Posts Tagged pbs

What to Do when PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) is Mandatded

On June 11, 2012 / Discipline, Learning

A teacher who still subscribes to the newsletter but changed her subscription from her school to her home e-mail address, informed me of the reason for the change. She wrote, “I still subscribe at my home e-mail; however, my school is totally into PBIS and therefore, I have to follow that program.”

Thousands of teachers in the United States are in this same situation. I understood her dilemma. I shared with her what others are doing to implement BPIS while using DWS.

PBIS does NOT mandate that the TEACHER is the one who MUST reinforce expected and appropriate behaviors with some form of “reward.” Have the students do it. They can appoint a committee to set the procedures, which may … >>>

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PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) Ethical Consequences

On October 18, 2011 / Discipline, Learning

QUESTION:

Positive Behavioral and Interventions and Supports(PBIS) is the discipline approach that is being mandated by many states. Do you have any thoughts on this approach?

RESPONSE:
This antiquated and backwards approach is based on the ideas of Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, and B.F. Skinner. Without going into detail explaining the differences, they are “behaviorist” and have the following in common:

1. Behaviorism is naturalistic. This means that the material world is the ultimate reality, and everything can be explained in terms of natural laws. Man has no soul and no mind, only a brain that responds to external stimuli.

2. Behaviorism teaches that man is nothing more than a machine that responds to conditioning. The central tenet of … >>>

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PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) Backfires

On August 25, 2011 / Discipline, Learning

The following was posted at the DisciplineWithoutStres mailring hosted by yahoo groups.com:

I just wanted to quickly relay a rewards-based disaster.

One of our seventh-graders, in fact, the daughter of a teacher, recently wanted to go to the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) reward dance. She is an A honor roll student, never a discipline problem, and a wonderful kid. In the haste of “bribing” misbehaving students to be good, we neglected to “reward” her for doing what she had motivated herself to do. Long story short, she did not have enough PBIS tickets to go to the dance. How horrible!!

Looks like rewards systems don’t quite cover the good kids as well as they should. Good thing that … >>>

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Classical vs Operant Conditioning

On June 18, 2010 / Discipline, Learning

Classical conditioning is identified with Pavlov’s dog. It begins with the observation that some things produce natural responses. “Lucky” smells meat and salivates. By pairing an artificial stimulus with a natural one—such as ringing a bell when the steak appears—the dog associates the two. Ring the bell; the dog salivates.

(Pavlov was smart enough not to use a cat; cats, like humans, are too independent.)

Operant conditioning, in contrast to classical conditioning, is concerned with how an action may be controlled by a stimulus that comes AFTER it, rather than before it. When a reward follows a behavior, then that behavior is likely to be repeated. Today, we refer to this psychology as “behaviorism.”

Burros Frederic Skinner (1904-1990), … >>>

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PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) Is Doomed to Failure

On August 17, 2008 / Discipline, Learning

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) was established by the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education. The approach is behaviorally based in that it is a classic use of B.F. Skinner’s positive reinforcement of operant conditioning. The program was developed as an alternative to aversive interventions that were used with students with severe disabilities who engaged in extreme forms of self-injury and aggression. The approach rests on the idea that these students need something tangible to change behavior.

PBIS treats the acquisition and use of social-behavioral skills in much the same way we would academic skills. However, academic skills deal with the cognitive domain, whereas behavior has to do with the affective domain—those factors which … >>>

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PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) Transferring Motivation

On January 2, 2008 / Discipline, Learning

The following story is about Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS).

We know that rewarding fosters competition to see who gets the most number of rewards. We also know that using rewards as incentives to young people fosters feelings of punishments to those in school who believe they should have received a reward, but didn’t.

The comment below posted at the mailring describes how external manipulators (giving rewards as reinforcers) do not do what adults would like them to do, namely, transfer the desired motivation.

I have a cute story about rewards in the classroom. I teach first grade, and sometimes just getting the kids to remember their folders and to sharpen pencils is a chore. I … >>>

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PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) and Special Education

On December 21, 2007 / Discipline, Learning

A reader wrote me indicating that knowing the reason for a person’s action is important and can assist in such problems as homework.

I shared my response below.

Many psychologists and therapists believe that knowing the “why” for a behavior is important. However, Dr. William Glasser, an internationally renowned psychiatrist and the author of “Choice Theory,” advocates that knowing the reason for a behavior may be of interest but, in most cases, has little to do with actually changing behavior. Change requires forming new neural connections. This requires new thinking and new behavior—rather than revisiting old memories.

An example of a student’s being non-compliant about doing homework was related in the communication to me. The student was diabetic, and … >>>

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More on PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports)

On December 20, 2007 / Discipline, Learning

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) or just Positive Behavior Support (PBS) is finding increasing use in the U.S.A. The approach was established by the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education for students having severe disabilities who engaged in extreme forms of self-injury and aggression.

A basic rationale of PBS is that it is necessary to understand the “why” of a behavioral problem in order to “fix” the behavior. However, it is nearly impossible to articulate with certainty the underlying reasons for behavior. And even more important, although finding the rationale or reason for a behavior may be interesting, it has no effect on changing the behavior.

My personal life attests to this little … >>>

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