Reality Therapy

The Glasser Model of Rational Choices

Glasser's work in the field of school discipline has two main focuses. The first is to provide a classroom environment and curriculum which motivate students and reduce inappropriate behavior by meeting students' basic needs for belonging, power, fun, and freedom . The second focus is on helping students make appropriate behavioral choices that lead ultimately to personal success.

Glasser's Key Ideas (pre 1985).

1. Students are rational beings. They can control their own behavior. They choose to act the way they do.
2. Good choices produce good behavior. Bad choices produce bad behavior.
3. Teachers must always try to help students make good choices.
4. Teachers who truly care about their students accept no excuses for bad behavior.
5. Reasonable consequences should always follow student behavior, whether it is good or bad.
6. Class rules are essential and they must be enforced.
7. Classroom meetings are effective vehicles for attending to matters concerning class rules, behavior and discipline.

Glasser's Fundamental Views

Glasser's pre-1985 views about discipline were simple and powerful:

• Behavior is a matter of choice.
• Good behavior results from good choices. Bad behavior results from bad choices.
• A teacher's duty is to help students make good choices.

Psychologists and educators often delve into students' backgrounds for underlying causes of misbehavior. One often hear comments such as, "What can you expect, Johnny comes from a broken home", or, "Sue was an abused child", or,"Nathan's family lives in poverty." Glasser neither denies that such conditions exist nor that they influence behavior. He simply says that humans have rational minds and can make rational choices.

Students are capable of understanding what is generally regarded as acceptable school behavior and can choose to behave in acceptable ways. However, in order to make good choices, students must see the results of these choices as desirable. If bad behavior gets them what they want then they will make bad choices. This is where the teacher can be influential in helping students become aware that they choose their own actions. The teacher forces them to acknowledge their behavior and to make value judgments about it. The teacher refuses to accept excuses for bad behavior. Instead the teacher always directs the student's attention to alternative, more acceptable, behaviour. The essence of discipline then, lies in helping students make good choices.

What Teachers Should Do

Glasser (1978) firmly believes that teachers hold the key to good discipline. He concludes that both teachers and students have important roles to play in maintaining effective discipline, but today he puts much greater responsibility on the shoulders of teachers than he formerly did. He has always maintained that the following actions are the teacher's responsibility, they are:

1. Stress student responsibility.

Since good behavior. comes from good choices and since students ultimately must live with the choices they make, their responsibility for their own behavior. is always kept in the forefront. Discussions in which this responsibility is explored and clarified occur in classroom meetings. These meetings occur as regular parts of the curriculum. Students sit in a tight circle with the teacher and discuss matters that concern the class.

2. Establish rules that lead to success.

Glasser considers class rules to be essential. He has given many examples of programs and classes that have attempted to operate without rules, in the mistaken belief that rules stifle initiative, responsibility, and self-direction. He stresses that rules are essential, especially for students who have done poorly in school. Permissiveness for those students tends to be destructive.

It fosters antagonism, ridicule, and lack of respect for teachers and others. Rules should be established by teachers and students together, and should facilitate personal and group achievement. Rules should be adapted to the age, ability, and other realities of the students. One thing is essential: Rules must reinforce the basic idea that students are in school to study and learn.

Furthermore, rules should constantly be evaluated to see whether they are useful. When no longer useful, they should be discarded or changed. So long as they are retained, however, they must be enforced.

3. Accept no excuses.

For discipline to be successful, teachers must accept no excuses. Glasser uses this "no excuse" dictum in two areas. The first has to do with conditions outside the school. What goes on there does not excuse bad behavior. in school. Those conditions may, indeed, cause bad behavior., but that does not make it acceptable.

The teacher must never say "we can excuse Bill's behavior. today because he has trouble at home. It is okay if he yells and hits." The second area in which Glasser says teachers should accept no excuses concerns student commitment. Once a student has decided on a course of good behavior. and has made a commitment to it, the teacher must never accept excuses for the student's failing to live up to that commitment.

A teacher who accepts an excuse says, in effect, that it is alright to break a commitment, that it is alright for students to harm themselves. Teachers who care, Glasser says, accept no excuses.

4. Call for value judgment.

When students exhibit inappropriate behavior., teachers should have them make value judgments about it. Glasser (1977) suggests the following procedure when a student is misbehaving:

Teacher: "What are you doing?" (asked in unthreatening tone of voice.)

Student: (Will usually give an honest answer if not threatened.)

Teacher: "Is that helping you or the class?" Student: "No."

Teacher: "What could you do that would help?"

Student: (Names better behavior.; if can think of none, teacher suggests appropriate alternatives and lets student choose.)

Sometimes the student does not respond in an acceptable way, but instead replies hostilely or caustically. For that eventuality, Glasser presents the following scenarios:

i) Student misbehaving. Teacher: "What are you doing? Is it against the rules? What should you be doing?" Student: (Responds negatively, unacceptably.) Teacher: I would like to talk with you privately at (specifies time).

ii) Private conference between teacher and student.

Teacher: " What were you doing? was it against the rules? What should you have been doing?"

Student: (Agrees to proper course of behavior.).

iii) Student later repeats the misbehavior. Teacher calls for another private conference.

Teacher: "We have to work this out. What kind of plan can you make so you can follow the rules?

Student: "I'll stop doing it".

Teacher: " No, we need a plan that says exactly what you will do. Let's make a simple plan that you can follow. I'll help you."

Teacher assigns "time out". This is isolation from the group. Student is not allowed to participate with the group again until making a commitment to the teacher to adhere to the plan. If the student disrupts during time out, he is excluded from the classroom. (A contingency plan should be set up in advance with the principal.)

v) Student, after returning to the group, disrupts again.

Teacher: "Things are not working out here for you and me. We have tried hard. You must leave the class. As soon as you have a plan you are sure will allow you to follow the rules of the class, let me know. We can try again, but for now, please report to the principal's office." (Principal was informed in advance of this possibility.)

vi) If a student is out of control, principal notifies parents and asks them to pick up the student at school immediately.

vii) Students who are repeatedly sent home are referred to a special school or class, or to a different community agency. By following this procedure consistently, teachers can cause students to doubt the value of their misbehavior., make responsible and better choices, and thus gradually make a commitment to choosing behaviors that bring personal success instead of failure.

5. Suggest suitable alternatives.

First grader Nathan has been having trouble lining up promptly when the bell rings. Mrs Smith offered him two choices: either (i) get in line immediately when the bell rings, or (ii) be last to go for recess. Nathan chose number one. He understands that he is expected to live by his choice, and Mrs Smith helps him remember that. Misbehaving students will sometimes be unable to think of appropriate behaviors they might select. The teacher should then suggest two or three acceptable alternatives.

6. Invoke reasonable consequences.

Glasser stresses that reasonable consequences must follow whatever behavior the student chooses. These consequences will be desirable if good behavior is chosen and undesirable if poor behavior is chosen. Never should teachers manipulate events so that these consequences do not occur. The knowledge that behavior always brings consequences, and that individuals can largely choose behavior that brings pleasant as opposed to unpleasant consequences, builds the sense that people are in charge of their own lives and in control of their own behavior

7. Be persistent

Caring teachers work toward one goal - getting students to commit themselves to desirable courses of behavior Commitment means constancy, doing something repeatedly, intentionally, while making sure that it is right. To convey this idea and help implant it in students, teachers themselves must be constant. They must always help students make choices and have them make value judgments about their bad choices.

8. Carry out continual review.

For Glasser, the classroom meeting is central to implementation of a good system of discipline. Glasser advocates three types of classroom meetings:

(i) social problem solving,
(ii) educational diagnostic, and
(iii) open ended.

Discussions in classroom meetings focus on two things:

(i) identifying the problem, and
(ii) seeking solutions to the problem.

Students are never allowed to find fault with others, place blame on them, or seek to punish them. The teacher remains in the background during the discussion, giving opinions sparingly and participating in a way that reflects student attitudes back to the group for examination.

Glasser stresses that the meetings require practice before they are successful, and that unless they are focused on finding solutions, they will not produce the desired effect.

Comments on pre 1985 Glasser

In Glasser's earlier work, he cast the school in quite a positive light. While acknowledging that problems existed for some students, he steadfastly maintained that schools afforded student the best - often the only - opportunity to associate with quality adults who genuinely cared about them. Schools therefore offered students the best opportunity many would ever have for finding belonging, success, and positive self-identity.

In order to take advantage of this crucial opportunity, students were continually asked to make value judgments about their misbehavior, urged to make good choices and plans that improve their chances for good choices, and confronted with the consequences of their good and bad choices.

As you will see in the material that follows, Glasser now places much greater onus on the schools. Schools he maintains, should be refocused in terms of student needs and the meeting of those needs, rather than moulding students to deal with the conditions that they encounter in schools.

Glasser's post 1985 Key Ideas

1. All of our behavior is our best attempt to control ourselves to meet our needs.
2. We always choose to do what is most satisfying to us at the time.
3. All of us have inborn needs that we continually attempt to satisfy. Included among those inborn needs are:

a.) To belong
b.) To gain power
c.) To be free
d.) To have fun

4. We feel pleasure when these needs are met, and frustration when they are not.
5. We feel a continual urge to act when any need is unsatisfied.
6. If schools are to have good discipline, they must create classes in which fewer students and teachers are frustrated.
7. Only a discipline program that is concerned with classroom satisfaction will work.

That means that students must feel they belong, have some power, have a sense of freedom, and have fun in learning. Glasser's new views on discipline have occurred as a direct extensions of his conclusions concerning the condition of schooling at the secondary level.

He maintains that "no more than half of our secondary school students are willing to make an effort to learn, and therefore cannot be taught." (1985, p.3) This is true despite dedicated teachers' best efforts, and therefore "I believe we have gone as far as we can go with the traditional structure of our secondary schools" (1985, p.6).

How does Glasser account for this situation? consider his description of a good school which he defines as "A place where almost all students believe that if they do some work, they will be able to satisfy their needs enough so that it makes sense to keep trying" (1985, p.15).

Glasser maintains that most schools do not meet students' needs to a level sufficient to keep more than half of them involved with the curriculum. And what are those needs that are not being met? Glasser emphasizes four of them, which he contends are genetically inborn and cannot be denied even by students who would try, the four needs are:

1. The need to belong, to feel accepted, to be a member of the group or class.
2. The need for power, not so much power over others as power to control part of one's life and power to do things competently.
3. The need for freedom, to feel at least partly in control of self, self reliant, without constant direction from others.
4. The need for fun, for enjoyment, for pleasure, for satisfaction.

Glasser would have schools recognize these four fundamental needs that play powerful roles in student behavior, recognize that students cannot deny those needs and must try to fulfill them, and recognize that schooling can and should be restructured in such a manner that it will meet those needs for students.

Glasser believes that unsatisfying classrooms can be made better almost at once, by teachers moving from traditional structure to having students work together in small learning teams. He feels small learning groups of about four in number offer the following advantages:

1. Sense of belonging for all students.
2. Motivation for students to work on behalf of the group.
3. Stronger students meet their needs for power and friendships by helping weaker students in the group.
4. Weaker students have needs met by contributing to the group.
5. Students are freed from over-dependence on the teacher; they help each other.

He contrasts these advantages with traditional classroom organisation in which:

1. Students work as individuals.
2. Unless students are achievers, there is little motivation to work.
3. Weaker students contribute little to the class.
4. Dependence on the teacher is unduly high.
5. Student boredom is high; bored students will not work.

Glasser advocates learning teams because they better meet students' needs and therefore increase work output while reducing discipline problems. If they accomplish what he suggests, they would be well worth using for those reasons alone. However, research is accumulating quite rapidly that shows that cooperative learning produces significantly better overall educational results than does individual learning.

Comments on Glasser's Model

It is reasonable to conclude that Glasser would have teachers begin with organizing their classes so as to meet students' needs to the extent possible. But he concedes that probably about 25% of the secondary students will be unproductive. And of course even productive students often present discipline problems.

Once the class is better organised to meet students' needs, then Glasser's earlier suggestions on how to deal with misbehaving students are still appropriate. Simple improvement in meeting student needs, while tremendously important, does not do away with all misbehavior Students therefore should still be helped to see that good behavior choices lead to better results.

They should still be urged to show responsibility for their actions and to be considerate of others. Thus, Glasser's model of discipline can now be seen in this expanded form - first organize the class to meet needs as well as possible, then continue to use intervention strategies for controlling and improving behavior

Application of the Model

(John will not work)

John, a student in Mrs. Jade's class, is quite docile. He never disrupts class and does little socializing with other students. But despite Mrs. Jade's best efforts, John rarely completes an assignment. He doesn't seem to care. He is simply there, putting forth virtually no effort. How would Glasser deal with John?

Glasser would first suggest that Mrs. Jade think carefully about the classroom and the program to try to determine whether they contain obstacles that prevent John from meeting his needs for belonging, fun, power, and freedom. He would have Mrs. Jade talk directly with John about this matter. If changes are needed for him, Mrs. Jade should make them if possible.

If no changes seem warranted, Glasser would have Mrs. Jade talk with John so as to accomplish the following:

1. Make sure John understands his work responsibilities as a student in the class.
2. Make sure John understands that he can choose his behavior - to work or not - and that his choice brings with it either desirable or undesirable consequences.
3. Accept no excuses from John for not beginning and completing his work.
4. Help John identify some alternative behaviors from which he can choose.
5. Continually press John to make value judgments about his choice of behavior
6. Make sure that when John shows improvement, he receives consequences that are very attractive to him. 7. Never give up on John.

Further information regarding this model may be found in the following references: Charles, C.M., 1989, Building classroom discipline: from models to practice, Longmans Inc., New York. (pages 118-132).

Glasser, W., 1985, Control theory in the classroom, Perennial Library, New York.

Glasser, W., 1990, The quality school: Managing students without coercion, Harper and Row, New York.

Logical Consequences (Dreikurs)

The Dreikurs' Model of Confronting Mistaken Goals

All students want recognition. Most misbehavior results from their attempts to get it. When frustrated in their attempts to gain the recognition they desire, their behavior turns toward four "mistaken goals". Teachers must recognize and deal effectively with these.

Dreikurs' Key Ideas.

1. Discipline is not punishment. It is teaching students to impose limits on themselves.
2. Democratic teachers provide firm guidance and leadership. They allow students to have a say in establishing rules and consequences.
3. All students want to "belong". They want status and recognition. Most of their behavior is directed by their desire to belong.
4. Misbehavior reflects the mistaken belief that it will lead to the recognition they want.
5. Misbehavior is associated with four mistaken goals: seeking attention , gaining power , taking revenge , and displaying inadequacy. The goal in each case is to elicit certain responses from teachers.
6. Teachers should quickly identify the mistaken goals and act to avoid their reinforcement.
7. Teachers should encourage student's efforts while avoiding praise of either their work or character.
8. Teachers should teach students that unpleasant consequences always follow inappropriate behavior.

Dreikurs believed that teachers who teach in a mostly democratic fashion are those who most effectively establish discipline. Dreikurs' categorization of teachers is based on the predominant behavior they display in the classroom.

He identifies three types of teachers:

1. Autocratic.

Autocratic teachers force their will on students in order to control the class. They motivate students with outside pressures rather than stimulate motivation from within. This attitude and approach tends to perpetuate problem behavior. Authoritarian figures are increasingly being rejected by students. Students seek a democratic atmosphere in which they are treated as equal human beings and react with hostility to the autocratic teacher.

2. Permissive.

Permissive teachers generate problem behavior because the atmosphere they allow is not based on everyday reality. Students in a permissive classroom fail to learn that successful living in general society requires them to follow rules. They do not learn that failure to follow rules results in adverse consequences. They do not learn that acceptable behavior requires self-discipline.

Students are confused because they believe that they are free from restraint and can do whatever they want. However they discover that things do not go smoothly for them. Discipline and control must be present in classrooms if learning is to occur. Students want guidance and leadership. They are willing to accept guidance if it is not forced on them and if they believe they are being heard. This does not mean that they want control of the classroom.

3. Democratic.

Democratic teachers are neither permissive nor autocratic. They provide firm guidance and leadership by establishing rules and consequences. Freedom grows from discipline. To the extent that students understand that consequences follow behavior, they are then free to choose behavior that will attain their legitimate needs. Discipline involves teaching students how to establish an inner control that permits them to choose behavior compatible with their best interests. Teaching students how to attain self discipline eliminates the need for constant corrective action by the teacher.

It is Dreikurs's assertion that the following 8 conditions foster a democratic classroom:

1. The establishment of order.
2. The setting of limits.
3. The use of firmness and kindness:

Firmness from teachers shows that they respect themselves.
Kindness shows their respect for others.

4. Invoving student when establishing and maintaining rules.
5. Leadership from the teacher.
6. Inviting cooperation and eliminating destructive competition.
7. Promoting a sense of belonging within a group.
8. Encouraging an atmosphere of freedom to explore, discover, and choose acceptable behavior through understanding the responsibilities and consequences associated with it.

Dreikers' do's and don'ts.
Effective discipline requires the teacher to provide continuing guidance in helping students develop inner control. Discipline should not consist soley of limits imposed at times of stress and conflict from the outside . It should be built up and continually renewed and refreshed by consistent guidance that promotes a feeling of cooperation and team effort.

To achieve successful discipline Dreikurs suggests:

Teachers should:

1. Give clear-cut directions for the actions expected of students. Wait until you have the attention of all class members before giving directions.
2. Establish a relationship with each individual based on trust and mutual respect.
3. Use logical consequences instead of traditional punishment. The consequence must bear a direct relationship to the behavior and must be understood by the students.
4. See each behavior in its proper perspective. In this way, you will avoid making serious issues out of trivial incidents.
5. Let students assume greater responsibility for their own behavior and learning.
6. Treat students as your social equals.
7. Combine kindness and firmness. The student must always sense and respect that while you are a friend, you will not accept certain kinds of behavior.
8. At all times distinguish between the deed and the doer. This allows you to retain respect for the student while not accepting their behaviour.
9. Set limits from the beginning but work toward mutual understanding, a sense of mutual responsibility and mutual consideration for others.
10. Mean what you say, keep your demands simple and ensure that they are carried out.
11. Deal with incidents quickly and effectively, bring them swiftly to closure and work to repair damaged relationships. Let students know that mistakes are corrected, forgiven and then forgotten.

Teachers should not:

1. Nag and scold as this is likely to strengthen a student's regrettable concept on how to get attention.
2. Work to obtain a promise from a student. Most students will promise to change in order to free themselves from an uncomfortable situation. Requiring a student to give you a promise is a sheer waste of time.
3. Find fault with students. It may hurt their self-esteem and discourage them.
4. Adopt double standards - we are all familiar with these.
5. Use threats as a method to discipline students. Although some students may become intimidated and conform for the moment, threats have no lasting value. They do not lead to a change in a student's basic attitude.

Comments on Dreikurs' views

Dreikurs' model has the potential to bring about genuine attitudinal changes in students. If an attitudinal change occurs then behave improves or changes because students consider it the proper thing to do. Dreikurs considers his approach to be democratic as teachers and students together decide on rules and consequences. They take joint responsibility for maintaining a classroom climate that is conducive to learning. For all its strengths, Dreikers' system does require steady and continual effort for valuable results to become evident. Additionally, a word of warning, there exists in the model a possible defect or lack that causes serious concern to teachers of hard-to-manage classes. We may raise the issue in the form of a question: "What do you do when students defy you?"

Experienced teachers know that defiant behavior is often strongly reinforced by other class members and that it is likely to spread. They believe such behavior must be stopped at once. Dreikurs is silent here.

Regardless of this very significant limitation, Dreikur's emphasis on mutual respect and encouragement of student effort and general responsibility takes its rightful place amongst the most powerful techniques for building desirable human character. In summary, Dreikurs' greatest contribution lies, not in how to suppress undesired behavior in the short term but in how to build in students an inner sense of responsibility and respect for themselves and others.

Application of the Model

Nathan will not work

Nathan is quite docile in Mr. Smith's class. He never disrupts the class and has little contact with other students. Regardless of Mr. Smith's best efforts Nathan rarely completes an assignment. Nathan doesn't seem to care. He makes little effort. He is simply there - a mere physical presence in the classroom!

How would Dreikurs deal with Nathan?

1. Identify Nathan's mistaken goal. (Mr. Smith can do this by checking his own reaction to Nathan's lethargy and by noting the reactions of other students when he attempts to correct him.)
2. If Nathan's mistaken goal is attention seeking, ignore him.
3. If Nathan's mistaken goal is gaining power, admit that Nathan has power: "I can't make you do your work. What do you think I should do?"
4. If Nathan's goal is taking revenge, ask other members of the class to be especially encouraging to him when he displays any pleasing behaviour.
5. If Nathan's goal is to appear inadequate, encourage any favourable behaviour and give him continual support for it.
6. Gently confront Nathan with his mistaken goal and draw him into discussion about it and his related behavior.

Further information regarding this model may be found in the following references:

• Dreikurs, R. 1968, Psychology in the classroom, (2nd edition), Harper and Row, New York.
• Dreikurs, R., & Cassel, P. 1972, Discipline without tears, Hawthorn, New York.
• Dreikurs, R., Grunwald, B., & Pepper, F. 1982, Maintaining sanity in the classroom, Harper and Row, New York.

Behaviour Modification (Skinner)

The Skinner Model of Shaping Desired Behavior

Human behavior can be shaped along desired lines by means of the systematic application of reinforcement.

Skinner's Key Ideas

This model includes new applications of Skinner's basic ideas. Skinner himself never proposed a model of school discipline. Other writers have taken his ideas on learning and adapted them to controlling the behavior of students in schools. The following ideas reveal the essence of Skinner's model:

1. Behavior is shaped by its consequences, by what happens to the individual immediately afterward.
2. Systematic use of reinforcement (rewards) can shape students' behavior in desired directions.
3. Behavior becomes weaker if not followed by reinforcement.
4. Behavior is also weakened by punishment.
5. In the early stages of learning, constant reinforcement produces the best result.
6. Once learning has reached the desired level, it is best maintained through intermittent reinforcement, provided only occasionally.
7. Behavior modification is applied in these two main ways:
   
   
   • The teacher observes the student perform an undesired act; the teacher rewards the student; the student tends to repeat the act.
   • The teacher observes the student perform an undesired act; the teacher either ignores the act or punishes the student, then praises a student who is behaving correctly; the misbehaving student becomes less likely than before to repeat the act.
8. Behavior modification successfully uses various kinds of reinforcers. They include social reinforcers such as verbal comments, facial expressions, and gestures; graphic reinforcers such as marks and stars; activity reinforcers such as free time and collaborating with a friend; and tangible reinforcers such as prizes and printed awards.

The Skinner model can be a powerful model for classroom teachers, one that can be easily modified and implemented with students of all ages and backgrounds.

Types of Reinforcers

Types of reinforcers commonly used in schools fall into four categories:

1. Social.

Social reinforcers consist of words, gestures, and facial expressions. Many students work diligently just to get a smile, pat, or a kind word from the teacher. Some examples are:

• Verbal * OK. Wow! Excellent. Nice going. Exactly. Right. Thank you. I like that. Would you share that.
• Nonverbal * Smiles, winks, eye contact, nods, thumbs up, touches, pats. walk beside, stand near, shake hands.

2. Graphic.

Graphic reinforcers include marks of various kinds such as numerals, checks, happy faces, and special symbols. Teachers make these marks with felt pens and rubber stamps. They may enter them on charts or use a paper punch to make holes in cards kept by the students. They may attach stars or stickers that are commercially available in large quantities and varieties.

3. Activity.

Activity reinforcers include those activities that students prefer in school. Any activity can be used as a reinforcer if students prefer it to another. Examples of activities that usually reinforce academic learning are:

• For younger students:
  • Being a monitor, sitting near the teacher, choosing the song, caring for the pet, sharing a pet or toy.
• For middle students:
  • Playing a game, free reading, decorating the classroom, having extra recess time, going to an assembly.
• For older students:
  • Working with a friend, being excused from a test, working on a special project, being excused from homework.

4. Tangible.

Tangible reinforcers are real objects that students can earn as rewards for desired behavior and are more powerful for some students than other types of reinforcers. They are widely used with students who have special behavior problems. Many primary teachers use tangible reinforcers regularly. Examples of inexpensive reinforcers are: popcorn, raisins, chalk, crayons, felt pens, pencils, badges, etc.

Comments on Skinner's Model

Teachers who once begin using behavior modification in a systematic way tend to stick with it, appreciating its powerful effects. They come to see it not as manipulating students, but as freeing them to behave in ways that bring success and positive recognition.

Systematic attention and reinforcing become natural parts of the teaching act, occurring automatically. After a while, teachers do not even have to think of them. That natural spontaneity makes reinforcement even more effective. Students feel that the teacher is simply kind, considerate, and friendly, not designing or manipulative.

But do teachers see behavior modification for what it really is? And if they do, are its inherent dangers evident to them? Considerable controversy over these questions began decades ago and continues to the present time.

One of the most perplexing questions has to do with whether, and to what extent, behavior modification amounts to blatant teacher control of students' thoughts and actions. Related to that question is the concern over free will, which most people believe to be the essential quality that sets mankind apart from other organisms. Skinner rejected the concept of free will, which he considered to be a formidable road block to understanding human behavior

In recent years, research has cast doubt on whether rewards, the keystone of behavior modification, actually serve to strengthen desired learning and behavior Some contend that rewards serve to reduce intrinsic motivation, supplanting it with a control-system of compliance and external modification (Hill, 1990).

In truth, not all teachers like behavior modification, but those who do, say it makes teaching easier and more enjoyable. With regard to discipline, they find behavior modification especially effective in preventive and supportive control, though they admit it is slow and cumbersome (and often ineffective) when it comes to correcting misbehavior.

Application of the Model

(Jack will not work)

Jack, in Mr. Jones' class, is quite docile. He never disrupts class and does little socializing with other students. But despite Mr. Jones' best efforts, he can hardly get Jack to participate in class activities. He rarely completes an assignment. He doesn't seem to care. He is simply there, like a bump on a log, putting forth virtually no effort. How would Skinner deal with Jack? Skinner would suggest that Mr. Jones try the following approaches with Jack.

1. Catch Jack being good (doing anything that is appropriate). Reward him whenever he participates or works.
2. Reiterate the class rules regarding work. Praise Jack whenever he follows the rule.
3. Consider stronger reinforcers. If praise is ineffective, use points, tokens, or other tangible objects to reinforce and shape Jack's improvement.
4. Set up a contract with Jack. Identify a reward that is exceptionally attractive to him. Outline what he must do in order to earn the reward. Share the contract with Jack's parents to enlist their support. Reinforce every improvement Jack makes.

More information about this model may be found in the following references:

• Charles, C. M., 1989, Building classroom discipline: from models to practice, Longmans Inc., New York. (pages 40-54).
• Hill, D. 1990, Order in the classroom, Teacher, 1(7), 70-77.
• Skinner, B. F., 1971, Beyond freedom and dignity, Knopf, New York.
• Tauber, R. 1982, Negative reinforcement: a positive strategy in classroom management, Clearing House, 56, 64-67