Conscious Discipline as a Resilient System for Positive Early Childhood Classroom Management and Children’s Social and Emotional Competences

Classroom management is a considerable challenge for teachers and teacher retention. This research aims for early childhood teachers to reflect on classroom management transferring from the teacher-centered operant conditioning approach stressing reinforcement and token systems to the approach emphasizing children’s internal brain state where they self-regulate their own emotions, thoughts, feelings, and actions, and problem-solve, which empowers both teachers and children. Conscious Discipline is proposed in this research for teachers’ and children’s safety, social and emotional learning, self-regulation, conflict-resolution, and problem-solving to establish a positive classroom climate and enhance children’s social and emotional competences. This research is essential to improve early childhood teachers’ implementations of classroom management program through qualitative participatory action research (PAR) approach with the practical knowledge and reflective practices of an early childhood teacher implementing Conscious Discipline in her teaching on a daily basis.