Korean Job Discussion Forums

[BrianInSuwon]

excerpt from Managing Motivation by William M. Tweedie


ATTENTION

A student finishes his part of the activity ahead of his classmates. He starts drumming his hands on the desk. You ask him to stop, but he continues.

I always say if what you’re doing isn’t working, don’t try the same thing harder, and try something different. One of the things I love about my job are those times when a teacher recognizes that the way he/she handled a situation did not have the desired effect and asks for suggestions on what he/she could do differently. I was doing a consultation, observing a group of elementary students who were doing morning activities (calendar, show and tell) at a table. One of the little boys, after having had his turn to share and listening to a few of his classmates, began drumming on the table. The teacher asked him to stop and listen. He continued to pound. The teacher reminded him of the rules and the consequences. He drummed louder. She warned him that if he continued to disrupt, he would have to leave the table and sit away from the group. He persisted in drumming. She told him to leave the group. He refused. He was told he could walk on his own or someone would escort him from the group. He wrapped his legs around his chair and continued to drum. Eventually, he was physically escorted from the group.

What the teacher was using to try to manage the student’s behavior was a pretty standard type of behavior management system consisting of warnings and consequences. This is a valid strategy that sometimes works. In this case, however, it was making the behavior worse, not stopping it. Her original goal to stop the disruption and get the student to re-engage was lost. She did not feel good about how the situation played out and asked me for ideas of what she could have done differently.

My first question was, “Why might the student have been creating the disruption?” She thought that he might have been bored and was having trouble waiting. She added that this was a typical problem for this student. I then asked her how she felt when the drumming started. She said she was annoyed. Annoyance is an indication that the behavior may be attention seeking. If the student is seeking attention, you can give it to him in one of two ways. You can focus on what he is doing wrong and try to get him to desist or you can engage him in a constructive activity. Constructive activities may be things like helping the teacher, running an errand, acting as the “host” for the Show and Tell show. In essence it’s employing a form of redirection. Many parents have told me that their children drive them crazy just before company arrives, however, they’ve learned that if they find a helping task for their son/daughter to do like preparing the salad or making place cards, the misbehavior stops.

[carpetdope]

That's good stuff.

http://www.disciplinehelp.com/

This site has a huge list of behavioural problems that might arise in the classroom, and, better still, it breaks them down into the following:
Behaviour
Effects
Action
Primary causes of misbehaviour
Primary needs being revealed
Methods, procedures and techniques
Mistakes

It's a diagnostic and procedural guide on handling troublemakers.

[Juregen]

Thx a lot guys