Teachers Also Can Create Discipline Snags

8-7-97
University Park, Pa. -- In today's volatile schools, students usually get tagged as the discipline problem, but teachers -- even parents and administrators -- can qualify for that dubious distinction too.

"Despite massive societal changes in recent years, American schools are hardly on the verge of collapse. Nevertheless, almost everyone agrees that discipline -- or lack thereof -- has become the number one issue in education, especially on the secondary level," says Dr. James Levin, a member of the graduate faculty of Penn State's College of Education.

"Teachers are the point people in the trenches, the foot soldiers," adds Levin. "They are the ones who have to address discipline issues head-on. However, before they can deal with discipline problems, they have to know what a discipline problem is. It may not always be the student."

Levin and Shanken-Kaye are co-authors of the recently published book, "The Self-Control Classroom: Understanding And Managing The Disruptive Behavior Of All Students Including Students With ADHD" (Kendall/Hunt).

"We define a discipline problem as any behavior that interferes with the rights of others to learn, or is physically or psychologically injurious to another person in the classroom," notes Dr. John Shanken-Kaye, instructor of classroom management with Penn State's Continuing and Distance Education Department and a therapist with the Bucks County Juvenile Court near Philadelphia.

By the first standard, many common teacher behaviors are also discipline problems because they get in the way of the student's right to learn, Shanken-Kaye says. For example, teachers become discipline problems by coming late to class, ending class early, failing to exercise consistency in managing students, being unprepared for class or by refusing to make any attempt to motivate students.

Furthermore, the manner in which teachers handle student disruptive behavior can either escalate or defuse the behavior problem, adds Levin.

"Even in those relatively rare cases when teachers are discipline problems, students are still not absolved from their responsibility to work hard in class and respect the rights of teacher and peers alike," Levin says. "When a student's behavior hinders a teacher's effectiveness, that also interferes with the rights of students to learn."

"We are not referring here to idiosyncratic annoyances such as the failure of students to sit correctly in their seats, or having all desks in straight rows, but rather to serious student misbehavior which interferes with any reasonable teacher's concentration and focus," he notes. "These behaviors might include threats to the teacher, or comments about the teacher's appearance or ethnic or racial origin."

Defining a discipline problem as interference with other students' ability to learn is important for two reasons. First, it enables a teacher to quickly identify a discipline problem and differentiate it from other problems that commonly exist in a classroom such as student restlessness caused by hot weather or periodic individual off-task behavior or daydreaming. The teacher can more effectively decide when and how to modify his or her behavior to manage the problem, Shanken-Kaye says.

"Second," he adds, "it provides teachers with a set of behavioral criteria to insure that they never become the discipline problem by addressing non-disruptive behavior at the expense of other learners or by not adequately addressing disruptive behavior."

Levin is a former mathematics and science teacher at the secondary level in inner city, suburban and residential schools for disruptive youth. Both Levin and Shanken-Kaye have provided in service education to thousands of parents and teachers on the topics of classroom management, the causes of disruptive and delinquent behavior, self-esteem and motivation.

**pab**

Contact: Paul Blaum (814) 865-9481 (office) (814) 867-1126 (home) pab15@psu.edu
Vicki Fong (814) 865-9481 (office) (814) 238-1221 (home) vyf1@psu.edu