Jacob Kounin‟s Theory all of this came about form an incident that happened while he
was teaching a class in Mental Hygiene. A student in the back of the class was
reading newspaper, and the newspaper being opened fully in front of the student
so that he couldn‘t see the teacher. Kounin asked the student to put the paper
away and pay attention. Once the student complied, Kounin realized that other
students who were engaging in non-appropriate behaviors (whispering, passing
notes) stopped and began to pay attention the lecture. This gave him interest
in understanding classroom discipline on not only the student being
disciplined, but also the other students in the classroom. This is the effect
that became known as the “Ripple Effect‖.
Who is Kounin? Kounin is a classroom behaviorist theorist. Best known
for his two studies done in 1970 He wrote the book, "Discipline and Group
Management in Classrooms". Kounin worked to combine both discipline and
learning in the classroom. Kounin believed that organization and planning are key
to engaging students
Achieving Classroom Management through Preventative Discipline
Strategy 1: Ripple Effect
By correcting the misbehavior of one student it can positively influence
the behavior of another
Strategy 2: „Withitness‟
•
Awareness of what is
going on in all parts of the classroom
•
Teachers have eyes on
the back of their heads!
• Classroom layout
benefits the teacher‘s ability to see all students at all times
Strategy 3: Overlapping
•
When teachers can
effectively tend to two or more events simultaneously
•
Students are more
likely to stay on task if they know that the teacher is
•
aware of what they
are doing (body language)
Strategy 4: Movement
•
Smoothness: Smooth transitions between activities
•
Momentum: Appropriate pace and progression through a lesson
•
Group Focus and
Accountability: Keep the whole class involved and interested When Managing the
Classroom,
• Dangling: Teacher leaves a topic and introduces new, unrelated material
•
Flip-flop: like dangling, except that the teacher inserts
left-over materials from a previous lesson
• Thrust: teacher forgets to give clear instructions at the appropriate time of a
lesson. Teacher must then re-explain the instructions to each student on an
individual level
• Stimulus-bound: Teacher is distracted by an outside stimulus and draws the class‘s
attention to it
Classroom Applications
•
Be aware of what is
happening around the classroom.
•
Intervene before
misbehaviors escalate.
• Use routines,
explanations and smooth transitions to gain the attention of the students.
• Keep all students
involved through constant supervision and accountability.
• Reduce off task
behavior and boredom by creating challenges, extending tasks, providing
progress and adding variety.
•
Be able to attend to
more than one event at the same time.