preview

Teaching Preschools Conflict Management Skills

Decent Essays
Open Document
As seen in past chapters with other terms, the author advocates that educators replace the notion of discipline with guidance. Historically, European-American classrooms have incorrectly equated the term discipline with punishment. In order to teach social-emotional skills to children, educators need to distance themselves from punishment that are disguised as disciplinary practices. A more appropriate approach to use with children is called guidance, and an important strategy in this approach is conflict management. Educators should aim to practice guidance by helping children solve their problems rather than punishing students for problems they are unable to tackle. Moreover, teachers need to be consistent when teaching preschools…show more content…
Overall, guidance may be described as character education which results in the development of empathy and self-control.
While the majority of teachers have distanced themselves from the term “punishment,” more and more teachers are distancing themselves from the term “discipline” as well. One reason for this change is due to some teachers who are unable to distinguish where discipline ends and where punishment begins. On the other hand, some educators state that “discipline” is a neutral term that does not include punishment. However, many teachers accidently use acts of punishment in discipline when they are motivated out of anger or blame the student without fully realizing that they are punishing the student. When punishment is used, a child may develop a low self-esteem or a negative self-concept and feelings of anger and disengagement. Moreover, children internalize negative messages that are carried with punishment and they eventually lose their trust in adults. Guidance has been proven to work better than punishment because these methods teach children how to know and do better.
As stated before, some educators have struggled to identify when guidance principles are actually in use. Educators can avoid this struggle when they learn to recognize what guidance does not include. First, guidance is not just reacting to problems because these methods also are preventative through
Get Access
Related
Get Access