POSITIVE DISCIPLINE IN EVERYDAY TEACHING

GUIDELINES FOR EDUCATORS

Joan E. Durrant, Ph.D.

What is Positive Discipline? How is Positive Discipline practised?

Positive discipline is an approach to teaching that helps Positive discipline has five components:
children succeed, gives them the information they need to
learn, and supports their development. It respects children’s 1. Identifying your long-term goals
right to healthy development, protection from violence, and
active participation in their learning. 2. Providing warmth and structure
3. Understanding child development
Positive discipline is not about permissiveness, letting
4. Identifying individual differences
students do whatever they want, or having no rules, limits or
expectations. 5. Problem-solving and responding with positive discipline

Positive discipline is about long-term solutions that

The foundation of positive discipline is child rights and
develop students’ own self-discipline and their life-long
pedagogical principles.
learning. It is about clear and consistent communication,
and consistent reinforcement of your expectations, rules
and limits. Positive discipline is about teaching non-
violence, empathy, self-respect, human rights, and respect Problem
for others. solving

Recognising individual
differences
Research on
healthy child Understanding child
development development

Providing Providing
Positive warmth structure
discipline

Setting long-term goals

Research on Child rights
effective
principles
teaching

Child rights Pedagogical

principles principles
1. Identifying your long-term goals In warm environments, students
feel safe to make mistakes,
Teaching children all they need to learn in order to be which is an important part of
successful in life is one of the world’s most important jobs. learning. Students also are much
But many teachers begin a new school year without more likely to be cooperative and
thinking about the impact they will have on their students’ to have fewer behaviour
later lives. We tend to focus on short-term goals — do your problems. Their academic
homework, stop talking, give me an answer now. Short- success fuels their interest, so
term situations can cause stress and frustration. The they are less distractible. They
problem is that the way we react to short-term stress often are not anxious, so they are less
Providing Providing
interferes with our long-term goals. Teachers can easily warmth structure
restless. And they come to
react to short-term frustration in a way that blocks their associate the classroom with
long-term goals by yelling, humiliating or hitting. positive feelings, so their love of
Setting long-term goals learning grows.
Every time you react this way,
you lose an opportunity to show
your students a better way — Teachers provide warmth to their students by supporting
and to strengthen their interest them in their learning, showing interest in who they are,
and motivation. Teachers want recognising their efforts and successes, and looking at
their students to be confident, situations from their students’ point of view.
kind, motivated, responsible,
and non-violent people. Yelling, Structure
humiliating and hitting will only Structure is the information and support that students need in
teach your students the order to succeed academically and behaviourally. It gives
opposite of what you want them students the tools they need to solve problems when you are
to learn in the long run. This is not present. Structure shows students how to work out
one of the hardest challenges conflicts with other people in a constructive, non-violent way.
Setting long-term goals for teachers — to handle short- It also informs them about how they can succeed
term stress in a way that helps academically.
them to achieve their long-term
goals. When students know what is expected of them, and believe
they will get the information needed to meet those
The aim of education is to prepare students for success in expectations, they become more confident in their learning
their adult lives. We can turn short-term challenges into ability and they want to learn more. They are less confused
and less frustrated, so they can focus their concentration on
opportunities to work towards our long-term goals by
their learning. Their success gives them positive feelings
teaching children how to manage stress, respect about school and the subject being taught. And their
themselves and others, and be successful learners. behaviour improves.

2. Providing warmth and structure Teachers provide structure for their students by acting as
positive role models and mentors, explaining the reasons for
Your long-term goals are your blueprints. They keep you rules, involving students in setting rules, hearing students’
focused on the impact you want to have on your students. point of view, helping them find ways to fix their mistakes in a
Achieving those goals requires two tools – warmth and way that helps to learn, being fair, controlling anger, and
structure. avoiding threats.

Warmth Positive discipline combines warmth and structure

Warmth affects students academically, emotionally and throughout each student’s school years. It is a way of
behaviourally. As teachers and adults, we are motivated to thinking that helps teachers to meet their short-term goals,
try, to learn from our mistakes, and do better next time while having a positive life-long impact on their students. It
when we are supported by those around us. Students also also is a way of increasing students’ interest in learning,
learn best when they feel respected, understood, trusted, strengthening their motivation to achieve and promoting their
and safe. A warm classroom environment is the foundation academic success.
for meeting your long-term goals.
3. Understanding child development At the moment of school entry, teachers assume a large
share of responsibility for the child’s successful transition.
Teachers are well aware that children change as they grow. Their responses can affect children’s feelings toward school
Development is an ongoing, never-ending process. It is and learning for many years to come. Teachers can help
because children change that we are able to teach them children to make this adjustment when they understand how
new information and new skills. All learning builds on prior children think at this age.
learning – and forms a foundation for future learning.
At the time of school entry, children have difficulty
But children do not learn in the same way at every age. understanding things they have not yet experienced.
Their ways of thinking and understanding change, so the Children of this age can grasp concrete concepts, but have
ways that we teach them must change as well. To reach difficulty with abstract concepts and understanding that
your long-term goals you need to provide warmth and there is more than one aspect to any situation. They focus
structure that are appropriate to your students’ stage of on the aspect that is most obvious to them, unable to
development. Expectations need to match students’ abilities. consider the less obvious one at the same time.

When we start to see the world through the eyes of a 6-year- When a child of this age is punished, he is likely to feel
old or a 13-year-old, we can begin to understand the rejected. When children feel rejected by their teachers, they
reasons for their behaviour. Then we can be more effective become insecure and anxious in the school environment.
teachers. As a result they might withdraw – or they might act up.
Children who withdraw become quiet, shy and fearful of
Early childhood making mistakes. If teachers then respond with criticism,
Much of students’ development these children become more anxious. Over time, they can
is invisible to teachers. easily lose their motivation to try. Children who act up are
Children’s experiences before likely to be punished again, leading to greater anxiety.
school entry set the stage for These children find it hard to concentrate on their
their readiness to learn, their schoolwork and begin to fail. Over time, they can easily
motivation to learn, and their stop caring about school.
Understanding child
development skills in social interaction.
If a child is having difficulty making the adjustment to
In many cases, the learning and school, it is important to assess the behaviour and find the
Providing Providing
warmth structure behavioural difficulties that reasons that lie behind it. Then we can choose a response
become evident in school had that encourages self-discipline while motivating the child to
their origins in what children learn and achieve.
Setting long-term goals learned about themselves years
earlier. Early Primary (6- to 8-year-olds)
If the transition to school has been made successfully,
It is important for teachers to consider and find out how a children in the early years of elementary/primary school are
child’s preschool experiences might have formed a self- typically eager to learn and highly motivated to master new
concept that is expressed in his attitudes toward learning and challenges. They have an innate drive to understand their
his behaviour in the classroom or in the schoolyard. world.

Transition to school Children’s experiences in primary school set the stage for
Making the transition to school is a momentous event in a their success in later years. At this time, teachers need to
child’s life. It is one of the biggest adjustments she will ever create a learning climate that is supportive and
make. From a child’s perspective, school is an entirely new encouraging, and that nurtures children’s motivation to
world. It is in a new location, filled with new children and new learn.
adults with new expectations. There are new schedules and
routines to follow. And, perhaps for the first time, the child is Some characteristics of children in this stage can present
without her parents or caregivers. This situation presents a challenges to creating a supportive environment. These
tremendous challenge for the child. children are active, curious, distractible and independent.
Each of these characteristics can lead to conflict in the Each child arrives in the
classroom. Teachers’ approaches to these conflicts can have classroom with a unique set
a powerful impact on children’s feelings about school. of experiences that affects
her. It is extremely important
Late Primary (9- to 12-year-olds) Recognising individual
By the late primary grades, children are able to solve problems differences that teachers understand the
mentally, so their mathematical abilities progress quickly. They challenges each child faces
also become able to think about their own thinking (meta- Understanding child and provide the support they
cognition). This means that they can reflect on how they learn, development need.
assess their strategies, and try out new ones.
Providing Providing For students who feel
Socially, children become focused on peer relationships. They warmth structure
“different”, a teacher who
form close friendships – and can experience intense conflict. believes in them can make
In this stage, teachers need to create a learning climate that Setting long-term goals the difference between their
fosters both academic and social confidence.
success and failure in
Adolescence (13- to 18- year-olds) school.
Adolescence is a time of remarkable transformation. Youth
are crossing the bridge from childhood to adulthood, an 5. Problem solving
amazing change seen in all areas of their development.
Problem
Som etimes students’
solving
Youth are able to think hypothetically - they can approach behaviours can be
problems scientifically, proposing hypotheses and testing mystifying to teachers. “Why
them systematically. They think about “big issues”, such as Recognising individual
won’t she stop talking?”
differences
politics and tradition. They might question adults’ ways of “Why can’t he just do his
thinking. This is not a sign of disrespect, but a sign that they homework?”
are able to think for themselves and to figure out what they Understanding child
development
value and believe. Once a teacher has identified
her long-term goals,
Providing Providing
Adolescents struggle to achieve a sense of identity. Their understands the importance warmth structure
strong drive for independence, need for peer acceptance, and of providing warmth and
difficulty understanding the risks they are taking can result in structure, understands child
frequent conflict with parents and teachers. Attempts to development and recognises Setting long-term goals
control them or to force them to adopt particular views will the importance of individual
create resentment and close down communication. Physical differences, she will have the
punishment will humiliate them and lead to very negative information she needs to
attitudes toward school. solve these challenges by
responding with positive
Teachers need to help students develop a sense of right and discipline.
wrong, and a sense of responsibility and competence. Trust is
important - so are listening, giving them clear and honest Remember that a student needs to feel respected,
information, clear expectations and structure. understood, and safe. Discipline is not about
punishment. It is not always easy to respond
4. Recognising individual differences constructively in challenging situations. Positive
discipline takes thought and practice.
While all children go through the same stages of
development, they do so within different environments, Positive discipline can guide all teachers’ interactions with
cultures, and with different personalities, talents and their students, not just the challenging ones. It also can
abilities. Every class is made up of a group of individual guide their teaching of academic skills, not just social and
students, each with his or her own story. Teachers need to behavioural skills. It is important to think ahead and plan a
find out the different stories in their classrooms. response. And practice, practice, and practice.

The content of this primer is taken from Positive Discipline in Everyday Teaching by
Joan E. Durrant, Ph.D., published by Save the Children.

For more information, please contact:

Save the Children

SC Sweden Southeast Asia and the Pacific Regional Office
14th floor, Maneeya Centre
518/5 Ploenchit Road
Bangkok, 10330 Thailand
Email: [email protected]