Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Behavior Management Miss K teachers two art classes a day. During 5th grade art the students will not listen and have their own agenda. They will argue across the classroom, be disrespectful to the teacher and others, and will not do as asked.This behavior is seen throughout the day with the general education teachers as well. The 5th grade class been given writing assignments and privileges have been taken away. A reward system has also been in place. Nothing has seemed to help. What can Miss K do to get the students to behave during art time? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) I have been teaching for 15 years. It sounds like the problem here lies in the climate of the class. The first step would be to determine the function of the misbehavior. Are they misbehaving because of a history of failed lessons? Are they misbehaving because they are seeking attention, or are they trying to gain peer approval. In situations like these, the teacher must make some classroom changes to engage the students other than punitive actions or unattractive awards. 5th graders are getting older and might not respond to the same rewards younger students respond to. I have also found that children respond better to positives than negatives. What I would do is start praising and rewarding students who were making good choices. I would try to make at least one positive interaction with each child during the day. If you praise the student leader or group of leaders in the class (start small, like thank you so much for helping me close the door. That really helped) and help them feel seen and appreciated, behavior will slowly start to change. There has been research done on this topic. One study performed by Downs et al (2019) shows a positive correlation of praise and compliant behavior. It also shows a positive relationship between reprimands and an increase in disruptive behavior. This might sound counterproductive, but when people are praised, they feel good and want to receive more of that good feeling. When they learn that they can receive that acceptance from teachers as well as their peers, the class climate will improve and these problem behaviors will decrease. Reference: Teacher Praise and Reprimands: The Differential Response of Students at Risk of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders Kade R. Downs, EdS, Paul Caldarella, PhD, Ross A. A. Larsen, PhD, Cade T. Charlton, PhD, Howard P. Wills, PhD, Debra M. Kamps, PhD, Joseph H. Wehby, PhDFirst Published October 25, 2018 Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions https://doi.org/10.1177/1098300718800824