PUNISHMENT

“Misbehavior should not be ignored”

“The best procedure is to ignore undesirable

behavior while paying attention to and
reinforcing desirable behavior”
Brophy and Evertson
 Skeptical about avoiding or ignoring inappropriate behavior.
 They contend that certain misbehaviors are too disruptive or dangerous
to be ignored.
 Another observer takes the middle stance that undesirable behavior can
be ignored by the teacher when it is momentary, not serious, unlikely to
be disruptive, and attributable to a student who is usually well-behave.

Robert Slavin
 Makes still another distinction. Many forms of misbehavior are motivated
by the desire for peer attention and approval student.
 Slavin concludes that ignoring misbehavior is ineffective if it is reinforce or
encourage by peers. Such behavior cannot be ignored, for it will worsen
and attract more peer support.
Ornstein
 He asserts that emotionally disturbed children and children who
lack healthy ego development pose a special challenges.
 He claims that “by threatening or punishing, the teacher makes the
mistake of appearing hostile; in turn this children feel they have the
right to hate the teacher and be bad”
 It is advisable, Ornstein asserts, for the teacher to be “sympathetic”,
not overly assertive and even makes “special allowances”.

(“The other children will know these disturbed children are different and will accept the
fact that concessions are made “or rules are modified to accommodate their special
needs”).
 For the situation in which it is decided that punishment is appropriate and will
be effective. The TEACHER must decide on its form of severity.

 Soft reprimand (verbal warning and written reprimand) - Common

punishment according to Gage and Berliner.

 Corporal punishment (Should not be used)

-any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or
discomfort, however light.

- It includes hitting, slapping, spanking, shaking, punching, kicking, choking, electric shock,
confinement in small spaces, excessive exercise, and fixed postures for long periods. Instruments
used in corporal punishment include leather straps, switches, baseball bats, and fists. (child abuse)
PUNISHMENT
School punishments that are legal Punishments that are against the law

The following punishments are legal: The following punishments are illegal:

1. Written work 1. Physical punishments

2. Detentions
3. Extra work around school 2. Sending you home (“kiwi suspensions”)
4. Time-out, or being sent out of class
5. Taking away privileges 3. Punishments that are “cruel or degrading”
6. Behaviour management programmes
7. Being told off “reprimanded” 4. In-school suspensions
daily reports
8. Behavioural contracts. 5. Being “excused” by the principal.
Principles for using punishment

Based on the work of O’Leary and O’ Leary (1997)

1. Used punishment sparingly.

2. Make it clear why the student is being punished.
3. Provide the student with alternative means of obtaining some
positive reinforcement.
4. Reinforce student behaviors which are incompatible with those
you wish to weaken or eliminate. For example; if you punish for
being off task, reward on being on task.
5. Avoid punishing when you are angry or emotional.
6. Punish when inappropriate behavior starts rather than when it
ends.
7. Avoid corporal punishment.
Based on the work of Good and Brophy (1984,1985)

1. Threat of punishment is usually effective than punishment itself especially

when phrased in such a way that there are unknown consequences.

2. Punishment should be threatened or warned before implemented. This is

done in a way that the teacher hopes it will not be used and the student are
responsible if it has to be used.

3. The punishment should be accompanied with positive statement of

expectations and rules, focusing on what the students should be doing.

4. Punishment should be combined with negative reinforcement, so that

student must improve to escape punishment. For example: the student will
lose a privilege until behavior improves.
5. Punishment should be systematic and deliberate; avoid emotional
reaction or provocation to reaction when punishing.

6. Do not punish an entire class or group because of the misbehavior of

an individual.

7. Avoid excessive punishment, since this may unite the students in

sullen defense against the teacher.
 12 GUIDELINES FOR USING PUNISHMENT

1. LEARN WHAT TYPE OF PUNISHMENT SCHOOL AUTHORITIES ALLOW.

2. DON’T THREATHEN THE IMPOSIBLE.

3. DON’T PUNISH WHEN YOU ARE AT A LOSS FOR WHAT ELSE TO DO OR

IN AN EMOTIONAL STATE.

4. DON’T ASSIGN EXTRA HOMEWORK AS PUNISHMENT.

5. BE SURE THE PUNISHMENT FOLLOWS THE OFFENSE AS SOON AS

POSIBLE.

6. BE SURE THE PUNISHMENT FITS THE MISBEHAVIOR.

PREVENTIVE DISCIPLINE

Preventive discipline refers to establishing control systems in the classroom

and avoiding the breakdown of controls. It involves a series of strategies to
modify the surface behavior of the students so they are engaged in
appropriate classroom tasks.

It also involves preventing students from getting out of control by reacting to

small, manageable incidents before they become big and unmanageable.
Preventive discipline permits the teacher to cope with student adjustment
problems in class while helping students cope with their feelings.
General Preventive Measure: For all Teachers

Redl and Wineman established 21 specific influence techniques that were

workable with aggressive boys in treatment centers. They later developed 12
of these for managing students in regular classrooms. They are classic
techniques, based on clinical psychology and diagnostic insight into student
behavior.
General Preventive Measure: For all Teachers
1. Planned Ignoring
2. Signal Interference
3. Proximity Control
4. Interest Boosting
5. Humor
6. Hurdle Lessons
7. Constructing the Program
8. Routine
9. Direct Appeal
10.Removing Seductive Audience
11.Antiseptic Bouncing
12.Physical Restraint
Moderate Preventive Measures: Enhancing Routine and Academic Work

From a overview of the literature on classroom order and management, Walter Doyle has compiled a series of “for
successful teachers. The functions, which coincide with our term preventive measures, tend to stress cooperation, social
participant, and social harmony, as well as academic accountability. Taken as a whole, they correspond with middle-of-
the-road disciplinary approaches such as the the group managerial and group guidance approaches, and to lesser extent
the firmer business-academic approaches. The functions are rooted in the work of Kounin and also the work of Brophy,
Emmer, Evertson, and Good (who were influenced by Kounin).

For Doyle, preventive discipline is a matter of understanding events in the classroom- how processes evolve and how
people interact. He claims that classroom order is fragile, a condition that can be easily distrupted by mistakes, intrusions,
and unpredictable events. Order is not something that is achieved once and for all so that teaching can make place;
rather, there is permanent pressure on the classroom life, and the teacherT must be vigilant in preventing disorder. The
managerial functions are important for enhancing the inherent delicacy of classroom order. Such functions correlate,
according to Doyle, with being an effective manager are both the elementary and secondary levels.

1. Establishing classroom activities. The early class sessions of a school year are critical. During this period order is
defined and procedures for sustaining order are put into place.
2. Rules and procedures. Life in classroom must be governed by rules and procedures, with specific formats for
opening, closing, and conducting lessons. Rules should be focused on behavior that is likely to distrupt activities,
such as lateness, talking during lessons, gum chewing, being unprepared, or fighting.
3. Academic work and activities. Students are told what to do, beginning to the first day of class, so that little time is
lost finding seats, getting organized, or waiting between activities. Warm-up activities have simple, whole-class
instructional structure, and the work is familiar and easy to accomplish. Effective teachers establish a procedure for
maintaining whole-group focus on academic work and protect it from intrusion and distruption.

4. Routines. Rountinization makes classroom activities less susceptible to breakdowns and interuptions because
students know the normal sequence of events and what is expected of them. The more familiar the “lessons
context”, that is, classroom processes, schedules, and structures, the more stable and predictable is student
behavior. Establishing routines is also somewhat prerequisite for performing academic work.

5. Enacting processes. Rule systems are complex and vary with lesson contexts or distinctive phases of a class
session. For example, rules quiet talk is often permitted among peers during entry seatwork, but not during teachers
presentations or question-answer recitation. Students know the difference, with little explanation needed, in well-
controlled classes. With older children, rules often do not have to be explicitly articulated, but are part of
commonsense knowledge and experience.

6. Hidden curriculum. Emphasis on authority, responsibility, orderliness, and task orientation is commom in well-run
classrooms. There is a heavy emphasis on following directions, accepting responsibility, and working quietly and
diligent. Students are socialized to the world of work, that is, to modern bureaucracy, in classrooms; institutional
constraints prevail over student preferences.
7. Monitoring. Monitoring consists of three levels. First, effective managers watch groups: they attend to what is
happening in the entire room, while they attend to individual students. Second, they watch conduct or behavior, that
is, they are quick to react to misbehavior before it spreads. Third, they monitor the pace, rhythm, and duration of
class events (avoiding what Gump calls “hesitation” and “lags” and emphasizing what Kounin calls “smoothness” and
“momentum”.

8. Maintaining group lessons. Instructional strategies, such as grouping and questioning, ensure that all students in
the class stay involved in the lesson, even when one or two students are performing. Materials and activities provide
a group focus. In many classrooms the teacher sets specific limits on the type and amounts of students participation.
For example, the teacher set the topics, formulates narrow rather than open-ended questions, and calls on studets
to secure a “right answer” to keep a planned discussion ongoing.

9. Seatwork. Seatwork is well organized and monitored by the teacher. The teacher is available to work with
students and circulates around the room to see how students are doing. The extent of whole-class supervision
decreases when the teachers focuses attention on a small group, but the rest of the class work independently.

10. Transitions. Transitions are made with minimal loss of momentum or time. The teacher monitor them closely to
se that students move from one task to another, and provides considerable direction.
11. Engaged time. Opening routines are established, and enough work is assigned to fill the scheduled time. The
opening routines- for example, copying down the assignment or writing in a journal- engage students immediately in
work. Well-planned assignment mean that students do not run out of work, so they remain engaged throughout the
period.

12. Cueing. Teachers and students adjust to unfolding processes of the classroom. Order is held in place, even during
disruptions by unforeseen events, by means of cues and messages (verbal and non verbal) that teachers use to tell
students what is happening or to announce a transitions. (This is similar to Kounin’s ”signal system”.)

13. Maintaining academic work. Academic work can be used achieve order by selecting tasks that are easy for
students. The more demanding the academic work, the greater the risk that classroom routines will be slowed down
or disterupted. Thus some teachers may simplify task demands and lower the risk for mistakes. When academic
work is demanding, teachers often break down the work into small, sequenced tasks and heavily promted
increments.

14. Cooperative learning teams. Small groups in which students work together on assignments have positive effects
on achievement, so long as instruction is carefully structured, individuals are accountable for performance, and a
well-defined reward system is used. The effect on discipline is unclear, although it is assumed that cooperation
among student enhances group morale and group rapport, which in turn has positive effect on the organization anf
management of the classroom.
15. Student matter as procedure. For purposes of control, subject matter is sometimes presented with an emphasis
on practice and drill. Academic work in this case is reduced by the teacher to completing one assignment or exercise
and then going on the next exercise. Neither teacher nor student talk much about the meaning or purpose of the
work or the processes involved in doing the work. Although there is an appearance of engaged time, the work may
be faked or performed without real understanding. So long as there is some feedback or evaluation, students are
willing to spend time on these activities.

16. Teacher expectations. Some teachers appear to solve the problem of order in large group instruction excluding
low-ability students from participation in classroom activities. From a management perspective, such action is
reasonable because it avoids conditions that lead to breakdown in momentum, pacing, and rhythm; it so avoids
confusion and slowing down (hesitations, lags) of content flow and activities. From a teaching perspective, however,
such actions restrict the opportunities of low-ability student.