Dreikur’s Confronting Mistaken Goals
Key Ideas
1. Discipline is not punishment. It is teaching students to
impose limits on themselves, to develop inner control.
Discipline should not be imposed from the outside
2. Learning occurs best in democratic classrooms that
promote a sense of belonging and the acquisition of self-
discipline.
3. Democratic teachers provide firm guidance and
leadership. They allow students to have a say in
establishing rules and consequences.
Dreikur’s Confronting Mistaken Goals
Key Ideas
4. All students have an innate need for belonging.
They want status and recognition. Most of their
behavior is directed by their desire to belong.
5. When students are unable to satisfy this prime
need they turn by default to certain mistaken goals
they think might help them satisfy this need
Dreikur’s Confronting Mistaken Goals Get back at teacher
Students talk out, show off, heels, make
Drag their
and other students by
Key Ideas comments
interrupt others, demand under their
lying, subverting class
breath, try to show
teacher attention teacher cannot makeactivities, disrupting
5. Misbehavior is associatedthem withdofour mistaken
anything
the classgoals:
maliciously
seeking attention, gaining power, taking revenge, and
displaying inadequacy. The goal in each case is to elicit
certain responses from teachers.
Withdraw from class
activities
6. Teachers should quickly identify the mistaken goals
and act to avoid their reinforcement.
7. Teachers should encourage student's efforts while
avoiding praise of either their work or character.
8. Teachers should teach students that unpleasant
consequences always follow inappropriate behavior.
Rudolf Dreikur’s Democratic Teaching Model
Dreikur’s Confronting Mistaken Goals
8 Conditions for a Democratic Classroom
(a) The establishment of order.
(b) The setting of limits. Use of logical consequnces
(c) The use of firmness and kindness: Firmness from
teachers shows that they respect themselves. Kindness
shows their respect for others.
(d) Involving students when establishing and maintaining
rules.
Dreikur’s Confronting Mistaken Goals
8 Conditions for a Democratic Classroom
(e) Leadership from the teacher.
(f) Inviting cooperation and eliminating destructive
competition.
(g) Promoting a sense of belonging within a group.
(h) Encouraging an atmosphere of freedom to explore,
discover, and choose acceptable behavior through
understanding the responsibilities and consequences
associated with it.
Dreikur’s Confronting Mistaken Goals
Dreikur’s Do’s and Don’t’s
Do’s
o Give clear-cut directions
o Establish a relationship with each individual
based on trust and mutual respect.
o Use logical consequences instead of traditional
punishment.
Dreikur’s Confronting Mistaken Goals
Dreikur’s Do’s and Don’t’s
Don’ts
o Nag and scold as this is likely to strengthen a student's
regrettable concept on how to get attention.
o Work to obtain a promise from a student. Most students
will promise to change in order to free themselves from
an uncomfortable situation.
o Find fault with students. It may hurt their self-esteem
and discourage them.
Dreikur’s Confronting Mistaken Goals
Strengths
• potential to bring about genuine attitudinal
changes in students
• shared responsibility: teachers and students
together decide on rules and consequences.
• build in students an inner sense of
responsibility and respect for themselves and
others.
Dreikur’s Confronting Mistaken Goals
Key Issues
• require steady and continual effort for results to
become evident.
• does not address the issue of hard-to-manage classes
or defiant students
• Too much emphasis on sense of belonging as cause
• Too much weightage given to “mistaken goals” as
misbehaviour
Dreikur’s Confronting Mistaken Goals
Suggestions for promoting democratic classrooms:
(a) Always speak in positive terms, never be negative
(b) Encourage students to strive for improvement, not
perfection
(c) Emphasize students’ strengths while minimizing their
weakness
(d) Help students learn from their mistakes, which are
valuable elements in the learning process
(e) Encourage independence and responsibility
Dreikur’s Confronting Mistaken Goals
Suggestions for promoting democratic classrooms:
(f) Show faith in students, offer them help to overcome
obstacles
(g) Encourage students to help each other
(h) Show pride in student work, display and share with
others
(i) Be optimistic and enthusiastic – a positive outlook is
contagious
(j) Use encourageing remarks such as “You have
improved”; What have you learned from that mistake?
Dreikur’s Confronting Mistaken Goals
Dreikur’s Do’s and Don’t’s
Do’s
o Give clear-cut directions
o Establish a relationship with each individual based on
trust and mutual respect.
o Use logical consequences instead of traditional
punishment.
Dreikur’s Confronting Mistaken Goals
Dreikur’s Do’s and Don’t’s
Do’s
o Let students assume greater responsibility for their
own behavior and learning.
o Treat students as your social equals.
o Combine kindness and firmness.
o At all times distinguish between the deed and the doer.
This allows you to retain respect for the student while
not accepting their behaviour.
Dreikur’s Confronting Mistaken Goals
Dreikur’s Do’s and Don’t’s
Do’s
o Set limits from the beginning but work toward mutual
understanding
o Deal with incidents quickly and effectively Let students
know that mistakes are corrected, forgiven and then
forgotten.
Dreikur’s Confronting Mistaken Goals
Dreikur’s Do’s and Don’t’s
Don’ts
o Nag and scold as this is likely to strengthen a student's
regrettable concept on how to get attention.
o Work to obtain a promise from a student. Most
students will promise to change in order to free
themselves from an uncomfortable situation.
o Find fault with students. It may hurt their self-esteem
and discourage them.
Dreikur’s Confronting Mistaken Goals
Dreikur’s Do’s and Don’t’s
Don’ts
o Adopt double standards - we are all familiar with these.
o Use threats as a method to discipline students.
Dreikur’s Confronting Mistaken Goals
There are three categories of teachers:
(a) Autocratic
• force their will on students in order to control the class
• motivate students with outside pressures
Dreikur’s Confronting Mistaken Goals
There are three categories of teachers:
(b) Permissive.
• no explicit rules and consequences
• students fail to learn that successful living in general
society requires them to follow rules (practise acceptable
behaviour) and have self-discipline
• Students are confused because they believe that they
are free from restraint and can do whatever they want.
However, they discover that things do not go smoothly
for them.
Dreikur’s Confronting Mistaken Goals
There are three categories of teachers:
(c) Democratic
• neither permissive nor autocratic
• firm guidance and leadership by establishing rules and
consequences
• Freedom grows from discipline.
• Students understand that consequences follow
behavior
• students free to choose behavior that will attain their
legitimate needs
• Discipline involves teaching students how to establish
an inner control that permits them to choose correct
behavior
