A-Z of Education Today: Behavior

A friend of mine has been posting her A-Z of the medical field on Facebook recently, and the more I read her highly humorous, often facetious posts, I became inspired to create my own A-Z of Education. I know that most people are aware of what alphabetical order means, but I feel the need to clarify that these posts are NOT in order of importance, and the opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Behavior is always the talk of the town around a school. What does it mean? Who's doing it? How do we control it? What's punishable and how do we punish for it? Even at the beginning of the school year, when everyone is supposed to get a fresh start, the primary topic of conversation revolves around behavior, primarily student behavior, although teachers, trust me, our behavior comes into question quite often, and even administrators' behavior gets talked about the further up the ladder one goes. 
 

So, what does it mean exactly?
Let me start by defining behavior, else we might all have a different definition.  Behavior is the way in which we act in a given situation for a given set of circumstances.  For the most part, behavior is a conditioned response to stimuli, conditioned being the important word because we learn most of our behaviors from the modeling of others.  This is important when we seek to control someone else's behavior, especially that of a student.  How much do we know about the modeling they've gotten? Are we judging them based on the modeling we've had, and are we then punishing them for coming up lacking according to our expectations? As children, from Kindergarten all the way through high school, are developing and changing at rates we can't even pinpoint, do they ever get a chance to come in fresh without preconceived notions about how they'll behave based on teacher-lounge conversations?  Remember, we're talking about conditioned responses. They've had 5 years of modeling before they even get to us, and then we see them for 6 out of 24 hours a day, 180 out of 365 days a year, for give or take 12 years.  Do we really think that our expectations for behavior take precedence over the ways they're expected to behave in the situations and circumstances in which they find themselves the rest of the time?

Whose behavior is most important?
I know the obvious answer to this question is students' behavior, right.  I'm not quite so sure.  Based on the definition and the fact that conditioning takes place over time, we are unlikely to get anywhere if our focus is only on student behavior.  After all, they reflect the models they've been given.  C'mon now, how many of us don't know an adult who has been late to work?  How many of us, me included, have "winged" lessons because we didn't do our "homework" of writing lesson plans?  How many of us have literally yelled at students for being to loud?  Are we modeling the behavior we expect to see in the school and in our classrooms, or are we mirroring the flaws that we see in their behavior?  Uh oh.  You see, once we get to a certain age, we should be able to determine which conditioned responses are appropriate and which ones aren't.  That's adult development, not so much for children, and, well, teenagers...my definition of "teenager" is "bad decisions".  No matter how much many of them may look like adults, they still have so many things going on physically, neurologically, and socially that action takes precedence over thought.  Knowing that your behavior is inappropriate and consciously choosing to behave appropriately are two completely different processes.  So, the question of whose behavior matters most is an important one...I would say it's OUR behavior that will, over time, have the greatest impact.

How do we control behavior?
And here's where I lose everyone...we start with ourselves.  Instead of asking "what's our school's discipline policy," how about asking "what model do I want to show my students."  Fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the only behavior we can truly control is our own.  We can model our behavioral expectations, and we can even punish those who don't meet our expectations, but do we really control their behavior?  The number of repeat offenders in our penile system show that behavioral change doesn't occur simply by expectation and punishment alone.  So, what do we do?  We remember that students are individuals, just as we are, with their own sets of experiences, and that they inherently want to be successful.  We acknowledge that sometimes the behaviors we hate (such a strong word) the most are often the same ones that keep them safe outside of the school environment.  We learn new ways of engaging students in the learning we're facilitating in class.  Let's not just assume that because we created the lesson and they are physically present for the lesson that they are either interested or engaged in learning said lesson.  If we don't plan for their engagement, we might as well plan for their "off-task" behavior. Oh yeah, and we check our behaviors because we're always on stage, even when we think students aren't paying attention.  If our clothes are a little too tight, students notice; if we're late to class or unprepared (last minute run to the copier, anyone?), they notice; or if we're yelling at and/or praising the same students daily, they notice.  Rather than focusing on the negatives, let's find ways to celebrate the positives by drawing attention to what we want to see rather than giving attention to what we would rather not see.

Does that mean no punishment for bad behavior?
Uh oh, let the flood gates open!  I'm not saying let everything go and have a free-for-all.  Remember that safety is always our primary concern, right up there with student learning.  So, we must immediately deal with safety issues, but we have to be honest that the majority of behavior referrals and subsequent punishments are related to the things that annoy us rather than anything dangerous--things like coming to class "unprepared," talking "out of turn," arriving late, etc.  When thinking about punishment for behavior, we really need to focus on what our behavioral goals are and whether or not the punishments we're seeking help us move closer to those goals.  Removing students from the classroom for extended periods of time does not help them learn the expectations of the classroom, and it takes them out of the learning environment.  I really don't want to get into grade penalties in this blog, as I have a whole post on grading brewing right now, but I will say that there is little logic in penalizing or rewarding with grades based on behavior.  If grades are meant to demonstrate academic achievement, then they should be based on just that.

And please don't think that I think I'm perfect or that I'm living in a perfect world here.  All of these things I've talked about, I've done.  I've also grown over the years as a person and an educator, and a great number of students have shown me that there's a lot more to getting the behaviors I hoped for than just me saying I have "high expectations" because what I was really saying is that I expected the students to behave like me.