No, you’re not going to trick your students.
Here at SCM, we oppose all manipulative practices of classroom management, which are unfortunately common in this day and age. (Think PBIS).
We believe in honesty, transparency, and authenticity in all interactions with students. However, there is a psychological trick we do recommend using. Only, instead of being used on students, you’re going to use it on yourself.
Before we get to the trick, it’s important to first discuss what is known as the Pygmalion effect.
The Pygmalion effect is the name given to the phenomenon, proven many decades ago, that our subconscious beliefs and expectations of others affect their behavior. For example, if your boss believes you’re highly competent, then you’re likely to behave highly competently.
Their expectations of you are revealed through their behaviors, expressions, tone, and language, which communicate to you that you’re good at your job. Put simply, you rise to the level of excellence your boss has labeled you in their own mind.
It’s a prophecy you’re naturally driven to fulfill.
Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. Often called the Golem effect, if your boss expects you to fail, then it’s an uphill battle to overcome the prophecy you’ve been saddled with.
Difficult students have firmly established negative labels imprinted on their psyche. Although their current and former teachers may say they believe in them, their behavior, guided by their internal beliefs, says otherwise.
All the lectures, talking-tos, behavior contracts, extra chances, appeasements, rewards, sighs, false praise, and hundreds of constant subconscious mannerisms communicate loud and clear to these students that they’re not good enough. They don’t measure up.
They can’t do it.
They’re inundated by Golemion signals, to-and-fro manipulations, and none-too-subtle messages that solidify the monstrous labels they carry with them like electrodes bolted to the sides of their neck. This is why they never actually improve.
The solution is twofold.
First, you must employ the SCM approach—the basics of which are laid out in the Total Classroom Management Makeover. Simply by following the 18 core strategies presented in the book, you’ll bring your most challenging students to a level of equilibrium, whereby they can start feeling like a regular student.
Their burden will lift and their “difficult” label will begin sloughing off like snake skin.
What they had previously accepted without question, is becoming no longer who they are. This alone is enough to begin taking responsibility, growing in maturity, and healing the scarring from years of low-expectation messaging.
The second part of the solution is the trick.
It’s simple but can be life-changing both for you and them. The way it works is that you’re going to pretend, in both your behavior and how you feel and believe on the inside, that your most challenging students are actually your best students.
You’re going to remove the old lens and replace it with a new one. You’re going to consciously choose to see them differently. Consequently, your mannerisms and micro-expressions will automatically reflect the change. So now, instead of reinforcing the Golem effect, you’ll be infusing a new belief in them.
The Pygmalion effect.
Your expectations will be of good behavior and hard work, which they’ll receive and seek to meet without you having to say a word. You’ll provide a prophecy of success, which they can’t help but to fulfill.
There is a lot to this topic, but rest assured all of our strategies here at SCM, particularly those found in the Difficult Students category of the archive, support the power of changing behavior by changing how students view themselves.
But the change in you must always come first.
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Thank you, Michael! What a wonderful way to start off the year. I’m going to try that as soon as term begins. I know exactly which student is going to be my best ever.
What are your objections to PBIS?
Thank you.
The best ‘trick’ I have, is I ask this student for help. Help reaching down something, carrying something somewhere, sharpening a pencil. Things is, you don’t ask people for help that you don’t like. It sends the message that you like them. Now some tough kids, will refuse, and I say ok, and ask someone else. But later, I will ask again. Most of the time, they see other kids doing things for me, I am pleased and thankful, and eventually they are doing it too.
I don’t give an order, I ask for help, it is legitimate, and it is an easy thing to do.
That’s what I have learned to do with my most challenging students. I have begun asking them to do various things around the art room that needs attention and some say no but then they see others do it then they ask is there something I can do too. I use to do the clean up which I don’t mind but now I have students asking me for more things to do.
Love this
I love this, but also PBIS is not manipulation? Maybe when it’s done wrong (and I have seen it done wrong) but certainly not when it’s done with intention and follow-through. You can’t condemn a whole practice just because some schools are slapping the title of PBIS on things that aren’t!
Agreed.
I think he may be referring to the element of rewards that PBIS utilizes to incentivize positive behavior. SCM doesn’t encourage rewards/incentives in exchange for good behavior. From what I’ve gathered through his blogs and books, he encourages rewarding all students “just because” (so it’s not linked to behavior) as a way to deepen community and have fun with your students.
this is so helpful. thanks alot
This really resonates. Be truly confident they can do it and they will. And then they will know they can too. That applies to academic work as well as behavior.
I also, like others have mentioned, give classroom jobs to students who have a hard time sitting still or who never get picked to do anything. Showing that I trust a student makes them be trustworthy.
For people questioning Michael’s stance on PBIS, I suggest searching the archives and reading his previous posts about it.
This is 100% true! I started the school year with a difficult student who is strong willed and used to having things her way. The more I disciplined her by being “the enforcer”, the more she pushed back. She was becoming more and more difficult. I realized I was the one who needed to make a change. That’s when I began to ask her to do tasks that I’d typically ask the most well behaved students. I complimented her on anything that was a positive. I found a common interest we had and began having little conversations with her that were just between she and I. The transformation has been amazing, she no longer pushes back, she’s become one of the most easy going students I have. She is the first one to help another student in need. I know this is a student I will miss once the school year is over. After over 20 years of teaching, I’m still learning that each student will present with their particular needs and what works for one may or may not work for another.
J’aimerais discuter avec toi au sujet de quelques élèves dans ma classe qui perturbent régulièrement. Les temps-morts ne semblent pas être efficaces car les comportements indésirables persistent. Peux-tu me donner des conseils sur la meilleure approche à adopter pour résoudre ce problème de manière plus permanente?