In my last post  Reflections on Classroom Management: Emotional Consistency and Classroom Management – Part I, I reflected on the disruptive behavior in Ms. S’s class and how a self-inventory regarding emotional consistency may be helpful to Ms. S in turning around the classroom culture.

In this second post Reflections on Classroom Management: Refusal in the Classroom – Part II,  I reflect on the practice of meeting student’s where they are and understanding refusal.

I begin every reflection concerning behavior with the same question “What is this student trying to communicate through this behavior?” I believe all behavior is a form of communication and decoding the communication of behavior is important.

The second scenario I reflected on concerned Mr. P. and his story about “refusal.”

Mr. P is a physical education teacher and he is concerned about five students in one of his physical education class who refuse to dress out. Despite several consequences:

• Taking points away from their averages,
• Contacting parents,
• Sending them to a study hall classroom instead of gym class; and,
• Having the “refusal” students ‘run laps’ in their regular school dress.

the students continue not dressing out.  While the majority of the students are participating appropriately, these five “refusers” remain on the sidelines of the activity teasing and tormenting each other as well as others.

When groups of students refuse to follow directions provided by the teacher it can be distressing. Somewhere between an entire class and a single student, there are the small groups of students who, when band together, create an undeniable disruption in the learning environment. When the entire class is not at issue, strategies to effectively manage disruptive behavior may need to be broken down.

To change the behavior and culture of the disruptive five “refusers,” Mr. P may take certain steps, such as:

1. Explaining to the five “refusers” exactly what is expected of them when they are asked to dress out,
2. Work on building positive relationships with the refusal group as a whole and perhaps the most influential student of the refusal group
3. Work on building positive relationships with individual members of the refusal group,
4. Provide the five “refusers” with a choice of activity for gym to promote gym buy-in and encourage them to dress out for something they want to do versus something they have to do,
5. Verbalize consequences for behaviors which are not appropriate to force the students to share responsibility among themselves for “refusal” behaviors; and,
6. Specifically reinforcing the progress and effort individually for each of the five “refusers” as well as the five “refusers” as a group will help cement a successful behavior and attitude change.

Mr. P may also benefit by proving these particular students with a challenge. Providing a challenge or healthy competition for these five “refusers”, may entice these students to participate through the innate drive of competition.

While this strategy is similar to allowing the students to choose their own activities, healthy competition creates an activity not only for the five “refusers” but for the rest of the students as well — possibly creating whole class gym buy-in.  Whether these five “refusers” compete against each other or the whole class, creating something that is different from the usual gym class will allow the five “refusers” to channel the negative energy of refusal positively.