Decisive Discipline - Bill Rogers

Decisive Discipline - Bill Rogers

Decisive Discipline in Action
‘Three steps of Decisive discipline’:  Preventative, Corrective, & Supportive.

Discipline is primarily concerned with enabling students to be aware of their behaviour and responsibilty to others. It is about getting students to own their behaviour.
When most children come to school they expect adults, their teachers to lead them.
Decisive Discipline is about modelling for, guiding and leading students in practicing positive behaviour in a safe environment that promotes and rewards success for all learners. 

Bill Rogers was a minister of religion, school chaplain and hospital chaplain. 

Conducted research into classroom management, teacher stress, conflict resolution among pre-adolescents, and colleague Support. Currently a professor of education at Griffith University.

Rogers received the 'Australian College of Education Excellence in Education Award' for producing a model of behaviour management.

Weakness of the Model
Humanism has been criticized as having an unscientific stance. Skinner, a leading behavioural analyst, contests that only information gained through Scientific methods is valuable, and rejects humanism for it's lack of rigor and useleSSneSS for understanding human behaviour.

Extensive practical strategies can be difficult to remember and therefore it can be hard to follow  individual steps.

Another weakness is the feet that Roger focuses more on practical strategies than on theoretical constructs. These practical strategies are often omitted from teacher preparation courses and from the work of other writers.

Strength of  the  Model

Through the use of positive relationships, Roger's model has a preventative focus. Porter identifies that "It is more humane to prevent a problem from occurring, than it is to deal with it, once it has arisen."

Due to the extensive range of his practical strategies, teachers have real life examples of how to deal with Situations in the classroom.

Preventive Strategies

Establish clear and fair rules

Rules don't guarantee complaint behaviour, but they Set the agenda for it (Rogers 1990,1995)

Establish related behavioural consequences

Consequences logically linked to rule infringements, teach students justice, accountability. Self-discipline and the protection of individual rights Develop a positive classroom tone

Positive tone results from the types of interactions that occur in the class group

Adopt a decisive teaching style

Rogers believes the democratic teacher knows their rights as a teacher and leads by claiming and protecting those rights.

They have established clear rules and Students know what behaviour is expected of them.

Corrective Strategies

1. Tactical ignoring-

Obviously not every type of inappropriate behaviour an be ignored, especially if it could potentially be dangerous. However an appropriate low-intrusion strategy is to ignore the 'Secondary' (mostly non-verbal) behaviours that accompany typical disruptions

2. Non-verbal messages

Eye-contact, relaxed eye-Scanning, moving around the room, moving closer to students who need behavioural Support and using a low and calm tone of voice are all Signs of a wall prepared teacher

3. Restatement of the rule

Identify the rule that has been broken and. if necessary, direct students to the rule-reminder chart.

4. Taking the student aside

When a child appears Significantly upset or is not coping with the work, the teacher may be able to find a quiet and private place to talk to the student Separately.

5. I-statement

In cases where the rights of other students in the class are affected, the teacher may state assertively their personal feeling, the effect of the student's behaviour and a description of what they saw happen.

Supportive Strategies

•Provide colleague Support

Teachers need Support with both the little day-to­day irritations and the more Serious incidents.

•Support behaviour recovery

The school administration and school community recognizes that Some students, especially Students with emotional behaviour disorders (EBD), will demand more resources than one teacher is able to give.

Key ingredients of Decisive Discipline.
It enforces the rights and responsibilities of students and teachers.
The 4R's framework

[Rights and responsibilities are codependent. A right can only be enjoyed when it is protected by the responsibility of the group. These responsibilities are expressed in the form of rules. Routines foster responsibility and allow rights to be enjoyed.]
It encourages and skills teachers to be assertive.
It focuses on positive language and primary behaviours.
It follows 3 Steps to Success - Prevent, Correct and Support
It provides strategies for achieving positive behaviour and effective classroom management.
It adopts a Whole School Approach.
Rights and Responsibilities
When formulating a group (class) behaviour management plan, Rogers states that we start with identifying our fundamental rights and responsibilities.
A right is an expectation of how things ought to be. They may not always be that way and that is why we have rules and consequences.
At school we have fundamental rights, they are....
Weaknesses
Because of the explicit stages of the Discipline plan, it can take a longer time to set up during the Establishment phase, as everyone gets to have input when reaching a class consensus.
To implement and maintain Decisive Discipline, teachers need to be consistent and organized. It is highly structured and prescriptive.
Even though it is a democratic system, the teacher ultimately holds the power. 

 Democratic Leadership model for Behaviour management.

Rogers states that the aim of all discipline is directed towards enabling students to:
A.  Own their behaviour and be accountable for all their behaviour choices.
B.  Respect the rights of others to learn, to feel safe and be treated with respect.
C.  Build a workable relationship with students even where teachers have to discipline them.
How Does Decisive Discipline achieve these goals?
The right to respect and fair treatment.
The right to learn without being hassled by others
The right to feel safe and be safe.