NASSP Bulletin

Teaching—always a challenging profession —has, in today's complex society, become even more difficult. Large classes, sophisticated students, legal constraints, all compound the problems of dealing with student misbehavior. Today's teacher must be well-prepared to deal with problems, this author believes. He outlines six strategies that constitute a basic plan for classroom management.

Educators must dare to stand up and say that today's schools cannot serve as a panacea for all of society's problems. That's what's behind the author's message as he proposes a model for coping with disruptive students.

An effective discipline program requires time, effort, and commitment from the school administrator. But the effort can be simplified if certain general guidelines are considered, th is author suggests.

Few readers are familiar with the approaches of Glasser and Kohl to classroom discipline, believes this author, who first surveys their ideas on discipline and then evaluates them by reviewing both their strengths and weaknesses.

The educator who deals effectively with student misbehavior is probably focusing on the causes of that behavior, these authors believe. A process designed to promote understanding of student motivation, and to help in dealing effectively with misbehavior, is outlined in this article.

Four communication models that can be used by the teacher to manage classroom behavior are described on the following pages. Each model has individual differences, but more important, the author notes, are the communication skills common to all four.

There are as many ap proaches to classroom management as there are teachers and, like teachers, some are more effective than others. On the following pages this author reviews some of the major schools of thought related to disciplinary techniques.

To deal successfully with unacceptable student behavior the educator must first be aware of the reasons for that behavior. The author analyzes various student behavior patterns on the following pages and suggests possible reasons for them.

Not all student behavior problems require complex remedial programs, this author maintains. Sometimes an easily achieved environ mental change does the trick, he explains. Illustrations are provided.

Are behavior problems greater with boys than with girls? Does the sex of the teacher affect boy-girl misbehavior patterns? The author discusses findings of a study she undertook to answer these and other questions about student misbehavior.

Inservice programs can help teachers learn to deal more effectively with classroom discipline problems. One Illinois junior high school's inservice project is described here.

What is on-campus suspension, and how does it work? The authors explain as they describe the program that operates successfully at their school.

An effective school discipline program must do more than simply react to problems that have occurred. A program underway at one Louisiana high school provides a preventive approach to handling student disruptions. That program is described.

A program designed to teach students specific, positive behavior skills has been implemented at an Arizona junior high school, and has resulted in a dramatic reduction in classroom problems. The system is described here.

One way to deal with unruly students is to remove them from the classroom. Another way is to use the rehabilitation process. The writers describe the process and show how it helps teachers manage their classrooms more effectively.

What people expect of their secondary school principals today differs from what they expected a few years ago. The changes and how they occurred, says this writer, are recorded in the professional literature, notably the NASSP Bulletin, which he reviews here in tracing the principal's emerging role.

There is, this author contends, a growing obsession in education with generating solutions - many of them unnecessary. It is high time, he says, that educators slow down, do first things first, and identify their problems before attempting to solve them.

Student apathy, poor academic performance, truancy, vandalism—these are some of the most serious problems faced by the urban school today. At one school with such problems a low-cost, highly effective program to involve the students in the problem-solving process was designed and implemented. A description of that program follows.