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.