Positive Discipline and Assertive Discipline

Bonnie J. M. Hall

Copyright 2000 by Bonnie J. M. Hall
Included here with permission of the author

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! A California based therapist has invented a new way to parent and teach children! How would you like a cooperative, self disciplined, compassionate child who knows how to solve problems with confidence, patience, integrity and concern for others? What is it? Positive Discipline! That’s right folks, throw away all of those old dusty Canter-based assertive discipline techniques and make way for Jane Nelson and her time-tested positive discipline. By using her principles, you are guaranteed to raise children who have excellent self-esteem, as well as a sense of responsibility for themselves, others and their environment. Used in the classroom, you will be amazed at how your students will become open-minded, honest, as well as develop a respect and acceptance for self and others. Learn how to replace those empty punishments and rewards with firmness, dignity and respect. Turn the power of discipline over to your students. You can do it! Come with us…

Oh...wow! I must have been dreaming. There’s no way that I could ever get my second graders to solve problems on their own and behave like that. No. I like the system that I am using right now. My kids are well behaved...most of the time. Actually, I do get discouraged at the end of each school year when I feel that my kids have developed no responsibility for their actions. Maybe there is a better way. Hmmmm. I’m puzzled.

Background Information

I conducted this research using the Cultural Inquiry Process (Jacob, 1999) in a second grade classroom in Stratford, Virginia. I am a graduate student who volunteers in this classroom once a week, working as a consultant to the regular classroom teacher. Millwood Elementary School (all proper names are pseudonyms) is located in a rural area about 40 miles southwest of Washington, D.C. Farms, older homes with several new housing communities, townhouse, and apartment developments, surround much of the area. Most of the children come from middle class families although there are several pockets of low social economic areas.

Miss Davis’ second grade class is composed of 19 students: 10 girls and 9 boys. The majority of the class is Anglo-American. There are two African American students and one child of mixed race. All of the children are of average academic ability for this 7-8 year old age range. Four of the children are below average in reading, the rest are at or above level. Overall, Miss Davis considers her class to be well behaved. There are approximately five children that Miss Davis considers to be mild behavior problems, but they are easily corrected.

Miss Davis is a very innovative teacher who uses a variety of methods to teach her students. She has been teaching for nine years and enjoys her chosen profession. She has high expectations of her children both behaviorally and academically. Her classroom rules are clearly defined, with rewards and consequences for behavior. Her class has a great respect for her, and in turn she has an excellent rapport with her children.

Miss Davis is in her early 30's. She is single and has lived in Stratford County all of her life. She comes from a middle class family of educators, her father being a retired principal from a Stratford County Middle School and her mother, a second grade teacher for 25 years. She has one younger brother and one set of grandparents who are long time residents of the area.

Puzzlement

My puzzlement is based on classroom discipline and management. Miss Davis’ main behavior modification system used in her classroom is based on Assertive Discipline, a system developed in 1970 by Lee and Marlene Canter. This world renowned, highly structured system emphasizes clearly defined expectations that are followed-up with rewards and punishments (Hill 1990).

Miss Davis has implemented the assertive discipline system with a "pin tack board" or small cork bulletin board displayed in the classroom. Students’ names are listed down the left side of the board and a tack is placed by each name. Columns that fill the rest of the board read "warning, 5 minutes off recess, 10 minutes off recess, 15 min off recess, note home, phone call home, and visit to principal’s office." A misbehaving student may get their pin moved to these categories in that order, and where their pin is determines their weekly behavior grade. All pins are moved back each Friday. A reward (choice of toy from the treasure box) is given to any student who did not move their pin for the entire week and earned good "hornet points." She gives out small paper hornets to the children who are well behaved. The treasure box is filled with trinkets that Miss Davis buys from local dollar stores. Sometimes the well-behaved children get a special treat on Friday such as free time or ice cream. Miss Davis has used this system for the past 6-7 years of teaching and truly believes in the effectiveness and positive outcome of this system.

After attending a training seminar, Miss Davis decided to try to integrate a relatively new system called Positive Discipline into her classroom management system. Millwood Elementary encourages this philosophy, although not all teachers use the program to the fullest. Positive Discipline is based on the philosophy and teachings of Alfred Adler and Rudolf Dreikurs (Nelson, 1996). Jane Nelson has published several books and videos tailoring this system for parents and teachers.

Miss Davis uses some of the methods encouraged by positive discipline, the main component being the class meeting. She gathers her class for a meeting twice a week. They sit in a circle and each child in turn starts by complimenting somebody. They then turn to the class problem book or agenda. Any child who had a problem and could not solve it on its own writes about it in this book. Each issue will be discussed with the class and they will help the people involved to solve the problem. When a conflict is recorded in the book, the student has to list what problem solving skill they used previously. The school counselor has been working with the children on problem solving using "Kelso’s Choices." This is a well known program that helps children to solve problems rationally. The children list which of Kelso’s six choices they used to try to solve the problem. The goal is to teach the children to become independent problem solver.

The teacher does not leave all of the problem solving up to the students. If a child is in danger or about to be hurt, the teacher will step in. In the positive discipline approach, the teacher also uses natural and logical consequences (Nelson, 1996). A logical consequence is an effect to a behavior put in place by the teacher. For example, if students forget their homework, they can do it during recess. A natural consequence occurs naturally, with no adult interference. If students forget their coats, they will get cold. This, along with open communication between the students and teacher, is the basis of how positive discipline is applied in the classroom.

My initial puzzlement started as why boys respond differently to assertive discipline as compared to positive discipline. Miss Davis and I noted how the boys, more than girls, are reprimanded under the assertive discipline program or they seem to have more pin moves. Under positive discipline, gender difference was not noted. There seemed to be an equal number of boys and girls who made entries into the classroom agenda for discussion. After researching my initial puzzlement during a class interview, I found that it was not only the boys that were responding differently to the two systems. Although both systems are forms of classroom management, the children looked at the two systems very differently. Therefore I changed my puzzlement. I am puzzled as to the way in which the children are responding so differently to the two systems of classroom management. Any reference to the pin board is part of the assertive discipline program. References made to the classroom meetings or class agenda are related to positive discipline.

What further sparked my interest in looking at these two forms of discipline was some recent and controversial research on the topic. Assertive discipline is under attack by proponents of positive discipline and vise-versa. Both sides seemed to have viable and well-supported claims for their theories.

Proponents of positive discipline claim that assertive discipline ignores principles, or attitudes and expectations for long-term behavioral growth. Examples of principles are: be respectful, care about others, and be prepared. They argue that power-based models of classroom management rely on obedience because simply telling the children what to do requires the least amount of work on the teacher’s part. The result, students obey orders but learn little about responsibility. Critical thinking skills are sacrificed when the students are constantly told, "Do what I say or else you’ll be punished" (Curwin and Mendler, 1988). Some feel that this program is "among other things dehumanizing, humiliating, and dangerous" (Hill, 1990). The prospect of having your name put on the board, being held in from recess, or being reprimanded in front of the class can cause damage to a young child’s developing psyche.

Proponents of assertive discipline cite research to back up the effectiveness of their program. A study conducted by Crawley and Bauer in 1982 indicated that observable pupil behavior continued to improve two to five years after the introduction of the program (Canter, 1988). This systematic approach to discipline improves on task behavior, an increase of five percent per day. They also claim that without positive and negative reinforcement, the students will not choose to follow the rules. "Any classroom management program not based on positive reinforcement ignores the behavior of those students who regularly choose to behave appropriately" (Canter, 1988, p.73).

Cultural Questions

The culture I am looking at is not an ethnic culture. Culture in this classroom is defined in terms of classroom culture, with the two forms of discipline contributing to different cultures. After looking at the possible cultural questions, I decided to focus on CIP questions 3.1 and 3.5.

CIP question 3.1 asks if the beliefs and values of the educator could be contributing to the known puzzlement. Miss Davis is very comfortable with assertive discipline. She has many reservations about positive discipline leading me to believe that these beliefs could be influencing the students’ views of the two systems. Since Miss Davis comes from a family of long time educators, that may also be influencing her decision to put more emphasis on assertive discipline and not seriously look at different way to manage the classroom.

After some data collecting, I couldn’t help but notice that the children were having trouble negotiating between the two systems, which led me to CIP question 3.5. Although both positive discipline and assertive discipline are viable classroom management options, the students did not view both of them in that way. As I discuss below, they had developed more trust and comfort with assertive discipline as compared to positive discipline.

Data Collection

My first step in collecting information was to interview the class and teacher to find out their initial feelings about both assertive discipline and positive discipline. As mentioned earlier, I initiated these interviews to try to find a gender difference in reaction to the programs. The information I gathered did not solidify my initial hypothesis leading me to eliminate the gender factor in my research.

Interview with Miss Davis

I started my data collection by interviewing the teacher. Miss Davis shared that she looks at positive discipline as having some value because it adds to her existing system, but she will never totally switch. She likes the "compliments" part of the class meeting. For some troubled children like Frankie, just one compliment makes him feel valued in the classroom. The downside is that the class meetings are time consuming. Assertive discipline is something that she can’t let go of because she is (in her own words) a "control freak" and "if it isn’t broke, why fix it." She believes that there should be immediate consequences for inappropriate behavior and that assertive discipline better prepares children for reality in the real world. She stated, "There won’t always be a committee of peers to help them discuss every problem that they have." In addition, she felt that assertive discipline is very easy for the parents to understand, keeping that line of communication open. When a child comes home with a note that says "10 minutes off recess", they know that their child received one warning and two additional reminders about inappropriate behavior in the classroom. I asked Miss Davis if there has been any students for whom assertive discipline has really worked. She mentioned Raleigh had a hard time adjusting at the beginning of the year. He often misbehaved, didn’t follow the rules, and disrupted the class. Through home communication, a supportive mother, and the powerful pin board, the problem was solved.

Interview with the Children

The information I collected came from conducting two class interviews and one activity where the children compared positive with assertive discipline on a Venn diagram. I found the children to be very up front, honest, and forward. They gave me a wealth of information and insight into how they felt.

Most of the children saw the pin board (assertive discipline) as a more powerful, immediate and efficient way to solve problems. Some of the children said things would be chaotic with people pushing and shoving if there was not a pin board in the classroom. They did not like the idea of waiting for a problem to be solved at a class meeting, held twice a week. One child stated "people can do very bad thing and they could get away with it very easily if they wrote it in the agenda." The children were able to verbalize the differences between the two systems. One child stated that Miss Davis and Mrs. Williams (the principal) solve the problem and that you don’t get to talk about it until there have been many warnings (with the pin board). During a class meeting, kids solve the problems and you get to talk about them.

Some children liked the class meetings and looked at them as a good way to talk and solve problems. "It gives people a chance to say they are sorry before the class meetings so you don’t have to solve it", "we get to solve problems better." One girl stated that if you were having a problem with a friend, you could solve the problem without getting your friend in trouble. Many expressed fondness for sitting in a circle, getting compliments and the fact that not everyone can see your name in the agenda, whereas your name and pin can be seen on the pin board. When asked how they would feel about getting their name put on the agenda, they said, "bad," "embarrassed," and "scared that they are going to get in trouble." One child said that it made her feel better because she did not want the problem to happen again. One said it would make you feel good because you would not get your pin moved.

Many of the children felt that a class meeting is a way to avoid getting into trouble. According to one child, "I would rather have class meetings because you won’t get in that much trouble because you just have to talk." One stated that the pin board might make a friend loose recess and then you would have no one to play with. Another boy stated that if he was the one in trouble, he would rather put it in the agenda; if it was someone else, they should get their pin moved.

The children like the pin board because of "hornet points" they earn for not having their pin moved. They trade these in for a toy from the treasure box that Miss Davis fills with treats from the dollar stores. The children expressed that getting a pin moved is embarrassing because the whole class looks at you and sees your name on the pin board. They also do not like the consequences of the pin board, one child stating that you get into way more trouble! All of the children seemed to be very aware of who the frequent offenders were as far as pin moves were concerned.

I interpreted my findings to mean that the children simply did not see much value and trust in the positive discipline system. Assertive discipline gave them a level of confidence that the teacher would handle problems in the classroom appropriately. The agenda was not a viable solution, just a way to stay out of trouble.

Observation Miss Davis’ Class Meeting

All of the valuable information that the children shared with me sparked my curiosity to see a full class meeting. I had observed half of a meeting once before, but at that time there were no new problems in the agenda and the meeting ended after the compliments.

Before observing a class meeting, I wanted to find out a little more about the agenda. The rules in Miss Davis' classroom for using the agenda are: (a) write and circle your name; (b) write about the problem; and (c) list Kelso’s choices that you tried. Most of the children wrote about actions from the other children that bothered them such as being hit, kicked, pushed, having something knocked off their desk. Some children wrote about teasing, picking, or being made fun of. Miss Davis even took advantage of the opportunity to use the agenda to express her frustration with getting the children to line up and transition quietly.

Miss Davis started out the meeting by encouraging the children to use "active listening" with their bodies and their ears, as well as some rules such as being helpful and not hurtful. She reminded the children that they need to be calm enough to talk about the problems they put in the agenda. A general rule is that they do not discuss problems that were written that day because they need a day "to cool off."

Miss Davis started the meeting by passing around the "wild thing" stuffed animal. Only the student holding this could talk and give compliments. The "wild thing" went around the circle twice to make sure everyone had a chance. Here were some of the compliments: Miss Davis complimented Frankie on having a good week; one student complimented his mom for helping with his dragon project; another complimented Travis for playing with him; mom got a compliment for giving the child a present; dad got a compliment for allowing his son to use the power tools; and Matt thanked Miss Davis for allowing him two more days on his project.

Cindy entered the first problem discussed in the agenda. Cindy reports that Sarah was hitting her. She tried Kelso’s choice #5 (ignore it), and #6 (try to talk about it) and neither of them worked. Cindy then gave a more in-depth description of what happened. Sarah said she was just playing and did not mean to bother anyone. Miss Davis looked in the agenda and noted that this problem had been entered on the agenda once before. Next it was time for student questioning. Some of the questions were: Why didn’t you stop? Did it happen at lunch? Was it like Mark McGuire hitting a baseball? Why did you hit? When did it start?

The "wild thing" was passed so the students could make suggestions to solve the problem. Some of the solutions mentioned were: stop playing with each other; don’t hit anyone' stay apart; say you’re sorry, Sarah; cool off and talk; stay away from each other for a week; think about how Cindy would feel; and treat people the way you want to be treated.

The two girls were then asked to consider all of the suggestions to decide what their final answer would be. Sarah was not ready to apologize. The two girls decided to go discuss their problem in private. When the girls returned from their meeting, they had apologized to each other. Since the most popular vote was spending time apart, the class was asked if they still needed to do this. The class said no that they were happy with the results.

The meeting took a long time, almost half an hour to solve one problem. The process was effective and the girls were happy. I was very impressed with how well Miss Davis kept her role as a mediator, careful not to interject her opinions. She truly did leave the problem solving up to the class. At times I wondered if Sarah felt like the others were picking her on. She said she felt good that her friends were helping her to solve the problem. She did not feel picked on or upset at all. I asked Miss Davis if this was typical of Sarah. She described Sarah as a very well behaved child but sort of a "tom boy" who sometimes did not realize her roughness with the others.

Observation of Mrs. Law’s Class Meeting

I took an extra trip to Millwood Elementary to observe a teacher who primarily uses positive discipline in her classroom. Mrs. Law trains other teachers in her school and the county in this method. The day I decided to visit was not a good day for the children's behavior. With "spring fever" running rampant, the teacher was not very happy with their behavior. I personally felt like this class of 23 kindergarten/first grade children were pretty much in control and calm given that it was 3:00 in the afternoon. Mrs. Law interacted with the children very calmly as she reminded and redirected behavior. She conducts a class meeting every day at this time.

Mrs. Law started her class meeting much like Miss Davis. The children quickly settled in and started the compliments. All of the children’s compliments mentioned someone either playing with them or sitting with them at lunch. One child mentioned that someone helped him. Mrs. Law complimented him and asked the children to share if anyone helped them that day. She shared with me later that she tried to get the children to think beyond themselves and to think of others. It is developmentally appropriate to be self-centered at this age and her goal it to take them to the next level of reasoning. Children go though three predictable stages according to their interpretation of the rules (Charney, 1991). Between the ages of 5 - 7, children feel that rules are based on the all-knowing power of adults. Their main goal is compliance and wanting to please. During the next stage, rules are based on social conventions, not individual authority. Mrs. Law sees the importance of encouraging the children to the next stage of social development.

The agenda is a poster on which the children can write. There was a little confusion because the writing was so messy. I noticed that the children were not as patient while the other person told their side of the story. While the first problem was being reported, the bell rang. It was time for the children to go home; the meeting would continue the next day.

I had the opportunity to talk to Mrs. Law while the children were leaving to go home. She truly believes in positive discipline for many reasons. She feels that although it takes a long time, the children develop responsibility for themselves and respect for others, as they become true problem solvers. She has a very challenging class this year with 17 boys and 6 girls; all but two of the boys are very active. Four of them are up for child study for emotional disturbances. I was surprised to find a "red light chart" on the back of the door. She said it was for those four boys who have never known boundaries. She admits that she does use other methods of discipline but her main philosophy is the positive discipline and all of the children in her class participate.

Mrs. Law has a two-year-old son and she said that this (positive discipline) is how she would want her child treated. She uses it at home and sees it as the most respectful way to raise and discipline a child. She tried many years to find a good solid program that she believed in and positive discipline is it. The teachers who do not want to give up assertive discipline do not want to give up an element of control with their class and she can understand how hard it can be.

However, in Mrs. Law's view, the teacher has to give up control of behavior in order for the children to take control and be responsible. She noticed recently that one of her most difficult students started using some of the language that they use in class meetings. Knowing where this child has come from, she considers this great progress.

Interventions

Miss Davis is very comfortable with assertive discipline and that is something that I did not want to challenge or change. I shifted my focus to her attempts to integrate positive discipline into her classroom. Although she did enthusiastically want to try the program, I thought that her hesitancy towards positive discipline might be causing her and the children not to see its full value (i.e., as CIP question 3.1 suggests, the educator's beliefs and values might be contributing to the puzzlement). My first attempts at intervening focused on encouraging Miss Davis to look at positive discipline in a slightly different and more effective way.

 

I also developed interventions based on CIP 3.5 (students' negotiations of school culture). Because the children started out the year using a firmly grounded assertive discipline program, this created a very comfortable "boundary" for the children. They saw the teacher stopping poor behavior and giving prizes to those who complied. They saw the effectiveness and ease with which Miss Davis implemented this program. Although many of these children had experienced positive discipline in first grade, this new system was much easier and less complicated. Suddenly, another system was introduced, one that was not as cut and dry for the teacher or children. Now there wasn’t an immediate reward or punishment--and worse yet, the teacher would not solve every problem that came down the pike! Being aware of the differences between the two systems, assertive discipline became a "border" that the children did not want to cross. "Operating within the constraints of cultural systems, individuals can accept, resist, challenge, or attempt to change cultural pattern norms" (Jacob, 1999). This is exactly what I saw in Miss Davis' class. The children were responding in many different ways to the "change" (positive discipline) to their cultural norm (assertive discipline). Based on this information, I decided to develop interventions to help the children make the transition between the two systems.

Before I wrote my intervention goals, I came up with a list of behaviors that I would like to see from the class and teacher. These behaviors included a sense of collaboration and independence when it comes to problem solving. I wanted to help the children understand and use positive discipline. I wanted the children to develop responsibility for their actions as well as awareness of how their responses effect others.

To address CIP 3.1, I came up with the following interventions:

To address CIP 3.5, I came up with the following intervention ideas:

Implementation of the Interventions

Miss Davis. The first intervention I tried was to find some literature that would provide Miss Davis with some informative ideas and suggestions about positive discipline. I copied a chapter from a book called Teaching Children to Care (Charney, 1991) that gave suggestions on how to make the class meeting effective. I found a good article called "Positive Discipline: Fostering the Self-esteem of Young Children" by Eaton (1997). This article included conversations between children and teachers using the positive discipline approach. Finally, I shared with Miss Davis what I learned from observing and talking with other teachers who use positive discipline. I also suggested that she check the school copy of the positive discipline video and book.

Students. Some of the strategies I implemented were during class interviews and discussions. Questioning the children and having them think and talk about the pin board and class meetings brought their understanding to a new level.

I made a poster to encourage children to be a class meeting team star. It included six suggestions with an illustration to go with each: (a) A team star listens to others’ ideas; (b) A team star brings important ideas to the group; (c) A team star is careful not to hurt others feelings; (d) A team star works hard to involve everyone; (e) A team star supports team decisions; and (f) A team star builds others ideas. I introduced the poster to the class and we discussed each idea. I encouraged them to get this out during every class meeting to review before starting.

My next intervention was to present several positive discipline "buy in" lessons with the purpose of helping the children to become more familiar with the methods and strategies. Since the teacher had not tried any of these types I lessons, I chose two that I thought would be effective. The first lesson was called "mistakes are a wonderful opportunity to learn." We started the lesson by discussing our ideas about mistakes. The children shared what adults had told them as well as their own personal feelings. Most children thought that mistakes were bad, that one gets punished for making them, and that they should not be made. I told them that was nonsense and we talked about learning from our mistakes. I shared a couple of stories about mistakes that I made and the children did as well. I introduced them to the "Three R’s of Recovery from Mistakes:" (a) recognize, (b) resolve, and (c) reconcile (Nelson, 1996). The children were taught to recognize that they made a mistake, resolve or apologize to the people you hurt, and reconcile or come up with a way to solve the problem. I encouraged using the agenda to solve problems. The children seemed to enjoy this lesson so much that we did a worksheet on the three R’s. On this worksheet, each child shared a story where they made a mistake and how they resolved the problem.

Next I did a lesson on "four problem solving steps," introducing the children to Nelson's (1996) strategies: (a) ignore the problem; (b) talk it over respectfully with the other child; (c) come up with a win/win solution and; and (d) put it in the class meeting agenda. After discussing and sharing ideas about the four strategies, we did some acting. I came up with eight different scenarios for the children to help me act out. The kids had to guess which strategy I used to solved the problem. The scenarios included problems such as: another child has a book that you want to use, you’re mad that the whole class lost recess for a week, or you’re best friend won’t be your partner. The children had a great time doing this activity and did an accurate job guessing the strategy.

Monitoring

Since I was a weekly volunteer in the classroom, I had to rely on the teacher to monitor the interventions that I tried with the children. I sat down with her on my last day in the classroom to discuss the effectiveness of my interventions. Overall, Miss Davis was very pleased with the change in her children. She feels that her students have become much better and more effective problem solvers. During class meetings, they come up with thoughtful answers, look for deeper ways to solve problems, and more easily arrive at a consensus. She hears the children reminding each other about the agenda and using Kelso’s choices to solve problems. She feels like the whole positive discipline program has come together for her and her class. Miss Davis is much more comfortable turning over the problem solving to her children. In fact, now she only uses the pin board as a very last resort. Over the past two weeks, the behavior grades have improved with all but one child getting either a G (good) or an O (outstanding).

Miss Davis attributed some of the success for this program to small class size. With 19 children, it is much easier for all of them to get a turn to talk during a class meeting. There is more space so that the children can sit facing each other. She has developed a level of confidence and support for positive discipline, and she plans to use it next year.

The last time I talked to the students, they expressed more pride in being able to come up with creative ideas to solving problems. Most of them said that it would not bother them to get rid of the pin board and use only the agenda and class meetings for problem solving. That is a far cry from where the children were five months earlier!

References

Canter, L., (1988). Let the educator beware: a response to Curwin and Mendler. Educational Leadership, 46, 71-73.

Curwin, R., Mendler, A., (1988). Packaged discipline programs: let the buyer beware. Educational Leadership, 46, 68-70.

Charney, R., (1991). Teaching children to care: management in the responsive classroom. Greenfield, MA: Northeast Foundation for Children.

Eaton, M., (1997). Positive discipline: fostering the self-esteem of young children. Young Children, 52(6), 43-46.

Hill, D. (1990). Order in the classroom. Teacher Magazine, 1, 70-77.

Jacob, E. (1999). Cultural boundaries and borders, in Cultural Inquiry Process Web Site. [Online]. http://classweb.gmu.edu/classweb/cip/

Nelson, J. (1996). Positive Discipline (Rev. ed.). New York: Ballantine Books.