The Seven Key Behavioral Principles by Colvin on “Defusing Disruptive Behavior in the Classroom”.

Geoff Colvin published on 2004 a book called “Defusing Disruptive Behavior in the Classroom” in which he provides different strategies that educators can follow in order to prevent disruptive behavior, or if the disruptive behavior is currently happening, to learn how to deal with it and redirect the student towards the expected behavior.

In order to comprehend these strategies, Colvin considers that is necessary to understand the Seven Key Behavioral Principles (described in the first chapter) that are present in the educational setting. In the following paragraphs, a brief summary of the basic concepts that each of these principles touch upon is going to be developed.

The first principle is called “Goals of correction procedures”. Colvin affirms that there are three main goals at the time of correcting problem behavior. The first goal is to “interrupt the problem behavior, and engage the student or students in the expected behavior”. The second one is to “Ensure the student or students exhibit the expected behavior in future occurrences of similar situations”. The third one is “Avoid escalating the situation to more serious behavior”. All of these together build the common goal of achieving an effective correction procedure by not only interrupting the disruptive behavior and redirecting the student towards the behavior expected but also making sure that he or she understands why this behavior is not correct, so it is prevented from happening again in the future.

The second principle is “ The role of teacher attention in correction procedures”. This principle focuses on the fact that all students need some kind of attention; and it is becoming more and more common that educators end up giving more attention to the students whose behavior is disruptive, instead of recognizing the students who are following the expectations. This sometimes leads to student’s misbehavior after him or her seeing that it is one of the only option of getting that attention that they are seeking from the teacher. Colvin addresses this problem by affirming that “Teacher attention, is properly directed, can be used to reinforce expected behavior and reduce problem behavior”.

The third principle is called “The nature of behavioral intensity, escalation, and defusion”. In this principle the author analyzes these three different concepts. The author believes that is necessary to address each behavior based in the intensity and the impact related to classroom disruption. Colvin writes about behavior escalation as a process in which the student starts a series of behaviors that follow the pattern of being each one more intense than the previous one. The process of defusion would be the opposite to escalation, being each behavior less intense than the one before.

The fourth principle is “The nature of behavioral chains”. Behavioral chains are a series of behaviors linked to the one prior and the one after. These chains can reflect escalation, and also defusion. These behavioral chains can be interpreted as interaction pathways, in which the response of another person generates an stimulus of the next behavior in the chain. It is very important for an educator to understand and predict how their response can generate a certain stimulus in the student; this way escalation can be prevented and the educator can guide the intervention towards an effective behavior correction.

The fifth principle is “The role of behavioral extinction and extinction bursts”. Colvin makes reference to the term extinction as the process of removing the reinforcers that maintain a target behavior. One of the main problems that the extinction process can generate is the extinction bursts. When the reinforcers are removed students can start showing a more serious behavior that can lead to escalation. This escalation is called an extinction burst. This is why Colvin considers that is important to manage the removal of reinforcers as well as the first stages of extinction burst in order to develop and effective behavior correction.

The sixth principle is “The power of personal reactions”. This principle focuses on some of the main factors that an educator must control in order to respond to problem behavior. Colvin provides some components of teacher respond such as showing logical or best-practice responses, or not taking the student behaviors personally as essential tools to deal with disruptive behavior situations. The author emphasizes the importance of addressing the problem student behaviors in ways that are effective and don’t generate escalation.

The seventh principle is “Establishing fluent responses”. Colvin considers fluency as “the degree to which a teacher responds in a planned way, automatically and smoothly, to certain situations”. This fluency is achieved by repeated practice and constant exposition to situations in which an effective intervention is demanded. The author considers that one of the main challenges for the educators regarding fluency is controlling the very first response or impulse, and transforming it into the most effective reaction possible at that time.

In conclusion, it is definitely important to understand these principles, in order to get closer to the effective behavior intervention that all educators pursue when a challenging behavior situation is presented.

Title of the book: “Defusing Disruptive Behavior in the Classroom” by Geoff Colvin.