Constructive Guidance and Discipline: Preschool and Primary Education (3rd Edition) - Softcover

Fields, Marjorie Vannoy; Boesser, Cindy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0130910635 ISBN 13: 9780130910639

Publisher: Pearson College Div, 2001

Synopsis

This book provides information about helping children become happy, responsible, and productive people. Using the recommendations and research of Jean Piaget, Alfred Adler, and Carl Rogers, the authors share their personal convictions about what is best for young children, rather than merely presenting an impartial overview of various approaches. The book provides a clear understanding of childhood development and developmentally appropriate practices as they relate to the causes of children's behavior. A three-part organization covers discipline foundations, discipline approaches, and matching discipline causes to discipline approaches. For parents, teachers, counselors, and anyone involved in shaping the development of young children.

About this title

About the Author:

Dr. Marjorie Fields has been teaching in the field of early childhood education for over 30 years. She first taught kindergarten, then first grade, then began teaching teachers. Thanks to her own children, she was also actively involved in cooperative preschools and various types of child care.

She has a doctorate in early childhood education with research in parent involvement. She is active in early childhood professional organizations at the national and local levels and has served as vice-president of the National Association of Early Childhood Educators. She has also served on the national governing board for the National Association for the Education of Young Children. She has published extensively in the field of emergent literacy as well as child guidance.

This book is the outgrowth of over 25 years' reading and thinking in conjunction with developing and teaching an early discipline course. Dr. Fields credits her two sons with helping her learn what is most important about child guidance and discipline.

Cindy Boesser has a wide experience in the field of early childhood education. She held a variety of positions in a private, nonprofit preschool/child care-center: aide, teacher, co-director, and program administrator. She has also worked in a university-sponsored child-care center and as a teacher's aide in public school. She ran a quality child-care program in her home for five years that was the first in her region to receive NAFCC Accreditation. She currently works for the Public Library Youth Services, sharing her love for children's literature through story-times and class visits.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Constructive Guidance and Discipline: Preschool and Primary Education attempts to bring together the best of what is known about helping young children become happy, responsible, and productive people. We present guidance and discipline concepts within a framework of child development, developmentally appropriate practices, and Constructivist education. Thus, only discipline approaches that are consistent with all three aspects of this framework are recommended here. We take a stand about what is best for young children, rather than merely presenting an impartial overview of various approaches. We are convinced that adults cannot effectively assist children's moral development through the coercive approaches of behavior modification.

Major Theoretical Influences

The information and ideas presented in this text come from a number of respected sources. We see four theorists as having major influences on child guidance concepts in this century: Alfred Adler, Carl Rogers, B.F. Skinner, and Jean Piaget. Rudolf Dreikurs' recommendations of logical and natural consequences extended Adler's concepts, Thomas Gordon popularized Rogers' ideas through his Parent Effectiveness Training work, Skinner's work founded the widespread behavior modification techniques, and Piagetian scholars such as Constance Kamii and Rheta DeVries are spreading the word about Piaget's views on the development of morality. Though we reject Skinner's approach for the reasons explained in Chapter 9, we believe that the other three theorists have compatible views. Adler, Rogers, and Piaget all perceive the child as actively seeking understanding. This is in contrast with the Skinnerian view, which sees education as something that happens to a child from outside sources. Adler and Rogers, as well as Piaget, respect the child's personal rate and style of developing social understanding. All three perceive the proper adult role as facilitating rather than controlling the child's gradual development as a constructive member of society. Piaget's theoretical framework is much broader than that of Rogers or Adler, including all moral development as well as intellectual development. Thus, Adlerian and Rogerian concepts can be included as part of a Piagetian perspective, though the reverse is not true.

The research and writing of Jean Piaget and Constructivist scholars regarding intellectual and moral autonomy are central to the message in this book. We have adapted Thomas Cordon's recommendations for effective communication and interpreted Rudolf Dreikurs' concept of logical and natural consequences into our discussion of a Constructivist approach to discipline. We have also drawn on Erik Erikson's emotional development studies, referred to guidelines from the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and quoted Rheta DeVries. Many other sources used in this book are listed at the end of the chapters.

We look at guidance and discipline as teaching activities; therefore, the principles of effective early childhood education apply as much to guidance and discipline as to academics. In addition, we discuss the ways in which effective early childhood education practices prevent or alleviate many common discipline problems.

Like any other aspect of teaching, guidance must acknowledge diversity among youngsters. In our recommendations, we have considered individual differences due to innate temperament, or individual physical and intellectual capabilities. We also discuss the implications of culture, class, family problems, and gender.

We increasingly recognize that teaching must deal with youngsters whose lives are in crisis. These youngsters create major new challenges in guidance and discipline. Two chapters are devoted to providing background and support to teachers whose classrooms include youngsters with special physical and emotional needs or learning difficulties. Though parent involvement is crucial to all aspects of education and for all children, we emphasize the home-school link most in these chapters.

Changes in Third Edition

This edition continues and strengthens the approach of the previous editions. We have continued to work at making the message of the book clear and understandable. Since behavior modification is so pervasive in our society, the recommendations in this book require most readers to radically alter their thinking. Assisting students in a major paradigm shift requires that principles be carefully documented and clearly explained. We have found that the examples of classroom practice are most effective in helping students understand the concepts; therefore, we have carefully reviewed the classroom vignettes, adding more and better examples.

This edition brings on the expertise of Dr. Lory Britain and Sierra Freeman for the chapter on children with serious emotional problems. Both Lory and Sierra have been working in the "trenches" with at-risk children and their families and have first-hand insights to share as well as a solid research base. Dr. Eileen Hughes, author of the chapter on children with disabilities from the second edition, has added to and strengthened that chapter for the third edition.

This edition adds a "test bank" for instructor convenience. These are not test items requiring mere rote memory; they simulate actual classroom situations where problem solving is required for effective discipline. This approach to testing is congruent with a Constructivist approach to education, allowing the college teacher to model the principles recommended.

Organization of the Text

The first three chapters of the book constitute the foundations section. Chapter 1 begins to explain a view of discipline as a way of teaching autonomy and self-discipline while promoting self-esteem. Concepts introduced in Chapter 1 are more fully addressed throughout the book. Chapters 2 and 3 consider stages in children's physical, emotional, intellectual, and social development as they relate to discipline problems and solutions. We consider a clear definition of discipline and its goals, plus knowledge of child development, to be the basic understandings for a discussion of discipline.

Part II presents various approaches to discipline in descending order from most positive to negative. This sequence can also be considered as an ascending order from least intrusive to most intrusive. Chapter 4 discusses how to prevent behavior problems by matching the child environment to developmental stages. Chapter 5 explains the role of developmentally appropriate programs in preventing discipline problems. Chapters 6 and 7 emphasize both the prevention of problems and intervention when problems do occur. Chapter 6 explains how the adult example influences child behavior and shows how to help children use those examples during conflict situations. Chapter 7 presents effective ways to communicate with children both to prevent conflict and to address problems that arise. This subject of effective communication includes how to negotiate solutions to existing problems. Chapter 8 explains changing unproductive behaviors by using related consequences to help children understand why certain behaviors are unacceptable. Chapter 9 analyzes behavior modification approaches, and explains why rewards and even praise are counterproductive to goals of self-discipline. The dangers of punishment are presented in Chapter 10.

Chapters 11 through 15 constitute Part III, which builds on the previous two parts. Child development knowledge from Part I is used as part of determining the cause of behavior problems. Then information about guidance approaches from Part II is used to select an appropriate response. Part III analyzes typical causes of discipline problems and relates them to the approaches relevant to each. These chapters emphasize the necessity of dealing with the cause of problems rather than just the symptoms. Chapter 11 discusses the relationship between maturational level and acceptable behavior, and Chapter 12 looks at how unmet emotional needs cause problem behavior. Chapters 13 and 14 explore serious problems with causes outside of the classroom and suggest help for the teacher or caregiver. Chapter 15 presents an overview of possible discipline problem causes and provides assistance in identifying which causes pertain to a particular situation. This chapter also provides a guide for matching causes with the approaches to discipline that are most likely to be effective for each.

Providing Examples

Because we wanted to balance theoretical explanations with real-life examples, we use typical scenarios to illustrate ways of facilitating self-discipline and moral autonomy through approaches to discipline. Many of these examples are quite long to provide the context surrounding the situation. This is congruent with our message that teachers must not respond just to the behavior, but rather consider the many factors that might relate to the cause of the behavior. These "stories" have proven extremely useful to college students trying to visualize the practical applications of text material and struggling with abstract concepts.

Meet the cast of characters: Dennis, Maureen, Sheri, and the rest of the staff of the Midway Children's Center, a composite of typical preschool/ child-care centers in the suburbs, provide examples of discipline with three- and four-year-olds. Mrs. Jensen, her first-grade students, and the staff of a typical city school demonstrate the same concepts with primary grade children. Second-grade teacher Mr. Davis and his student teacher, Beth, have joined us for the third edition. Mrs. Jensen and Mr. Davis represent all the caring and effective public school teachers we have known. Because contrasting the desirable with undesirable practices often helps us define the desirable, we have also provided examples of common practices that we do not recommend. For this purpose the mythical teachers, preschool teacher Joanne and first-grade teacher Miss Wheeler, are described in some very real situations....

About this edition

• Publisher: Pearson College Div
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0130910635
• ISBN 13: 9780130910639
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 374