Building The Foundation Thomas Gordon

Presented by : Jessica Jerin Surang Nur Izati binti Kadir Myra Anak Ungau

Description

Approaches & Strategies

Practicality Why does the model look appeal to us?

 The founder of Gordon Training International. Pioneering the teaching of communication skills and conflict resolution to parents, teachers, youth, and managers of organizations. His model is based on Rogerian theory, which was developed by Carl Rogers .

A good classroom management :

Implementation of effective instructional practices.

Use of coercive power damages relationships.

Gordon (1989) Children will show poor self-control once they are outside of the influence of adults controllers.

Selfdiscipline is important;

A system of rewards and punishments to be ineffective.

A teachers power;

Teachers must give up their controlling power over students.

The idea of helping students to become self-reliant.

This model is about:

Creating a mutual respect in the classroom.

The effective communication and conflict resolution using the win-win strategy

A teacher will learn HOW;

To set classroom rules - less enforcement is necessary
To handle discipline problems without damaging the students self-esteem

To talk so that students will listen

To resolve conflicts so that both you and the students are satisfied with the solutions

To avoid the problems of permissiveness & still have classrooms that encourage student participation.

STRATEGY AND APPROACHES

Teacher needs to understand who owns a problem.

How?

Once a teacher understands the concept of who owns the problem, they can apply these skills in dealing students.

1) Confrontive skills
2) Helping skills 3) Preventive skills

Confrontive skills
Should be applied when the teacher owns the problem, in a positive and no adversarial manner

5 Confrontive skills

a) Modifying the environment Teacher Enriches

lead to

Limit

Elimination or minimization of problem behaviour

b) Identify and Respond to Ones Own Primary Feelings

An intense situation occurs A teacher often feels fear, worry, disappointment or guilt

These feelings into secondary feeling, often anger

c) Send I-Messages regularly

Communicates 3 things: - Behavioural problem - The teachers feeling about the problem - The consequences of the problem Convey to children Let me tell you how am I feeling

d) Shifting Gears
I-Messages prompt a defensive response Teachers to listen with sensitivity to the resistance

Subsequently shift from sending/assertive posture to a listening/understanding posture

d) Using a No-Lose Method of Conflict Resolution

Enables both teacher and student to find a mutually acceptable solution to a given problem.

6 steps to solve problems:

1. Identify & define 2. Generate

the problem 4. Decide on the best solution

alternatives 5. Determine how to implement the decision

3. Evaluate alternatives

6. Assess how well the solution works

Helping skills
Should be applied when the students owns the problem.
It gives the student an opportunity to express his feelings with the knowledge that the teacher will understand and accept what hes feeling and saying

2 Major helping skills

a. Using Listening Skills (active listening)
- Teachers should not attempt to solve a students problem. - 3 types of listening skills: 1) Passive listening 2) Acknowledgement responses 3) Door openers
b.Avoiding

Communication Roadblocks
- Such as orders, warning, and lecturing, and replacing them with open and judgement-free interactions.

Preventive skills
To maintain an effective learning environment

Three specific preventive skills

a. Using Preventive I-Messages = influences

students future actions thereby avoiding future problems b. Setting Rules Collaboratively = both teacher and students to share in the creation of a learning environment which meet the needs of everyone.

c. Using Participative Classroom Management = teacher and students making joint decisions about class rules, room arrangement, seating and preferred activities.

STRENGT HS

 Does not force students to comply with rules, but promotes self-control Proposes non-controlling alternatives for influencing, not forcing, student behavior
Teaches teachers to listen to students and respond effectively. Shuns behaviour based on reward and punishment

 Gives strategies for teachers to give students control over their own behavior.
Helps to identify ones feelings (active listening & i-message)

Allows the teacher to correct and confront the students misbehavior without affecting the students feeling

 Provides a win-win situation for teacher and student Disciplines the students without hurting and threatening them emotionally and physically Gives the students an opportunity to become more responsible towards their behavior

WEAKNESS ES

 Gordons model of classroom management has the potential to make a lot of teachers very permissive. Gordon focuses mainly on resolving conflict after it arises.
I-messages are ways in which to control and manipulate others.

 I-messages can create an opposite reaction than they are intended.

Children may become uncontrollable without teachers guidance (selfregulation)

No-punishment concept may lead the students to feel more free to misbehave (every child is different)

 Malaysian context: We cannot just modify the environment

PRACTICALI TY

Gordons theory is practical because:

Active listening

Using active listening, we are able to know our students better

Case 1: Demonstrating emphatic understanding

During the first few weeks of school, one 6thgrade teacher gives his students an interest inventory, reviews their permanent records, talks with their parents, and "interviews" each student. He learns as much as he can about his students and looks for their challenges and potential problems as well as strengths on which he can build instruction. He has very few behavior problems. This is mainly due, he thinks, to his students' recognition of their teacher's sense of empathic understanding.

Gordons theory is practical because:

Active Listening

Teacher can use active listening method to allow the students to express their feelings and problems

Case 2: Promote active listening

When one 7th-grade teacher saw Jermesha enter the room one day, she could sense the girl's anger and frustration. When the teacher questioned Jermesha, the young woman responded: "Nothing's wrong and I don't want to talk about it." The teacher replied, "OK, but if you feel you need an ear, I have a free period later today." That afternoon, Jermesha did share her feelings and the teacher was able to help Jermesha find a way to solve her problem.

Gordons theory is practical because:

Avoiding you-message

By using Gordons theory of self-discipline, teacher will be able to correct their students in a more emphatic way

Case 3: Avoiding you statements

An 8th-grade teacher encourages his students to focus on sending I-messages, which he tries to model in his own interactions. For example, after he noticed some students in his social studies class picking on a special education student, he approached the problem and began a class discussion by saying: "I become concerned and annoyed whenever I see someone being bullied by others."

Gordons theory is practical because:

Self-discipline

Students learn to solve their own problems

They able to express their problems and feelings openly

What Students Say About Learning Through Gordons Model:

Ive learned that communication and talking out my problems is the best way to solve conflicts in my life and in my friends lives. I feel more confident in solving my own problems and more skilled in helping my friends with their problems.

WHY DOES THE MODEL APPEAL TO US?

1. Problem solving is a process that should be taught and practiced in all classrooms.
By helping children find their own solutions to problems, it will foster more independence, more control over their own destiny, and higher self-esteem.

2. Administrators and teachers can concentrate more on education and less on discipline.
By involving children in their own learning process & in the process of governing their classrooms and schools. Teachers will make schooling far more interesting, prevent disciplinary problems, and foster higher achievement motivation.

3. Increased responsibility and self-control

They will understand themselves and others better. They will be able to control their behaviors. They will develop skills that they can use in all their relationships and throughout their lives.

References List
Bucher, K. T., & Manning, M. L. (2001, December 12). Childhood education. Exploring the foundations of middle school classroom management: the theoretical contributions of B. F. Skinner, Fritz Redl and William Wattenberg, William Glasser, and Thomas Gordon all have particular relevance for middle school educators, 78(2). Retrieved from http://www.freepatentsonline.com/article/ChildhoodEducation/81857965.html 321 Learn!. (n.d.).Critique of the Thomas Gordon method. Retrieved from http://www.321learn.net/teaching-info/classroommanagement/critique-thomas-gordon-method/ Bluestein, J. (2007). Whats wrong with i-messages? Retrieved from www.janebluestein.com/articles/whatswrong.html Gordon, T. (1989). Discipline that works: promoting self-discipline in children, New York: Penguin Gordon, T. (1989). How children really react to control. Retrieved from http://eqi.org/tgordon3.htm