Classroom Discipline and Behavior Management

Classroom discipline and behavior management in any given classroom is absolutely impacted by the grade and building levels in a clearly direct relationship. Adolescents will be able to respond to and understand a more nuanced form of discipline than children. All forms of punishment must absolutely fit the crime, but this is particularly true when it comes to older children. Adolescents also have a more keenly refined sense of justice vs. injustice; thus, punishments and disciplines with older children need to be fair and need to be specific and not overly heavy-handed. For younger children, the punishment needs to be specific as well, but it needs to be specific in a way that establishes a strong sense of cause and effect. This will assist in teaching them truly important lessons about the consequences of their actions. From my own experience, it's been apparent that children, particularly male children can respond to particular punishments and start to self-regulate their behavior as a result. For instance, for children, punishments which involve separation and quiet time in a small room where there is no stimulation can be truly beneficial in helping them to think things over. Furthermore, separation from the very peer group which the child was acting out with can be an adequate source of discipline and punishment. Physical punishments have negative effects in the short-term and long-term: "Countries with the lowest use of physical discipline showed the strongest association between mothers' use and children's behavior problems, but in all countries higher use of physical discipline was associated with more aggression and anxiety" (Lansford, 2005).

The instructional environment has a tremendous impact on effective classroom discipline and behavior management. Children are generally very adept at assessing what they can and cannot "get away with" and the teacher has a strong impact on this for the most part. The teacher sets the tone of the general environment and all discipline problems generally evolve from that or not; if the environment is not one which the students take seriously, it will be difficult for them to take the punishments seriously. Thus, the teacher needs to set the tone of expectations in an adequate fashion before the students start acting out. This is somewhat related to a preventative approach, such as the positive behavioral support system (PBSS). PBSS truly does help in maximizing the prosocial behavior of students while minimizing the amount of students who require strategic/intensive behavioral interventions. PBSS truly does create and support positive behavior out of all students in a lasting and marked manner so that classrooms are more peaceful and more productive. "School-wide PBS is a structured way to promote positive relationships in schools and to provide students with social and behavioral skills to be successful learners and school citizens. Researchers have demonstrated positive outcomes for staff in terms of regained time for administrative duties and instruction as a result of not having to address behavior problems (e.g., Scott & Barrett, 2004) and for students in terms of reductions in challenging behaviors at all grade levels" (McKevitt & Braaksma, 2007). Part of the reason why this method is so effective is because it focuses on an organized approach, such as getting the support of school policy behind its initiatives along with the help of strategic sustainability plans. PBSS also is so successful in that in order to be properly implemented, teachers need to make some sort of commitment to it; a move which guarantees its success.

Diversity is the program disposition that I wish to discuss in connection with my learning experience. I've found that as a professional, the more culturally competent one can be, the more one can offer students meaningful experiences in the classroom. Diversity is more than simply creating a diverse environment or valuing a diverse environment of students; it's also about showing one's students that one has enough cultural competency for them to trust you and to establish trust.

It's long been a challenge in pedagogy to find a way to meet the needs of a diverse classroom; students have always presented a range of different cultural, linguistic, social and socioeconomic needs and backgrounds. In fact, in the academic research paper, "Culturally Responsive Differentiated Instruction" by Santamaria, it was found that ultimately, "The best teaching practices are those that consider all learners in a classroom setting and pay close attention to differences inherent to academic, cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic diversity. Through a closer examination of two different, seemingly distinct, theoretical models that have rarely been linked or reconciled, educators may be able to determine what is appropriate for particular groups of students in particular classrooms in particular locales" (Santamaria, 2009). This means that engaging in proactive, culturally responsive forms of decision-making and classroom management can have a marked and profound impact on students and the overall effectiveness of teachers. It can allow teachers to more readily bond with their students and to establish a more pronounced sense of trust. Furthermore, it might help students to feel as though they're more readily understood, causing them to feel more compelled to behave better. This means there should be a vested interest in teachers and schools at large to set standards for implementing culturally responsive care -- even if it means providing their teachers with new training. "In implementing school reform efforts to improve student achievement, reconciliation of best teaching practices and the creation of hybrid pedagogies are critical in addressing a future of an increasingly diverse country and global community" (Santamaria, 2009). This is indeed revelatory: the world is of course becoming increasingly global and more and more, educators are expected to respond to these trends and to find ways to create a touch with more and more diverse classrooms. For a teacher who isn't used to extreme diversity, teaching in the modern classroom could be a rude awakening. Different cultural groups are going to have different standards and needs of discipline, which can prove to be daunting to an educator who has no experience with teaching for a wide group of students from many different backgrounds.