A Simple Way To Re-Direct Inappropriate Behaviour



Posted: Thursday, December 17, 2009

by Rob Plevin
Behaviour Needs

Here's a tip for quickly getting a disengaged student back on task. Like any classroom management strategy it won't work every time with every student but it's powerful none the less and a great tool for your classroom management tool kit.

We all know how powerful praise can be as a classroom management tool. My personal view is that when used correctly, sincere, heartfelt praise is one of the most effective strategies educators possess for managing the mood of students and increasing motivation in lessons. This tip is a novel way of using the principle of proximity praise'.

Proximity praise relies on the ripple effect' where the positive feelings from praising individual students who are working hard or behaving well spread or ripple' around the room with other students getting the message that if they behave in a similar way, they too will receive praise. We can multiply the power of this effect with a novel praise idea which someone suggested on one of our live classroom management courses. It's called Windscreen wiper praise'. It's very straightforward but obviously needs a brief explanation...

Let's say you have a student (we'll call him Damien') who is off-task and not working as he should be. The idea is to subtly but repeatedly praise the students sitting on either side of him Kyle' and Kieran' for their work and/or behaviour. If Kyle and Kieran are friends of Damien it will make this even more effective but it works well even if they aren't. This is how it could go...

"Hey Kieran you've got it. I honestly didn't think you'd manage that question; absolutely brilliant it's good to see you learning."

"Let's have a look at yours Kyle...you've really improved. You've got that bit right, well done. Now, how could you improve this bit and get to the next level?"

A few minutes later...

"Thank you for putting that in the bin Kyle. By the way I saw that film last night you were talking about the other day it was really funny, thanks for suggesting it."

"Nice one Kieran. I like what you've done there. I'm really pleased with you two, you're working very well, thank you."

Do you see how it works and where the name Windscreen wiper praise' comes from? By continually engaging with Kyle and Kieran in a positive manner Damien's head will be going from side to side wondering what his two neighbours have done to attract all this attention. Students generally like getting attention especially if it's positive and by NOT giving Damien attention but instead giving it to his neighbours we take the power of proximity praise to the next level.

Rob Plevin is the author of Magic Classroom Management and the originator of the Needs-Focused Approach to behaviour management - a step-by-step, easy-to-follow system for preventing and dealing with behaviour problems. Rob delivers training in the UK and overseas to teachers, parents, youth workers, lecturers and social workers. A full schedule of courses and speaking events can be seen on his website at www.behaviourneeds.com
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