Post on 17-Aug-2015
Literature Review
Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature Review
Scott C. Hellman
Grand Canyon University
EDA 570
July 26, 2010
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Literature Review
Table of Contents
I. Abstract…………………………………………………………………………….3
II. Statement of the problem…………………………………………………………..5
III. Purpose of the Study……………………………………………………………….5
IV. Research questions…………………………………………………………………5
V. Definition of terms…………………………………………………………………8
VI. Literature Review…………………………………………………………………..9
VII. Delimitations……………………………………………………………………….
VIII. Limitations…………………………………………………………………………
VIV. References…………………………………………………………………………12
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Literature Review
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to give a literary review of the information found supporting the
questions referenced in this study. Each source found has reference to, and supporting facts of
the failure of discipline in school systems and what steps are needed to help correct this problem.
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Literature Review
Research Study: Determine a Well-Balanced and Consistent Discipline Policies for Schools
Literature Review
Introduction
Discipline has always been an issue in schools. Dealing with different students with
different personalities, home lives, and family support set school districts up for failure. Basic
school discipline plans are vague and general in nature. Yancey (2001) quotes Lemmons “No
one consequence works for all students” (p.1). Students and parents often complain about school
discipline plans either being too strict or unfair.
School rules need to be fair and consistent, but also keep the school climate flowing
smoothly. “Everyone has an opinion when it comes to the lack of discipline in schools. Parent
blame teachers; teachers blame administrators; administration blames the Department of
Education. Basically, everyone’s pointing a finger, but no one is taking responsibility” (Kistler,
2010, p.1). In addition, schools must discipline in a manner that corrects unwanted behavior and
keeps the students in the classroom. Hymowitz (2000) states
“But today principals lack the tools they used to have for dealing with the unruliest kids.
Formerly, they could expel such kids permanently or send them to special schools for the
hard-to-discipline. The special schools have largely vanished, and state education laws
usually don’t allow for permanent expulsion” (p.1).
Teachers should have their own classroom management in place and be exhausted before
sending students to the office. When a teacher has to send students to the administrator, it
should be for insubordination and the stopping of other students from learning. “Students’
disrespect for authority figures (teachers included) is reaching epic proportions, and if something
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isn’t done soon, our education system as we know it will completely collapse” (Kistler, 2010,
p.1).
Statement of the Problem
The problem with school discipline policies is that there is a lack of discipline plan in
place in schools, which reinforces bad behavior. Many students can figure out where the holes
are in a discipline plan when the administrators, teachers, and parents are not enforcing it. In
addition, if students dislike school and hate to be in the classroom, they will do whatever it takes
to get out of it. They become a discipline problem, get kicked out class, and that is how they can
beat the system.
Purpose of the study
The purpose of this study is to determine what school discipline strategies work in school
districts and to develop a well-rounded discipline plan that is consistent for all students,
unbiased, fair, and will be enforced. The study will determine if a well-balanced discipline plan
will reduce unwanted behavior and keep students in the classroom.
Research Questions
Sagor (2000) “states that action research is a disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for
those taking the action. The primary reason for engaging in action research is to assist the
“actor” in improving and/or refining his or her actions” (p.3). The following are questions that
will help identify the direction of the action research project. They will focus on the reasons why
there is discipline problems in school districts, how to identify them and what can be done to fix
them.
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Literature Review
Research Question #1:What can school districts do to make their discipline policies more
effective?
Fenning, P. Theodos, J. Benner, C. Bohanon-Edmonson, H. (2004). Integrating proactive
discipline practices into codes of conduct. Journal of School Violence, 3(1). Retrieved
July 27, 2010, from Eric database (15982822)
Goodman, J. F. (2007). School discipline, by-in and belief. Ethic and Education 2(1) 3-23.
Retrieved July 27, 2010, from Eric database (24756666)
Rosen, L. (1992). School discipline practices: A manual for school administrators. Guides-non-
Classroom Use. Retrieved July 27, 2010, from Eric database (ED357440)
Ruder, R. (2006). Frour steps to address student discipline. National Association of Secondary
School Principals. Retrieved July 27, 2010, from Eric database (220017542)
Washburn, S., Stowe, K., Cole, C., Robin, J., (2007). Improving school climate and student
behavior: A new paradigm for Indiana schools, Center for Evaluation & Policy, 5 (9).
Retrieved July 27, 2010, from Eric database (ED500604)
Research Question #2: How can school administrators and teachers discipline students without
removing the students from the classroom?
Fenning, P. Theodos, J. Benner, C. Bohanon-Edmonson, H. (2004). Integrating proactive
discipline practices into codes of conduct. Journal of School Violence, 3(1). Retrieved
July 27, 2010, from Eric database (15982822)
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Literature Review
Washburn, S., Stowe, K., Cole, C., Robin, J., (2007). Improving school climate and student
behavior: A new paradigm for Indiana schools, Center for Evaluation & Policy, 5 (9).
Retrieved July 27, 2010, from Eric database (ED500604)
Research Question #3: How can school administrators discipline students fairly without
jeopardizing their education?
Fenning, P. Theodos, J. Benner, C. Bohanon-Edmonson, H. (2004). Integrating proactive
discipline practices into codes of conduct. Journal of School Violence, 3(1). Retrieved
July 27, 2010, from Eric database (15982822)
Washburn, S., Stowe, K., Cole, C., Robin, J., (2007). Improving school climate and student
behavior: A new paradigm for Indiana schools, Center for Evaluation & Policy, 5 (9).
Retrieved July 27, 2010, from Eric database (ED500604)
Research Question #4: What are the problems with school policies that are currently being
used?
Fenning, P. Theodos, J. Benner, C. Bohanon-Edmonson, H. (2004). Integrating proactive
discipline practices into codes of conduct. Journal of School Violence, 3(1). Retrieved
July 27, 2010, from Eric database (15982822)
Goodman, J. F. (2007). School discipline, by-in and belief. Ethic and Education 2(1) 3-23.
Retrieved July 27, 2010, from Eric database (24756666)
Hyman, I., Weiler, E., Dahbany, A., Shanock, A., Britton, G. (1994). Policy and practice in
school discipline: Past, present, and future. Speeches/conference paper. Retrieved July
27, 2010, from Eric database (ED383960)
Ruder, R. (2006). Frour steps to address student discipline. National Association of Secondary
School Principals. Retrieved July 27, 2010, from Eric database (220017542)
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Literature Review
Washburn, S., Stowe, K., Cole, C., Robin, J., (2007). Improving school climate and student
behavior: A new paradigm for Indiana schools, Center for Evaluation & Policy, 5 (9).
Retrieved July 27, 2010, from Eric database (ED500604)
Definition of Terms
The definitions of terms listed below are consistent with the topic of research based upon
discipline policy issues.
1. Behavior: “Manner of behaving, whether good or bad; mode of conducting one’s self;
conduct; deportment; carriage” (Websters Dictionary, 1913)
2. In-School Suspension (ISS): “The operant definition in this paper for ISS is a
discipline model where a student is removed from the classroom and compelled to
stay in an ISS center for a variable length of time, ranging from part of a day to
several days in a row. The ISS center is a specific staffed room where various
behavior changing strategies, ranging from punitive to rehabilitative actions that
attempt to stop or change student misbehavior without having the student removed
from the school environment” (Blomberg, n.d., p.2)
3. Out of School Suspension: “The operant definition for OSS in this paper is, “the
removal of a student from the school environment for a period not to exceed ten days”
(Mendez, Knoff & Ferron 2002 p.259). OSS succeeds in its short-term objective of
removing a problematic student from school and stalls or, in many cases, prevents any
future serious misbehavior. However, there are serious questions about the long-term
goals for students and the effect of OSS on those goals. These problems with OSS are
outlined in the research below”(Blomberg, n.d., p.2).
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4. Student Referral Center (SRC): “SRC is a centralized district room where students go
after creating problems in the regular classroom” (Blomberg, n.d., p.7).
5. Expulsion: “When a student is permanently removed from a school system”
(Children’s Law Center of Massachusetts, 2010, p.1)
Literature Review
A number of articles, and publications support the fact that there needs to be changes in
school discipline policies. There also cannot be a uniform policy that is slapped together for
every school to follow.
Fenning et al. (2004) explains that school should not remove policies that deal with the
removal of students if they are endangering themselves or other students in the school. There is a
time and place for student removal from the classroom. “There is ample evidence to conclude
that the current state of affairs in the area of discipline policies is in need of great reform and
restructuring” (Fenning et al., 2004, p. 56). She also suggests that Positive Behavior Support
(PBS) needs to be integrated in to discipline policies. “In collaboration with key stakeholders
(parents, students, community members, office personnel, security guards, school support staff,
classroom assistants), prosocial disciplinary policies must emphasize PBS strategies and the need
for integrated behavioral and academic support” (Fenning et al., 2004, p. 56)
Rosen (1992) There is a need for every school to develop it’s own set of discipline codes
and rules. Because of the differences in geography, student population, ethnic background, and
economical background to make any standardized set of rules is impossible. Rosen continues to
stress that it is important to have a discipline plan that is fair and just to every student, keeping in
mind their backgrounds, handicaps, or ethnicities.
Goodman (2007) suggests that discipline in schools is failing and needs to change.
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Discipline policies need to be fair and consistent for students to abide by them. “The argument is
made that if discipline is to succeed, students must believe in and identify with the goals it is
designed to support” (Goodman, 2007, p.1). Placing more and more rules onto students
provokes disobedience. Goodman (2007) states:
The backbone to a well-functioning disciplinary system is authority premised on and
sustained by collectively endorsed values, rules that directly express those values and
teachers who are conduits of them. The more moralized and idealized the values, the
greater the likelihood of winning over children’s commitment as they come to unite their
sense of self with the moral mandates (p.11).
When all the members involved come together as a group, being open to the group
purpose, this is the ideal base for a disciplinary system. The students are then willing to work for
the good of the whole group (Goodman, 2004 p.11).
“Adults in the school community also must take responsibility for their part in the
process. Parents must be cognizant of the program, support the school's discipline initiative, and
accept the consequences for their child's inappropriate behavior” (Ruder, 2006 p. 34). It is also
up to the teacher to use professional judgment when it comes to sending a student from the class.
Administrators then must use a system that will address the discipline issues in an effective
manner while using school time efficiently to correct the issue (Ruder, 2006 p.35).
Washburn, Stowe, Cole, and Robinson (2007) indicate that discipline policies are
centered on the situation of changing behavior through consequences. Indicating that discipline
practices are punishment based. The discipline practices are doing little to address the problems
of school violence, disruption, or juvenile crime. “In fact, such practices can be
counterproductive by exacerbating problem behavior” (Washburn, et al., 2007, p.1). Using
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School-wide Positive Behavior Support (PBS) could change the way we look at discipline. PBS
is a preventative approach to discipline, and a process to implementing a wide range of
strategies. These strategies are geared to ward preventing problems in behavior with all students.
“The “positive,” in Positive Behavior Support, references a profound focus on desired behavior,
including: clarifying expected behaviors, explicit teaching of those behaviors, and developing
procedures that promote student demonstration of those behaviors” (Washburn, et al., 2007, p.3).
Hyman (1994) suggests that a discipline policy should be well organized.
“Organizational approaches to school discipline and violence offer the best long term solutions”
(Hyman, 1994, p.8). He also suggests that each discipline problem should be organized on a
discipline matrix. Hyman’s (1994) research suggests that:
(1) Discipline is a complex problem, (2) here are few simple solutions, (3) there are no
data to prove that any one-discipline program is always better than other approaches in
all situations, (4) that the best solutions must take into account the total ecology of the
school situation (p.4).
Hyman (1994) explains that without having a very organized discipline matrix a variety of
discipline problems can occur, such as misbehavior, violence, and sexual harassment.
Delimitations
There are many reasons on why school discipline policies do not work. Discipline
policies begin with individual teacher’s classroom discipline policies and the steps they take
before sending them to the office for administrative action. Teacher’s classroom management
will not be addressed. Each teacher has a right to design his or her own classroom discipline
policy to allow a positive setting. Due to that, classroom management will not be addressed in
this study.
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Family involvement in discipline policies will also be excluded from this study. Parents
all have a different opinion on school discipline policies, especially when it deals with their own
children. Parents will think one way when it comes to other students in the school, but will have
a completely different opinion when it is their child. With that being said, the consistency with
family involvement is not valid, so this topic will not be included in this study.
Limitations
Since there are many reasons on why discipline policies do not work, there are variables
that could skew the study. Living in small town, everyone knows everybody. When something
happens in schools, everyone knows what happened, or they have their own opinion on what
happened. Unfortunately, because of all the hearsay, people may feel that even a very successful
discipline policy is in fair or inconsistent. With that being said, when students hear from their
peers that an administrator disciplined in a certain, they may feel that the process was
inconsistent, bias, or inconsistent. In addition, students often do not tell the whole story to their
peers, so some students have a false assumption on what actually happened.
Other weaknesses in this study is that with all the different opinions from teachers and
parents on what is a good policy is, is that with all the research I have found, it seems that this is
huge concern. There are too many people that have a say in what is right when disciplining, all
of which are different. That concept is what creates the inconsistency, bias, and validity.
Summary
This discipline study has created a lot of confusion with very little positive conclusions. There
are many studies that have been done on discipline, but most the research was completed at least
twenty to thirty years ago. Not saying that the results of those studies are invalid, but times have
changed as well as our students. Discipline policies twenty to thirty years ago would not work in
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today’s society. Corporal punishment seemed to be mentioned often in the older studies, as well
as the transition of discipline policies when corporal punishment was being eliminated as far as
excepted discipline action. When corporal punishment was eliminated from discipline policies, is
where discipline in schools started to decline in effectiveness. There are a variety of different
ideas that people have on how a discipline policy should be. Unfortunately, there are not that
many studies testing out those theories. In conclusion, for a discipline policy to be effective there
has to be a discipline policy matrix in place. For that matrix to work, everyone in the school
needs to follow and enforce the policy regardless if they agree with it or not. If everyone is on
the same page, students will know exactly what the consequences will be without question.
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References
Blomberg, N. (n.d.). Effective discipline for misbehavior: In school vs. out of school suspension
Retrieved July 12, 2010 from
http://www.publications.villanova.edu/Concept/.../Effective_Discipline.pdf
Children’s Law Center of Massachusetts (2010). School suspension and expulsion. Retrieved
July 12, 2010 from http://www.cicm.org
Fenning, P. Theodos, J. Benner, C. Bohanon-Edmonson, H. (2004). Integrating proactive
discipline practices into codes of conduct. Journal of School Violence, 3(1). Retrieved
July 27, 2010, from Eric database (15982822)
Goodman, J. F. (2007). School discipline, by-in and belief. Ethic and Education 2(1) 3-23.
Retrieved July 27, 2010, from Eric database (24756666)
Hyman, I., Weiler, E., Dahbany, A., Shanock, A., Britton, G. (1994). Policy and practice in
school discipline: Past, present, and future. Speeches/conference paper. Retrieved July
27, 2010, from Eric database (ED383960)
Hymowitz, K.S. (2000). Who killed school discipline? Retrieved June 27, 2010 from http://city-
journal.org/html/10_2_who_killed_school_dis.html
Kistler, L. (2010). High schools and the lack of discipline in our education system. Retrieved
June 27, 2010 from http://www.helium.com
Rosen, L. (1992). School discipline practices: A manual for school administrators. Guides-non-
Classroom Use. Retrieved July 27, 2010, from Eric database (ED357440)
Ruder, R. (2006). Frour steps to address student discipline. National Association of Secondary
School Principals. Retrieved July 27, 2010, from Eric database (220017542)
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Literature Review
Sagor, R. (2000). Guiding school improvement with action research. Alexandria, VA:
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Stoner, E., Shaw, R., McClay. (2000). Reviewing your student discipline policy: A project worth
the investment. Guide-Non-Classroom. Retrieved July 26, 2010, from Eric database
(ED444074)
Washburn, S., Stowe, K., Cole, C., Robin, J., (2007). Improving school climate and student
behavior: A new paradigm for Indiana schools, Center for Evaluation & Policy, 5 (9).
Retrieved July 27, 2010, from Eric database (ED500604)
Webster’s 1913 Dictionary (2010). [Electronic version]. Retrieved July 12, 2010, from
http://www.webster-dictionary.org
Yancy, T. (2001) Voluntary corporal punishment reduces suspension rates. Retrieved June 27,
2010 from http://www.corpun.com/yancey.htm
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