Better Than Carrots or Sticks: Restorative Practices for Positive Classroom Management

by Dominique Smith

We believe that students should have a chance to learn from their mistakes and to restore any damaged relationships with others. Our view is known as the restorative approach to discipline.

Rewards and consequences don't work—or at least, they don't teach. They may result in short-term changes, but in reality they promote compliance and little else.

Compliance is the antithesis of engagement

For our part as educators, we need to examine our daily interactions with students and ask ourselves whether we ourselves allow a form of bullying to occur in the name of discipline.

We've come to believe that purpose-driven instruction is a student rights issue: we think that students have the fundamental right to know what they're expected to learn, why they're expected to learn it, and how they will be expected to demonstrate their understanding.

We are reminded of a comment that Randy, a new 9th grader, made in explaining his chronic defiance: "I'd rather be bad than stupid. It's less embarrassing." Wow. How many students would rather be seen as bad than stupid? That is to say: how many students who are targeted for behavioral interventions really need instructional support?

We don't want to make learning easy—we want to make it possible.

we like rules that are broad and simple. The following three are especially appealing to us: Take care of yourself. Take care of each other. Take care of this place.

It is for this reason that we are wary of discipline strategies that communicate to others some sort of difference in status among students. Whether it's moving clothespins on a chart or using an app to award and deduct points to and from students, these strategies remind them that there's a hierarchy in place and fosters a competitive rather than collaborative climate.

we've noted, traditional discipline efforts focus on determining guilt and punishing the offender. In this context, justice means that the offender receives an undesirable consequence that typically involves shame, isolation, and exclusion. Restorative practices take a more educative approach, mobilizing resources to ensure that students continue to learn.

For restorative practices to work, we have to learn to separate the deed from the doer (Braithwaite, 1989). Students need to know that they are valued but that the behavior is unacceptable.

When implementing restorative practices, we should learn to ask, "How will the student restore damaged relationships?" rather than, "What are the consequences for the student's actions?" Restorative plans should ask offending students to Acknowledge their behavior. Apologize. Express repentance. Commit not to repeat the offense. Offer to make amends.