jessica, you make some good points about the principles of classroom management. In many ways students are like adults and just want to know the reason for doing things. If they can understand the reasons for the way they should behave and why that makes sense for an effective learning environment, then they are far more likely to want to comply. It's not effective, at least in the long run, to make students obey "because I said so."
ReplyDeleteI loved that quote you pulled out about explaining that there is a rule against something because it is wrong, not the other way around. I think this is something I will use to explain rules and bad choices with my future students and own children one day. I sometimes wonder is removal punishment is a good way to handle behaviors in situations where a student may WANT to be removed from an activity or assignment. If we threaten to take the student out of the room or to miss recess, that might not work if that student is being bullied and WANTS to get out of that situation by acting out. Does that make sense? I do think that it is a great way to motivate a student who loves being in class and going to recess.
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