Craig Seganti’s Positive Teacher Leverage and Realistic Student Accountability

1. Craig Seganti’sPositive Teacher Leverage and Realistic Student Accountability

2. Roles • Presenter-Mary • Discussant-Angela • Critical Friend-Ashley

3. PRESENTER Key Ideas • Class is for academic learning • Disruptions interfere with student’s right to education • Students are held accountable for their behaviour • Use of class rules to enforce expectations • Detention used as leverage for good behaviour

4. Teacher Attitude • Any student who disrupts class is interfering with another student’s right to learn • The teacher is the figure of authority - students job is to learn • The classroom is only for academic learning • Self-esteem comes from hard work and learning not disrupting the classroom

5. Operating Principles • Actions speak louder than words – make good rules and enforce them without fail • One warning only - at beginning of first class! • No rewards – a good education should be the only reward • Speaking – learn to talk effectively with students to maintain management of class

6. Student Accountability • Have students copy rules and sign them • Teacher draws up student rules • Explain exactly what the rules mean • The student is responsible for their behaviour good or bad

7. Student Accountability • Show behaviour expectations • Require students to show respect to all others at all times • Work on task • How they should work and what they should do when completed their assignments • Act out these rules - show what they look like and what they don’t look like

8. Distractions • Readiness for class upon entering (with all books and tools) to avoid distractions and manipulations • The correct way to get permission or answer questions (raising hands and waiting to be acknowledged) • Teacher requests and directions • End of class – students wait by seats until they are dismissed - students are responsible for cleaning their area

9. Consequences • Detention • Suspension from class until they have completed requirement • Copying down class rules and complying with detention

10. Management Tactics That Support Desirable Behaviour • Plan the room arrangement-be neat and organized • Cultivate quiet-use reading and minimal talking • Be organized-have materials ready • Dress professionally-look of authority • Make eye contact-reinforces authority

11. Give something back to the students • Teach in a way that you can be proud of • Teach in an engaging manner • Teach in an organized manner, knowledge of where things are and how you will conduct the class • Listen to your students attentively, let them know you are interested

12. Speak in statements rather than questions • Educate students; do not counsel them • Hold students accountable for proper behaviour • Do not settle for less than what is expected • Keep them busy-impedes disruptive behaviour • Review the rules until all understood

13. Review your performance everyday • Take care of things-decide and enforce consequences • Don’t be manipulated-state a rule rather than arguing with students • Expect students to enter your class with the expectation to learn • Stand in doorway and inform each student of expectations

14. Behaviour that Necessitates Excluding Students from your Classroom: Defiance Repeated Disruption Gross Disrespect

15. Role of Administrators • Ensure your administrators understand the logic, rules and procedures of your approach • Parents will likely not be supportive of behavioural expectations set for the classroom

16. DISCUSSANT • 1) “Our schools are currently doing things out of sequence - trying to let students know all their rights and encouraging self-expression and independent thought, and so on, before working to establish basic respect for others and the environment” Do you agree with Seganti? Do you think our schools have become too “democratic”? Would classrooms be more functional places if teachers had more unquestioned authority and respect? (Charles, 2008)

17. DISCUSSANT • 2)What age group do you think this approach would work best for? What cognitive/social abilities does this approach presuppose (e.g. what level of self-control)? How would you adapt it for younger students, if at all? • 3) Given that many students cannot stay after school, what “leverage” do you think would work in your educational setting? (“something the student cares about”). Should this leverage change over time? (will students get used to it?)

18. DISCUSSANT • 4) Seganti does give not rewards for good behaviour, but insists that a good education is a reward in itself and anything more than this amounts to “plea bargaining” on the part of the teacher. Will students perceive on their own that they are learning more through this method? Do they need to perceive this – do they need to feel that there is some sort of reward for following Seganti’s rules?

19. DISCUSSANT • 5) Do you agree with what Serganti says about warnings (one warning only, at the first class)? To put it into an adult context – are you more likely to speed again if you are given a warning the first time you are caught instead of an actual ticket? • 6)  Can you see yourself using this approach? Why or why not?

20. CRITICAL FRIEND • Detention is not always possible because of timing (teacher meetings/responsibilities/supervision) • Detention can be a punishment to the teacher • What do you do if faculty/administration/parents are not on-board with your practices? • Waiting for students to be ready at the beginning of each class wastes a lot of time we don’t necessarily have • Does the Seganti Method work for Elementary aged students who sometimes do not understand their actions?

21. CRITICAL FRIEND • Theorist Alfie Kohn dislikes the idea of forcing students to behave compliantly in the classroom. He believes traditional teaching-lectures, worksheets, and homework is falling short of what students really need. Teachers should honour students, take their opinions seriously and determine what curriculum interests them. He believes that forceful teaching styles (such as Seganti) create poor student attitudes towards learning (Charles, pg.75-78). • Research on positive/external reinforcement shows there are benefits to using it • (Token economy-individual & group, bonus points)

22. Benefits of Using Positive/External Reinforcement • O’Leary and Drabman (1971) found token reinforcement programs to be successful in improving both social and academic behaviour amongst several groups of students (Lysakowski & Walberg, pg. 69). • Slavin (1978) and Michaels (1977) highlight the success of cooperative reward structures in classrooms, and how they positively impact individual learning amongst students (Lysakowski & Walberg, pg. 69).

23. Benefits of Positive/External Reinforcement Continued • According to Self-Brown & Mathews (2003), “Token Economy systems provide students with tangible reinforcers and external incentives for meeting normative standards” (pg. 107). • Hedley (1994) states a majority of students feel more involved and connected to their learning when bonus points are used for class participation (pg. 338).

24. Benefits of Positive/External Reinforcement Continued • Hedley (1994): “Interactive teaching methods foster “deep” as opposed to a “surface” approach to learning and also seem “to increase the level of keenness and enthusiasm” (pg. 340). • Hedley (1994): “the bonus point system is a valuable strategy for involving students in the teaching-learning process, and it produces pay-offs” (pg. 340)

25. Benefits of Positive/External Reinforcement Continued • According to a study done by Hedley (1994), of 94 students studied over a 2 year period who were using the Bonus Point System, 31% saw an increase in their final grades as a result of the system (pg. 340). • According to Kapalka (2009), using Behavioural Contracts-which use positive consequences after positive behaviours and vice versa, teachers will likely see a decrease in management problems with students (pg. 80). • Kapalka (2009), also states the importance of verbally praising students for their success, not just rewarding them externally (pg. 97).

26. Conclusion • Seganti generated the ideas and concepts for this method of instruction while he was teaching in the inner city of Los Angeles. It is important to remember that despite the “old school,” overly assertive, “this is my classroom” approach, Seganti’s teaching method does have some strengths and ideas. His ideas can be slightly adapted and modified to work for your individual classroom.

27. References Charles, C.M. (2011). Building ClassroomDiscipline, Boston, MA, Pearson Education, Inc. Hedley, R. A. (1994). Interpersonal and interaction aspects of teaching. Teaching Sociology, 22(4), 337 – 340. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1318927 Kalpalka, G.M. (2009). 8 Steps to Classroom Management Success: a guide for teachers of challenging students, Library of Congress Cataloguing – in - Publication Data Lysakowski, R. S., Walberg, H. J. (1981). Classroom reinforcement and learning: A qualitative synthesis. The Journal of Educational Research, 75(2), 69-77. Retrieved from Heldorff Publications, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27539870 Self-Brown, S.R., Matthews II, S. (2003). Effects of classroom structure on student achievement goal orientation. The Journal of Educational Research, 97(2) 106-111. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27548016