Natural Consequences
From WikEd
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[edit] Great Teaching Points: Natural Consequences
[edit] Descriptions, definitions, synonyms, organizer terms, types of
Natural consequences are situations that are not controlled by anyone. Children learn through natural consequences and teachers use natural consequences as teaching points. Evidence for this can be found throughout many classrooms today. There are teachers that believe in giving students rules and regulations and then if that student does not follow through, in some cases, he or she receives a natural consequence for their actions. For instance, a school requires students not to run in hall ways. A child bumps into another child because of running and hurts himself. A teacher might want to use the natural consequence to emphasize the reason of the rule and remind the student to follow the rule on the spot. Natural consequences sometimes are more powerful than other discipline strategies since children learn through their own experiences rather than words being told by someone else. Another example of natural consequences is if you put your finger in an electric socket, you get a shock. Natural Consequences represent the natural flow of events without interference of the teacher or parent. In some cases natural consequences are linked to logical consequences, which are different. Logical consequences do not naturally occur as a result of behavior, but can be planned by teachers and administrators. Logical consequences are similar to what would happen to an adult in a similar situation, therefore teaching students skill that they will need to be successful later on in life. Logical consequences need to be related, respectful, and reasonable (Nelson, 1985).
Natural often deals with the environment and is a direct result of the child’s actions In essence, If it's not morally or physically harmful, just let the child experience the natural consequence of his/her actions.
For example:
The child who refuses to eat will go hungry. The child who does not wear mittens in cold weather has cold hands. The parents stand aside and do not become involved. . (www.ncyc.com)
http://parentingteens.about.com/cs/disciplin1/a/consequences.htm
Nelson, J. (1985). The three R’s of logical consequences, the three R’s of punishment, and six steps for winning children over. Individual Psychology, 42, 161-165.
[edit] Application in classrooms and similar settings
The natural consequences style of management can have many applications in the classroom. Teachers must be consistent with the use of natural consequences and should be careful not to make it seem as some sort of punishment. It would seem that if you confer with classroom teachers that use behavior management systems they would agree that not all behaviors can be changed to appropriate behaviors by using one form or strategy. It is important to use levels of intervention in order to help students with behavior issues and crisis. The systems used can be positive, and should be, but it should also be coupled with understanding natural consequences. For students who have learning disabilities it is critical for them to be aware of natural consequences as they mature into adults. Many of these students have processing issues and can misconstrue literal meanings with figurative meanings. Therefore, using natural consequences helps to teach appropriate behaviors in a very cut and dry method that can be effective. It can promote responsibility and typifies real life situations that will be beneficial in the future.
For example, if a student is disruptive and does not complete and assignment with in the allotted time, then that student may have to stay in at recess or after school to complete the work. This is a natural consequence of his actions, not a punishment of his behavior.
• 'Natural consequences are often used as a form of discipline. The Washington State Department of Social and Health Services advocate the use of natural consequences in their online course for foster parents.
http://www1.dshs.wa.gov/ca/fosterparents/training/index.htm This site gives several examples of uses of natural consequences.
[edit] Evidence of effectiveness
From the Washington State Dept. of Social and Health Services: The use of natural and logical consequences is an effective form of discipline. It helps your child develop responsibility and a positive self-concept. It helps your child learn to problem solve ways of getting more rewards for positive behavior. It promotes self respect. It helps maintain a positive relationship between you and your child. When using natural consequences:
Choose the situation carefully. Don't put your child in danger. Let the consequence have its effect; do not interfere. Shari Steelsmith, author of Go to Your Room: Consequences that Teach ==
offers tips for parents. She warns that natural consequences should not be used when a child could be hurt or put in a dangerous situation. For example; running into the street. A great example of natural consequence is "if you don't lock up your bike; it gets stolen."
A testimony from researchers…
Italic textThe three forms of logical consequences that we have most commonly used in our experiences working with students with challenging behavior are wasted time, extra practice, and think time. This is certainly not an exhaustive list, but will give an idea of how to go about providing logical consequences and some tools to work with. With each of these interventions, it is crucial that the student is not allowed to permanently escape work or environments they may find undesirable. Our policy is that a student is not allowed to leave school until all of their work was done. This minimizes reinforcing escape and avoidance behavior, since students are still held accountable for work completion. In addition, it is important to remember that the use of any logical consequences needs to consider the function of the inappropriate behavior and be used in conjunction with other behavioral management strategies discussed in other sections of Special Connections such as preventative approaches, positive reinforcement, and self-management.
Some further argue that natural consequences are excellent ways to teach a child self-discipline. With natural and logical consequences, good behavior can occur when the child sees that making better choices makes sense and it will be favorable for him or her when he or she follows the rules. This could be an alternative to spanking and certainly another method of discipline. http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubs/PDF/CHFDE19-02%20Natural%20Consequences.pdf
[edit] Critics and their rationale
There are so many ideas about natural consequences and if it is effective, and in many cases the opinions are too long to list. It is important for people to decide on an individual basis if they deem this to be an effective method for discipline. Some would argue that it is punishment or punitive and others would state that it is less physical and more effective for today's teenager.
Taking Children Seriously, or TCS, notes that some critics doubt the existence of "natural consequences" and instead people are advocating punishing children and denying responsiblity for the resulting distress it causes the child.
[edit] Evidence of effectivness
Natural consequences always work, but at times, they can be too severe or the natural consequence can be too delayed to be effective. In these cases, logical consequences should be used. For example, the natural consequence of running into the street is obviously unacceptable and running in the street could result in being run over by a car. Not allowing the child to play outside for a period of time offers a more logical consequence. Failure to brush one’s teeth will result in cavities. However, that natural consequence will occur too late to be a deterrent. Therefore, not allowing sweets to children who refuse to brush their teeth works more effectively. (http://childparenting.about.com/library/weekly/aa102703a.htm)
[edit] Alternative explanations due to Diversity considerations
If no natural consequences are available, Jim Fey of the Love and Logic Institute suggests that parents, teachers create their own generic consequences. For example, they use household chores but present it in such a way that it seems a natural consequence. ""Winston. You snuck out and spent the night hanging out in the convenience store parking lot. Then you climbed back in your window, thinking I would never know about it. I told you I would have to do something about that, but I’m sorry to say that I haven’t figured it out yet even though I’ve spent hours on it."
This form of "generic consequences" can also be linked to logical consequences. Creating a consequence due to specific situations can be an effective tool but it must be a reasonable consequence. The purpose of such a tool or method is to teach a student a lesson and model for him or her and the consequence must be reasonable. For example, in the above scenario about the child sneaking out of the house, the parent should provide a form of consequence that fits the inappropriate behavior. The child could receive chores around the house, not television or internet for a week, volunteering to clean the windows in the neighborhood, etc. However, the child should not have to stand on his head, be hit repeatedly, or be on punishment for 6 months. This is to simply state that the punishment should be appropriate, given in a reasonable amount of time and hopefully create self-discipline for the child.
"Do you know what’s sad about that? I can’t do two things at once. What I was going to do with my time was clean up all the dog messes in the backyard, rake the leaves, and edge the lawn and sidewalk. So...I guess as soon as you have those jobs done, we’ll forget about this problem of yours. Thank you. You don’t need to work on those jobs right now. Just have them done by the end of the day on Saturday. Thanks, pal."
(http://www.loveandlogic.com/Pages/0401generic.html)
[edit] Signed ‿life experiences‿, testimonies and stories'
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Setting up a situation or environment where natural consequences can thrive is the key to a teacher's application of it in the classroom. With a recent set of 8th grade classes, I wanted to improve their ability to work in groups, listen to each other, and talk through conflicting ideas. I set up a simple game during the first 5min of class each day: I wrote two horribly incorrect sentences on the board, and the students would have 5min to fix them. At 5min, time would stop, and they'd get one point for each completely correct sentence. Each week different students were assigned as the "leaders". Needless to say, the first week I had to close my door because in the rush of the moment, students would start screaming and shouting over each other as the leader hopelessly tried to maintain a crazy riot within the classroom. I provided no feedback or guidance, no matter how crazy things became, and only would hold a 5min "How did you think you did? What could you change/improve for tomorrow?" session after each exercise. In the end, the students guided themselves toward better methods of communication, came up with creative methods of including everyone's opinions, and gained a greater sense of unity through the experience. All of it through natural consequences in pursuit of a community goal. -Christopher Liang
When working with students, I love natural consequences. I really think they are the best way to learn not to do something or to do something. It certainly makes it easy on those of us in authority when it comes to the consequence aspect. It makesthe moment such a teachable moment. Even in my own life I feel as though natural consequences make more impact on me. -V.C. submitted by K. Darche
While I believe natural consequences work as children mature and climb the hierarchy of decision making. I am more to agree with Maslow’s theory of the hierarchy of learning. We first do learn things as a way of survival, such as the basic of natural consequences. Yet as we continue up the hierarchy the natural consequences we have learned have us preempting the negative outcomes before we actually experience them. As a teacher and a parent, I love the idea of natural consequences. But... it is a difficult concept to put into practice. Everyone uses the example of a student writing on a desk and then having to stay after class and clean desks. However, many misbehaviors do not have such an easy consequence match and real life natural consequences are often much more subtle or long-term than suits educators.
As a 7th grade teacher, I try to use natural consequences whenever possible. I feel that when a natural consequence occurs, the students are more likely not to do the same behavior again because they can see the connection between what they did and the outcome. Sometimes the best natural consequences occur on their own; these are the best kinds. My first year teaching, I had a student who undid the top of his desk so that it would flip up on the hinge, kind of like a book opening away from him. I told him to put it back the way it was, explaining that the desks were hooked like that for a reason. Since he was a trouble-maker, he didn't listen to me. Instead of giving him a detention, I let it slide because I had a feeling that a natural consequence would present itself, because this student also liked to slam his arms down on his desk. Low and behold, at one point during the class, he slammed his arms down and up popped the top of his desk, right into his chin. In the future, he thought twice before messing with the desk again! Amy Higgins
I also like using natural consequences. One of my favorite ways to enforce natural consequences is that I often begin class with a mis-worded headline, or a short Mad Lib. the students love this activity, and often want to spend more time on it. When a student comes late to class, they miss the activity. I don't repeat it, and don't call on those students. Missing the fun activity is a natural consequence of tardiness. Warner Ferratier •
I found natural consequences to be especially useful when I was teaching a chemistry lab. The students often had to use a separate room to take infra red spectra of their chemicals. To get to this room, they had to open a door using the doorknob. The students are supposed to take off their contaminated gloves before touching the doorknob, since many people not wearing gloves often touch the door. This is really hard for them to remember to do, and went unnoticed by myself and the other teaching assistants for a few weeks until I got small amount of acid on my hand (enough to notice, not enough to hurt). I told the students on many occasions to take off their gloves before opening the door. There was no change in behavior. I sat by the door and told each student that reached for the door to take off their gloves. However, if I moved to the other side of the room, the undesirable behavior resurfaced. Finally, whenever I noticed a student touching the doorknob wearing gloves, I made them go all the way across the lab, retrieve a bottle of acetone and a paper towel and clean the doorknob. Only two students had to do this before the whole class ceased the undesirable behavior. --Kate Mills
I was drawn to this topic because of the title "Natural Consequences." I often find myself saying those two words to my fourth grade students. I didn't know that the idea of natural consequences could be used as a behavior modification technique. I guess I use natural consequences as a component as my behavior plan. I use natural consequences as "teachable moments." When a child has been leaning back in his chair, even after being reminded of the safety issue, and he then falls on the floor, I have a perfect opportunity to support the reason behind the rule. I will now be more conscious of the use of natural consequences in my classroom. -- Amanda P.
Natural consequences really help students understand why what they did was not the right choice. This is a also a great area to include students opinion. At the beginning of the year we discussed the classroom expectations and also discussed natural consequences for not following these expectations. From then on, when a natural consequence is put in place, students know why and know what they did wrong. E. Kilroy
As an educator and a parent, I use/used natural consequences as much as possible. I agree that it is not always possible to match a consequence to a situation that doesn't have an obvious outcome, however I believe it is our responsibility to teach natural and logical consequences to our children. The natural world around us does not make exceptions and often the people we come in contact with daily do not as well. As adults we are faced with consequences, so we need to teach our children not only that they exist but how to deal with them positively. Done well, children can learn pride in honesty and hard work while building the character traits of good citizens. I also believe that children tend to accept these types of consequences without as much resentment or anger as the situation they're in is "to blame", not an adult who is choosing to punish them. - Pam Olivito
[edit] '''References and other links of interest'
cat=behavior§ion=main&subsection=classroom/natural
