ABSTRACT

Perhaps the most common request from classroom teachers for professional assistance is for aid in maintaining the orderly behavior of students. Teachers' attitudes regarding classroom discipline seem to fall into two categories: those who can tolerate no disruption, and those who feel that disruption can be tolerated up to the point at which it begins to interfere with the achievement of nondisruptive students in the classroom. In either case, research in applied behavior analysis has demonstrated that these problematic behaviors can be reduced or eliminated through a direct approach. This direct approach to eliminating disruptive behavior has also been criticized. It has been suggested that rather than contributing to effective learning, applications of behavior modification procedures have most often led to a strengthening of the status quo: that which measures teacher effectiveness not by increases in student performance, but by the maintenance of orderly, docile, obedient students.