I'm just ending up my first term of teaching "Guidance and Instruction," which
is what we in early childhood prefer to the elementary ed choice of "classroom
management" or (worse yet) "discipline." I'm not thrilled with the standard
Merrill textbook chosen for the course, Marian Marion's _Guidance of Young
Children_ (4th ed., 1995), for all the reasons Jay cited in an earlier thread
this fall against textbook use. But I do like E. Bodrova and D. Leong (1996)
_Tools of the mind: The Vygotskian approach to early childhood education_, also
published by Merrill. Your students might be insulted by the early childhood
approach, but since early childhood goes up through grade 3, a surprising
number of elementary ed teachers-to-be should find it pertinent. And I believe
Betsy Zan, also on xmca, has shared with the list in the past her book with
Rheta DeVries (1994) _Moral classrooms, moral children_ by Teachers College
Press. In early childhood ed we get quite a long way on the premise that
behavior and discipline problems are best avoided by having a well-constructed
curriculum of interest to the children and delivered in a way that is
developmentally, individually, and culturally appropriate to the students.
We share with our elementary ed "classroom management" colleagues an
appreciation for Alfie Kohn, who has a number of books but also some very
accessible articles, such as an ERIC Digest, "The risks of rewards" (Dec. 94,
EDO-PS-94-14, available from the ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early
Childhood Education, http://ericps.crc.uiuc.edu/eece) and an interview
conducted by Ron Brandt in _Educational Leadership_, "Punished by rewards?"
(Sept. 95, 13-16, sorry I don't have the full citation).
Alfie Kohn collaborates with the Developmental Studies Center, 2000
Embarcadero, Suite 305, Oakland CA 94606-5300, which has an abundance of
materials for elementary educators and teacher ed profs, including some of
those cases or stories you are looking for. Better yet, they have a set of
videotapes of real-time classrooms demonstrating such techniques as helping
kids to work out problems in ways that build community and develop critical
thinking abilities, make classroom rules in class meetings, etc. Call for a
catalog with good descriptions of the materials: 1-800-666-7270. My students,
who also want "recipes" for "maintaining control" of the classroom, seem to be
persuaded enough by some of these alternatives to top-down teacher direction to
try it out in their practicum out in real classroom settings. I've even
witnessed a couple of conversion experiences!
Our students find a lot of useful articles in a compilation published by
Dushkin/McGraw-Hill, _Annual editions: Early childhood education. 1997/98_,
edited by K. M. Paciorek & J. H. Munro (1997). An example from Developmental
Studies Center staff is on pp. 139-143, reprinted from _Educational
Leadership_, (Sept. 96), C.C. Lewis, E. Schaps, & M.S. Watson, "The caring
classroom's academic edge." Another one my students have been "converted" by
is D. Gatrell's "Misbehavior or mistaken behavior?" reprinted from _Young
Children_, July 1995.
And don't overlook the Project Approach (lots available at the ERIC website
noted above), descended from John Dewey, as a curricular approach that
seriously cuts down on the need for "managing" kids to do stuff the teachers
have to make them do. Reggio Emilia, Italy, has a number of early childhood
settings that have developed this approach in ways that U.S. schools are
picking up. I saw that Teachers College Press recently came out with a "story"
from a St. Louis school using this approach, but I can't get my hands on the
flyer right now. New York City's Central Park East schools have had
well-motivated students succeeding with such an approach as well, drawing on
some of the same theoretical inspiration from Dewey and Vygotsky and Piaget,
now all the way up through secondary school (see writings by founder Deborah
Meier and chronicler David Bensman).
Sorry this has gotten so long, but I have been seeing some remarkable learning,
and application of that learning in practicum classrooms, that gives me some
hope that at least some of our future teachers won't be quite so obsessed with
maintaining control of their classrooms! I am looking forward to hearing
suggestions from others as well.
Linda May Fitzgerald
Asst. Prof. Curriculum and Instruction
University of Northern Iowa
618 Schindler Education Center
Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0606
FITZGERALD who-is-at UNI.EDU