Key Behavioral Principles for Classroom Management

The Seven Key Behavioral Principles:

1. Goals of correction procedures
2. The role of teacher attention in correction procedures
3. The nature of behavioral intensity, escalation, and defusion
4. The nature of behavioral chains
5. The role of behavioral extinction and extinction bursts
6. The power of personal reactions
7. Establishing fluent responses

My Classroom with the Seven Key Principles

When thinking about my future Middle School Math classroom, I have to admit that I most worried about what my classroom management will look like. Middle school students are a unique age group because many things change from when students first enter middle school in 5th/6th grade to when they leave in 8th grade. They go through physical, mental, and emotional changes, which can create some issues, especially when it comes to classroom management. The seven key behavioral principles will help me to become an educator that is skilled at correcting problem behaviors without escalating a situation or distracting other students from their learning. They will also help me to think about how I will handle future problem situations before they arise so that I am not caught completely off-guard whenever they happen. Lastly, I believe that they will help me to remember to step back from a situation and examine it before I respond so that I am handling the situation correctly.

My Favorite Principle

Although I can see the usefulness of each key principle, a few of them stood out to me more than others. The one that stood out to me the most is “The Nature of Behavioral Chains.” I found this one very interesting and beneficial because it allowed me to further examine and understand how every teacher-student response feeds off of each other. An interaction-pathway, which is the word to describe the back and forth responses that occur between a teacher and a student, is an excellent way to see how every response that a teacher gives is reinforcing the student’s previous behavior. This means that when I am educator must think about what response I am giving to my student(s) and thinking about what behavior I will be reinforcing with this response. The interaction pathway also shows how when a situation escalates, the end result or consequence usually only addresses one problem behavior, which is typically the last and most extreme problem behavior. This means that many problem behaviors are not even being mentioned, which can be problematic for future situations and lead to a repeat of similar problems. Understanding how the behavior chain works will aide me in deciding an appropriate response. Even though this one is my favorite, I believe that classroom management is most effective whenever all seven of the key principles are used together.

My Current Experience with the Principles

When I was in middle school, I had the unfortunate experience of having many teachers who had poor classroom management. Looking back, I can see that they tried and did many things correctly, but the similar problem that each of them had was the inability to keep a situation from escalating and their tendency to respond personally to a situation. I remember one instance where a student refused to take a test. The teacher addressed the problem by saying that this student did not respect him and that if he would not respect him then he could leave the classroom. The student and teacher then went back and forth arguing. The scene ended with the teacher writing the student up and the student kicking a desk as he walked out of the room. The teacher responded personally to the situation, which principle six warns against, and he allowed the behavior to escalate, which principle three discusses. When behavioral escalation occurs, a student’s behavior progressively gets worse with each response, which was evident in the example above. A teacher’s goal should be for behavioral defusion, which is when the behaviors get progressively less severe. This shows the situation in deescalating and that the student is headed in the right direction. Responding personally to situations is what I anticipate to be one of the most common classroom management problems that teachers have, especially young teachers. When a teacher responds personally, the students behavior usually escalates because they then feel like they are being personally attacked. I know that I will need to practice and train myself to respond to the behavior appropriately, and to not only monitor what I am saying verbally but also what I am saying with my body language and tone.

Final Thoughts

The main thing I took away from the seven key behavioral principles is the importance of preparing for problem behaviors and situations. Knowing what my goals are when addressing problem behaviors and realizing the impact of my reactions to problem behaviors are extremely important to consider and dig deeper into. Finally, my preparation with regard to each of these principles will help me to keep situations from escalating and to create an environment where students will be respected and a place where I can help them learn how to properly behave both inside and outside the classroom.

Citation: Colvin, G. (2010). Defusing disruptive behavior: In the classroom. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.