Lecture 9: "Classroom Management II"
Review Question:
What are several things a teacher must learn and understand when it comes to reinforcement?
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Reinforcement is the sum and substance of classroom management. If you can use and understand reinforcement, then you can manage a classroom. I am a control freak as a teacher. If I am going to have the responsibility of being a teacher then I have to have enough authority to make it happen. I want to give students all sorts of privileges, but on my terms. The teacher is responsible for what happens during the year, and there is just no way to avoid that.
The authority of teachers, however, is largely an illusion. You have only as much control as you can talk your students into letting you have. If students don't want to come to class, they don't come to class; if students don't want to do assignments, they don't do them; if students don't want to learn, they don't. What you can control is the motivation system of the classroom. Reinforcement is a powerful motivational tool. When used effectively, it can get students involved and interested and keep them from being bored or acting up.
Reinforcement is a broad topic. Our focus will be on the forms of reinforcement, and strategies for knowing when to use the different types. Reinforcement can be either positive or negative or verbal or non-verbal.
Positive reinforcement can be used to either: 1) encourage desirable behavior or 2) encourage the absence of undesirable behavior. Negative reinforcement is used only to encourage the absence of undesirable behavior.
Encouraging desirable behavior with positive reinforcement is fairly straightforward. However, encouraging the absence of undesirable behaviors through positive reinforcement may need a little clarification. The absence of undesirable behavior is a very powerful tool of reinforcement, and it is something that you want to reinforce. To illustrate this I use Henry as an example. Here is Henry, who has been a difficult kid. All of a sudden Henry is sitting there doing nothing. Encouraging the absence of undesirable behavior means that you as a teacher should say 'Hey Henry, it's really neat that you are sitting there doing nothing and not getting in the way'. This is something that most teachers are not good at, because it is kind of counter-intuitive. When Henry gets in the way you are going to remember to say something, but when Henry isn't in the way it is counter-intuitive to say something. Can you see how it would be powerful to recognize the absence of Henry's negative behaviors?
Negative reinforcement can be thought of as strategies for discouraging undesirable behavior. When Henry is doing something bad and you say something to stop it, that is negative reinforcement. This does not need very much explanation because it is fairly clear-cut.
Positive or negative reinforcement can be given or received through verbal or non-verbal cues. "Verbal" refers to words, and "non-verbal" encompasses body language and other cues. As a teacher you will use a mixture of verbal and non-verbal cues to manage your classroom.
Reinforcement Strategies: Tone, Variety,
Frequency, & Predictability
Let's start by looking at reinforcement strategies for classroom management. These methods include tone, variety, frequency, predictability, strength, timing, token, source, permanence, silence, multiple cues, and multi-channel reinforcement.
Tone
Most people are on autopilot when it comes to tone. You have standard tones you use in standard places. I encourage teachers to be aware of the tone their voices take when they are talking with students. Sometimes you are saying one thing, but your tone is saying something different. This causes confusion. You need to consciously shape your tone to get the result you want.
Variety
Variety of reinforcement is another important, yet counter-intuitive, aspect of classroom management. In most classrooms teachers have so much to do that they fall into the habit of just repeating the same old words of phrases of encouragement, such as 'good job' or 'well-written.' The teacher doesn't think about what he is saying and the students don't pay any attention. That defeats the purpose of reinforcement. Varying the type and quality of reinforcement you give to students helps them believe that you mean what you say. It keeps them working to earn your praise. In other words, variety increases the reinforcement value. Remember why you say 'good' to someone - it makes them feel good and reinforces whatever behavior you were rewarding.
Frequency
There is a stereotype of a British father who says nothing to his son until he graduates from college and then he says, "Well done, son." Perhaps this is an extreme example, but a good one. Parents make the mistake of using negative reinforcement very often and positive reinforcement very little. If everything is going okay, there is no reinforcement. Children need feedback and reinforcement in order to learn which behaviors are acceptable and which are not. As parents and teachers we help shape children into responsible, well-educated adults through frequent use of well-considered, appropriate feedback and reinforcement. There is no such thing as too much encouragement (reinforcement). It may sound sappy to you but people like reinforcement. You may get tired of providing reinforcement, but your students won't get tired of receiving it.
Predictability
People need to have predictable rewards, but they also like surprises. If you are too predictable, your students will figure you out. If your students know that every time you see misbehavior you respond right away, they will feel like they've gotten away with something if you fail to notice or respond to misbehavior. By being a little less predictable, you enhance your ability to control their behavior. Suppose Jane is acting up and you don't say anything at that moment, but as she is leaving class you say in a stage whisper, 'Now Jane I didn't mention anything about your talking in class today but I want you to shape up tomorrow.' What have you done? You have convinced that kid that you see things and you choose what and when you are going to bring it up. And kids share that kind of stuff with each other. Pretty soon you'll have the reputation of having eyes in the back of your head.
Here's another advantage to being unpredictable. Good teachers know that they have to be selectively blind. Sometimes the best way to deal with a problem is to ignore it. You choose what you see as well as when and how you respond to it. That is what reinforcement is all about. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be any kind of predictable responses - there should be. However, you strengthen your ability to manage the classroom and individual students by learning when to address misbehavior and when to let it slide.
Reinforcement Strategies: Strength,
Timing and Tokens
Strength
For some teachers, all reinforcement is roughly equivalent. All positive behaviors get stars by their names and all misbehaviors are penalized by a verbal warning. In my opinion, that is too simplistic of a view. We've already said that you have to vary the types of reinforcers that you use. But you must also vary the strength of the reinforcers. You have to know when to use something mildly positive, like 'good job,' or when to use something with a little bit more kick, like a public display of a well-written paper. The same goes for negative reinforcement. Sometimes all you have to do is stop talking so that attention is drawn to a misbehavior. Other times the severity of the infraction will require a stronger reaction, like the temporary removal of a prized privilege.
Timing
Timing helps you become less predictable. Timing is part of students' not knowing what they did or didn't get away with. It is also a part of the overall level of classroom control. By this I mean that for some students, public criticism is going to devastate them. To reach those students, you must choose the time and setting to raise your concerns. By choosing the time and the place of your reinforcement, you manipulate the situation to your benefit. There are some principles to follow, though. One of these is that the closer the reinforcement comes to the activity the more effective it is. Immediate feedback boosts the value of the reinforcement. Timing and setting is everything.
Tokens
Effective teachers create external rewards that students value. When you put stars on the wall, you have created a token reward. You can use anything. A giraffe is worth one, a bear is worth two, a lion is worth three, and an elephant is worth four. If you want giraffes to be worth more than elephants, all you have to do is say so because it is your call. You decide what is valuable. The point that I am trying to make is that you need to feel powerful about creating and using tokens, not apologetic and timid. Some tokens have intrinsic value, such as praise, and some have only the value that is assigned to them, like giraffes and elephants. But as a teacher you should understand the token system so you can manipulate it.
Alternative Sources
Strangely enough many teachers never consider that reinforcement can come from someone other than them. Those teachers are very wrong. Students can reinforce each other, and parents are a valuable source of reinforcement. Most parents don't expect to hear from schools unless there is bad news. For a child to call his mother during school, and say, 'Mummy I did well,' is really powerful for the kid and the parent. Another option is for the teacher to call mom and/or dad and say 'Lindsay did really well today. Be sure to compliment her when she gets home.' By doing this you are setting up the opportunity for parents to reinforce the experience. Unfortunately, we as teachers don't do enough to bring other people into the loop.
Reinforcement Strategies: Permanence,
Silence, Multiple Cues and Multi-channel
Reinforcement
Permanence
How long does reinforcement last? Casual comments disappear almost immediately while a stamp in the workbook stays visible for the entire semester. A trophy in the school's display area remains for many years. In general, the more permanent a reinforcement is, the stronger it will be in helping to shape a student's future. Making the honor roll is a strong reinforcer; the display of the honor roll in the school's central hallway makes it more visible and more permanent.
Silence
Silence can be either a positive or negative reinforcer. If you stop in your tracks and stare at a student who is involved in some sticky situation, the situation gets heavy very quickly. Silence in that type of situation is a negative reinforcer. A strong, positive reinforcer is to call on somebody, ask her a question, and wait while she prepares an answer. This kind of silence is a positive reinforcer because you are communicating that it is worth everybody's time to wait while the student gets the answer organized. You need to learn how to use silence as both a positive and negative reinforcer. As with all the strategies presented to help you manage your classroom, the tool can be misused. The most important thing for new teachers is to learn how to make the tools work for you and not against you.
Multiple cues
In our classroom, we are having a discussion. While you are talking, I am nodding my head up and down (non-verbal communication), and then I say, 'You are making an important point .' Why is this making you feel more confident in your understanding of the topic? Not only have I given you a positive reinforcement, but also I have given it to you in two different ways, verbal and non-verbal. If you can combine your tools and strategies together, your classroom management skills become stronger.
Multi-channel Reinforcement
Multi-channel reinforcement is the badge of the teacher who has really mastered this use of reinforcement. Multi-channel reinforcement can make the difference between the success and failure of a lesson. To illustrate this, I will use the example of Susie. Susie is misbehaving. By using single-channel reinforcements you stop and say 'Susie' and everyone's pencil goes down and they forget what they were doing. Everyone is looking at Susie. Once you have finished dealing with Susie, you realize that you have disrupted the other students' concentration, you have taken time away from the lesson, and you may have publicly humiliated Susie. In an alternative scenario, one in which you use multi-channel reinforcement, you would notice Susie's behavior but keep on teaching as you walked over and put your hand on Susie's shoulder. You never miss a beat in terms of what you are teaching, and the students continue with their learning. They know that something is being dealt with on the side, but the focus doesn't shift to Susie.
You can also send private messages to students while you are teaching. I can be lecturing while making eye contact with an individual student. That student feels reinforced because I have paid attention to him. At the same time I have continued teaching, and it hasn't cost me anything in terms of dealing with other students. One of the biggest mistakes that teachers make is not being able to use multi-channel teaching/reinforcement. If you can only do one thing at a time, then you are limited as a teacher.
My job is to make you into powerful teachers, to help you understand the available tools, strategies, and ideas so that you can use them to yours and your students' benefit. Some of these strategies are more important for first year teachers simply because they have more trouble controlling a class. As a first-year teacher, you will probably have a hard time using these tools initially because you'll be so busy getting your lessons planned that the last thing you'll be thinking about is what kind of tone to use while giving reinforcement. You should do as much as you can ahead of time to get comfortable using these strategies. Practice on your friends, on your family, and/or on your pets. This will help you get ready for your students.
As a teacher, you must learn to understand the teacher/pupil relationship and the power you have as a teacher to manipulate it. You must also learn to use that power with honesty and integrity. Often the teacher’s favoritism skews the reinforcement system, and pet students get rewarded for things that have nothing to do with learning. The strategies we've discussed are just tools, and they can be used for better or for worse depending on you. If you chose the setting of the reinforcement in such a way as to publicly humiliate a student, it may be effective, but it is absolutely immoral. These are tools and like any tools they can be used for better or for worse.
What are feedback and reinforcement?
"Feedback" refers to the information, which a teacher gathers from his/her students, that informs the teacher how well the class is responding to the lessons. It is vital that a teacher be able to gather and interpret feedback so that he/she can modify teaching methods and content to best suit the capacity of the students. Feedback can come in many forms and can be gathered in different ways. For example, homework assignments, test scores, student discussions and parent interviews all provide direct feedback, while a student's eye contact, facial expressions and body language are subtler indicators of how that student is responding to a teacher.
"Reinforcement" is information given to students on how well they are performing or on the quality of their thinking and behavior. It is called "reinforcement" because it reinforces positive progress or provides students with the information they need to make changes in their thinking or behavior.
Getting Feedback in Large Groups
How do we give individual attention to kids in classes of thirty? We need to understand that receiving individual attention is an unreasonable expectation of students. But we need to find ways to give special attention to students with special needs. The alternative is to say, "Hey, I'm teaching a big class, and it's impossible for me to deal with students individually," and end it at that. In this class I try to find ways to help individuals. I can't help all the individuals to the degree that I would like to, but at least I try to do something. When I see a special need, I focus special attention on the individual displaying this need. The question is how to do this effectively in a large group.
One of the major weapons is feedback. The answer to almost any classroom problem is to learn to read cues from your students. If you know what is going on, you are in a much better position to avoid potential problems. How do you get feedback? There are several ways.
One of the things I do is use eye contact. I try to have eye contact with every single student in the class. Review questions are another form of feedback. It is not only checking what you have learned, it is feedback in terms of what one has learned or is thinking about. Testing is another form of feedback, and an important one. Unfortunately, the feedback from testing sometimes comes at a time when it is no longer useful. The best feedback you get from testing comes at the end of the semester when you give the final exam and find out what the students know and don't know. Feedback from individuals comes from things like informal contact before and after class, individual conferences and parent conferences. Even in college I find it useful to talk to parents. There is one teacher at a school that I work with whom I admire a lot. He is a retired Navy Commander, and if his kids aren't doing well, he visits their homes at night. This is on his own time. He finds that his visits make a big difference. Parents then provide a higher level of support for their kids.
Sampling is another tool. I sample by talking to people before class. I sample people's attitudes by speaking to them in the hall. This kind of sampling is important, but sometimes the people who volunteer information are either very happy or very unhappy and, therefore, this is not a true cross-section of students. It makes me nervous when I don't get feedback from everybody.
Demographic information is the final tool. I know that in this class there is a mix of traditional and non-traditional students. I know I need to treat the non-traditional students differently. If I don't take into account single and working fathers and mothers, then I won't be able to use the examples that will make these students feel that they're part of the class.
In this class, student initiative is a big issue in terms of knowing how well individual students are doing. Anytime I find students taking initiative on their own, I know they are engaged in the topic of study.
Reports from other teachers can be useful, but they can also be problematic. Some people say you should never get reports from other teachers because they stereotype the way you respond to your students. Each student should have the opportunity to start a relationship with a new teacher with a blank slate. But I think we should use reports. I want to have all the information I can get. However, it is wrong if you don't allow a student to escape from a stereotype.
One of the most powerful kinds of individual feedback is access to individual student records. Student records are important because you can look at both an individual record and a combination of other records to get a group file. These records place the teacher in a much better position to make judgments.
If you know your students, you can do a much better job teaching because you can tailor your lessons to the individual circumstances of your students. To do this you must rely on both group and individual feedback. We mentioned eye contact and in addition to this are other nonverbal clues found in body language. Teachers must rely on these things because they have to make many of their judgments based on feedback from groups rather than on an individual one-on-one basis. There are a lot of teachers that teach their groups without focusing on the sources of feedback.
Modifying Instruction Based on Feedback
Modifying your instruction based on feedback is not simple. You can't just say, "Well if they're not getting it, I should change the instructional design." This can be problematic because it may be that students don't look like they're getting it now, but next week they will. Be very sophisticated in the way you use the feedback to modify your instruction. One of the approaches is comprehensive student monitoring. There is a stereotype that learning takes place like this: You start from nothing and you go straight to June. The students supposedly learn everything at a steady rate and by the end of the year know everything that you have taught them. This stereotype is, unfortunately, wrong.
We did an experiment at Stanford with a student French teacher. We gave them a weekly "final" exam to see how well they mastered the material as it was being taught to them. At the beginning we expected them to do poorly and then as the school year progressed, to do better and better. Every week we retested to measure how well each student improved from the week before.
It was a disaster! When we gave the final exam on the first day of class, we told the class what we were doing and we put a big chart up on the board illustrating the class' learning curve.
On the first day, three students got A's on the final exam. The reason this was so disastrous was that these were the students the teacher would like to take credit for at the end of the semester -- these were the star kids in the class. Our early final exam showed us that they already knew the course material, though, so this prevented the teacher from taking credit for their success. To find out that they already know the stuff you're going to teach takes all the wind out of your sails. But at least we had a baseline.
At the end of the next week we gave another test. The scores went down. We were astounded. How can scores go down? It looked like students were unlearning things -- forgetting things they already knew!
The next week they went down again.
The third week they went down further.
What in the world was going on? It was total chaos. Parents and students were very concerned. The cooperating teacher was the head of the department - a very effective teacher and supervisor. He was totally bewildered: "The student's doing a great job, she's doing everything right. What's going on here?" If we could have quietly stolen into the classroom and wadded that chart up on the board and thrown it away, we would have gladly done it. However, we were in the middle of a big experiment. We were locked in.
Fortunately, in the fourth week the scores went up. At the end of the ninth week scores were even higher than we predicted.
We looked at the instruction very carefully. What we now know is that when students learn new material, confusion is often produced. Performance may actually GO DOWN as students are struggling to learn new skills. In fact, this is not an unusual learning curve.
Another learning curve describes the perversity of potential learning curves for individual students.
You teach and nothing happens, and then all of a sudden they get it.
Now, if the final exam comes in the ideal spot, right after all the students have mastered the material, all is well.
If it comes too late, time has been wasted where the students aren't learning anything.
If the final exam comes too early, it's a huge disaster.
As you can see here, when and where the final exam comes is an absolutely crucial part of the learning process. Feedback is vital because interpreting it in a professional way will inform the teacher where the students are in their learning curves, and thus ensure that testing is done properly.
How long do people remember what they have been taught? Unfortunately, society and the teaching methods we use cater to short-term memorization rather than long-term retention. Students cram for a test, do well on the test, and then promptly forget everything. As a teacher, you must define a reasonable retention goal. How much of what you are teaching should your kids learn? And how much of what they learn can you expect them to retain - remember - and for how long? You must have the humility to understand that most retention is immeasurable. Often, you never know what you've done that was effective because retention is only demonstrated by observing how students use the information they've learned in your classroom. Almost always, students use the information you are teaching in their own way. One of the most important issues of educational reform is how to revise instruction to emphasize long-term retention. There is a lot we don't know, but feedback given in the context of application likely increases retention.
The final category in terms of using feedback in the classroom is very sophisticated: taking appropriate interest in your students. This has a level of toughness to it because in addition to all the other things you have to deal with, you must also deal with the fact that the society is suspicious that some teachers engage in child abuse. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does happen, it is so horrendous that the society reacts with outrage. The teacher has to be a strong role model, the teacher has to provide a reality check for kids, the teacher has to be a friend, and the teacher has to be a confidant. But teachers must realize that there are going to be times and circumstances that can be misunderstood. There are some schools where teachers don't feel free to touch the kids. I don't agree with this. Teachers need to touch kids. They need to touch kids appropriately, but kids still need to be touched. We need to make sure we don't over-compensate for inappropriate (in our circumstances) concern.
I don't think a teacher should ever promise a student that what she says is confidential. Don't put yourself in a position in which you are told something you cannot share. Instead, I tell students that when they tell me something personal, they can be sure that I will respond in what I feel is their best interest. On the other hand, there are lots of things students tell me that I don't share. I make the professional judgment that it is not necessary to spread a kid's business all over the place. Teachers do not have confidential relationships like lawyers. Your relationship with your students is a public relationship in the legal sense of the word.
Sometimes you may give kids advice on how to deal with their parents. When you do this you are on shaky ground. Don't tell students anything about dealing with their parents that you are not ready for them to repeat.
Realize the nature of adolescence, where everything is larger than life. A kid lost his girlfriend this week, and his life is coming to an end. There are even kids who commit suicide under those circumstances. Adolescence is a very intense time. As a teacher how do you respond to this? You can say I don't want to hear about your girlfriend/ boyfriend, but I don't recommend that. I recommend that you listen. Empathize. Take an appropriate interest in your students.
Blurring the lines between personal and professional relationships is dangerous. You will encounter people that make different recommendations, but I recommend that teachers and students enjoy more personal relationship. I enjoy these personal relationships with my students, and I think they can be appropriate. The default position of never getting involved with students will work, but I think this gives away too much in terms of what I consider to be the fun of teaching. You will get to know some students better than you will get to know others. You will deal with some students differently than you will deal with others. You will grade some students differently than you will grade others. All these exceptions are appropriate if they are done in a professional way.
Feedback and Reinforcement Abstract
Every student is unique, and a good teacher is one who can discern differences between students and respond to each student individually. Learning who your students are, and how best to instruct them, is done by gathering and analyzing feedback. With adequate and accurate feedback a teacher can adjust his/her approach to teaching, thus maintaining order in the classroom and maximizing the effect of the lessons. This benefits everyone involved.
Feedback comes in as many forms as the attentive teacher is able to gather it in. Some forms include student eye contact and personal interaction, testing, review questions, parent conferences, sampling, demographics, teacher reports and student records.
It is essential that teachers know their students so that they can make professional judgments and bend their own rules when necessary. The teacher must run the rules, not be run by the rules.
Teachers should take time to practice reading feedback and should learn to be flexible while still maintaining confidence in making their own judgments. In doing so, teachers should be aware of learning cycles and how they fluctuate. Teachers should be able to evaluate themselves and modify teaching methods based on this awareness of learning patterns. Effective teaching may take some time to establish and recognize, so accurate interpretation of feedback is a necessary, although sometimes difficult, skill to acquire.
The best feedback comes from watching students practice their learning in the context of real life - a type of feedback that is virtually impossible to glean from a classroom. Typical classroom learning takes the form of short-term memorization that is quickly lost, and therefore never applied, by the student.
Teachers must always strive to maintain professional standing and to be a role model, but at the same time they must have human interaction with their students. Foremost among the skills necessary to establish this "contact" is that of empathizing with their students. Teachers must constantly act in the best interest of their students.