7/27/2019 Literature Review: Schoolwide and Classroom Discipline

1/2

Literature Review- TPA Domain E

Name: Lara Landry

Author: Kathleen Cotton

Title: Schoolwide and Classroom Discipline

Journal or Text: School Improvement Research Series: Research You Can Use

Year: 1990

Pages: 26

Main idea(s) Supporting Evidence

The Annual Gallup Poll ofthe Public's Attitudes Toward

the Public Schools has

identified "lack of discipline"as the most serious problem

facing the nation's

educational system.

Well-disciplined, smooth-

running school environments

are not the product of chance.

Effective and ineffectivemanagers did not differ

greatly in their methods for

dealing with disruption.Instead, effective managers

School personnel, students, and parents call attention to the highincidence of related problems in school environments--problems

such as drug use, cheating, insubordination, truancy, and

intimidation--which result in countless school and classroomdisruptions and lead to nearly two million suspensions per year

(Harvard Education Letter 1987). American classrooms are

frequently plagued by other, more minor kinds of misbehavior thatdisrupts the flow of classroom activities and interfere with learning.

Approximately one-half of all classroom time is taken up with

activities other than instruction, and discipline problems are

responsible for a significant portion of this lost instructional time.

There are a list of elements commonly found in safe, orderly, well-managed schools:

Commitment to establishing and maintaining appropriatestudent behavior as an essential precondition of learning.

High behavioral expectations. Clear and broad-based rules. Warm school climate. A visible, supportive principal. Delegation of discipline authority to teachers. Close ties with communities.

Effective managers are those teachers whose classrooms were

orderly, had a minimum of student misbehavior, and had high levelsof time-on-task. Effective classroom managers have the following

skills:

"Withitness"

7/27/2019 Literature Review: Schoolwide and Classroom Discipline

2/2

are found to be much more

skilled at preventingdisruptions from occurring in

the first place.

Cooperative learning reduces

the incidence of misbehavior.

Humor encourages attentionand decreases disruption.

Educators need to be aware

of the strategies research has

shown to be ineffective, inpart because this knowledge

can assist them in planning

local programs because someof these practices continue to

be widely used.

Overlapping Smoothness and momentum in lessons Group alerting Stimulating seatwork

Additionally, effective classroom managers:

Hold and communicate high expectations for student learningand behavior.

Establish and clearly teach classroom rules and procedures. Specify consequences and their relation to student behavior. Enforce classroom rules promptly, consistently, and

equitably.

Share with students the responsibility for classroommanagement.

Maintain a brisk pace for instruction and making smoothtransitions between activities.

Monitor classroom activities and providing feedback andreinforcement.

Cooperative learning structures can increase student taskengagement, acquaint students with the benefits of working together,

and ease the tensions that sometimes arise among racial/ethnic

groups.

The work of researchers Ornstein and Levine has revealed that it is

beneficial for teachers to use humor to hold student interest andreduce classroom tensions.

Ineffective practices include:

Vague or unenforceable rules. Teachers ignoring misconduct. Ambiguous or inconsistent teacher responses to misbehavior. Punishment which is excessive or which is delivered without

support or encouragement for improving behavior.

Corporal punishment.