Instructional Strategies for Classroom Behavior Management
This paper examines several evidence-based instructional strategies for managing classroom behavior and increasing student engagement, drawing on the Iris Center's framework for encouraging appropriate behavior. The strategies discussed include behavior-specific praise, criterion-specific rewards, choice-making, effective classroom rules, contingent instructions, and group contingency. For each of three distinct student profiles, the paper identifies the most appropriate strategy and outlines a concrete implementation plan. The analysis highlights how tailored instructional approaches — such as integrating student interests into curricula or phasing in group contingency structures — can address challenges ranging from academic underachievement and task initiation to disruptive behavior and social withdrawal.
- Behavior-Specific Praise and Criterion-Specific Rewards: Defines praise and reward strategies for underachieving students
- Choice-Making as an Engagement Strategy: Explains choice-making to boost ownership and reduce disruption
- Effective Rules, Contingent Instructions, and Group Contingency: Covers rules, reprimands, and group-based behavior strategies
- Applying Choice-Making to a Student with Task-Initiation Challenges: Tailors choice-making implementation for a specific student profile
- Using Group Contingency to Increase Peer Participation: Phases in group contingency to address shyness and low participation
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper moves logically from defining each strategy in general terms to applying it to a specific student profile, making the connection between theory and practice clear throughout.
- Implementation plans are concrete and detailed — for example, the group contingency section specifies weekly benchmarks, reward structures, and grouping criteria rather than speaking in abstractions.
- The writer demonstrates awareness of individual student differences, selecting strategies based on each student's particular behavioral profile rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper uses a consistent compare-then-apply structure: each strategy is introduced with a definition and rationale drawn from a cited source, then evaluated for suitability with a specific student. This technique shows the writer can bridge educational theory and classroom practice — a core competency in teacher-preparation writing.
Structure breakdown
The paper is organized around three student profiles, each addressed in its own section. Within each section, relevant strategies are described and evaluated before the most appropriate one is selected and a phased implementation plan is outlined. The conclusion of each student section functions as a practical recommendation rather than a general summary, grounding the analysis in actionable pedagogy.
Behavior-Specific Praise and Criterion-Specific Rewards
The Encouraging Appropriate Behavior Specific Praise strategy is based on delivering positive reinforcement in the form of either verbal or written praise. It can help to foster desirable and appropriate relationships between students and instructors, and requires teachers to utilize timely praise that is related to specific actions and academic behaviors. This strategy is of immense benefit to students with a lengthy history of underachievement, as it offers attention in a classroom setting that is rewarding and tied to positive, on-task behaviors. Implementing this strategy with such students would likely require utilizing a variety of praise types alongside "other forms of behavior and reinforcement strategies" (Curran and the Iris Center, 2003, p. 6), since students unaccustomed to approbation may not respond to praise alone.
Criterion-specific rewards serve as a preemptive means of "managing classroom behavior" (Curran and the Iris Center, 2003, p. 9). They provide an extrinsic form of motivation in that students earn privileges, social rewards, or material rewards for adhering to predefined, specific forms of behavior. As with most forms of motivation, it is necessary to vary the types of rewards students can access so that they remain continually motivated to engage in the actions that warrant them. This strategy benefits students with a history of underachievement for a number of reasons. First, it supplements specific praise with additional means of motivation. Second, the implementation of clearly defined rewards ensures that students know exactly what is expected of them.
Choice-Making as an Engagement Strategy
The choice-making strategy allows students to choose certain aspects of their academic lessons, which gives them a sense of involvement and pride in taking ownership of their own learning. To implement this strategy, instructors need to identify student areas of interest, devise options that students can choose from related to pedagogy that coincides with those interests, and offer those options accordingly. This strategy complements criterion-specific rewards well, since having meaningful choices can itself function as one of those rewards. Additionally, research indicates that this strategy "heightens student engagement and reduces disruptive behavior" (Curran and the Iris Center, 2003, p. 13) — making it a valuable tool for students who struggle with sustained attention or motivation.
Effective Rules, Contingent Instructions, and Group Contingency
Effective rules are one of the hallmarks of classroom management and, by extension, of effective teaching. This strategy involves a brainstorming process in which teachers guide students through the formulation of a small, finite set of rules pertaining to classroom behavior. Teachers then post those rules in conspicuous places around the classroom and remind students of them as needed. Students who interrupt others or otherwise disrupt the class benefit considerably from this strategy: by participating in the creation of the rules, being reminded of them regularly, and receiving praise for adhering to them, such students develop a clearer understanding of behavioral expectations.
In many ways, contingent instructions represent the first formal step of the disciplinary process after traditional preemptive measures have proved ineffective for a particular situation. This strategy works by reprimanding a student for inappropriate behavior as immediately and as discreetly as possible, while simultaneously issuing a directive to redirect him or her back on task. Proper implementation involves a timely approach, brevity, and, ideally, eye contact — all of which can serve as a simple, focused reminder of both what the student should not be doing and what is expected of them instead.
The Group Contingency strategy makes use of the entire classroom, or of smaller groups within it, to produce desired behavior in individuals or groups. There are three distinct forms of this strategy: independent, dependent, and interdependent. Independent group contingencies reward or withhold rewards from multiple individuals based on each person's own behavior. Dependent group contingencies tie an individual's behavior to rewards or consequences for the group. Interdependent group contingencies reward or withhold rewards from the entire class based on collective behavior. Contingencies can involve either positive goals or negative consequences. This strategy is particularly useful for students who need to understand how their actions affect others — a critical social and academic insight for students prone to disruptive behavior.
References
Curran, C. and the Iris Center. (2003). Encouraging appropriate behavior. The Iris Center. http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdf_case_studies/ics_encappbeh.pdf
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