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    Chapter 14 : Discipline Through Synergy and Reducing Causes of Misbehavior
    Unique Activity : Teacher Study Group
    Imagine that your principal has invited teachers to form study groups on various topics to seek ways to strengthen learning for students in your school. Each study group will investigate critical topics and lead short workshops during a teacher work day a few months later. You notice that discipline is an issue in your classroom and as well as classrooms of some other teachers with whom you work most closely. Therefore, you volunteer to participate on the Discipline Study Group.

    You have observed how some teachers frequently identify home and family life as causes for learning and behavior problems. You believe this focus isn't very helpful to students, since teachers have only a little influence (if any) on home and family life. Through investigation you find Charles' Synergetic Discipline and classification for Causes of Misbehavior. This classification structure becomes a key resource for the work of your study group.

    Causes of Misbehavior that Reside in:

    		  

    1. Individual Students

    a. Unmet needs
    b. Thwarted desires
    c. Expediency
    d. Urge to transgress
    e. Temptation
    f. Inappropriate habits
    g. Poor behavior choices
    h. Avoidance
    i. Egocentric personality

    		 2. Class Peers and Groups

    a. Provocation
    b. Group behavior

    3. Instructional Environments

    a. Physical discomfort
    b. Tedium
    c. Meaninglessness
    d. Lack of stimulation

    		 4. Teachers and Other School Personnel

    a. Poor habits
    b. Unfamiliarity with better techniques
    c. Presenting poor models of behavior
    d. Showing little interest in or appreciation for students
    e. Succumbing to personal frustration
    f. Succumbing to provocation
    g. Providing ineffective guidance and feedback
    h. Using ineffective personal communication
    i. Failure to plan proactively
    j. Using coercion, threat, and punishment

    With a small group of colleagues (either in face-to-face groups or in an electronic chat room), design a handout to use during your workshop presentation. The Discipline Study Group wants to engage teachers in:

      1. self-assessment in relation to beliefs about causes of misbehavior
      2. analyzing the causes of their students' and/or own misbehavior, and
      3. setting goals for using the information to prevent misbehavior and to better support the students' learning
      4. follow up actions taken in their own classrooms as a result of this study

    The one- or two-page handout your group designs should include:

      1. A brief explanation of the Causes of Misbehavior classification system
      2. A way to self-assess beliefs about causes of misbehavior
      3. A Causes of Misbehavior Inventory that can help teachers analyze specific situations
      4. A few examples/scenarios of common types of misbehavior (inattention, annoying others, disruption, stealing, bullying, etc.) that can provide practice in analyzing causes of misbehavior and setting goals for how to prevent/limit the misbehavior and/or support learning
      5. Other components deemed important by the Discipline Study Group

    Conclusions:

    You have had an opportunity to reflect on and learn more about the causes of misbehavior. What do you consider to be the most critical concepts of this classification structure? What meaning do you make of it? How will you follow up with applying some of the ideas discussed?
    (To respond and save, please copy and paste questions and/or activities to a word processing document)