Classroom Management Article Response

Secondary Classroom Management:

Review and Response to: The carrot, the stick, or the relationship: what are the effective disciplinary strategies?

                The study conducted was in response to two previous studies that looked at the disciplinary styles that either took after punishment or were more relationship based. The consensus from the previous studies was that relationship based style was preferred due to less disruption and student’s take on more self-responsibility. 

The current study included 8 low SES secondary schools in Melbourne, Australia with 2 questionnaires for close to 2,000 students. The main goal was to measure recognition and rewarding, connection to the school and teachers, responsibility, punishing, involvement in decision making, discussion, hinting, and aggression. A spread in responses was made by involving many grade levels and including varying subject matter. 

Results of the study pointed towards using a combination of the techniques: discussion, hinting, involvement, and recognition and rewards. The goal is to reduce the use of reactive discipline and to progressively move students to become responsible for their own behavior and also from a community sense as well. On the side of techniques to not use would be teacher aggression as it was correlated to distraction and irritability of students. Also, aggression would indicate more loss of control and student misbehavior would be likened to be increased. Punishment was received at a neutral stance as it is necessary to make sure safety and opportunities to learn are addressed but it does need the combination of techniques mentioned above.

Hinting, which referred to giving a student a notice of their misbehavior, allows a student to feel like they are responsible for their behavior. It doesn’t call the student out which really makes them feel more connected to the teacher and not create a confrontational atmosphere. I find in my classroom that students usually only need a glance of an eye or a quick couple words of guidance to correct their own behavior. They know what they are doing is wrong and just need a quick reminder. 

Discussion as a technique was found to foster a positive relationship between students and teachers that carried over to students interacting well with one another. It was interesting however that discussion to not necessarily reduce misbehavior on its own. With that said, without a good relationship it becomes impossible to address misbehavior without then resorting to aggressive discipline tactics. I find that a great time to employ discussion is during lab activities when they’re might be a spare minute to address an issue and to receive the student’s viewpoint and what they value in what constitutes responsible and good behavior. Many students that come in after school to pick up missed work present a great time for discussion with no distractions at that time.

Involvement was listed above as a technique to be included but it did not do well in the realm of setting rules. The study cited that students might feel like the rules have already been set and they’re only there to go through the motions. It made me realize that I need to find a way to make setting rules real and genuine. It might come down to taking a couple of periods out at the start of the year to allow for discussion and democratic voting. Every classroom is going to be unique so if classroom management is to work then I would think the rules should be unique as well.

Overall, I believe that these techniques provide a good foundation but they’re their greatest effectiveness will come from a school-wide commitment. If one teacher is still indignant in using punishment discipline as a means to curb misbehavior then it will cause disconnectedness of the students towards staff. Students need consistency among teachers first before they can build their own community of responsibility with each other. A phrase that I’ve been using with students that fits well with communal responsibility is, “Don’t be that guy”. It simply means that we all know what is expected of us and it’s up to each of us to remind one another of those expectations.