Behavior & Classroom Management:

1. Behavior & Classroom Management: Chris Borgmeier, Ph.D. Portland State University cborgmei@pdx.edu www.web.pdx.edu/~cborgmei/

8. Behavior • Context matters! • Understand the student(s) • What are the experiences, norms, expectations & realities of the students • Understand the context • Classroom, family, school, community, etc. • Understand yourself • What biases do you bring into situations w/ student problem behavior?

9. Essential Elements of Culturally Responsive Classroom Mgmt (Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clarke & Curran, 2004) Recognize one’s own Cultural Lens & Biases Knowledge of Students’ Cultural Backgrounds Awareness of the Broader Social, Economic & Political Context Ability & Willingness to Use Culturally Appropriate Management Strategies Commitment to Building Caring Classroom Communities

10. Recognize one’s own Cultural Lens & Biases • Explore & reflect upon where your assumptions come from • Understand how your view of the world can lead to misinterpretation of behaviors & inequitable treatment of culturally different students • Might cause a teacher to give a discipline referral when the student is engaging in a behavior that is normative in their culture

11. Knowledge of Students’ Cultural Backgrounds Gaining general knowledge about a cultural or ethnic group can give teachers a sense of views about behavior, rules of decorum and etiquette and communication Can protect against inappropriate referrals But, be careful not to form stereotypes

12. Knowledge of Students’ Cultural Backgrounds • Things teachers might consider: • Form study groups to read culturally responsive literature that reflects the identities of the students in your classroom • Conduct home visits & consult w/ parents & community members to gain insight • Might explore: family background & structure, education, interpersonal relationship styles, discipline, time & space, religion, food, health & hygiene, history, traditions & holidays

13. Pair & Share • Growing up…. • What was your community like? • your school? • your family/home life? • Contrast that with a student (or group of students) in your school who have a very different experience • Discuss any potential biases or misinterpretations you might be concerned about based on these differences…

14. Awareness of the Broader Social, Economic & Political Context • The educational system reflects & often perpetuates discriminatory practices of society & it is helpful for teachers to be aware • Examine how current policies & practices in discipline may discriminate against some children • Example: children of color are sometimes seen as “disrespectful” when they are not being disrespectful in their culture

15. Awareness of the Broader Social, Economic & Political Context • Teachers might consider: • Form a study circle to examine structures & policies & whether they are fair to ALL • Can look at what you see as inappropriate student behavior and discuss if they actually are incidents of student resistance to what they see as an unfair system

16. Ability & Willingness to Use Culturally Appropriate Management Strategies Reflecton ways that classroom mgmt practices promote or obstruct equal access to learning Think about ways the classroom environment can be used to communicate respect for diversity, to reaffirm connectedness & community, and to avoid marginalizing & disparaging students

17. Ability & Willingness to Use Culturally Appropriate Management Strategies • Establish clear expectations for behavior that students understand • Be explicit about expectations • Model the expected behaviors & provide opportunities for students to practice • Be aware of inconsistency in applying consequences

18. Ability & Willingness to Use Culturally Appropriate Management Strategies • Communicating & collaborating w/ families is important, but challenging • Some families don’t see direct involvement in schooling as part of their responsibility • Teachers & parents may have different expectations about what is appropriate school behavior • Assume that all parents care about their children and have something to offer • Be sensitive to cultural differences in communication styles

19. Commitment to Building Caring Classroom Communities Greet students at the door with a smile & a welcoming comment Spend first few weeks of school establishing school-home relationship Show an interest in student; initiate out of classroom conversations to get to know the student personally Be aware of & comment on important events in the students’ lives

20. “There are no bad boys, there is only bad environment, bad training, bad examples, and bad thinking” -Boys Town

22. “Reiko” Assessments indicate that Reiko performs in average to above average range in most academic areas. However, her teacher has noticed Reiko’s frequent talking & asking & answering questions without raising her hand has become an annoying problem to other students & to teacher. What would you do?

23. “159 Days!” Intermediate/senior high school with 880 students reported over 5,100 office discipline referrals in one academic year. Nearly 2/3 of students have received at least one office discipline referral. Reiko is in this school!

24. Behavior & Positive Behavior Support

25. Principles of Behavior Management Assumption of Behavioral Theory: People are constantly engaged in learning and every experience adds to a person’s knowledge base and influences his/her subsequent actions Therefore, effective teachers • Spend more time promoting responsible behavior then responding to irresponsible behavior • Recognize that misbehavior occurs for a reason, & take this into account when determining how to respond to misbehavior

26. Reasons Student Commonly Misbehave • Student(s) don’t know expectations • Student(s) don’t know how to exhibit expected behavior • Student is unaware he/she is engaged in the misbehavior • Misbehavior is providing student with desired outcome: • Obtaining attention from adults/peers • Escape from difficult task or non-desired activity

27. Learned Responses • Students who chronically engage in escalating/angry/aggressive behavior have: • Learned that it is a functional response for getting what they want • Expect adults to react emotionally to them and anticipate power struggles • Often do not recognize personal anger cues • Often do not have practiced alternative, more appropriate behaviors to fall back on

28. Science of behavior has taught us that students…. • Are NOT born with “bad behaviors” • Do NOT learn when presented contingent aversive consequences ……..Do learn better ways of behaving by being taught directly & receiving positive feedback

29. First, Do No HarmHelping v. Hindering • Are we setting students up to misbehave? • Every time a student engages in escalation or a power struggle they are further practicing that response • As educators, we need to: • Prevent students from practicing habits of escalating behavior • Teach more appropriate alternative behaviors

30. Challenge… • Schools are facing an increasingly diverse and challenging population of students with fewer financial resources • How to enhance schools’ capacity to respond effectively, efficiently, & relevantly to range of problem behaviors observed in schools. • “Work Smarter”

31. Positive Behavior Support PBS is a broad range of systemic & individualized strategies for achieving important social & learning outcomes while preventing problem behavior with all students.

32. Positive Behavior Support • Is based on decades of research from the fields of: • Behavioral theory • Effective Instruction • Systems Change

33. PBS is • Not specific practice or curriculum…it’s general approach to preventing problem behavior • Not limited to any particular group of students…it’s for all students • Not new…its based on long history of behavioral practices & effective instructional design & strategies

34. Social Competence & Academic Achievement Positive Behavior Support OUTCOMES Supporting Decision Making Supporting Staff Behavior DATA SYSTEMS PRACTICES Supporting Student Behavior

35. CONTINUUM OF SCHOOL-WIDE POSITIVE BEHAVIOR SUPPORT Tertiary Prevention: FBABSP for Students with High-Risk Behavior ~5% Secondary Prevention: Specialized Group Systems for Students with At-Risk Behavior ~15% Primary Prevention: School/Classroom- Wide Systems for All Students, Staff, & Settings ~80% of Students

36. School-wide Positive Behavior Support Systems Classroom Setting Systems Nonclassroom Setting Systems Individual Student Systems School-wide Systems

37. Matching Level of Need with Level of Intervention/Assessment • School-wide • Classroom • Specific Settings • Individual Students • Individualized Behavior Plans

38. Academic Systems Behavioral Systems • Intensive, Individual Interventions • Individual Students • Assessment-based • High Intensity • Intensive, Individual Interventions • Individual Students • Assessment-based • Intense, durable procedures • Targeted Group Interventions • Some students (at-risk) • High efficiency • Rapid response • Targeted Group Interventions • Some students (at-risk) • High efficiency • Rapid response • Universal Interventions • All students • Preventive, proactive • Universal Interventions • All settings, all students • Preventive, proactive Designing School-Wide Systems for Student Success 1-5% 1-5% 5-10% 5-10% 80-90% 80-90%

39. Focus on what we can Change • We cannot prescribe medication • We cannot change the students previous experiences • We often cannot change the parenting practices in the home • Some venting is good, but too often it takes over leading to less productive meetings

40. No magic bullets • Positive Behavior Support requires: • Time • Patience • Effort • Understanding • We are often breaking habits that students have developed over many years

41. Goals of this course • Provide you with a research-based framework for understanding behavior and effective instruction • Provide you with exposure to many instructional and classroom management tools useful in creating a successful instructional environment • Provide a sufficient understanding of the link between the theory and tools so that you will be able to effectively generalize effective practices across instructional settings and students, even the most challenging students

42. Next Weeks Quiz • Know the Developmental Pathway for Antisocial Behavior (visual representation) from the article by Patterson, DeBarysche & Ramsey

43. I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or deescalated and a child humanized or dehumanized. Haim Ginott