Restorative Discipline is Responsive, Proactive, and Consistent
Restorative discipline is neither autocratic nor permissive, nor is it a combination of the two. Approaching discipline from a restorative perspective is a shift away from traditional disciplinary practices. A restorative approach to discipline concentrates on teaching students effective behaviors and dispositions and helping them to restore damages resulting from misbehavior (Lyn et al., 2021).
Consistent Approach
Consistency means maintaining a restorative perspective about the purpose of discipline.
- Consistently believing in students’ desire to be successful.
- Consistently supporting students in being successful.
- Consistently empathizing with students who have made mistakes.
- Consistently helping students to regain regulation, take steps to grow from mistakes, and to make amends with who they may have harmed.
Consistency does not mean responding to every student in exactly the same way. Inevitably an educator’s response may look very different depending on the situation and the student (Lyn et al., 2021).
Proactive Approach
Strategies for heading off misbehavior before it happens demonstrates educators’ positive regard for students (Minahan, 2019). Techniques like collaborating with students to develop class rules, agreements, or norms can pave the way for future proactive strategies and reflection. When these guidelines are developed with students and become a daily point of dialogue and reflection, it helps to cultivate a safe and predictable environment. The values of the classroom culture become visible and important. Consensus is built around the way the class community wants to experience their interactions with each other. The teacher uses tools and techniques for guiding positive interactions and cultivating mutual support among members of the class community (Lyn et al., 2021).
Responsive Approach
Responding to misbehavior is a necessary aspect of any classroom setting. People are imperfect and behave poorly at times. Rather than ignoring or punishing negative behavior, a responsive approach lets students know an educator:
- notices their silence, tone of voice, chronic tapping, pacing, anger, disruption, etc.
- cares enough to guide them back to effective behavior.
- supports their reflection and reparation.
Lyn, A. E., Lord, S., & Curtis, J. S. (2021). “Do as I say, not as I do” doesn’t work: Modeling social emotional competence through self-care. [Unpublished manuscript].
Minahan, J. (2019). Trauma-informed teaching strategies. Educational Leadership, 77(2), 30–35.
Imagine you are a teacher working in a high school. Write a proposal to a school administrator advocating for implementation of a restorative discipline approach.
- Consider formulating a letter to a school administrator advocating for restorative practices by identifying the purpose and benefit of this approach.
- Complete the following proposal template below as an attachment to the letter.
