William Glasser is a well-known and leading expert on student behaviour. One of the procedures he recommends when teachers encounter misbehaviour is for the teacher to ask questions of the offending student: What are you doing? What should you be doing? What are you going to do now? or What do you want? What are you doing to get what you want? Is it working? What is your plan now?
The aim is to have the student accept that their behaviour is not appropriate and to commit to change it. The exact wording of the questions can change from situation to situation and the second question can make specific reference to a rule e.g. Is it against the rules?
The strategy works best when the behaviour has just occurred and where it was actually witnessed by the teacher. Some students will deny that they have done anything wrong i.e. won’t accept responsibility for their behaviour. In these circumstances the teacher may need to ask the first question again, rephrased such as “What were you doing?” If the student continues to argue than the teacher should state the rule or make reference to the inappropriate behaviour and follow up with an explicit direction.
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