Posts Tagged Levels of social development

Why Discipline is Different Today

Manufacturing—building tangibles—led and fed the economies in the 19th and 20th centuries. There were a few originators, but most people were followers. Obedience, implementation of rules, and top-down management were the orders of the day.

What drives our 21st century? The creation and distribution of information. Rather than compliance, initiative is required.

People rarely will work for one company all their lives. Increasingly, many people are now working as independent contractors instead of working for others. The number of individual entrepreneurs is continually growing. People in their twenties are planning their retirements forty years in advance because they no longer believe that traditional retirements will suffice in their older years. The society of the 21st century requires initiative—not merely following … >>>

READ MORE >>>

Student Motivation and Discipline

No matter how long you’ve been teaching, you simply cannot judge a student’s motivation with complete accuracy. Within a classroom, where all the children look as if they are doing the same thing, perhaps cooperating with the teacher and quietly doing their assignments, some will be operating on Level C and some will be operating on Level D (for details of the four Levels of Social Development, click here). While you may have few discipline challenges in such a classroom, you’ll never know for sure whether these children are internally or externally motivated.

A person’s motivation can only be accurately determined by that person himself/herself. That is why it’s important for teachers to ask questions that promote self-reflection in … >>>

READ MORE >>>

Behavior and Motivation

When you teach youth a procedure, the expectation is that they will have the self-discipline to follow it (Level C on the Hierarchy of Social Development). This is external motivation where many of us live our lives most of the time. However, if a student does something that is anti-social because of a desire to fit in with a gang, then that incentive is external.

On my Levels of Development Poster (click here to view), Level C lists “Conformity” in yellow while “Cooperation” is in green. The goal of Level C is to have young people become aware of and resist the strong desire to fit in when the behavior is irresponsible.

When youth understand that their motivation is … >>>

READ MORE >>>

Substitute Teachers

A communication to me indicated that it would be difficult to have a substitute fully understand the system if the teacher hadn’t actually read the book.

I responded that a substitute teacher did not need to know the system at all. Also, I use the term “guest teacher” because of the influence it has on students. When I was an elementary school principal, as soon as the day started I was in the “substitute teacher’s” classroom and introduced the substitute by announcing that we had a guest teacher that day and that I knew the students would treat the teacher accordingly. Expectations for responsible student behavior were established immediately.

As a teacher, I had the following one-page at the top … >>>

READ MORE >>>