Thursday, April 14, 2016

Chapter 10: Rally the Herd

This chapter talked about the significance of and impact that can be created by looking at the behavior of the majority. People are greatly influenced by the behaviors of others and following their lead. There was one part that discussed a study that involved people in either groups of three or on their own in a room that was slowly filled with smoke and how a person in the trios was less likely to report the smoke because the other two people were not reacting to it. Similar situations happen all the time in classrooms where the behaviors of individual students are greatly dependent on their peers' behaviors or what they deem as the popular thing to do. As teachers, we have to try to make positive learning behaviors be accepted and followed by the majority...not an easy thing to do! This year, I have talked a lot with my class about the process of learning and how overcoming challenges make our brains stronger. It took some "rallying", but as each student bought into this idea, others followed and now my entire class gets really excited when I try to challenge them and they work hard to overcome it.

12 comments:

  1. I found that the general concept in this chapter was a bit disturbing to me. I fully believe that "behavior is contagious" but think that can be scary too. For example, the book stated that people are more likely to be obese if their friends are obese because it becomes acceptable. However, this can work in a positive way too, as stated in the book regarding the designated driver example. I am not sure how to apply this to my classroom. I guess as a teacher, I need to find ways to make the work look cool. The problem is that I think part of it has to come from internal motivation and that is something that I do not know how to tackle.

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  2. I agree - this is a somewhat disturbing concept! The fact that we all do it on a subconscious level is a powerful thing. It is so difficult to change someone else's behavior because "individual character compete[s] with situational forces" and situational forces often win (249). I've seen it so many times with students. They all look to each other to decide how to act; if one student is talking rather than staying on-task, then it becomes more acceptable for others to do the same. This is slightly discouraging, but also good in the sense that, on the other side of the coin GOOD behavior is also contagious (232). Figuring out how to shape the culture of my classroom so that positive behavior is always the norm, is hard to do but, as evidenced by this chapter and the Fataki situation, it is possible!

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  3. I agree that we work very hard to make positive learning behaviors the accepted norm in our classrooms, and you have to figure out how to use herd mentality to your advantage. On page 229, they talk about publicizing situations where your herd has embraced the right behavior. In Ginther classrooms, students earn tickets for following the 3Bs. By making big public displays and showering students with tickets in the beginning of the year, I am able to "rally my herd" into practicing positive learning behaviors.

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  4. I think, like Kylie said, that we counteract the negative aspects of this concept when we publicize the right behaviors in our classrooms. That way the kids learn what the group norm should be in a positive environment and with positive feedback like earning PBIS tickets. I also like how the book said that to change the culture you have to get the "reformers" together. It is a lot like the Safe School Ambassador program we have. The kids are trained to show outwardly the right thing by being leaders for their peers.

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  5. This chapter reminded me of a video I saw regarding the importance of what was called the first follower. The youtube video talked about a leader as being a "lone nut" who simply does what he/she believes is right. The first person to follow and emulate the leader is the most important person in the change cycle because once one person follows others are more likely to join in. This herd tendency of people is really important to understand if you want to create long-lasting, meaningful change.

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  6. As I near the end of my teaching career, I need to find a way one last time to rally the herd to combat senioritis in my students. At times, I feel like I am a "lone nut" for continuing to participate in professional development and for not using up personal days or sick days my last year. Perhaps I am serving as a positive example for others to follow.

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  7. As I near the end of my teaching career, I need to find a way one last time to rally the herd to combat senioritis in my students. At times, I feel like I am a "lone nut" for continuing to participate in professional development and for not using up personal days or sick days my last year. Perhaps I am serving as a positive example for others to follow.

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  8. When reading this chapter I did have some concerns about the idea of using public opinion to change a person’s behavior, but the highlighting of socially acceptable behavior is more acceptable to me. The logic behind rallying groups of people by highlighting the appropriate behavior makes sense. In the classroom I have seen that at Ginther we give Bee Bucks for model behavior and it does work at times to encourage and teach the social norms. I think that we are highlighting these acceptable behaviors to teach behavior and social norms because as it said in the book “people look to the herd for guidance”. As we support our students it helps them be more successful if we teach them those social skills and by being careful to focus on the teaching and not the point out of others flaws we can support kids in a responsible way.

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  9. I agree with rallying the herd in that the group often influences others...this is true in negative ways, too, as others have said, with the mob mentality idea. It's a great theory and it does work, however it is harder and harder to get unmotivated students to buy into positive thinking. Many of our students (I'm a special ed teacher)have had a negative academic experience and are very resistant to school, teachers, academics, etc., and have unfortunately gotten used to failing. This is usually the first time where they are not passed on to the next grade due to failure and become even more resistant to positive support, though I will keep trying.

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  10. This chapter made me think a lot about our PBIS initiative and what we look for in students. How many times do we find ourselves saying things like, "He's fine one on one, but put him with ____ and he's a nightmare!" I couldn't stop thinking about some of my kids who other teachers complain about in their classes, yet I don't have trouble with them. Of course, it is because these kids don't have the audience, the group to encourage their behaviors. It made me think about how we teach student behaviors directly and often, we teach these using others as the model. I frequently find myself saying things like, "So-and-so made an excellent point in her writing. Can you share it with the class so they know what I'm looking for?" It's interesting to me how often we "pit" kids or groups of kids against each other to encourage positive behavior. (Maybe "pit" isn't the best word to use.) I never considered it as a technique to change kids, I just always viewed it as classroom management and teaching the correct behaviors! I need to start thinking about how to drive this into kids' brains with their academics. Behavior is one thing...academic achievement is another thing entirely.

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  11. When I saw the title of this chapter, I immediately thought of the school environment! And, as many of you commented, students do "watch other people" for cues as to how to behave (225). Someone recently said to me that they had behavior issues in a particular class because they felt there was no clear, positive role model/leader among this particular group of students. Students had no good behavior to emulate. As I read this chapter I remembered this conversation. I don't thing this teacher read this chapter, but she was right on target. The concept of peer perception is intriguing to me. I wondered if there was a way to identity positive leaders and structure our placement procedures to balance classrooms, to ensure a good role model in each classroom. At the high school level this is probably a nightmare, but at the elementary it seems reasonable. Is this something that is considered when creating classroom rosters? I'd be curious to know!

    Like a few others I connected this chapter to PBIS. But, as Lauren commented, how do we connect this academics?

    I was also interested in the case about "John's" Blackberry addiction. There was recently an article in the paper about teens and cell phone addiction. Given this recent research, I wonder if we would ever revisit the cell phone policy at the high school. Do we need to re-shape the path and tweak the environment? Hmmmm.

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