In the preceding articles in this series we have considered what makes a discipline policy functionally relevant to today’s classrooms. 1 We looked at the diversity of the behaviour issues pupils can present, and considered the need for a flexible range of strategies – the ‘three faces of discipline’ – that their teachers might employ.2 What we have stressed is the need for a proper analysis of the social context of the school and classroom within which a behaviour strategy must be deployed.
Then, in the last issue, we considered those most basic behaviours needed in the classroom if the conditions for learning are to be satisfied: respectful roles, ready routines and positive relationships. We suggested, as a means of measuring those conditions, the use of our ‘three Rs of behaviour’ questionnaire.3 On the basis of this analysis we can then determine how much direction and support a pupil or class will need – how much direction in respect of the behaviour required right now and how much support in order to reinforce or correct that behaviour. There is nothing unique to the classroom in this analysis.
It is the sort of framework we would use in any interpersonal management, whether working with children or with adults. Indeed, it describes the framework we use in our Situational Leadership training with school managers: how much direction (or instruction) a manager needs to give someone about what they are meant to do, and how much support the manager should provide in order both to motivate and to correct. By a simple diagnostic of identifying the developmental level of a colleague on any task, we can then more accurately match our leadership style to their needs. In so doing we avoid the mismatch that produces either over-supervision (inflexible authority) or under supervision (helpless anarchy).4
In applying this fundamental framework to the classroom, we are tr ying to match the ‘assertiveness style’ of the teacher to the ‘behavioural development level’ of the pupil. When the three Rs of behaviour are not in evidence, the teacher needs to adopt a style that is both highly directive and highly supportive. Thus our behaviour education strategy becomes defined by the Assertive
Discipline 3-Step Method5 as:
■ step 1: give a clear activity direction
■ step 2: provide supportive feedback
■ step 3: take corrective action.
Putting the Assertive Discipline 3-Step Method into practice
- Give a clear instruction to the class about the behaviour required right now. Avoid immediately highlighting misbehaviour. Instead of saying “stop tapping with that pen”, “stop fiddling with the gas taps”, “no talking” and “stop staring out the window”, say “Hands empty. Hands on laps. Silence. Looking this way.” Drawing attention to an unwanted behaviour puts it into the minds of everyone in the class.
- Provide supportive feedback to give attention to those who follow your directions. Provide pay-off for responsible behaviour. As a coach describe the behaviour that won the approval. “Excellent. Pens are down, everyone is silent. Looking this way. Thank you.” We call this ‘behavioural narration’. Such feedback may be in public to the whole class or, for some pupils, may be a quiet word of praise in the ear.
- Take corrective action that lets the pupil know how to improve, earlier rather than later, calmly rather than emotionally. “Jamie, I need you to sit down now.” Employ a ‘discipline hierarchy’ composed of minor sanctions that give ongoing feedback to the pupil about where the behaviour is going. “Jamie, this is the second time I’ve needed to speak to you. Once again, you need to sit down and get on with your work. I will see you at the end of the lesson…” and so on. It’s not the severity of the sanction: it’s the consistency. Pupils begin to understand the inevitability of the consequences for continued disruptive behaviour. For a full description of these techniques see Canter, L & M (2001) Assertive Discipline (3rd edition), Canter & Associates