Rudolph Dreikurs.

The Democratic Discipline Model.Starring:

Kathy, Michelle, Shirley, Linda, Nicole and Simon.

“All behaviour is socially useful or socially useless.”

DEMOCRACY# the political orientation of those who favour

government by the people or by their elected representatives

# a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them

# majority rule: the doctrine that the numerical majority of an organized group can make decisions binding on the whole group

wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

the central motivation of all humans is to belong and be accepted by

others.

THE DEMOCRATIC DISCIPLINE MODEL.Rudolph Dreikurs.

Parts from Freud. Autocratic/permissive and democratic.

Social beings/ Vygotsky. Highly compatible with the VALUES

system well (civic responsibility and participation, basically training for

“society”.)

Responsibilities of the teacher. Social beings / Acceptance and

Belonging. Be wholly accepting of the system. Goals for mis/behaviour. Active participation / government

(consequences). Student centred/ students assume

responsibility.

4 KEY CONCEPTS

Democratic Teaching Democratic vs Autocratic

Encouragement Effort vs Achievement

4 KEY CONCEPTS

Logical Consequences Logical consequences vs Punishments

Mistaken Goals gain attention, power seeking, revenge or

feelings of inadequacy

Student Behaviours in pursuit ofThe Mistaken Goals. Social Recognition/Unfulfilled needs. Seeking Attention. Seeking Power. Seeking Revenge. Displaying Inadequacies.

Identifying & Addressing Mistaken Goals.

All students desire & need social recognition.

Attention – Seeking

Students talk out, show off, interrupt others and demand teacher attention.

 

It is best to ignore the student and accompany this with the reinforcement of good behaviour.

 

Power- Seeking:

They drag their heels, make comments under their breath, and sometimes try to show that

the teacher can’t make them do anything. Make it necessary for errant students to

confront the whole class in the quest for power.

Avoid confrontation.   Redirect the need for power by giving them

a leadership role.  Do the unexpected 

Revenge Seeking

They try to get back at the teacher & other students by lying, subverting class activities and maliciously disrupting the

class.

A very difficult task as may be a result of external factors. Need to encourage the class to be positive as often the student

is isolated because of revengeful behaviour

Display Inadequacy

They withdraw from class activities & make no effort to

learn. Provide an abundance of support & encouragement –

especially when students make mistakes. Student needs to feel

success. Encouragement to re-enter group

discussions or activities

Benefits of Identifying Mistaken Goals:

Teachers can take more decisive action and implement specific strategies to

change mistaken goals into positive ones. Help students find legitimate ways to

satisfy needs. Revealing the behaviour encourages

students to understand their own motives. Students have a choice – learn to be

responsible.

Implementation.

• Build on the positive, avoid the negative.• Encourage independence and the assumption of

responsibility.• Encourage students to strive for improvement, not

perfection.• Give clear cut directions for action expected of students;

make sure they understand the limits.• Show that you accept students but not their misbehaviour.

• Emphasize student strengths while minimizing weaknesses.

• Treat students consistently with a ‘firm but fair’ manner. 

Impact in the Classroom.

Students must take on responsibility for behaviours and transgressions.

Teacher must maintain a high degree of familiarity with students especially those that misbehave.

Decision making and discussions will impact on learning experiences in both positive and negative ways.

What are the shortcomings of the Model? 

Allowing students to have input in school governance is a worthy goal,

but there are implications?

Shortcomings.

It may be difficult for inexperienced teachers to identify the reasons behind

the student’s misbehaviour. Q. Why is he behaving that way?

Because he’s a second born child. He has a learning disability?

He comes from a dysfunctional family?

A. I don’t know, I don’t have psychological training?

Shortcomings.

Logical consequences for certain behaviours can be planned for during the ‘democracy making’ process. However a teacher’s decision making is often on the spot. In the heat of the moment, faced with a challenging situation, one’s logic

might be spent. 

 

Shortcomings.

Some teachers may feel threatened reducing their control over students. ‘Give them an inch, they’ll take a mile.”

  We cannot forget the teachers'

wellbeing. The teachers' rights are just as important.

When adopting this approach, teachers need to consider:  A classroom’s miniature democracy

should be set up at the start of the year. Values teaching should be incorporated in lessons so students know how to behave.

When adopting this approach, teachers need to consider: All students need to contribute to the

decision making process, not just the loud or confident students. Otherwise some students are going to feel left out and may rebel.

  Solving discipline through classroom

discussion can be time consuming and should not interfere with the teaching curriculum.

A teacher practicing the Dreikurs’ model is committed to: Overall, his method has considerable

potential for managing student behaviour. If I respect the students, providing them with the means and opportunity for some decision making then hopefully they will respect me as a teacher and behave.

However teachers have responsibilities which include:

Adequate supervision and the safety of students at all times.

Teaching of the curriculum and student achievement.

Therefore students may have some input in some areas but there are areas that are exclusive rights of the teacher (Edwards & Watts, 2008).

1. Sarah constantly taps her pencil on the desk. This is an example of:

a) Exacting revengeb) Exercising powerc) Gaining attentiond) Displaying

inadequacy

a) b) c) d)

0%6%

76%

18%

a) b) c) d)

13%

0%0%

88%

2. Bob refuses to follow the teacher’s instructions and line up. This is an example of:

a) Exacting revengeb) Exercising powerc) Gaining attentiond) Displaying inadequacy

3. Jane writes nasty messages about her teacher on her pencil case. This is an example of:

a) Exacting revengeb) Exercising powerc) Gaining attentiond) Displaying

inadequacy

a) b) c) d)

94%

6%0%0%

4. Fred constantly sighs and mutters, “this is too hard”, while doing his class work. This is an example of:

a) Exacting revengeb) Exercising powerc) Gaining attentiond) Displaying

inadequacy

a) b) c) d)

6%

94%

0%0%

5. Would you incorporate this method into your teaching?

a) Yesb) No

82%

18%

a) b)