Linda Albert’s Cooperative discipline Theory

Introduction

Linda Albert is the author and developer of the cooperative discipline theory. She is an education counselor who worked as a class teacher at both the national and international levels.  His cooperative Discipline theory was mainly inspired by the Adlerian psychology alongside the Rudolf Dreikurs. In his work, Linda Albert suggested that the behavior and misbehavior of students are majorly due to the students’ attempts to meet specific needs. She, therefore, observed that if teachers and attend to those needs and provide encouragement to the students, they have a chance to reduce the misbehaviors (Oral, 2012). By doing so, teachers can establish classrooms where all students participate cooperatively with the teacher and fellow students.

To clarify on the cooperative theory, Linder Alberts provides a precise technique that can be used as a classroom strategy to establish a conducive environment that favors maximum cooperation. Linda contributes to the concept of the three Cs, which stands for capable, connect, and contributing. She also developed a classroom code of conduct, the six-D conflict resolution plans, and the five A’s strategies that are used by the teacher to assist the student in connecting with the tutor and other class members.

Linda Albert’s primary focus is to assist the teachers in meeting the needs of the students and in the process, establish a cooperative culture in them. She believed that the cooperative culture would then help to remove the adversarial behaviors that would exist between the students and the teachers (Bowers, 2012). She believed that the best way to ensure that students are cooperative is by making have a feeling of belonging to the classroom. That is the main focus of the concepts of the three Cs.

The principle teachings of Linda Alberts.

Linda Albert believed that for the greatest part, students will choose to behave as they feel appropriate and that their behavior is not outside their control. She, therefore, believes that there is a need for students to feel they belong to the classroom in order to perceive themselves to be essential and are valued.  Linda then demonstrates that the main reasons why students can misbehave are either to gain attention, to gain power, to exact revenge, or to avoid some failure.  Having identified these possible causes of misbehavior, Linda suggests that a student can either misbehavior when they do not know the proper way to conduct themselves. She, therefore, indicates that teachers can influence how the students behave but cannot directly control them. Going by the beliefs, Albert suggested that teachers should adopt a disciplined approach that will allow them to work cooperatively with the students and the parents to transform the classroom into a safe and orderly place for learning purposes.

The core objective of Linda Albert’s classroom discipline is to assist the students in making the right decisions as far as their behaviors are concerned (Collins, 2007). This goal can be achieved by establishing a positive relationship among the students, teachers, and parents. Such positive relationships will then make it easy to develop strategies that intervene in cases of misbehavior.

Reasons why students misbehave, according to Linda Albert.

Linda believes that classroom misbehavior occurs as a result of students attempting to meet some psychological needs without being successful. This need is mainly the need to belong to the classroom. Linda suggests that most students want to feel secure, welcomed, and a sense of value. (Pamplin, 2015)

Linda Albert’s three Cs Cooperative Discipline approach.

The main approach to Linda’s Cooperative Discipline is embodied in the concept of the three Cs. The idea of three Cs stands for capable, connect, and contribute (C.M.Charles, 2005).

Capability

Teachers are encouraged to make the students recognize that they are capable of taking a particular set of tasks. In order to make the students develop a sense of capability, Albert suggests that the teachers build confidence in the student.  It is the role of the teacher to make the student feel confident that success is possible. The teachers should, therefore, assure the students that learning is a process of improvement rather than an end product. The students should also be encouraged that it is okay to make mistakes. The fear of making mistakes can sometimes undermine the students’ feeling of capability. Albert encourages the teachers to have a talk with the students concerning the possible mistakes that may arise in the process of learning.

Connect.

The second C in the Cooperative Discipline theory is to assist the students in connecting with other fellow students, teachers, and even parents. The essence of this concept is to establish positive relationships among all the members involved in the learning process. Linda believes that building such healthy and positive relationships helps the students to become more cooperative. In ensuring a good connection, Albert suggested the concept of five A’s. The ideas of the five A’s stand for acceptance, which means assisting the students to be contented by how they are regardless of cultural differences and abilities.

The second A is for attention, which emphasizes the need to make oneself available to the students.

The other A stands for appreciation, which advocates for showing the students that we are pleased with how they behave or of their achievements.

The fourth A stands for affirmation that is aimed at making positive comments that will encourage the students to adopt desirable behaviors.

The last A means affection which emphasizes on being close to the students and showing them care. Linda Albert suggests that the students should be cared for regardless of their traits, and we should not expect any payment for showing care to the students.

Contribute

Linda Albert suggests that teachers should give equal opportunities to the students to contribute to the classroom learning process. She insists that the best way to show the students that they are needed is by giving them a chance to contribute to the discussions. In line with this, the teachers should strive to encourage the students to contribute to the class, school, and the entire community.

Conclusions

Once the teacher is aware of the principles put forward by Linda Albert to help the students cooperate, he/she should then set a code of conduct that will specify how the students and teachers are expected to carry out themselves. Teachers should work together with the students in developing the code of conduct. The teachers should then teach the code of conduct to the students and reinforce it such that it becomes part of the student’s routine.

Albert’s Cooperative Discipline theory can be applied at any given time. Teachers and students are thus encouraged to work together in establishing an environment that will meet both their needs.

References

Bowers, E. (2012). The everything parent’s guide to positive discipline. Avon, Mass: Adams Media.

C.M.Charles. (2005). Building Classroom Discipline. New York: Pearson.

Collins, J. (2007, November 26). Classroom Management Plan. Retrieved from Classroom Behavioral Management: https://www.wtc.ie/images/pdf/Classroom_Management/cm16.pdf

Oral, B. (2012). Student Teachers’ Classroom Management Anxiety: A Study on Behavior Management and Teaching Management. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 2901-2916.

Pamplin, J. (2015, May 11). Classroom Management from Linda Albert. + Good Discipline Linda Albert believes that good discipline depends on students attaining a sense of belonging, Retrieved from SlidePlayer: https://slideplayer.com/slide/4153238/