Discipline without Stress By Carolyn Brickhouse MCED 7318 Spring 2013

 Dr. Marvin Marshall is a speaker, educator, and author who is widely known for his approach to discipline, parenting, and learning.  He founded a charity that supplies his education book and staff development at no charge to every teacher of any school in the U.S.A. who commits to using his totally non-coercive (but not permissive) approach for one year.  He has presented to universities, government agencies, associations, schools, and school districts in 44 of the United States, in 20 countries, and on five continents.

His approach stemmed from his extensive experiences as a parent; classroom teacher at the elementary, middle, and high school levels; middle school, high school, and camp counselor; middle school assistant principal; high school assistant principal of both supervision and control and curriculum and instruction; elementary and high school principal; district director of education; and certification by the William Glasser Institute on Choice Theory, Reality Therapy, and Quality Management. He earned his Bachelor’s in Language Arts and his Masters in Business Administration from California State University, Los Angeles. He was awarded a Doctorate in Education from the University of Southern California. He was a full-time lecturer for over three years at California State University, Los Angeles and has lectured in numerous universities.

“How can you provide discipline to your child so that he or she can function well at home and in public? Every parent wants their children to be happy, respectful, respected by others, and able to find their place in the world as well-behaved adults. Nobody wants to be accused of raising a spoiled brat.” --Retrieved from

His system is unique. He clearly demonstrates how to motivate children to exhibit expected behavior without using rewards, bribes, threats, or punishments. His system is highly effective and not stressful. His presentations include his BLOG topics: How to discipline, how to increase learning, how to become more effective, how to increase responsibility, how to improve relationships, and how to become a better parent.

How would you view punishment and rewards, from a child’s point of view?

The Process:  Marvin Marshall identified three phases of Discipline without Stress, Punishments, or Rewards:  1.Teaching students about the 4 levels of social development and relating the levels to behavior and learning (proactive teaching)  2.Checking for understanding when students behave inappropriately (effective questioning)  3.Using guided choices (if necessary, using authority without punishment, or “elicitation”)

 Implementing Discipline without Stress, Punishment, or Rewards in a classroom begins with teaching the levels of the social development hierarchy: anarchy, bullying, conformity, and democracy.  Teaching the Concepts requires the students to be actively engaged in constructing examples of these concepts with activities which ask the students to relate their own experiences to the various levels.

Y-Charts are a type of three-part chart, a graphic organizer. For example, a student can use a Y-Chart to help organize what they know about a topic by writing and/or drawing what the topic looks like, feels like, and sounds like. The student must think about a topic with respect to three of their senses, sight, hearing, and touch. In this case, the Y-Chart has sections in which the student writes and/or draws: What it looks like, What it sounds like, What it feels like (or How a character feels). Example:

 Marshall believes teachers can help students conduct themselves more responsibly by helping them understand the following levels of social development:  ANARCHY : the lowest level where students have no sense of purpose and fail to heed standards or expectations  BULLYING : level where students interfere with others and fail to understand the harm they inflict; students often expect the teacher/authority figure to “keep them in line”  CONFORMITY : level where students heed the teacher or others and act in a manner expected of them  DEMOCRACY : level where students act responsibly due to internal motivation, rather than from external motivation (peer pressure; making decisions for themselves)

“One of the best ways to influence behavior for the better is to empower students with positive images. In teaching students to conduct themselves appropriately, we should make use of positive images of what responsible people do, as opposed to images of punishment for irresponsible behavior.” —TODAY’S BEST CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES, C.M. Charles, Pearson, copyright 2008, p. 164

Directions: See if you can answer the following without accessing previous slides. 1. True or False: Marvin Marshall teaches that bribes and/or threats are fine if used sparingly. 2. Short Answer: List and briefly describe the FOUR LEVELS OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT.

How Discipline without Stress Works

 DisciplineWithout Stress Video DisciplineWithout Stress Video

Anyone with young children knows that they love to take all their toys out when they play. Of course, someone has to clean up the toys, and that’s when the stress begins. While children do enjoy taking the toys off the shelves and out of toy boxes, they often have to be asked (multiple times) to clean up after themselves. After a few ignored requests, it’s common for parents to get frustrated and resort to ineffective discipline techniques, such as offering a reward for cleaning up, threatening punishment if the room remains messy, or nagging and lecturing until the task is done. A better approach, and the one promoted in Parenting Without Stress, is to make a game out of the clean up activity. For example, you pick up one item and say, “Where does this go?” Or say something like, “You pick up a little thing and I’ll pick up a big thing.” Then switch. You find something small and the child finds something big.

Or you could make a parade. Pick up something and march over to the shelf where the item goes. Or just pick up all the red things. Then ask the child to find a new color to put away. Or you play some music and say, “How many can we pick up before the music goes off?” Actually, almost any goofy thing you can think of will usually motivate a young child. Then when the room is clean, survey the success by asking the child a reflective question, such as, “Wow! Look at this beautiful room! How does it feel to have such a clean room?” Or, “How does it feel to get a job all done?”

 This is a direct intervention for students who disrupt the class or demonstrate socially unacceptable behavior.  1.Establish eye contact with the student.  2.Use facial expression (smile, not a scowl).  3.Use a change in voice (pause, reflection, or reduction).  4.Move to a new location in the room or move into the student’s space.  5.Give a signal for attention (raising hand, ringing bell).

 During this phase, students must identify their behavior as well as evaluate the choices they are making.  1.What did I do?  2.What can I do to prevent it from happening again?  3.What will I do in the future?

 MARVIN MARSHALL DOES NOT ADVOCATE PUNISHING STUDENTS! HE FEELS PUNISHMENT IS COUNTERPRODUCTIVE TO A STUDENT-TEACHER RELATIONSHIP.

 ALIENATING Every salesperson knows not to alienate, but adults too often talk to young people in ways that prompt negative feelings. Negative feelings stop any DESIRE to do what the adult would like young people to do. People do good when they feel good, not when they feel bad or when they feel coerced.  CREATING NEGATIVES The brain thinks in images, not in words. When people tell others what NOT to do, what follows the “don’t” is what the brain images. Always communicate in positive terms of what you DO want. “Don’t run in the hall” becomes “We walk in our hallways.”  RELYING ON RULES Rules are meant to control, not to inspire. Rules are necessary in games, but between people rules create adversarial relationships because they create an enforcement mentality. A more effective approach is to refer to responsibilities.

 AIMING AT OBEDIENCE Obedience does NOT create desire. A more effective approach is to promote responsibility. Obedience then follows as a natural by- product.  BEING REACTIVE Rather than reacting to inappropriate behavior, it is far more effective and less stressful to employ a proactive approach so young people want to behave responsibly. The Raise Responsibility System specifically shows how to do it.  CONFUSING CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT WITH DISCIPLINE Management is the adult’s responsibility and has to do with teaching, practicing, and reinforcing procedures. Discipline has to do with impulse control and behavior and is the young person’s responsibility. Having clarity between these two prevents problems. See Classroom Management.

 Marvin Marshall suggests teachers accomplish this by doing the following: 1.evaluating their instruction 2.conducting class meetings to promote democracy in the classroom 3.identifying standards for appropriate behavior 4.using praise and rewards appropriately

Great teachers: *understand that they are in the relationship business *communicate and discipline in positive ways *inspire rather than coerce (aiming at promoting responsibility rather than obedience) * identify the reason that a lesson is being taught and then share it with their students *improve skills that prompt students to WANT to behave responsibly and WANT to put effort into their learning *have an open mindset, REFLECTING so that if a lesson needs improvement they look to themselves to change BEFORE they expect their students to change *know education is about motivation

 1.Rather than punishing a student for continued misbehavior, Marshall suggests the use of Guided Choices. Do you consider Guided Choices a valid way to handle misbehavior?  2.Review the philosophy behind the development of Discipline without Stress Punishments or Rewards. Does this philosophy match your personal philosophy of classroom management? Which parts would you reject? Why?

Charles, C. M. (2011). Building classroom discipline (10th). Boston: Pearson. ychart/ arshall-Ed-D.htm