Lect 07, Kounin Model

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The Kounin Model Jacob S. Kounin Lecture 7

Achieving Classroom Management Through Preventative Discipline Key Ideas:  Ripple Effect  “Withitness”  Overlapping  Movement Management  Smoothness  Momentum  Group Focus and Accountability

Jacob Kounin  Focuses on preventive discipline -- techniques

and strategies designed to prevent the occurrence of discipline problems in the first place.  Good classroom management depends on effective lesson management.

Kounin’s Principle Teachings  Teachers need to be attentive to all aspects of the

classroom.  Effective teachers keep students attentive and

actively involved.  Teachers should be able to attend to two activities

at the same time.  Activities should be enjoyable and challenging.

 Effective Transitions  Satiation

The Ripple Effect

What is a desist?

 The "ripple effect"

occurs when the teacher corrects a misbehavior in one student, and this positively influences the behavior of other nearby students.

- Remarks intended to stop misbehaviour.

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Characteristics of Desist

According to Kounin desists can be described in terms of three major characteristics

: Ripple Effect

 Clarity - measure of amount information

 By correcting the misbehaviour of one

teacher provides students during desist  Firmness – extent to which teachers convey the

student it can positively influence the behaviour of another

messages “I mean it”, “right now”  Roughness – has a different effect and is the

extent to which teacher expresses anger through scowls, remarks, threats or punishment. Fails to improve behaviour, though children get upset when they witness such desists

Withitness

Overlapping  When teachers can

 Awareness of what is

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)

going on in all parts of the classroom at all times.  Teachers have eyes on

the back of their heads!

 Classroom layout

benefits the teachers ability to see all students at all times

Movement Management  Smoothness:  Smooth transitions between activities  Momentum:  Appropriate pace and progression through a lesson

Effective Transitions  Keeping lessons

moving with avoiding abrupt changes.

 Group Focus and Accountability:  Keep the whole class involved and interested

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Group Focus

Satiation  The ability to keep

members of the class or group paying attention to the task

Teachers can reduce satiation by:  Providing a feeling of progress  Offering challenges throughout the

lesson  Being enthusiastic  Adding VARIETY to the lesson

Avoid…  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

 Being satisfied or

having enough

When Managing the Classroom, Try to AVOID  Dangling:  Teacher leaves a topic and introduces new, unrelated material  Flip-flop:  like dangling, except that the teacher inserts leftover materials from a previous lesson

Classroom Applications  Be aware of what is happening around the classroom.  Intervene before misbehaviours 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 behaviour 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.

Note: Classroom management is most effective when these applications are applied at the beginning of the school year.

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Strengths and Weakness of the Kounin Model  Strengths  Based on empirical research  Teachers’ positive and negative

influences may extend beyond the limits.  Offers techniques for making desists effective.  Stresses the importance of choosing the proper discipline problem to deal with and timing desists appropriately.  Helps to teachers to create the impression that they are aware of everything happening in the classroom.

 Weaknesses  Limited to use in

classroom  Shows to avoid

discipline problems but not how to solve it.  Doesn’t help students become personally responsible for their behavior.

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