Stages of Discipline

You may be concerned about covering the material in the book or getting to all the objectives, but what do you teach?
Learning discipline is just like learning anything else. Your students aren't always going to get it right the first time. So, you find yourself "picking up the pieces". You help them some more, and when you think they are ready you give another try.

Stages of Discipline
There are many experts telling us how to handle discipline problems in our classrooms, yet these experts do not always agree.
Lawrence Kohlberg studied stages of moral and ethical reasoning in youngsters. In his research, everyone regardless of culture, race or sex, goes through these stages. The rate varies from person to person. As such, we will have to deal with discipline in our classroom at different levels.

1. The Power Stage: "Might makes right"
Behaviors: refuse to follow directions, defiant and require a tremendous amount of our attention.
Age: Newborn till age of five years old. But if a child is not taught a higher stage far beyond age of five, the parent then tells that she can no longer control her child.
Actions to take: Assertive teachers with a constant eye on these students can keep them in line. (Turn your back on them and they are out of control)

2. The Reward/Punishment Stage: " What's in it for me?"
Behaviors: having an individualistic morality and can be very self-centered.
Age: By nine years old.
Actions to take: Give rewards for good behaviors and punish for undesirable ones. Constant supervision.

3. The Mutual Interpersonal Stage: "How can I please you?"
Behaviors: care about what others think about them and want you to like them
Age: By junior high school.
Actions to take: Give gentle reminders.

4. The Social Order Stage: "I behave because it is the right thing to do."
Behaviors: have a sense of right and wrong and rarely get into trouble.
Age: After junior high school.
Actions to take: Plan cooperative learning activities for them to work in groups.

Working through stages
- identify the stage at which a student is functioning
- set goals with the student to work towards the next stage
- if the student is still not ready for the next stage, continue to work with the student on the current stage
* it is important to remember that for many reasons, any child is fully capable of regressing every now and then. When you really get to know your students and are used to them functioning at a stage, it is important to look for a reason when one of your student regresses ("externalize the problem"). Whatever the cause, it is worth taking the time to talk with the student and see what's going on.

Reference
http://www.honorlevel.com/stages.xml


Instructors should maintain a very thin veil between themselves and their classes. Instructor must be authority figure. This is not contradict to "approachable and friendliness". Too many instructors try to be buddy-buddy to win favorable feedback at the expense of teaching. Discipline must always be maintained.

Reference:
http://www.utexas.edu/academic/cte/sourcebook/teaching2.pdf