Win-Win Discipline Model

My first item of interest is one that is used throughout my internship to help create structure for our students. Thomas Jefferson Junior High School in Woodridge, IL, where I intern, is a PBIS school. At Jefferson, we use a Tier 1 intervention for discipline when working with our students. The discipline model that we use is called Win-Win Discipline and was created by Spencer Kagan, Ph.D. This discipline model encourages collaborative learning and takes the power struggle that often occurs out of the discipline process.

The Win-Win Discipline model has four sections and is set up like the graphic below. There are four types of classroom disruptions that are identified as ABCD within Win-Win Discipline. These disruptions are identified as Aggression, Confrontation, Disengagement, and Breaking the rules. Breaking the rules is listed last and the disruption is only labeled as so if it does not fall within the other three categories. Win-Win encourages us to look past the disruption to see why a student is being disruptive. There are 7 positions as to why a student would be disruptive. The student may be disruptive because they are: attention-seeking, avoiding failure, angry, control seeking, bored, energetic, or socially uninformed. These 7 positions help us to understand how to meet the student's needs. We are able to better understand a student’s needs through Win-Win’s 3 pillars of letting students know we are on the same-side through conversations, creating collaborative solutions with the student who caused the disruption, and helping the student gain learned responsibility through teaching them positive ways to get their needs met and to take ownership of their actions. Win-Win Discipline is built on a foundation of engaging in the prevention of disruptive behavior, engaging at the moment- of- disruption where we identify which of the 7 positions the student is in and decide how to respond in a mutually beneficial way through language of choice, and through follow-ups where we check-in, process and help the student understand their behavior and how to correctly and positively get their needs met in the future. This foundation helps to limit the number of disruptions that occur within the classroom.  Win-Win Discipline takes practice, especially when working through the conversations to have within the moment of disruption.

The Win-Win Discipline Model fits into the social work model under the area of promoting a school climate and culture that is conducive to student learning and teaching excellence through the collaborative learning that takes place between the school administration, staff, and students and can be used at all grade levels. This discipline model helps to eliminate the power struggle that often occurs in conflict resolutions in the classroom where one side has to lose. Win-Win Discipline promotes student engagement and ownership in creating a classroom and school environment which is not only inviting but also conducive to encouraging everyone to actively participate in their learning.

Please view the graphic and the PowerPoint below for a further explanation of Win-Win Discipline.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1RCt_Qu-9fz4uSQav3qKFK6RNasyMeybQeZ9HyUfXKFA/edit?usp=sharing