Arauz 1

Mrs. Lown

Luis Arauz

Education 111

November 25, 2017

Guidance Article Reflection

According to Bredekamp, author of Effective Practices of Early Childhood Education,

caring community of learners, is a group or classroom in which children and adults engage in

warm, positive relationships; treat other with respect; and learn from and with each other. The

tool they used is called CLASS (Classroom Assessment Scoring System) analyzing social-

emotional climate and instructional-climate of preschool through observation of teacher

behaviors. They asses teachers for the quick respondance towards childrens behavior and how to

get positive feedback from children by showing physical and emotional understanding through

different methods/strategies that many teachers are using today.

I learned that behavior guidance is not as simple as it may look, it takes a deeper

understanding from teacher to child in an environment in which a child's need must be meet with

others playing a vital role in it. A teacher must be able to deal with negative behavior and

attempt to cure them with positive reinforcement first. From the research and articles I grasped

information off, showing that there are dozens of techniques/strategies that a teacher must

intentionally place at the right time for a child to respond positively. Each child is different,

which means that patience is a vital key that a teacher must have if she/he wants to acquire a

positive behavior in the child intended. Many teachers now have to also manage children with
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disabilities and special needs due to federal laws requiring child care programs and schools must

accept these type of children, forcing a teacher to expand her/his capability in various ways to

encounter these type of children. Since they have a harder time to show difference in behavior,

it makes a teachers job exceedingly harder, but thats the fun of it, where a teacher becomes

better in behavior guidance through different challenges, disabled or not each child is different.

For the most part the techniques discussed in all three sources were significantly familiar

in areas such as providing a safe and learning environment that supports positive behavior and

exploration, words of encouragement rather than praise a child, ways to teach self-control, ways

to teach children to resolve conflicts, importance of relationships (family and teachers), how to

build positive relationships, smooth transitions, redirect behavior into positive behavior, teaching

various skills such as social, implement different plans, and changing the environment if needed.

Something I did not see that was mentioned in the textbook was the teaching pyramid

model, although that information was found on another website, it was added as a resource,

showing how teachers can increase positive social interactions and decrease behavior problems

with following the pyramid model. Of course the textbook goes more into depth with behavior

guidance, so I would say that specific words, such as definitions were only found in the textbook

like secure base and mindfulness.

From all the strategies used to guide behavior, I would say a couple strategies work really

well with children such as first, setting a good example, of course the children are always

watching you, so if they see you showing a good example like using kind words, how you

socialize with the rest, and how you deal with certain emotions from kids will give off an
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impression to the kids, especially if they already have a positive relationship with you, it will

only motivate them more to be just like you. Another one will be encouraging children to set

good example for each other like different ways to share, play and be kind to one another.

Another one will be a coach not a cheerleader to the children. As any good coach, they do not

just praise, they explains what needs work still, but they tell you exactly what they praised you

for. That way a child is not always getting praised, but are receiving words of motivation and

encourage that will help him/her change behavior until it becomes obvious that the children

behaviors are changing more and more. Lastly using simple rules that are easy to follow will

indeed make rules easy to repeat for children.

I would implement all of those strategies I just described because they all play different

parts, touching behavior from a different angle, most likely achieving behavior guidance in every

child because one strategy will not work with every child in a school or program. They all play a

great part and will be something I can see myself using to change behavior. I would also

implement the strategy of changing the environment of a classroom to make it as comfortable

and warming for children to have the freedom to explore various objects and learn every step of

the way. Reason being that I can see myself using these strategies, it will be more comfortable

for me to use them, without forcing a strategy that will step me out of my zone and make it seem

like I am forcing something I do not want to force into a child's behavior. I like how the

strategies tie into my liking and also the liking of various children. Also implementing disabled

and special needs children into these strategies would not be hard because most of these

strategies are not very difficult for any children to comprehend, these are more verbal
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encouragement and motivation that drives a child into changing their behavior to fit into a plan

that I can create and re-analyze frequently to better any childs behavior.

The only question I can think of is how many teachers actually find the time to use as

many strategies as they can think of and find a time and place to use different strategies to the

best of their ability. Do teachers strive to use different strategies and re-analyze their whole

approach on behavior guidance? I believe this question can only be answered individually, but

thats a question I had in mind while going through textbook and articles on techniques and

strategies. Overall this reflection has given me a better understanding on this particular topic in

which any teacher would find this useful for them and to the children they see on a daily basis.

Work Cited

Bredekamp, Sue. Effective practices in early childhood education: building a foundation.

Pearson, 2017.
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ChildCare, Basic Tips Child Care Providers Can Use to Guide Children's Behavior, eXtension,
13 Oct. 2015, articles.extension.org/pages/25703/basic-tips-child-care-providers-can-use-to-
guide-childrens-behavior.

Sanchez, Danielle Degel , et al. Site Name. Planning for Positive Guidance: Powerful
Interactions Make a Difference, NAEYC, 2013,
www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/tyc/dec2013/planning-for-positive-guidance.