Personal Statement: Respecting In The Classroom

Challenging inappropriate behaviour posed by children nowadays is one of the most daunting issued faced by teachers. Few matters affect teachers more directly and persistently than managing classroom behaviour (Jim Docking, 2000). Being able to manage a classroom I found is one of the most fundamental aspects in being able to teach today. Through this critique I will investigate the different studies relating to behaviour management within a classroom, looking pacifically at several behavioural issues within a classroom and where they stem from, as well as looking into studies based on the praise system and how it is used in schools. I want to look at fundamental theorists and give a brief insight into their studies through my own experience and research I have looked into.

There are many strategies when dealing with student behavior. However, they’re usually limited to the classroom setting and offices. When it comes to school wide management, Positive Behavior Interventions and Support or PBIS

A school needs to work as a cohesive unit, not only in curriculum and classwork, but also in discipline involving violence and other unacceptable behaviors in the classroom, halls, and any other places under the school’s scope of authority. Solidarity when incorporating PBIS is a cornerstone of its own effectiveness. Not acting is just as damaging as ignorance or enabling. Violence or abuse that is unreported will not effectively support school-wide management. Examples of this are telling yourself, “He’s not my student, I’ll keep a low profile, or It’s none of my business.” Student safety and success will always be foremost, even when it comes to student

My classroom management philosophy is rooted in B.F. Skinner’s Behavior Modification theory. I believe that negative and positive reinforcements are a key aspect in classroom management. Providing reinforcement increases the probability that a desired behavior will occur, while undesired behaviors will stop because they are not being reinforced (Manning and Bucher 47). Students who are demonstrating unacceptable behaviors may even begin to change their behavior in hopes of gaining approval through reinforcement (Manning and Bucher 47). In particular, I advocate for this theory because it also serves as another way to continuously reiterate classroom expectations. Through daily dialogue in the classroom, students will be able to understand which behaviors are supported, acceptable, and encouraged and which behaviors are ignored, unacceptable, and discouraged. Continuously putting this into practice will foster a supportive classroom climate with clear expectations. Throughout my field experiences in Horry County, I have seen this strategy used with success. I believe that once I have established relationships with my students this will be the most effective course of action for modifying their misbehaviors.

Verney Road State School has effectively established the SWPBS and continues to develop and improve strategies in place to ensure a school wide culture that promotes positive behavior. The PBS Implemenation Team at Verney Road State School is responsible for the implementation and monitoring of school wide behavior. As a school wide approach, it is essential that students have a clear and consistent understanding of school wide expectations. Teachers throughout the school should receive guidelines and action plans on how to facilitate these expectations. The school would be responsible for ensuring all staff are supported and have the resources and professional development to effectively implement the PBS practices in a classroom and across the school

Throughout the years education has taken many different directions, each direction presenting new positive and negative outcomes. One of the newest directions the school system has taken is the inclusion movement. As a result of the inclusion movement some other changes within the classroom have been made. This includes behavior management programs. This has led to the development of Positive Behavioral Support.

As principal of TWH, I feel it is vital to keep the urgency focused on academics. It is my belief that if we set students up for challenging and engaging classroom instruction, discipline issues will start to lessen. However, my teachers will feel supported and respected, and that will be communicated regularly to our students and school community. “…leaders treat others fairly, equitably, and with dignity and respect—and they establish the expectation that others in the school community act in a similar manner” (Murphy, 2006).

One of the main strategies to meet this goal is the PBIS implementation. According to the PBIS committee leader at Flat Rock Middle School, PBIS stands for Positive Behavior Intervention and Support. It is a proactive and social culture strategy and needed for all students in a school to achieve social, emotional, and academic success. Attention is focused on creating and sustaining primary, secondary, and tertiary systems of support that improve the lifestyle results (personal health, social, family, work, recreation) for all youth by making targeted misbehavior less effective, efficient, relevant, and desired behavior more functional. Even though, PBIS has made a positive impact on the percentage of disciplinary incidents within the school.

Unless discipline issues are at a minimum, instruction will be interrupted and teaching time lost. Additionally, poor academic performance may lead to students engaging in problem behavior that results in escaping academic tasks. The universal core system creates the foundation of a multi-tier school-wide model. Effective universal supports alone should be sufficient to meet the needs of most students to be successful in academics and social behavior. By meeting the needs of most, through effective instruction and behavior supports, fewer students’ will require more intensified supports. This outcome results in improved outcomes for the general population, as well as more valid, manageable, and cost-effective systems of supports at the secondary and tertiary levels (Goodman, McIntosh and Bohanan, 2016). Proactive classroom management includes strategies and techniques implemented before behavior problems occur, increase time devoted to instruction and focuses on group management rather than an individual student.

EBIs to reduce disruptive behavior and increase academic achievement can include trainings and implementation support at the school, class-wide, and individual student-level, and are often either academic or behavioral in nature. Overall, implementation of both universal (i.e. class-wide) and targeted (i.e. student-level) interventions have demonstrated positive impacts on decreasing disruptive behaviors and increasing student academic achievement (Flower, McKenna, Bunuan, Muething, & Vega, 2014; Vannest, Davis, Davis, Mason, & Burke, 2010).Ross, Romer, and Horner (2012) also found that teachers in schools implementing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports with high fidelity

The well research Positive Behavior Intervention and Support system has been widely implemented throughout the United States because school feel it is a great alternative to the zero tolerance. Much of PBIS has been implemented in elementary schools and it has shown the younger children react more positively to the system. In fact, Bradshaw estimated there is about 22,000 schools who have taken in this policy (Bradshaw, et al.). This is a large amount of school in the United State who have implemented this policy. School have begun to realize the poorly implemented zero tolerance policy is unacceptable and have shifted to a more proactive plan. Resultantly, it seems to be a common theme throughout the school who have carried out this policy

PBIS is a counter agent framework, which moves schools away from reactive and punitive models of discipline. It offers appropriate establishment and options of positive and proactive ways, of teaching behaviour expectations. (Dunlop.T.2013)) It came out literature by Suagi & Horner in 2002 to create safer schools and a more positive school climate, that can increase learning opportunities and teaching time. PBIS is a method of behaviour support implementation that increases in relation to the needs, along a continuum, of individual, classroom and school wide levels.

The rule of respect to students to teachers should have an added rule of teachers having to show the same about of respect to students.

Their conclusion was that the features which characterized effective PBIS implementation at the elementary and middle school levels were the same for high schools. However, the authors also acknowledge the importance of three key areas when implementing in PBIS in high schools. First, a positive teacher student relationships must be established. Second, Classrooms must be designed in a way that promote prosocial behaviour in order to reduce problem behaviour and removal of students. And lastly, close attention should be given at the middle school level when establishing the expectations of the high school culture (Sugai,

This approach to behaviour management fosters a positive school culture through focusing attention on positive behaviours. Its aims are two-fold. On the one hand, the goal of SWPBS is to enhance students’ engagement and connection with the school through promoting pro-social behavioural norms and in doing so, preventing or reducing anti-social behaviours like bullying (Australian Government Department of Education and Training, 2014). The SWPBS model focuses on learning outcomes for both students and staff, positive behaviour management in policy and practice, and a commitment to safe and supportive practices within the curriculum and interpersonal relationships. Ideally, it is ‘a guided, school-wide change process sought to make students feel safer, connected and valued by changes in teaching practices, orientation processes, professional development of staff, recognition and reward mechanisms, elevating student’s voice, and strategies to involve greater proactivity and participation’ (Hawe et al., 2015). In this way, the practice of SWPBS forms the infrastructure of the basic physical and organisational structures and facilities needed to influence or maintain group dynamics resistant to bullying