Posts Tagged Gordon Neufeld

The Impact of Counterwill on Classroom Discipline

Counterwill expressionCounterwill is the natural human instinct to resist being controlled or coerced, and counterwill is often the cause of many classroom discipline problems.

People don’t like being told what to do, so we react negatively when someone tells us to do something. Yet, we tend to be surprised when encountering counterwill in younger people. Somehow we forget that all people have feelings; even infants cry or smile depending upon the situation, and if they feel controlled or coerced they react negatively.

The instinctive resistance stemming from counterwill takes many forms as demonstrated by the “no” of a toddler, disobedience or defiance of a youngster, and even laziness or lack of motivation of a teenager. Counterwill sometimes manifests itself as doing … >>>

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Personal Relationships with Difficult Students

Kerry and her teaching partner, Darlene, continue to share how they use the three practices (Part II) of the Discipline Without Stress Teaching Model.

We try to develop excellent personal relationships with our most challenging students. In this way, we know that we have a better chance of having them WANT to cooperate with us. We often ask these students to be our helpers. We get them on OUR side right from the beginning. Although we want to have excellent relationships with all of our students, our first priority is to HAVE OUR MOST IMMATURE STUDENTS ATTACH TO US. The work of Dr. Gordon Neufeld has really helped us in this. I can’t recommend his workshops and DVD’s too … >>>

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