Week 7 Reflection

Braden L. Anama

School and Education and Behavioral Sciences, Chaminade University of Honolulu

EDUC 632 Learning Environments

Dr. Brina Ganigan

November 17, 2022

 Week 7 Reflection

In this paper, we examine dignity with discipline and discipline without stress, punishment, or

reward. Then we venture into Lemov’s (2012, p. 406-422) art of consequence technique.

Part I: Discipline with Dignity and Discipline without Stress Punishment or Reward

Discipline with Dignity

Discipline with dignity is a disciplinary approach to classroom management developed

by Richard Curwin and Allen Mendler (Hardin, 2012, pp. 100-101), with Brian Mendler

contributing to later revision of the approach. As the name of the approach implies, the core

principle of this approach is that “all participants in the school setting [are] to be treated with

dignity” (Hardin, 2012, p. 101). To achieve this, Curwin and Mendler propose that the school

environment must be developed to meet the needs of both students and teachers (Hardin,

2012, p. 101). Curwin and Mendler further propose that student and teacher needs fall into one

of the following sets of needs (Hardin, 2012, p. 101):

1. Personal identity, which can be met through a positive self-image.

2. Connectedness, which can be met through a sense of positive affiliation with others.

3. Power, which can be met by having a sense of control over one’s own life.

4. Achievement, which can be met by being enabled to achieve academically.

To meet these four sets of needs, for both teachers and student, teachers should develop a

three-dimensional strategy, broken down into seven steps (Hardin, 2012, p. 102):

Prevention
 1. Work with students to create a classroom principle that reflects the type of classroom

you desire.

2. Determine the “flag rules”, or non-negotiable rules, that you require in your class.

3. Establish classroom rules with the students. These should include the flag rules you

identified.

4. Establish a range of consequences to be used when rules are broken.

5. Evaluate your contribution to misbehavior when it occurs.

Action

6. Provide a consequence from the list of choices based on the individual needs of the

student.

Resolution

7. Create personal contracts for those students who cannot benefit from traditional

consequences.

Using these seven steps, teachers will demonstrate an emphasis on meeting student needs.

Personal identity and positive self-image are met through the entire process as treating

students with dignity lets them know that you as the teacher care about them and value their

opinions. Connectedness and positive affiliation with others are met in steps 1 and 3, as

accepting students’ opinions lets them know that you as the teacher care about what they have

to say. Additionally, the rules established in the prevention steps will apply to all participants in

the class, including the teacher. Being bound by the same rules as your students lets them

know that you do not think higher of yourself than you think of your students. Finally, the

enablement of academic success is achieved when students adhere to the rules established in
preventions steps. When students break the rules, teachers are correcting hinderances toward

academic success.

Overall, discipline with dignity is a comprehensive approach to discipline that seeks to meet the

needs of both students and teachers. Having students engage in the development of classroom

rules will encourage students to adhere to classroom rules, and the action and resolution steps

will help teachers deal with students who do not follow the rules. I believe Discipline with

Dignity is a good approach to classroom discipline and will consider using it in my own

classroom.

Discipline without Stress

Discipline without stress is a discipline approach that seeks to teach students to behave appropriately,

even when the teacher is not present (Hardin, 2012, p. 158). To achieve this, Marvin Marshall

established the theory of stress without discipline (Hardin, 2012, pp. 156-157). Marshall identified four

levels of social development to classify students, increasing from lowest to highest: anarchy,

bullying/bothering, cooperation/conformity, and democracy (Hardin, 2012, pp. 158-163). The goal of

discipline without stress is to get all students to the democracy level using the three phases of Discipline

without Stress (Hardin, 2012, pp. 163-169):

1. Teaching vocabulary and concepts

2. Checking for understanding

3. Using guided choices

Ideally, teachers would be able to use these three steps to get all students to the democracy level of

social development, which would benefit students in the long run as appropriate behavior is essential to

living in society once they become adults.

 The benefit of Discipline without Stress is that teachers can develop students that can be self-

disciplined (Hardin, 2012, p. 172). This benefits teachers because these students will demonstrate

appropriate behavior, with or without the teacher present, and their behavior may encourage other

students to behave so. The downside of this approach is that it would address students who want to

improve and does not consider students who misbehave just to misbehave (Hardin, 2012, p. 173).

Overall, this approach is good for students who show motivation to improve. I would consider using this

approach as a general approach to classroom management, while creating additional policies to address

particularly difficult students.

Part II: “Teach Like a Champion” - Chapter 12 (pages 406 - 422)

How does balancing the art of consequence relate to disciplining students with dignity? What

type of learning environment do these approaches help you, as the educator, create in your

classroom?

The purpose of consequences is to correct misbehavior and to encourage students into

appropriate behavior. The art of consequence is a technique identified by Doug Lemov (2012,

pp. 406-411), which teachers can use to effectively use consequences in the classroom.

Utilizing the art of consequences, teachers can achieve both. The art of consequence consists of

two sets of principles: principles of the effective consequence and principles of delivering a

consequence (Lemov, 2015, pp. 406-411). The principles of effect are related to what an

effective consequence is. These principles propose that consequences should be quick,

incremental, consistent, and depersonalized (Lemov, 2015, pp. 406-408). The principles of

delivering a consequence are related to how an effective consequence is delivered. These

principles propose that delivery of consequences includes tagging misbehavior, using a bounce-
back statement, maintaining the pace, and getting back on track (Lemov, 2015, pp. 408-411).

Utilizing both sets of principles, a teacher can deliver a consequence that corrects misbehavior

and encourage students into appropriate behavior.

The art of consequence can be integrated into any discipline approach that utilizes

consequences. In the case of discipline with dignity, the principles of the art of consequences

align well with the steps of discipline with dignity. The principles of effective consequence

provide high value in prevention stage of discipline with dignity. This is because the prevention

stage serves to establish both the rules and consequences for breaking rules. In addition,

developing effective consequences may help to discourage students from misbehaving. The

principles of delivering a consequence provide value in the action and resolution steps of

discipline with dignity, as both steps deal with delivery of consequences. As both steps seek to

guide students toward appropriate behavior, the principles of delivering a consequence would

help to achieve this goal

 References

Hardin, C. (2012). Effective classroom management: Models and strategies for today’s

classroom. (3rd edition) Boston: Pearson.

Lemov, D. (2015). Teach like a champion 2.0: 62 techniques that put students on the path to

college. (2nd Edition) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.