I found it somewhat gratifying when I read in Chapter 3 of Building Classroom Discipline that behavior modification based on Skinner’s ideas on operant conditioning have been criticized by many authorities. When I was an undergrad in the late 70s, Skinner was the be-all and end-all of educational psychology, but I was never quite able to buy into behavior modification. My biggest problem with it was the fact that I would have to "pay" students to do what they were supposed to do. In doing this I would remove whatever intrinsic motivation students would naturally have and make the reward the focus. During my years of teaching I have felt justified in my beliefs when students come into the fifth grade expecting to be rewarded for everything they do. Many times when I incorporate a game into a lesson, students will ask, "What do we get if we win?" The first several times I heard that I was shocked! Wasn’t winning enough? Weren’t they glad they got to learn while playing instead of doing some boring drill? Then I realized that students’ expectations of rewards came from the constant rewarding they receive both at home and at school. I felt justified in my belief that behavior modification can be harmful, especially if overused.

I have also had a problem with behavior contracts. It seemed unfair to me to reward one child for what all the other children do all the time. I had an experience a few years ago that reinforced this concept in my mind. I had a student who just plain wouldn’t do his homework no matter what I tried. I decided to make a contract with him. To begin with, he was to get a small reward each time he came to school with all his homework done. Later, when his performance improved, the rewards would come intermittently until eventually I could phase them out altogether. After about 2 days of this contract, one of my other students wanted to know why Chris was getting rewards for doing homework when the students who do their homework all the time got nothing. He felt it was wrong, and I had to agree with him. So I extended the rewards to include everyone in the class. They all loved it. Chris’ homework performance did improve, but eventually he started to backslide into his old habits. His behavior was not changed in any permanent way by this contract.

This is not to say that I don’t believe in rewarding good behavior. I simply prefer to use praise and privileges as rewards over tangible things. Whenever my class is doing what they are supposed to be doing, I put a fistful of marbles in a jar. When they get 50 marbles they can vote on something special they would like to do. Some things they have decided on include watching a video, bringing pillows and blankets to school to lie on while they are reading, or having an extra recess. The students seem to enjoy getting to do something special because they were good.

I have also been known to make "deals" with certain students. Just this week I made a deal with one of my students who never turns in homework. He can barely read on a first grade level and had completely given up trying to do anything in class. I told him I would only help him if first he tried. The deal was that if he brought in his homework the next day I would give him a free pass on some other homework assignment, but if he didn’t bring in the assignment he would have to stay in for recess the rest of the week. From his enthusiastic reaction I thought for sure that he would bring in that assignment, but the next day all he had was a note from his mother saying that it was "lost". It was understood that he would have to stay in to do the assignment, but when he turned the work in I had him read to me from a simple picture book. He struggled with that book and couldn’t finish it in the 15 minutes we had. The next day I had him read the same book and then let him choose another to read to me. By the end of the week he was so excited about reading that he told me he was practicing at home, and he was disappointed that the week was over. Our current deal is that he may choose to stay in during recess and read with me only if he turns in his homework. He was very excited about the idea. I feel these kind of deals are effective because the individual student is motivated to do what he should while getting the help he needs, and the other students in the class don’t need to know anything about it.

References:

Charles, C. M., Building Classroom Discipline, New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., 1999.

Website: Behaviorism As A Learning Theory

Sanford, Liz

Personal experiences in 1979, 1995, and 2001

*Explain a fear, phobia or some euphoric action of yours that seems to be linked to a typically "neutral" stimulus, like a color, a piece of clothing, place on the highway, seat in a car, or whatever. Do you remember any classical conditioning event from your past that might have created this type of response? Be sure to identify the UCS, UCR, CS (or previously neutral stimulus) and CR for your audience. 

Choosing a fear to write about wasn’t difficult for me. I have been terrified of spiders for as long as I can remember. The difficult part has been figuring out how I acquired that fear.

As I said, I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t afraid of spiders. As I was growing up, the family joke was that if anyone hears a blood curdling scream coming from anywhere in the house, it was just me finding a spider. I didn’t realize I was such a source of amusement until one time, when I was a teenager, I encountered a spider in my room. As usual, I broke out in a sweat, my heart raced, my head throbbed, and I screamed bloody murder. From the other room I could hear my mother’s voice calmly saying, " I bet it’s a spider." Then she shouted to me, "Am I right?" She and my brother both laughed when I screamed, "Yes," and only then did they come to get the spider for me.

It was after that incident that I asked my mother why she thought I was so afraid of spiders. She said that when I was very little I saw a spider on a screen. I thought it was a fly and tapped the screen to make it fly away. Instead of flying away, the spider crawled across my hand, startling me terribly. My mom said I was always afraid of spiders after that.

I think it is the element of surprise whenever I see a spider that reinforces this fear. Almost every time I encounter a spider, it takes me by surprise. For example, one morning when I was about 4, I woke up to find a spider on my pillow. I’ve never forgotten the terror I felt when I saw it. My big fear when I see a spider is that it will drop down on me or crawl on my body as my mother said the one on the screen did.

My fear is a case of Classical Conditioning. The spider was the neutral stimulus. The unconditioned stimulus is the element of surprise. Surprise would be a very effective stimulus for me in the fact that I am unusually easy to startle. In high school my friends used to get a kick out of poking me in the side to see how high I would jump. To this day I still jump when someone unexpectedly walks into the room and says something to me. My unconditioned response to surprise is usually so drastic as to startle the person who startled me. Occasionally my physical responses are so strong as to actually be painful. By pairing spiders with the element of surprise, the spiders became the conditioned stimulus that resulted in my conditioned response (panic).

References:

Charles, C. M. Building Classroom Discipline. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, 1999.

Websites

Personal Experiences, particularly in 1961 and 1973.

Discussion with my mother, 1973.

One of the most difficult things that today’s teachers have to do is manage classroom behavior in order to maintain an environment that is conducive to learning. Years ago classroom discipline wasn’t so much of an issue because behavior and self-control were taught effectively at home. With today’s split families, blended families, and two working parent families, many students don’t receive as much guidance in their behavior as they should. This is why teachers have to devise management plans.

C. M. Charles stated that the Canters’ Assertive Discipline is the most widely used discipline model in the country, and yet this model has received much criticism from researchers, most notably Render, Padilla, and Krank, as being too controlling and ineffective. I have used this model for years and have found neither of these criticisms to be true.

In Schoolwide and Classroom Discipline Kathleen Cotton summarizes the findings of 60 different research projects that have been done on different methods of school discipline used throughout the country. The research shows the "relationships between disciplinary practices and student behavioral outcomes." Based on these research findings Cotton has been able to create lists of both effective and ineffective discipline practices. Some of the items on Cotton’s list of effective practices include:

• High expectations for student learning and behavior
• Establishing and teaching clear classroom rules and procedures
• Specifying consequences and their relation to behavior
• Enforcing rules promptly, consistently, and equitably
• Reinforcing appropriate behavior
• Sharing the responsibility of classroom management with the students

All of these effective practices comprise the entire focus of the Assertive Discipline model. These are the exact things that teachers using Assertive Discipline do.

The ineffective practices that Cotton lists include:

• Vague or unenforceable rules
• Teachers ignoring misconduct
• Ambiguous or inconsistent teacher responses to misbehavior
• Excessive punishment

These are the very practices that the Assertive Discipline model helps teachers to avoid. If teachers using the AD model are still having problems with discipline because of the above ineffective practices, it is because they are not incorporating the model correctly. Those teachers would have difficulty no matter what discipline model they used. Based on these two lists of discipline practices, I don’t see how AD can be considered any more or less effective than any other discipline model that follows these practices.

I feel that the criticism of AD being too harsh and controlling comes from the "increasingly serious sanctions" that teachers who employ this model use as consequences for misbehavior. Teachers who use AD create a hierarchy of consequences that are applied to each subsequent offense. The purpose is to teach students that as misbehaviors increase so do the consequences. In theory, this method could be considered too harsh or controlling if the consequences listed were excessive or out of line according to the severity of the offense. In practice, though, this isn't true. I have seen a great many AD management plans among my colleagues and the consequence hierarchy almost always consists of an increasing number of lost minutes on the playground, communication with parents, and communication with the principal. None of these consequences can be considered harsh. They all fall under the effective practice of consequences in relation to behavior.

Neither can the above consequences be considered controlling because the students have a choice in the matter. The relationship between rules and consequences is specified well in advance of any misbehavior. The students are taught to understand that if they choose to break the rules they are also choosing to accept the consequences. Students have complete control over their fate in the matter because they have control of their actions.

In summary, I don’t think the Canter model is ineffective, too harsh, or too controlling. I feel that criticisms to that effect are based on ineffective incorporation of program practices or misuse of the program and not on the program itself.

References:

Canter, Lee and Marlene Canter. Succeeding With Difficult Students, Santa Monica, CA: Lee Canter and Associates, 1993.

Charles, C. M., Building Classroom Discipline, New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., 1999.

Cotton, Kathleen. Schoolwide and Classroom Discipline, Dec. 1990.

My classmates have already said so much in defense of Assertive Discipline with which I agree. As Dianne Fulton said, our school district, Springfield 186 has promoted AD for years. Each teacher is required to file a classroom management plan each year, and most of the plans I have seen in our district follow Canter's model. In my own experience, I have not only used the AD model in my classroom I have also taken Lee Canter's course, Succeeding With Difficult Students. I have found this to be a very clear-cut way to teach students to behave in an acceptable manner.

Prof. Evertson gave as one reason for excluding AD from her book that "it has been labeled as psychological maltreatment by the American Psychological Association." When I read that statement, I, like Liz Sanford, questioned that label. In what way is assertiveness psychological maltreatment? We all have learned how to behave in life. John Covaleskie believes that "children should obey the rules because that is the right thing to do, not because there is some reward associated with obeying, or some punishment for not obeying." (Assertive Discipline Information) But isn't that how we learn? We can't distinguish right from wrong until we have been taught the difference, and to be taught we have to be exposed to some method that shows approval or disapproval. Everyone who behaves in a manner that is socially acceptable is rewarded by acceptance from others. Those people whose behavior is unacceptable tend to be shunned by others. This is how we learn what behaviors are acceptable and what aren't. I fail to see how using this same principle in the classroom is any different than learning social behavior. We are attempting to teach acceptable classroom behavior to children through the use of rewards and consequences.

Evertson continued by listing several reviewers who "raise doubts about effectiveness." As Jennifer Haberkorn said, have any of these critics been in a classroom lately? Teaching while maintaining discipline is a very difficult job. Teachers have all kinds of obstacles to overcome from teaching to a wide variety of ability levels to trying to teach children who come to school ill-clothed, ill-fed, suffering from lack of sleep and lack of parental guidance. As Dr. Thomas Allen says, "The need to deal constantly with noisy, disorderly, and discourteous behavior...and the occasionally serious confrontation with defiant behavior...wears teachers down. It is to deal with these routine distractions and to reduce the likelihood for confrontations that systematic classroom control models have been developed." If a teacher is using a discipline method that is ineffective, that teacher will change to another method as a sheer matter of survival. A program that is not effective will not last long in the classroom. Todd Mickley pointed out that continual improvements have been made in response to criticisms made early on in the program. The length of time that AD has been around and the fact that it is so widely used should testify to the effectiveness of the program.

I think that the biggest reason that Prof. Evertson failed to include AD in her book is her own personal bias. She said that she doesn't "like to recommend to teachers techniques that put the burden of compliance on students without asking the question, "What is the value and quality to what I am asking them to comply with?'" In my opinion the purpose of a textbook is to give information, not make recommendations. The Professor should have included the AD model in her book along with the information that she feels are the problems with the program. By omitting the program altogether, she does a disservice to her readers. People can't make informed decisions without having all the information. I agree wholeheartedly with Rebecca Trieger when she said, "The best argument for including a discussion of Assertive Discipline is that, according to Charles (1995), the Canters program 'is the most widely used of all discipline systems.' As such, its omission from Evertson's text is problematic. A discussion of the program's techniques, popularity, efficacy, endorsement and criticism should be included." By presenting all the well-known discipline models, Evertson would have allowed her readers the opportunity to choose or combine programs as they see fit. By omitting such a widely used system, she deprives her readers of that opportunity.

References:

Canter, Lee and Marlene Canter. Succeeding With Difficult Students, Santa Monica, CA: Lee Canter and Associates, 1993.

Charles, C. M., Building Classroom Discipline, New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., 1999. 

Allen, Thomas H., Ph.D. DEVELOPING A DISCIPLINE PLAN FOR YOU, 1996.

Assertive Discipline Information

Fulton, Dianne

Haberkorn, Jennifer

Mickley, Todd

Sanford, Liz

Trieger, Rebecca

I agree with classmate, Becky Trieger, that the difference between punishment and consequences is a matter of semantics. According to the Thorndike-Barnhart Dictionary, a consequence is "the relation of a result or effect to its cause" whereas punishment is "pain, suffering, or loss for a fault or offense." Using these definitions, I much prefer to think of my management plan as one that is based on consequences of a student’s actions rather than punishment for the actions. Like most teachers in my district, I use a classroom management system based on the Canters’ Assertive Discipline model. As a part of this system, I have a list of "consequences" that are given as the result of breaking one of the classroom rules. These consequences are meant to reinforce the cause and effect relationship between breaking a rule and accepting the result of that action.

In Managing Inappropriate Behavior in the Classroom the definition of punishment is given "as a technique that decelerates the frequency of a behavior when it is given contingent on that behavior." If one uses that definition, then I must admit that the consequences that I am using to teach my students appropriate behavior are also punishment. This same source continues to say that "Reprimands, frowns, reminders and other subtle expressions can serve as punishment, and can be very effective when used appropriately." I use those "punishments" together with the consequences in my management plan.

Like Kathy Leggett, I also provide time for my students to finish their homework, but this time is a direct consequence of my homework policy. My students are told on the first day of school that I expect all assignments to be turned in on time. If they don’t have their assignments done, they must stay in for recess and at lunch time until the assignments are completed. In order to enforce this rule, I have my students turn in their assignments first thing in the morning. While students are working on Racine sentences, I quickly alphabetize the papers and mark down whose papers are missing. Within the first few minutes of the day my students know if they owe me assignments. They also know that they will lose recess time until those assignments are turned in. This consequence works well to motivate 5^th graders to do their homework. Usually by the end of September I only have a handful of students that regularly don’t do their work. These are the students who need a lot of individual help anyway so their lost recess time gives me the opportunity to give them the one-on-one help they need.

Gretchen Halasi-Kun noted that "punishment works with kids who are not chronic behavior problems." I feel this is true because children who have been taught to respect the rules naturally want to avoid breaking those rules. They respond to punishment because the punishment reminds them that they did something wrong. This makes them feel bad which is something they want to avoid. The students who habitually misbehave don’t respond to punishment because they already feel bad about themselves and/or their lives. To them the punishment means nothing because it changes nothing.

In Punishment in classroom is passe, say most experts, it is stated that teachers "must put classroom management above punishment." That is to say that management and punishment are two separate things. I tend to have an "authoritative" teaching style. According to the website Teacher Talk, "The authoritative teacher places limits and controls on the students but simultaneously encourages independence. This teacher often explains the reasons behind the rules and decisions. If a student is disruptive, the teacher offers a polite, but firm, reprimand. This teacher sometimes metes out discipline, but only after careful consideration of the circumstances." I interpret this to mean that the discipline, or "punishment," is used only after other methods have been tried. I feel, like Jennifer Haberkorn, that "Punishment should only be used if nothing else has worked." I prefer to think of the majority of my discipline as educational rather than punitive.

References:

Thorndike-Barnhart Dictionary, 1991.

Websites:

Anderson, Tom. Punishment and Other Uses of Aversive Stimuli

Cole, Kenneth. Punishment in classroom is passe, say most experts, Detroit News Lansing Bureau, Sept. 28,1995.

ERIC Clearinghouse on Handicapped and Gifted Children Reston VA. Managing Inappropriate Behavior in the Classroom, 1990.

Haberkorn, Jennifer

Halasi-Kun, Gretchen

Hawley, Chandra. Teacher Talk, What is your classroom management profile? Indiana University - Center for Adolescent Studies, 1996.

Leggett, Kathy

Trieger, Becky

I had never thought of myself as similar to an orchestra conductor, but I must say that the analogy appeals to me. Each day I stand or sit on a tall stool in front of my "orchestra" in order to be able to see and make eye contact with each musician. I wait until I have the attention of everyone, and when we are all ready we begin playing the "lesson symphony." During practice if someone plays a sour note, I must go back and correct that person to make sure he/she gets it right the next time. I have to be constantly alert in order to make sure that everyone is playing on the same page and that no disruptions interrupt the musicians while they are playing. At times during the piece individuals or groups of instruments will need to play very different parts. It is my responsibility to make sure that each part goes smoothly and that the entire orchestra comes back together at the appropriate time. When we finish playing each movement of the symphony, I have to make sure that we transition to the next movement smoothly.

Unfortunately, there are certain parts of this metaphor that just don’t hold up. If my class were an orchestra then each person would be there for the love of music. They would take my direction because they are eager to improve. They would know how important it is that everyone in the group work together and work hard to achieve that unity. They would always come to practice with their instruments and music and be ready to start playing as soon as I give them their cue. In reality, my students don’t come to school for the love of learning. They are there because they have to be, and they don’t want to do any more than they absolutely have to. They frequently come to school without their supplies or their assignments and they daydream or play with things in their desks in order to avoid getting down to work.

I think that being a teacher is a lot like being a parent to a large family that lives in a small house. In addition to having to keep track of where everyone is and what they are doing, you also have to schedule simple things like whose turn it is to use the bathroom. You have to keep track of all the important family papers. You must make sure that everyone gets along, even though no one has any personal space to retreat to. The entire family lives with non-stop togetherness all day. You have to nurture each child and make him feel special, but you can’t have favorites. Everyone has to be treated fairly, which to them means being treated the same, even though you know they have different needs that have to be treated differently. At the same time that you are watching over the family, you have to be and do everything for each individual while trying to teach them how to do for themselves independently. Bottom line is that you are overworked, under-appreciated, and yet completely indispensable, but you do it all for the love of your family and your concern for their future.

References:

Charles, C. M. Building Classroom Discipline. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, 1999.

Personal experiences as a teacher and mother of 4 boys, 1982-present.

Websites:

CHAPTER 7 -- THE ORCHESTRA, CONDUCTOR, AND INTERPRETATION, adapted from the textbook "Music: A User's Guide for the Beginner", Gary Daum, 1996.

Conductors' Corner, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

Wuest, Deb. "Are You With it?". Learning Environment Article, April 1999.

According to Bruning et al, an information bottleneck occurs in both sensory and short-term memory. This means that "only a small amount of information can be processed at one time." In order to work around these bottlenecks, we need to narrow our focus at any given time. We do this by focusing on what we deem to be the most important information and remove or ignore the rest. If we try to focus on too much information at one time, we become overloaded and unable to process any of the information at all.

One bottleneck that I can think of is when we are doing research for a report. We have a topic in mind, but we know that we cannot possibly cover every facet of that topic in depth. So we limit our focus to a few subtopics that we deem to be most important for our purposes. At that point we begin looking through a wide variety of materials on our topic, but there is no need for us to read these materials completely. Through the use of indexes, chapter headings, etc. in the research materials we are able to focus on only the parts we need for our report. Then we can scan through those parts looking for the pertinent information that we seek. If we weren’t able to limit our focus in this way, report writing would quickly become an overwhelming and impossible task.

A bottleneck that I have frequently found to be difficult to get around is trying to grade papers while my class is in the room. I find that even when the whole class is working quietly at their seats, the task of monitoring my students takes all my available attention. I simply cannot know where everyone is, what they are doing, who is off task, and who needs help while trying to read papers, determine the accuracy of each part of the papers, and assign grades to the papers at the same time. I find that even when no one in the class has any immediate need for me, I still cannot focus on anything but monitoring them.

Another instance of a bottleneck that I run into all the time is the vast amount of things I have to do and remember each day. With 4 children, a full time job, and several volunteer activities, I frequently find my schedule to be overwhelming. In order to make it through my memory bottleneck, I find myself frequently making "to do" lists. Once that is done I can focus my energies on whatever it is that I need to do right away because I know I can look at the list later to recall the rest.

References:

Bruning, Roger H., Gregory J. Schraw, and Royce R. Ronning. Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999.

Personal Experiences

When I was younger, I used to pride myself on my excellent memory, both short and long-term. But as I get older it seems that more and more things compete for my attention, and my memory doesn’t seem to be as good as it once was. According to Rita MacDonald, "A primary cause of "forgetting" is that the material was never really learned in the first place. To be able to recall something you must first have paid attention to it, made it meaningful in some way, and stored it in your memory in a retrievable way." Apparently my memory is not so good any more because I’m not paying the kind of attention to things that I used to. Things that don't make it into my short-term memory can't possibly be moved into my long-term memory for later retrieval.

An example of this lack of attention would be this typical evening at my house. I am cooking dinner with the television on, while rehashing my day in my mind. My youngest son asks me to help him with his homework. While we are working on his assignment another son asks me for advice on something, and my oldest son tells me he’s going to a friend’s house as he breezes out the door. Later, when my oldest son returns, I ask him where he has been, and he gets irritated with me for never listening to him. He swears he told me, but I have absolutely no memory of it. Apparently I haven’t actually forgotten what he said because I never paid attention to it, made it meaningful, or stored it in my memory in the first place. I’m not guilty of forgetfulness as much as I am suffering from short-term memory overload. So many things were going on at once that I couldn’t possibly process them all. As a result, some things were lost before I could actually register them in my memory.

In order for me to correct my "forgetfulness" I need to reduce the number of things I’m paying attention to at one time. If I put dinner on hold for a few minutes, turn off the television, and help my 2 sons one at a time, I would have enough attention left to notice my oldest one going out the door and hear what he was saying. I would be able to process his words to mean that I know where he is and store it in my memory for later recall. If I can perfect this process, I might not feel so "old" and forgetful all the time!

References:

Bruning, Roger H., Gregory J. Schraw, and Royce R. Ronning. Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999.

Personal Experiences

Website:

MacDonald, Rita. Understanding How You Learn. Learning for College Success Guide, Mohawk College, 1993.

I find the theory that procedural knowledge often starts out as declarative knowledge to be quite accurate. I am comfortable with this theory mostly because of the use of the word "often." Like in English grammar, every rule has an exception, but that does not mean that the rule in general is not useful. If you think long and hard enough, it is quite possible to think of examples of procedural knowledge that seem unconnected to any declarative knowledge. But if you take those examples and break them down into component parts, you will find that quite often that procedure begins with some sort of declarative knowledge.

Whether or not the learner remembers the declarative knowledge after the procedural knowledge becomes automated makes no difference. The connection between the two types of knowledge is undeniable. An example of this connection can be found in the unconscious acts of driving your car home. This task becomes so automated that we frequently forget parts of this trip because our minds are elsewhere. Prior to automation we had to learn which streets to take, which way to turn, and where to stop. Before learning those things we had to be exposed to them in the form of declarative knowledge. The act of driving itself can be broken down into declarative parts. Things like adjusting the mirrors or watching the traffic may be automatic now, but at one time someone had to tell us to do these things.

In my fifth grade class I teach my students research skills. Researching a topic and creating some sort of product using the information is very definitely procedural knowledge, but the information used is all declarative. My students must learn how to take notes, how to organize the information, how to cite their sources, and how to create the final product. Each of these procedures has to be broken down into steps that I teach to my students. Each of these steps is an example of declarative knowledge. If my students have trouble understanding the verbal explanations I give, I also give plenty of visual examples. These images are also declarative knowledge. (Tom Anderson) Once students have learned what the steps are, they can synthesize these steps into the procedural knowledge necessary to perform the tasks. As Rebecca Trieger states, "even though it is impossible to articulate the actual mechanical process necessary for procedural learning, the prior declarative knowledge consciously or unconsciously learned is necessary for a particular skill to be mastered." One does not need to be able to state the declarative knowledge once that knowledge has been synthesized into procedural knowledge.

I am convinced that most, if not all, procedural knowledge can be broken down into declarative parts. It doesn’t matter if the person performing the procedure can verbalize the parts at that particular time or not. A baby can’t verbalize how to crawl simply because he can’t verbalize anything yet. But there will be a time in the future when that baby can verbalize the act of crawling. On the opposite side of the coin, a gymnast my not be able to verbalize how to do a back flip because the procedure is so automatic that she no longer thinks about it. But there was a time when that gymnast’s coach had to tell her how to do it. That is declarative knowledge.

References:

Bruning, Roger H., Gregory J. Schraw, and Royce R. Ronning. Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999.

Personal Experiences, 1995 - present.

Websites:

Anderson, Tom. Cognitive Psychology: The interaction of memory structures and cognitive strategies.

Dabbagh, Nada. Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills through Concept Mapping. Towson University

Nickols, Fred. The Knowledge in Knowledge Management. Reprinted from The Knowledge Management Yearbook, 2000-2001 Edition

Paden, David. DYNAMIC LEARNING MATRIX ©

Trieger, Rebecca

As a student, rote memorization always came easily to me, so I had little use for mnemonics. I always regarded myself as an "R & R" student. That was my own little creation to describe the way I learned. It stood for "read and regurgitate." Give me anything you wanted me to learn in printed form and I would read it and spit it back out for you on a test. Now as I read and study more about mnemonics I realize that I used mnemonics more than I thought. My memory techniques have always been very visual. During my "R & R" days, I could visualize on the page where a given piece of information was located and that would help me remember the information. I have a very vivid recollection of a time in college when I missed a math class on the day that a test was announced. I was shocked when I walked into class the next time to find out we were having a test that day. I remember while I was taking the test visualizing where in my notes I had written the information, and by finding it that way I remembered what I needed to know. I wound up being the only person in the class to get 100% on that test!

Visual images and location are very important cues for me in remembering something. Usually if I can remember where I was when I learned something, then I can remember what I learned. I use something similar to the method of loci to memorize my class list each year. The difference is that I actually place my students in the location where I will remember them. For the first few weeks of the school year I put my students in alphabetical order while I learn their names. After that, no matter how many ways I rearrange my room, I always have my class completely memorized by where they sat and who they were next to in those first few weeks. When new students enter the class, I mentally place them where they would have sat during those first few weeks. Having my students memorized alphabetically comes in handy when I need a class list for something or when I want to alphabetize papers to find out who didn’t turn in an assignment.

Another way that I remember things is by making connections. This is similar to the Link and Peg methods except that the connections have real meaning to me. For example, I always remember the difference between the sailing terms port and starboard because port and left both have 4 letters and starboard has the letter "r" in each syllable and "r" is the first letter in right. Another connection I make is in remembering the difference between latitude and longitude. I was taught to remember these two because "longitude is the long way around the world." This never made sense to me because the Earth is a sphere. There is no long way around! The connection I made was that latitude begins with "lat" which rhymes with flat, and that is the way those lines lie on a map. "Spring forward, fall back" also works for me because the connection makes sense.

The more standard mnemonics that I have used usually are the ones that use rhymes. Like everyone else, I have used the following rhymes to help me remember various things:

• 30 days hath September, April, June, and November . . .
• "I" before "e" except after "c", or when it sounds like "a" as in neighbor and weigh.
• When 2 vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.
• Red sky at night, sailors delight! Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning!
• Lefty loosey, righty tighty.

According to Susie Mirick in IMPROVING YOUR MEMORY SKILLS (MNEMONICS), "the use of ACRONYMS . . . is the most popular mnemonic used spontaneously by college students." I believe this to be true simply because I’ve seen and heard so many of them. The problem I’ve always had with acronyms is that it was always more trouble for me to learn the mnemonic than it was to learn the things I needed to remember. The only acronyms that I can remember are the ones that have real connections to the subject. I can remember that NASA means National Aeronautics and Space Administration and that SCUBA actually means self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. I can even remember the Great Lakes using the acronym HOMES because as a child I learned that the Great Lakes are surrounded by homes. But I can never remember any of the nonsense sentences I’ve heard to help me remember the order of the nine planets! I learned the planets in a song. Like classmate Dianne Fulton, I also learned how to spell encyclopedia from a song that Jiminy Cricket sang on the Mickey Mouse Club. Actually, the Mickey Mouse Club is also where I learned the HOMES acronym for the Great Lakes. Who says television isn’t educational!?!

I guess the only mnemonic devices that I have trouble with are the ones where the connections aren’t real. As I have said, I use rhymes, connections, and images of locations, but only when the connections make sense. I have never been able to use the link system, the peg system, or the keyword system because I can’t create images that are memorable if they don’t make sense to me. The familiar place (Loci) technique works for me only when I’m remembering something that I have actually seen in a particular location and the acronym technique only works if there is a real connection.

Even though I have difficulty with many mnemonics myself, I am not against the use of them in the classroom. I know that everyone thinks and learns differently. I have taught the few mnemonics that I know to my students, and I encourage them to use any others that they have learned elsewhere. According to Project BETTER/Thinking and Learning, General Mnemonics, "Teachers who assist students in learning new information through the use of mnemonic devices promote learning because mnemonics serve a cueing structure to facilitate recall." I feel that anything that helps students remember something is a good thing. Besides, mnemonics are fun! 

References:

Bruning, Roger H., Gregory J. Schraw, and Royce R. Ronning. Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999.

Personal Experiences on memorization.

Websites:

Amanda's Mnemonics Page

Fulton, Dianne

Mind Tools

Mirick, Susie. IMPROVING YOUR MEMORY SKILLS (MNEMONICS), College of William & Mary.

Mnemonics Guide Page. An EUdesign site, 1997, 2000.

The Natural History Mnemonics Page

Project BETTER/Thinking and Learning, General Mnemonics. School Improvement in Maryland.

Tipper, Michael. The Happy Child Organization, MNEMONICS.

Like many of my colleagues, I have been around long enough to see the reading pendulum swing back and forth several times. At one time phonics was considered the only way to teach reading. Students were told to "sound it out" when they came to a word they didn’t know. In order to perform this task, they were taught the connection between the different phonemes and graphemes of the English language. "By learning these letter-sound relationships the student is provided with a decoding formula that can be applied whenever they encounter an unfamiliar word." (Jenny Curtis) The unfortunate consequence of this method of teaching was that students would often sound out words phonetically, but come up with something that is not a real word. Another problem is that students focused so hard on the sounds of words that they couldn’t get the meaning of what they were reading. Students would frequently read things that made no sense at all and continue on reading because they had no idea that what they were saying wasn’t right.

At another time the whole language approach to reading became the method du jour. Phonics was a no-no. Students were to be immersed literature. It was assumed that if students were exposed to a huge variety of good literature, they would naturally learn how to read just as they had naturally learned how to speak by being exposed to oral language. I was a Chapter I (Title I) reading teacher when the whole language method was implemented in the Springfield school district. I worked collaboratively with a 1^st grade teacher that year. We spent the year reading the same stories in the reading book over and over with the class. What I found in teaching this way is that students could imitate reading because they knew the stories so well, but they could not read anything new. The strategies they learned (look at the pictures, predict what will happen, etc.) were not enough to help them with material that was completely unfamiliar to them.

Another casualty of the whole language method was spelling. Children were taught to use invented spelling when writing, and teachers were supposed to put the "conventional" spelling above the invented words so that children could learn the difference. Unfortunately students continued to invent spelling long after that practice should have stopped. When I began teaching a 5^th grade class, I found that student spelling in their every day writing was no different than the spelling I had seen from students in the lower grades. What the students learned is that spelling doesn’t matter unless it’s on a spelling test. Words that they knew how to spell were frequently misspelled in their writing out of sheer carelessness. When they tried to spell words phonetically, they couldn’t because they hadn’t been taught enough phonics to do that.

For the last few years the Springfield school district has been promoting the "balanced literacy" approach. This method is supposed to be the middle ground. It employs phonics as a part of a literature rich program. Most experts agree that this is the best method for teaching reading. It gives students a wide variety of tools they can use when decoding and promotes comprehension at the same time. Karen Diegmueller says that, "Balanced instruction combines the best elements from phonics instruction and the whole-language approach. That is, children are explicitly taught the relationship between letters and sounds in a systematic fashion, but they are being read to and reading interesting stories and writing at the same time." I agree that this method makes the most sense not only because it uses different approaches to teach reading, but also because it will be able to reach children who have different learning styles. For years teachers have complained that the pendulum always swings to the extreme while what we need is something in the middle. This balanced instruction is that middle ground we have been asking for.

Using a balanced approach to reading should also be helpful when students are reading from a computer. Whether a student is using the computer in "learning to read" or using it by "reading to learn," both decoding and comprehension skills come into play. Students must use the same strategies for decoding and comprehension on the computer that they use when reading printed material. The balanced literacy approach makes the whole "phonics vs. whole language debate" moot. 

References:

Bruning, Roger H., Gregory J. Schraw, and Royce R. Ronning. Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999.

Personal Experiences as a Chapter I teacher, 1988-1995.

Personal experiences as a 5^th grade teacher, 1995-present

Websites:

Curtis, Jenny. Phonics vs. Whole Language Which is Better?

Diegmueller, Karen. The Best of Both Worlds. Education Week. March 20, 1996

Nemes, John. Learning To Read Resources for Language Arts and Reading Research

Locate a segment of text on the internet that you find very difficult to read and comprehend. Analyze why it is difficult. Which strategies did you try to understand it? Which strategies might work better? How might the author have used text signals to assist you? How might the author have used advance organizers to assist you? 

In order to do this assignment, I tried to locate a website that I would find interesting, but was on a topic in which I would have little background knowledge. I chose an article from the Physics Web about a search for new dimensions. The main reason that reading this article was difficult for me was that I am completely unfamilar with the concepts and terms used in it. It was written for an audience who would have much more knowledge of this topic than I.

Although this article is short and I had difficulty comprehending the information, I felt that it was well written for its intended audience. It contains an advance organizer at the beginning, which gives some information about the connections between dimensions, gravity, and the distance between objects. Using that information, I was able to glean a little more information from the rest of the article. I found myself monitoring my own reading and re-reading parts that I knew were not making sense to me. I also used other reading strategies such as predicting, questioning, and using context to understand unfamiliar terms. A strategy that might help me to better understand this article would be for me to develop some background knowledge on some of the terms that were used. As I read the article, I was overwhelmed by the amount of information in that little bit of text. It created a bottleneck in my short-term memory that made it difficult for me to proceed. (Bruning et al) If I had a better understanding of the terms, I could focus more on the concepts being presented. This would help reduce the bottleneck of information I was experiencing.

To make this article more "reader friendly" for those of us with limited background knowledge, the author could have separated the article into smaller sections with subheadings. The smaller sections would have helped me to focus on fewer things at a time. That would have been another way to help in reducing the information bottleneck. The author could also have given a little bit of information about the theories and concepts mentioned. This extra information would have compensated for my lack of background knowledge.

References:

Bruning, Roger H., Gregory J. Schraw, and Royce R. Ronning. Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999.

Personal Experiences as a reader and as a reading teacher

Websites:

Curtis, Jenny. A Historical Look At The Book, 1997.

The Hunt for New Dimensions . The Physics Web, 20 Feb 2001.

I have always enjoyed logic puzzles and regard problem solving to be a similar activity. Howard C. McAllister says that "Problem solving is a natural process. Indeed we are born problem solvers." I believe that to be true based on the great popularity of puzzles of all kinds. To solve a logic puzzle I have always looked carefully at the information that is already known. I also consider what the necessary goal or outcome of the puzzle is. Once I have carefully considered these two things, the task is for me to determine how to bridge the gap between them. Problem solving follows the same course of action. According to Bruning et al, problem solving involves the five steps of identifying the problem, representing the problem, selecting the appropriate strategy, implementing the strategy, and evaluating solutions.

The first problem I chose to solve was the following: "You wake up in a pitch-black room in a hunting lodge, and there's no light handy. In your duffel bag there are six black socks and six white ones, all mixed together. You want to pick out a matching pair. What is the smallest number of socks you can take out of the bag and be sure of getting a pair of the same color?" The first thing I did was imagine myself in the dark, pulling socks from a bag. I imagined pulling out the first 2 socks and they were both black. Since that came so easily, my mind immediately shifted to thinking that I was trying to guarantee that I would have socks of different colors. Following that line of thought, I continued pulling black socks out of the bag until they were gone. The next sock I pulled would have to be white, so I concluded that the smallest number of socks needed to guarantee 2 different colors would be 7.

When I compared my answer to the question, I realized that somewhere along the line my thinking got off track. I went back to the beginning and tried to retrace my thought processes. That was when I realized that I was trying to make the problem harder than it really was. By pulling out 2 socks of the same color, I had already reached the desired goal. That seemed too easy. My next thought was, "what if I pulled out 2 different colored socks? How many more would I need to have a matching pair?" I realized then that no matter what color sock I pulled out next, it would match one or the other of the first two, so the answer had to be three.

The main difference between what I did to solve this problem and what my students would do, is that I checked my initial response to see if it made sense. By doing this I discovered that I had made a mistake. Rarely do my students ever check their work. They are so focused on finding "the answer" that once they find one they move on without ever looking back. They skip the step that I find to be one of the most important parts of problem solving, evaluating the solution.

The second problem I solved was "A bass fishing lure and some touch-up paint cost a total of $2.50. The lure costs $2 more than the paint. What is the cost of the lure and the cost of the paint?" I had less trouble with this one. My first thought was that there was a $2.00 difference between the paint and the lure. I subtracted the $2.00 from the $2.50 total and was left with 50c to work with. I divided the 50c evenly between the paint and the lure. That gave them 25c each. I then added the $2.00 difference to the cost of the lure for a total of $2.25. By adding the $2.25 for the lure and the 25c for the paint, I got the original total of $2.50. Once again I realized that the most important part of my strategy was checking to see if it actually worked and gave me the desired answer.

In doing this activity, I realize how important it is to model problem solving strategies to students. By showing them how easy it is to make a mistake and how important it is to check for mistakes, I can better impress on them the importance of evaluating their answers. Telling them to check their work and showing them how to do it is nothing new. Students have been ignoring that part of problem solving for years. But modeling it and finding errors may be enough to get them to complete that last important step.

References:

Bruning, Roger H., Gregory J. Schraw, and Royce R. Ronning. Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999.

Websites:

McAllister, Howard C. 21st Century Problem Solving, 1994-98.

Teachers who view learning from a behaviorist standpoint tend to believe that learning comes from extensive practice and repetition. To those teachers, students make errors simply because they have not repeated the concept often enough for it to become embedded in their long-term memory. This is the way that most of us were taught math. We were given the steps to follow for a certain algorithm and then made to practice the algorithm until the steps became automatic. I had an experience with my son when he was trying to learn long division. He would follow the steps of the division process so far, and then a misconception caused him to complete the problem incorrectly. The answers that he got for each problem were so far off the mark that my husband couldn't understand how he got them. Having taught these concepts, I could see exactly where my son went wrong and how he came up with those answers. It was obvious to me that my son was trying to repeat the steps from rote memory without any understanding of the underlying concepts.

Teachers with a cognitive leaning tend to focus more on building understanding. They spend a great deal of time helping students build a foundation of understanding concepts and strategies. With the teacher as a guide, students can then construct their own meanings of what has been taught. A teacher with a cognitive view would see errors as a lack of understanding the underlying concepts or a failure to construct meaning in a way that makes sense to the learner. In the above example, I was able to look at my son’s work from a cognitivist point of view and see where the learning process broke down. My husband had only the behaviorist perspective that he had learned when he was taught division and thus couldn’t see anything but a wrong answer.

I think that I tend to teach mostly from a cognitive standpoint. Most of my time is spent teaching 5^th grade Language Arts and Social Studies. When I teach I use many analogies and lots of role playing in order to help my students better understand how authors, historical figures, etc. think. I try to put unfamiliar ideas into a familiar context to help students understand them. I also involve my students in many projects where they have to create something using what I have taught while building new knowledge of their own. Jennifer Haberkorn said that "Knowledge is the organization of a set of mental structures and problem-solving processes that the learner manipulates and restructures in response to new information and experience." That definition describes exactly how I try to teach my students. When they work on projects or in cooperative groups, they are organizing concepts that I have taught together with their own prior knowledge plus new information that they find on their own. They use problem solving processes during the course of the project and they build new knowledge and understandings from the experience. All this is cognitive learning.

References:

Bruning, Roger H., Gregory J. Schraw, and Royce R. Ronning. Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999.

Personal Experience with my son, 1998.

Personal experiences teaching 5^th grade, 1995-present.

Website:

Haberkorn, Jennifer. Cognitivist and Behaviorist Teachers

Reading Glasser’s strategy of getting students to accept responsibility caused me to think about my own classroom management plan. For years I have used the Canter model of assertive discipline. This model has worked well for me except for one problem; it doesn’t teach students how to accept responsibility for their actions or how to modify their own behavior. I frequently hear myself telling my class that I don’t want to play policeman. I want them to follow the rules because it is the right thing to do, not because I am making them do it. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Whenever I am not present to enforce the rules, the behavior of my students deteriorates. Examples of this problem occur whenever we have a substitute or when students have to stay inside for their lunch recess with minimal supervision. What I need to do is teach them how to exercise self-discipline.

Glasser’s strategies include stressing student responsibility in making good choices and showing students that they must live with the choices they make. He also stressed that "reasonable consequences should follow any behavior the student chooses. Consequences should be desirable to the student when good behavior is chosen and undesirable when poor behavior is chosen. The knowledge that behavior always bring consequences, desirable or undesirable, helps students take charge of their lives and control their own behavior." (Charles)

Getting students to accept responsibility for anything is a very difficult task. Students are unable to admit when they make poor choices or even when they make mistakes. Like Beth Twardowski, I frequently run into situations where 2 students are having a disagreement of some kind. Typically what happens is that each child will blame the other for what happened. Whenever I ask a child what happened, the child will always begin by telling me what the other one did. When I ask specifically, "What did you do?" the child will go right back to describing the other child’s actions or will quickly state his own action, followed by "but he…". I try to make my students understand that they have a part in whatever happened, and they need to accept responsibility for that part. I try to make them understand that nobody forces them to behave as they do. Everything they do is a direct cause of choices they make, and every choice, whether good or bad, has consequences. That is a difficult thing to get students to accept.

Students also have difficulty admitting to making mistakes. An example of this difficulty would be when a student comes to me and tells me he "accidently" did his assignment in pencil or he "accidently" printed. I require my 5^th graders to do all written assignments in cursive and in ink. My students are aware of this requirement, but they fight me on it tooth and nail. When a student says he "accidently" did such and such, I point out that an accident is something they have no control over. What they have done is made a mistake. Whether the mistake was through forgetfulness, carelessness, or not knowing any better makes no difference. It is a mistake, and it needs to be corrected.

Another thing students tend to do is make excuses for their actions. Glasser says that we should accept no excuses. When my students don’t have their homework done, I tell them that I don’t need to hear reasons or promises, I only need to know whether or not they have their assignment done. I was a little amused the other day when one of my students came to me and began a frantic explanation of why he didn’t have his homework done. About 2 sentences into his explanation he stopped, looked at me, and said, "You’re going to give me a check anyway, aren’t you?" When I replied, "Yes," he simply sat down and made no more excuses. I would like all my students to understand the connection between actions and consequences the way that this boy did.

I plan to incorporate some of Glasser’s strategies into my classroom management plan in order to help my students take more responsibility for their actions. According to Thomas Allen, "The ultimate goal should be to develop self-discipline in pupils and to move away from external, authority-imposed control." This is the goal that I have for my students. Achieving this goal will not only help students to learn better and do better quality work, it will also give them an important life skill that everyone needs.

References:

Charles, C. M. Building Classroom Discipline. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, 1999.

Personal experiences in teaching, 1987 – present.

Allen, Thomas H., Ph.D. Optional Elements of a Discipline Plan

Twardowski, Beth

*Locate information on the internet and from your school district that describes the gang scene in your school, school district, community or city. Determine the names, symbols, garments, gang structure, effect on your school, and/or effect on you. How do you plan to interact with gang 'wannabees' or members in your school, classroom or laboratory? 

I must admit that until now my knowledge of gangs in Springfield has been very limited. Jennifer Haberkorn wrote an incredibly informative paper on gang activity in Springfield. Her work includes a little history of Chicago gangs and how they spilled over into the Springfield area. She also gives many examples of symbols or identifiers that the various Springfield gangs use. I teach in a 5^th grade classroom where the problem of gangs and violence is not evident. This is not to say that those problems do not exist among my students. I’m sure that some of the children in my class have to deal with gangs and violence in their homes and neighborhoods, but those problems don’t seem to spill over into our classroom. Most gang activity occurs among the middle and high school aged students.

Burnett and Walz gave a concise description of gangs when they wrote, "gangs tend to develop along racial and ethnic lines, and are typically 90 percent male (Bodinger-deUriarte,1993). Gang members often display their membership through distinctive styles of dress—their "colors"--and through specific activities and patterns of behavior. In addition, gangs almost universally show strong loyalty to their neighborhood, often marking out their territory with graffiti (Gaustad, 1991)." They also stated that "relatively few young people join gangs; even in highly impacted areas, the degree of participation has rarely exceeded 10 percent. In addition, it has been reported that less than 2 percent of all juvenile crime is gang-related (Bodinger-deUriarte, 1993)." Jim Barlow stated that "there are about 800 gang members in the Springfield schools." The Springfield school district includes about 15,000 students so this puts gang membership at a little more than 5%. Even though that is only half of what Burnett and Walz described as a highly impacted area, for a small city like Springfield, that is quite a high percentage.

This amount of gang membership at school was a great concern to me because I have 1 son who recently graduated and 3 more sons who still attend Springfield schools. My concern as a parent was how gang membership at school affects my children and others like them who have nothing to do with gangs or gang members. According to a former Chicago gang member, Efrain Marquez, "Having direct contact with gangs is not for everybody. I think that you have to know something of gangs, to be or have been a part of them, to be able to reach them." (Barlow) Wanting to know how true this statement is, I asked my 2 sons who currently attend Springfield High School and my nephew, who goes to school at Springfield Southeast High School. Both of my sons claimed to have no knowledge about gang activity at their school. They didn’t even know what kinds of signs or symbols to look for. My nephew said that he frequently sees kids flashing gang signs or wearing one pant leg pulled up, but that was the extent of what he knew. All three of them said that they knew that gang members exist at their schools but that, because they weren’t a part of that group of people, it never interfered with their lives at all. As a parent, I found it reassuring to know that even though the problem exists, it is confined to that group of students who are members.

The Springfield school district is well aware that the problem of gang affiliation at school exists and has put several preventative measures into place to combat the problem. According to Jim Barlow, "the primary attraction of gangs is their ability to respond to student needs that are not otherwise being met; they often provide youth with a sense of family and acceptance otherwise lacking in their lives." At the elementary level we have a Student Assistance Program (SAP) to help students deal with problems they have. SAP has groups of students meet together to discuss problems that range from divorce in the family to drug prevention. The SAP teacher meets with classes and individuals to teach problem solving skills. All of these things are done to help meet the needs of troubled students and hopefully prevent these students from getting into trouble later on in their lives. In addition to SAP, drug prevention and avoidance of gangs and violence is part of our 5^th grade health curriculum. Our health program, Totally Awesome Health, contains lots of role-playing and activities to teach children how to avoid getting caught up in those problems. Another thing the school district does is to distribute a student handbook each year that spells out all of the district’s rules, regulations, and policies. This handbook includes the behavior code and dress codes, both of which specifically forbid any kind of gang activity or symbolism in the schools and list the consequences for infractions of those rules. These rules include very specific language about gangs. Even at the elementary level, teachers are always vigilant in order to catch gang "wannabes" and discourage any kind of ganglike behavior.

References:

Charles, C. M. Building Classroom Discipline. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, 1999.

Meeks, Linda, Philip Heit, and Randy Page. Totally Awesome Health. Balcklick, OH: Meeks Heit Publishing Co., 1996.

Springfield Public Schools. Informational and Discipline Handbook.

Conversations with Eric Adkins (Junior, SHS), Scott Adkins (Freshman, SHS), and Mark Adkins (Junior, SSHS).

Barlow, Jim. PARTNERSHIP ILLINOIS: FORMER GANG MEMBER WORKS WITH VIOLENCE-PREVENTION PROGRAM IN SPRINGFIELD , News Bureau, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, August 1, 1996.

Burnett, Gary and Garry Walz. Gangs in Schools. ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education New York NY, 1994.|

Haberkorn, Jennifer. Gang Scene.

Springfield School District 186

*Research and describe the mediation process. Use my paper, and information from other websites as a starting point. Write about the following issues and others of your choice: Are mediation and negotiation skills important life skills, or are they just reasonable ways to talk about a conflict?, or are they, perhaps, something else to you? Do they have any political, spiritual and/or philosophical overtones?, describe them. Should all students and faculty be required to master them? If so, how should they master them? 

Conflict is something that everyone has to deal with on a daily basis. No two people are alike. We all have different wants and needs that conflict with the wants and needs of others. When that happens, something must be done to resolve or end the conflict. I agree with classmate Paulette Sallas, who wrote, " Conflict is something that we confront repeatedly throughout life whether it be with friends, relatives, bosses, employees, or within oneself . . . If conflicts are not addressed but merely shoved aside, an array of feelings often develop . . . (I)f issues are not addressed, they keep resurfacing and a snowball effect begins to occur. It, therefore, becomes unhealthy to avoid confrontation and ultimately resolution." When conflict arises, it is extremely important that the disputants find a mutually agreeable solution to the problem. Finding that solution can be very difficult. In our school district our Student Assistance Program (SAP) teaches students conflict resolution and anger management skills as part of its program. Conflict resolution and anger management are also part of our 5^th grade health curriculum.

According to Tom Anderson there are seven strategies that people commonly use to deal with conflict. These strategies are:

• Giving in
• Breaking off
• Striking back
• Negotiating
• Mediating
• Arbitrating
• Litigating

I consider the first three of these strategies, giving in, breaking off, and striking back, all to be undesirable methods for dealing with conflict. Giving in to the other person leaves one angry, frustrated, or unhappy. Breaking off from the other person simply avoids the problem while striking back causes the problem to escalate. The fourth strategy, negotiating, is the optimal approach. Jennifer Maxwell describes negotiation as "a process of communicating back and forth for the purpose of reaching a joint decision." Through negotiation the disputants can find a peaceful, mutually satisfying solution to their problem. The last three of Anderson's strategies are graduating steps that can be followed if negotiation doesn't work. In mediation a neutral third party helps facilitate the discussion. Arbitration is necessary when the third party must make the decision that couldn't be reached through mediation and negotiation, and if all else fails, the disputants can seek litigation. In litigation a set established rules or laws are used to find the resolution to the conflict.

Because of the great importance of negotiation in resolving conflicts, children need to be taught this skill at an early age. Most children will automatically resort to one of Anderson's first three strategies whenever a conflict arises because they don't know how to deal with conflict in any other way. They need to learn how to discuss issues with others in order to arrive at a mutually acceptable conclusion. In Teaching Students To Be Peacemakers by David and Roger Johnson, negotiation is described as occurring "when persons who have shared and opposed interests and want to come to an agreement try to work out a settlement. A person may negotiate to win or to mutually solve the problem." It is very important that students learn settle problems peaceably. Johnson and Johnson also list the steps in a problem-solving negotiation wherein both disputants are to "(a) state wants, (b) describe feelings, (c) give reasons for wants and feelings, (d) reverse perspectives (tell the other person's wants, feelings, and reasons), (e) together invent three possible solutions to maximize joint outcomes, and (f) reach agreement and shake hands on one of the solutions."

Mediation is another strategy that students can use to resolve their conflicts. Johnson and Johnson state that "Students must be taught how to mediate conflicts when schoolmates are unable to negotiate a constructive resolution by themselves." According to Jennifer Maxwell "The process of mediation is used when the parties are unable to successfully negotiate a problem on their own." Mediation skills are important, but because mediation is a strategy that is used only after negotiation has failed, these skills are of secondary importance to negotiation. Knowing how to mediate is a good thing, but it is not a necessary skill for everyone to have. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention defines a mediation program as "A conflict resolution education program in which selected individuals (adults and/or students) are trained in the principles and foundation abilities of conflict resolution and in the mediation process in order to provide neutral third-party facilitation to assist those in conflict to reach a resolution." To have a successful mediation program a school could train a handful of students in mediation skills. These mediators could then be used to help the many students in the school who need help in working together to solve their problems.

It is important for everyone to have skills in conflict resolution. To that end everyone should be taught how to negotiate with others to reach acceptable solutions to problems. Mediation is an added skill that is beneficial for some people to master but not necessary for everyone. 

References:

Charles, C. M. Building Classroom Discipline. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, 1999.

Meeks, Linda, Philip Heit, and Randy Page. Totally Awesome Health. Balcklick, OH: Meeks Heit Publishing Co., 1996.

Anderson, Thomas H. A Treatise On Conflict In The Classroom, 1999.

Johnson, David and Roger Johnson. Teaching Students To Be Peacemakers. University of Minnesota.

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Conflict Resolution Education: A Guide to Implementing Programs in Schools, Youth-Serving Organizations, and Community and Juvenile Justice Settings, Chapter 2: Process Curriculum Approach, October, 1996.

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Conflict Resolution Education: A Guide to Implementing Programs in Schools, Youth-Serving Organizations, and Community and Juvenile Justice Settings, Chapter 3: Mediation Program Approach, October, 1996.

Maxwell , Jennifer . DISPUTE MEDIATION: A TRAINING MANUAL, 1994.

Sallas, Paulette

***********************.

Canter, Lee and Marlene Canter. Succeeding With Difficult Students, Santa Monica, CA: Lee Canter and Associates, 1993.

Charles, C. M., Building Classroom Discipline, New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., 1999.

Bruning, Roger H., Gregory J. Schraw, and Royce R. Ronning. Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999.

Meeks, Linda, Philip Heit, and Randy Page. Totally Awesome Health. Balcklick, OH: Meeks Heit Publishing Co., 1996.

Springfield Public Schools. Informational and Discipline Handbook.

Thorndike-Barnhart Dictionary, 1991.

Anderson, Tom. Cognitive Psychology: The interaction of memory structures and cognitive strategies.

Anderson, Tom. Punishment and Other Uses of Aversive Stimuli

Anderson, Thomas H. A Treatise On Conflict In The Classroom, 1999.

Allen, Thomas H., Ph.D. DEVELOPING A DISCIPLINE PLAN FOR YOU, 1996.

Allen, Thomas H., Ph.D. Optional Elements of a Discipline Plan

Amanda's Mnemonics Page

Assertive Discipline Information

Barlow, Jim. PARTNERSHIP ILLINOIS: FORMER GANG MEMBER WORKS WITH VIOLENCE-PREVENTION PROGRAM IN SPRINGFIELD , News Bureau, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, August 1, 1996.

Black, Erika. Behaviorism As A Learning Theory, June 13,1995

Burnett, Gary and Garry Walz. Gangs in Schools. ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education New York NY, 1994.|

Cole, Kenneth. Punishment in classroom is passe, say most experts, Detroit News Lansing Bureau, Sept. 28,1995.

Conductors' Corner, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

Cotton, Kathleen. Schoolwide and Classroom Discipline, Dec. 1990.

Curtis, Jenny. A Historical Look At The Book, 1997.

Curtis, Jenny. Phonics vs. Whole Language Which is Better?

Dabbagh, Nada. Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills through Concept Mapping. Towson University

Daum, Gary. CHAPTER 7 -- THE ORCHESTRA, CONDUCTOR, AND INTERPRETATION, adapted from the textbook "Music: A User's Guide for the Beginner", 1996.

Diegmueller, Karen. The Best of Both Worlds. Education Week. March 20, 1996.

ERIC Clearinghouse on Handicapped and Gifted Children Reston VA. Managing Inappropriate Behavior in the Classroom, 1990.

Fulton, Dianne

Fulton, Dianne

Haberkorn, Jennifer

Haberkorn, Jennifer

Haberkorn, Jennifer. Cognitivist and Behaviorist Teachers

Haberkorn, Jennifer. Gang Scene.

Halasi-Kun, Gretchen

Hawley, Chandra. Teacher Talk, What is your classroom management profile? Indiana University - Center for Adolescent Studies, 1996.

Huitt , W.and J. Hummel. Classical (Respondent) Conditioning, May, 1997.

The Hunt for New Dimensions . The Physics Web, 20 Feb 2001.

Johnson, David and Roger Johnson. Teaching Students To Be Peacemakers. University of Minnesota.

Leggett, Kathy

MacDonald, Rita. Understanding How You Learn. Learning for College Success Guide, Mohawk College, 1993.

Maxwell , Jennifer . DISPUTE MEDIATION: A TRAINING MANUAL, 1994.

McAllister, Howard C. 21st Century Problem Solving, 1994-98.

Mickley, Todd

Mind Tools

Mirick, Susie. IMPROVING YOUR MEMORY SKILLS (MNEMONICS), College of William & Mary.

Mnemonics Guide Page. An EUdesign site, 1997, 2000.

The Natural History Mnemonics Page

Nemes, John. Learning To Read Resources for Language Arts and Reading Research

Nickols, Fred. The Knowledge in Knowledge Management. Reprinted from The Knowledge Management Yearbook, 2000-2001 Edition.

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Conflict Resolution Education: A Guide to Implementing Programs in Schools, Youth-Serving Organizations, and Community and Juvenile Justice Settings, Chapter 2: Process Curriculum Approach, October, 1996.

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Conflict Resolution Education: A Guide to Implementing Programs in Schools, Youth-Serving Organizations, and Community and Juvenile Justice Settings, Chapter 3: Mediation Program Approach, October, 1996.

Paden, David. DYNAMIC LEARNING MATRIX ©

Project BETTER/Thinking and Learning, General Mnemonics. School Improvement in Maryland.

Rutledge, Keith. Behaviorism

Sallas, Paulette

Sanford, Liz

Sanford, Liz

SBB. Classical Conditioning, 1996.

Springfield School District 186

Tipper, Michael. The Happy Child Organization, MNEMONICS.

Trieger, Rebecca

Trieger, Becky

Trieger, Rebecca

Twardowski, Beth

Wuest, Deb. "Are You With it?". Learning Environment Article, April 1999.

Personal experiences with behavior contracts in 1979, 1995, and 2001

Personal experiences with spiders, particularly in 1961 and 1973.

Discussion with my mother, 1973.

Personal experiences as a teacher and mother of 4 boys, 1982-present.

Personal experiences with bottlenecks in short term memory

Personal experiences in teaching research skills, 1995 - present.

Personal Experiences on memorization.

Personal Experiences as a Chapter I teacher, 1988-1995.

Personal experiences as a 5^th grade teacher, 1995-present

Personal Experiences as a reader and as a reading teacher

Personal Experience with my son, 1998.

Personal experiences teaching 5^th grade, 1995-present.

Personal experiences in teaching, 1987 – present.

Conversations with Eric Adkins (Junior, SHS), Scott Adkins (Freshman, SHS), and Mark Adkins (Junior, SSHS).