- In order for teacher to make a positive impact, Ginotts stated three things
(1) the teacher must model communication that is congruent with student’s emotions and surroundings
(2) the teacher must include cooperative learning
(3) it is important to use discipline in place of punishment
HAim Ginott
Examples
- "Deborah, stop tapping your pen on the desk. You can find so many ways to disturb the class; you are always getting into trouble." vs. "I am bothered when someone keeps tapping a pen on the desk, it makes it difficult for me to concentrate."
- "Where were you when the brains were handed out?" vs. "You feel this assignment is too hard, would you like me to help you with a few problems?"
- "Why can't you be good for a change?" "Why do you forget everything I tell you" "Why are you doing that" vs. allowing face-saving exits "you may remain at your desk and read quietly, or you may sit by yourself at the back of the room"
- "It has come to my attention that several students think the trashcan is a basketball hoop..." vs. "We do not throw paper."
- Ginott defined congruent communication as harmonious communication between a teacher and student
1. Sane messages focuses on the problem behavior rather than on the student
2.Express anger appropriately; "I" Messages vs. "you"
3.Invites cooperation between the teacher and student
4.Accepts and acknowledges the feelings of both students and teachers
5. Avoid labeling student
6.Use direction as a means of correction
7. Avoid "why" questions
8. Accept student Comments
9. Do not used sarcasm
10. Avoid hurried help
11. Uses brevity in correcting misbehavior
Background
- A clinical psychologist, child therapist, parent educator, and author
- Began career as an elementary school teacher in home country Israel in 1947
- After immigrating to the United States he attended Columbia University in NYC where he earned a doctoral degree in clinical psychology in 1952
- Work with troubled children at Jacksonville Guidance Clinic in Florida
- Books include Between Parent and Child (1965), Between Parent and Teenager (1967), and Teacher and Child (1972); translated into 30 languages
Discipline Not Punishment
- Evaluative (Judge what is seen) vs. Descriptive/Appreciative Praise (Describe what the child has done)/(Praise that expresses gratitude/admiration)
- Example: You hear Deborah practicing her piano.
"You are so good at the piano. You are the best piano player in the country." vs. “It sounds beautiful"/"I can see how much you love the piano by the way you play them"
- Evaluative praise creates dependence
- "Children are dependent on their teachers, and dependency breeds hostility"
- "To reduce hostility a teacher deliberately provides children with opportunities to experience independence. The more autonomy, the less enmity; the more self-dependence, the less resentment of others"
- "Avoiding commands is another effective method of decreasing defiance"
- Teacher should still take control in deciding what needs to be done, however the child can decide how things will occur
- "Essence of discipline is finding effective alternatives to punishment"
- "To punish a child is to enrage him and make him uneducable"
- "In discipline whatever generates hate must be avoided, whatever creates self-esteem is to be fostered"
- Punishment is counter productive because once over the student feels that they have paid for their mistake and can do it again
- Example: A student is not doing their homework, rather than punishing
- "I feel frustrated when students do not try to learn what I am teaching, what can we do to together to finish this assignment?"
- Teachers should work to achieve "self-discipline" in students
Discipline not Punishment