Rudolf Dreikurs Discipline Theory

Rudolf Dreikurs Discipline Theory and its application

The teacher at whatever level of schooling needs to achieve a balance between discipline and other developmental aspects of teaching. This point is stressed by many educationists. "Educators need a balance between discipline theory and its practice in the classroom. This is especially important in today's education climate, with its increased demands for teacher accountability." (Classroom Management)

Based on Dreikurs' Discipline Theory and models, a practical philosophy of teaching can be developed. This has resulted in an approach at a junior level of teaching which I have developed and which integrates various aspects that are related to Dreikurs' model. The essential underlying conception that is followed from this model is the idea that human motivation is strongly linked to group acceptance. This involves a number of elements that can be incorporated into teaching practice.

Firstly, Dreikurs posits that encouragement is better and more effective than praise. Secondly, encouragement is a more appropriate response to discipline problems and to early childhood development as it opens up pathways of discussion and further learning interaction from the teacher's perspective. Another important aspect that I have incorporated into my teaching philosophy and praxis is an appropriate reward system, which rewards positive behavior and institutes consequences for negative behavior. A central aspect of this principle and one which relates to Dreikurs' model is that the consequences of behavior should be logically consistent with the behavior. This is an aspect that will be outlined below. These and other components of the model proposed by Dreikurs will be discussed in this paper.

2. Components of Dreikurs' model

Rudolf Dreiker's model or Discipline Theory is based on the ideas of the social psychologist Alfred Adler who "…espoused that the central motivation of all humans is to belong and to be accepted by others." (Wolfgang, 2001, p. 115). In other words, this view sees all human interaction and behavior as "… directed toward achieving social recognition." (Burke J. and Gahan B.)

Importantly, this leads to the practical application of methods of dealing with discipline and misbehavior in the classroom. As Wolfgang ( 1999) explains; " ….when a student is unsuccessful in obtaining social acceptance, a pattern of misbehavior begins." (Burke J. and Gahan B.) He adds, "If teachers can help misbehaving students understand their mistaken, faulty goals and provide them with avenues for group acceptance, then such students will rationally change their own behaviors". (Burke J. and Gahan B.) This view provides the underlying rationale of the theory and for teaching praxis.

The basics components of Dreikus' view, based on Adler's premises, can be summarized as follows.

• Man is a social being and his main desire or the basic motivation is to belong. As Dreikurs states "… children are social beings. Like all humans, they have a need to know that they belong. Nature has not fitted him (man) to survive singlehanded" (Tauber, 1999, p. 110)

• All behavior is purposive. One cannot understand behavior of another person unless one knows to which goal it is directed, and it is always directed towards finding one's place. (Dreikurs, Rudolf)

• Students do not see reality as it is, but only as he perceives it and his perception may be mistaken or biased. (Dreikurs, Rudolf)

Two other components of this theory are important and have particular application to the junior school classroom. Firstly this model "… believes the correction of students' misbehavior is the result of a teacher actively showing a student how to belong"; secondly that the notion of logical consequences replaces the idea of punishment. (Dreikurs, Rudolf)

The idea of logical consequences is one that needs some explication. This refers to the idea that a child who is disobedient should not be punished as such but rather should be helped in a more constructive way. This leads to the idea of logical consequences for actions. In other words, positive behavior must be seen to elicit positive consequences; on the other hand bad behavior must be seen to elicit the logical consequences of that action. It is important that the teacher enables the child understand the connection between his to her actions and the consequences. The entire model is based on a principle of learning as a process of encouragement, positive as well as negative reinforcement and confidence building. This relates to the theory that bad behavior