During my 405 practicum my school associate showed me how she utilized formal contracts in the classroom. This was my first encounter with this sort of convention in the classroom and I was somewhat skeptical on using it. Nevertheless, I had one student who she felt would really improve if he was on such an agreement, so I gave it a try. My SA and I collaborated together and created a contract that focused on behaviour in three domains: the carpet, the hallway, and the desk. During lunch and after school the child and I would go over the contract together and he would determine where his behaviour performance was at. Each category was out of five, five being the best. Once he reached his goal of 70 points he would be given a ten minute computer break. Initially, the student asked if he could have five on every section, and I had to inform about a behaviour he performed that was not acceptable in the classroom. After the first day, the student became extremely honest with himself and began to realize and use appropriate behaviour more often.
Unfortunately, since not every student is on a contract, many did not think it was fair that the most disruptive child in the classroom gets a computer break and they did not. If I had to implement such a contract again I would think of a ways to make it more fair, perhaps remove the reward or include a reward that would not be perceived as favouritism.
Furthermore, I think it is difficult to address the question if contracts would be an effective tool for all learning styles. I think an exact contract for every learning style would not be effective; however with experience with contracts I think teachers could adapt them to fit the individual needs and learning styles of all students.
2 comments:
I certainly agree with you that it is difficult to answer the question as to whether contracts are suitable for all learning styles. I find that many of the situations we discuss in class, such as this, often leads me to the same conclusion: the answer is very student and context-specific. This may mean that for some particular learning styles, this may be a suitable classroom mangement practice, but for others of that same learning style, it may not be due to differnces in the student or situation. I think, in any case, it is really important to use our intuition as educators as to what is in the best interests of the particular student in the particular situation. This involves heavily relying on our own feelings and considerations, rather than what we believe we are expected to do in that situation.
Chelsea, I had a similar experience with contracts in my practicum experience where the contracts often served to "reward" the misbehaving student at each successful stage the student reached. My personal feelings are that this is very wrong and ineffective. The purpose of a contract, for me, is to design specific expectations (with the student) to help him or her make improved changes in his or her behaviour. The reason for initiating such a contract is because the child's behaviour indicated that some specific action needs to be taken to remedy poor behaviour and attitudes.
The contract should be something that is designed with the student, so the student sees the goals as realistic and important, and is more likley to be intrinsically motivated to improve behaviour rather than from the promise of a reward. Such a contract allows a student to take more responsibility for his actions and have clear understandings of the consequences involved if those positive behaviours are not observed.
I do not think that a contract should reward students for behaving the way they should be anyway. Rather, it should be a specific plan of action that makes it clear to the student what is expected AND what will occur if those behaviours are not seen. After all, we are trying to teach our students real-life responsibility. Therefore, a contract should involve consequences for breaches, rather than rewards for doing nothing more than what is expected of all students.
For example, one contract used with a student was to encourage less angry behaviour to other students (which had been occurring frequently). The student's contract specifically outlined a consequence to the angry behaviour and the student wa perfectly aware. Rewards for positive behaviour was simply in the teacher's praise to the student and this seemed to have a very good affect on this student's to continue to act in a positive manner.
So, I agree with much of you post and feel that contracts should not necessarily reward good behaviours but help promote good behaviours in a specific way that meets the needs of the student.
Interesting how "rewards" are given to combat misbahviour. I don't doubt this would be extremely frustrating for other students to witness, especially if their good behaviour was not also rewarded in some way. You have pointed out another reason why I have issues with contracts (other than my own personality type which shys away from them completely!) Thanks for sharing your experiences!
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