How to Ensure Discipline in the Classroom
Feride Hekimgil, Turkey
Feride Hekimgil was born into a multicultural, multilingual family in Basingstoke in 1955. She grew up and completed her primary and secondary education in Istanbul, after which she attended Boğaziçi University, an English medium university in the same city. After graduating in 1976 having received a BA in English Literature and her teaching certificate from the Department of Education, she started teaching English as a foreign language at the same university. She has been teaching at the same university for the past 39 years. E-mail: pheridey@yahoo.com
Menu
Introduction: Talk the talk and walk the walk
From classroom to message and to desirable behavior
Developing a sense of belonging and personal identity
Enhancing competence and security
Promoting intellectual growth and stimulation
Accommodating privacy needs
Gaining a foothold
Punctuality
Dress sense
The rock face
The grand entry
How to address the group
Getting down to brass tacks
The content
Attitude: the teacher
Attitude: the student
The counter argument
Students should be seen and only heard when required: The Charter Schools
In conclusion
References
Teachers are at a distinct disadvantage when compared to other professionals dealing directly with the public in that the training they receive to be able to do their job of enlightening and educating young people is sadly lacking in one fundamental respect: no other such professional is turned loose on the world so ill equipped to deal with members of the public. Take your average graduate of any self respecting police academy for instance: the young PC’s and WPC’s are carefully trained in every aspect of address; they are well versed, when they graduate, in the right intonation, tone, pitch and emphasis with which to address any member of the public depending on the circumstances. This is accompanied by the correct posture, expression and body language in general. You don’t see your average bobby slouching, slurring his words, looking or sounding hesitant or ambling along. The policeman’s walk is as carefully practiced as Kate Moss’ and equally well choreographed for full effect; an ability which probably takes a full two term course to perfect. The walk is fine tuned to exude confidence, purpose and a general ‘no nonsense’ attitude. As a result, when your average copper calls out “Oi, where do you think you are going?” it sounds nothing like the way you or I would utter the words and has quite a different effect: the individual thus addressed skids to a halt, goes on the defensive and finds it impossible to resist the urge to explain himself. The said PC has a whole plethora of questions which have been honed to perfection such as “Where were you on the night in question?” and the very well known “Why don’t you just make it easy on yourself?” You may be forgiven for thinking that some people are just born more authoritative; the whole police force? Really? There is a lot of hard graft that goes into the speech, body language and general turnout of the police constable. Politicians are another case in point: ‘the training’ of the politician, once elected, is taken over by a group of experts who redesign, or tweak, his body language, gestures, tone of voice, pitch and the like, modify his wardrobe, determine which side of his face to present to the public – profile or face on – as well as a series of well rehearsed comments; in fact, most of what he says as the speech writers to famous politicians will verify. Think Sir Humphrey Appleby who devotes his energies to ‘house training’ the minister and later the prime minister so as he and the rest of the civil service can run the country. Joking aside, there is a lot of truth in the wonderful series “Yes Minister” and “Yes Prime minister”. The best examples to this are the ‘before and after’ of former party leader Erdal İnönü and Baroness Thatcher but I am sure there are others we haven’t heard of, and yet others who could have benefitted from such coaching. Now consider your average oncologist for instance; a good bedside manner is a basic part of his job as he is obliged to tell people, on a weekly basis, that they have, for instance, three weeks to live. The aim of every oncologist worth his salt is to get thanked for delivering the news, which ironically makes him the go-to oncologist.
The second important aspect of every profession involving the public is leadership skills and contrary to what most people would like to believe, there are many such skills that one can acquire through training as is demonstrated by the armed forces. The bark and authority of the drill sergeant driving his men through an obstacle course is a case in point. You don’t hear a marine complain that he doesn’t like getting muddy or asking for a break to catch his breath over a cup of coffee. As they rise through the ranks, the said set of skills are sharpened to the extreme that the mob is happy to die for their leader but you don’t often get the same response from students do you? Although the appropriate and effective form of address is picked up eventually, the young teacher has to learn all this on the hop while wrestling with correct methodology and general adaptation to the workplace environment, which makes little sense and is grossly unfair – especially considering the necessary skills to make his job a whole lot easier and more fulfilling can, in fact, be taught. The solution, as far as teachers go is to include the necessary courses in the curriculum but failing that, coming to terms with the idea that such skills can and should be learnt, which is what the remainder of this article is devoted to. Before discussing what the teacher himself can do to improve discipline in the classroom, it is necessary to examine a factor which may not be immediately obvious: classroom design.
Any room anywhere in the world is specifically designed to convey a certain message. Arm chairs and sofas in an average living room are arranged round a fireplace or coffee table all facing each other to enable socialization in a comfortable environment; chairs in a meeting room are arranged round a table so people can hold a meeting; why should classrooms be any different? There are various types of classrooms the most impersonal being the lecture hall where the message is loud and clear: the lecturer talks and everyone else listens; no group discussion, pair work or similar activities are expected. Now imagine if you will a different classroom where students are sitting in a circle with their teacher; the message here is obvious: there will be a lot of discussion and exchange of opinions. This brings us neatly to a very important point: the classroom environment does change student behavior as proven by Jones (2007) and Savage (1999). The classroom environment permits certain activities while denying others so teachers should be very careful about the kind of message being conveyed by their classroom and what principles and beliefs are being reflected. The four factors that should be kept in mind are as follows:
- Developing a sense of belonging and personal identity
- Enhancing competence and security
- Promoting intellectual growth and stimulation
- Accommodating privacy needs
Students spend many hours of their day each week in their classroom. It is, therefore, crucial that they feel relaxed and comfortable; feelings which will promote focus, receptiveness and learning provided certain other issues which will be discussed further on are dealt with. According to Savage, “Feelings of unity and personal identity are enhanced by allowing students to participate in decision making about the use of the space, the grouping of the desks, room decorations, and organization and placement of learning centers. Allowing students to personalize their classroom helps students develop a sense of belonging and pride” (page 63) A positive atmosphere of this kind will help develop a bond of love and respect between teacher and students and reduce the likelihood of unruliness.
The location where everyone feels the most secure is their own homes and it is this atmosphere and the feelings it engenders that need to be replicated in the classroom. Having control of their learning environment will create that positive attitude to learning that is desired helping to deal a further blow to discipline problems and enhancing receptiveness. An example of how such a feeling could be created would be to give students more control of seating arrangements and furniture. There should also be a space for acknowledging success like a bulletin board where good essays are posted or good projects are displayed. An example is provided by Savage: “One high school teacher accomplished this task by displaying articles cut out from newspapers, recital programs or other publications in which students in her class were named. She made a concerted effort to find something to display for every student in her homeroom. The effort paid off with increased student respect and affection and a total lack of discipline problems.” (page 65).This doesn’t mean there should be no ground rules; a state of happy anarchy will not help. Besides according to an old saying “You can’t build without tools and tools are passed down through learning”. The tools being passed down here are those that will help build and promote a real democracy, which contrary to what some may think, can also promote discipline.
It is vital that the classroom environment doesn’t become stagnant overtime; a frequently observed problem in many classrooms the world over, and one that is a breeding ground for discipline problems. The classroom should be a dynamic place that enables students to broaden their horizons, push the boundaries of their knowledge, gain new perspectives, face and overcome intellectual challenges all within the walls of a safe, comfortable and familiar place with team mates they have grown to love and respect. One small but significant step in the right direction would be to update the bulletin board regularly.
Most classrooms are designed to promote social interaction, cooperation and collaboration through group activities. Yet this may not suit everyone: the lone wolves for example. Some people just do much better on their own and prefer to work in this way. Accommodating such needs will enable everyone to derive maximum benefit from the lesson on all levels. According to Savage, “One way of accommodating the privacy need is to designate one corner of the classroom as a private work area. This area can be separated from the rest of the room by bookcases, file cabinets or study carrels. Students move to the area to study or simply be alone. Providing this type of retreat for students communicates the message that you are sensitive to their needs.” (page 66). What better way to gain the affection and respect of students and avoid any disruptions while also sowing the seeds of all the hallowed social values upheld in democracies the world over?
Classroom design is of vital importance but there is a certain individual, the teacher, whose attitude can break or make the relationship with students and it is to him we now turn.
“Do as I say not as I do” is not a concept that works well when dealing with people; much better to set a good example, lay down the ground rules at the beginning and stick to them come hell or high water. Punctuality is eminently desirable for discipline and successful learning for instance, but the habits of a teacher who has ‘a flexible approach’ to class times, office hours, appointments or seminars and lectures is doomed to be replicated by his students who can’t, in all fairness, then be blamed for tardiness. Tardiness is, unfortunately, the thin end of the wedge and over time, leads to concentration problems and unruliness as the silent message “If she cared enough about what she does, she would be here on time to do it so why should we make the effort?” sinks in poisoning the whole course. Punctuality is, by no means, the whole picture but it helps create a positive first impression which is easier to build on by making students more receptive and malleable. Another such facilitator is dress sense.
An attitude of I just like to live in these ‘comfy’ jeans or track suit bottoms or ‘why should anyone care how I look, they should be focusing on what I say’ won’t wash if the said individual is in the public eye, and no one is more so than the typical teacher, who takes to the stage more frequently than an average actor or politician. The ground rules having been established, and the tracksuits banished to the back of the wardrobe, the focus should turn to outdoor clothes from among which another portion of the closet needs to be eliminated. Before laying down the rules, it would be useful to focus on the message the teacher wishes to convey and the reaction s/he desires to elicit, the former being professional and expert, a person who is in a position to furnish students with the necessary skills and training in a specific area and the latter being respect, concentration and appreciation. Anything that detracts from this will help pave the way for trouble. This being the case, ‘professional attire’ is in ( notice that politicians only ever wear charcoal grey or dark blue suits accompanied by ties in two primary colors: blue and red though Obama has dared to select some of his own ties on occasion) and beachwear or disco wear is out, and the latter would include boob tubes, see-through blouses, halter necks, skimpy tops of all kinds, miniskirts – whether you have the legs for them or not – skinny jeans, shorts, hot pants, g-strings on display, long slits, deep V’s and anything, for the lack of a better word, slutty. You would be amazed how often this simple rule is ignored as evidenced by many teachers the world over; I for one, have seen all the above at one time or another and bitten my lip when the same individuals complained of discipline problems. There are two reasons why the outfits detailed above detract from the message, one being that the students should be focusing on the message not on the individual as a desirable young woman or man and the second being the need to alert students to the fact that ‘uniforms’ exist in all walks of professional life and not just in schools; the only respite is provided during the university years when students are allowed to come and go dressed literally any way they please. The unspoken dress code for staff at school or university is not as strict as the private sector but tidiness and cleanliness are paramount as is being well kept and professional. The director of our school is one of the most appropriately dressed professionals I have met for instance: her school wear includes shift dresses, pencil skirts, suits and that subtle, understated but smart look the French have honed to perfection. That alone exudes an air of professionalism giving her the foothold required on which to build further respect and compliance. The message given by professional attire is distinct: this is a professional setting, there is a job to be done and we are going to devote our attention to that excluding all else. The silent message having been delivered, the ground has been prepared for a successful lesson. Being on time and correct attire on their own will not ensure discipline but they are both steps in the right direction, and provided the follow up is consistent with the original message, they help.
Anyone who has watched former US president George W. Bush or Russian President Vladimir Putin enter a room (www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2yj2uMTqSs) will know what a power walk looks like: the shoulders are back, the stride is firm and purposeful, the eyes look straight ahead and there is no hint of wavering or hesitancy. The stance thus described exudes confidence, know how, purposefulness and cries out for respect, which is automatically provided . The same walk is observed in officers, policemen, CEO’s, who, like politicians, are also well versed in another set of tactics involving the power handshake, the touch and entry to a room. Now observe the teacher afflicted with situational paranoia entering what seems like the battle field, the scariest place s/he has been up to that moment in time, eyes wide as saucers, ready for ‘the inevitable attack’. Her steps are small and hesitant, she looks straight at the desk, the safety of which she yearns for, and scuttles forth. Having reached her designated shelter, she slides into her armchair confident that the computer, the overhead projector and her books will shield her from the worst of the forthcoming attack. The troupes, who are experts at reading body language, get the message: s/he is scared, lacks confidence, ergo s/he doesn’t know what s/he is doing, s/he is not interested in us so why should we care? This is equal to the green light for a return to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, random browsing or a nap to make up for the partying in the dorm the night before. A very similar reaction is elicited by the preoccupied teacher, the unprepared teacher who is visibly disorganized; in short, by any teacher who is not all there so to speak. The stage has been set for a painful introduction to the teaching profession for the teacher and boredom for the students, who initially devise their own ways of passing the time in an entertaining manner often at the teacher’s expense but who later end up getting a raw deal by not benefitting from their teacher’s know how; a fact they come to realize much later on and blame the teacher for. The truth is that you cannot instill nearly so much confidence, power and competence from a sitting position barricaded behind various accoutrements to teaching or when your mind is otherwise engaged. All good leaders stand up to face their public and there is no public speaker who is equally effective sitting down as standing up; think Goebbels, for instance, who was short and had a club foot or Atatürk who was also short and had rather a high pitched voice. The exception was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who seemed to manage just fine from his wheel chair. Effective teaching demands that the teacher be not only standing but also moving around when necessary like any good actor. In short, teaching begins as the teacher walks through the door, the full effect of which is only received if punctuality is ensured and the students are all present to participate. The next step is successful communication with the audience at all times engaging them and demanding their attention; fortunately, there are various tricks of the trade which will facilitate this as well.
All public speakers have perfected their mode of address, pitch, intonation, stress and presentation skills in order to be able to effectively do their jobs; all those except teachers that is, many of whom never get the message and persist in boring their audiences to death despite intimate knowledge of their subjects. I have known teachers who stare at the ceiling for the duration of the lesson, who speak with their backs turned to the class (while writing on the board), who seem oblivious to punctuation, speak at 20 decibels, go to pieces when faced with a question, stand like statues in one position for the duration of the lesson, bound round the class like Tinkerbelle on crack and many others. Honing of the necessary skills requires plenty of practice with friendly audiences and constructive criticism to add polish. Some leaders naturally possess that je ne sais quoi that makes them great public speakers; this doesn’t mean that the said skills cannot be learnt through dogged determination and practice as evidenced by many professionals who work in the public domain. Such people have demonstrated time and time again that it is possible to ask a question in such a way as to demand an answer, elicit an explanation, demand respect, instill fear or trust and generally guarantee compliance. Why, in that case, are members of the teaching profession denied this training one would like to know?
According to experts, communication per se begins long before individuals actually open their mouths to speak. Body language and automatic responses to it start operating the minute one lays eyes on an individual so even before an individual has opened his mouth, one has made plenty of snap judgments. This means that all body language signaling lack of confidence like fidgeting, playing with various pieces of jewelry, playing with one’s hair or fingers or standing to attention need to be studiously avoided. The same is true for any negative body language like folding the arms or scowling; looking as if one has been dragged into class at gun point is bound to provoke reaction as I am sure you agree. Students are not the enemy after all – contrary to what some would like to think – they are there in class voluntarily to learn; teachers are there to help as teaching is their chosen vocation..
Having achieved the perfect entry, the next step is to remember to be inclusive while teaching, which involves mentally dividing the room into three or four and rotating one’s gaze every 30 seconds looking at each section in turn thus giving each individual the impression that the teacher looked into his eyes for the duration of the lesson. An added bonus is that this approach ensures that the teacher has perfect control of the whole room enveloping the whole class in his gaze. The channels of communication thus having been opened and established, an important first hurdle has been dealt with. Having successfully prepared the stage, the focus naturally shifts to the actual lesson, and if all that is achieved thus far is not to go up in smoke, relaxing and droning on happily is not an option.
As in any venture, preparedness is essential in teaching as well, and this means having no teaching notes in sight and addressing the students while maintaining eye contact at all times. The best public speakers don’t arrive at the podium with a sheaf of notes which they read from or keep referring to; they speak ex cathedra so to speak. Listening to someone reading out loud from a podium is soporific in the extreme as many who have been present at these ‘so called’ talks will agree; add an ill-planned power point presentation depicting every word read out loud by the speaker, and hypnosis will be complete. No memory of the talk will be retained by the conscious mind. Think Barrack Obama; he is considered one of the best public speakers currently, and there is never a piece of paper in sight; the same is true for former president Bill Clinton. President Obama addressed the U. N. General Assembly a few days ago, and his speech is a brilliant example of what a good lecture should be like: he swivels his gaze throughout the speech to include everyone, he doesn’t don his glasses and read from a text, there is no inane power point in sight; he just speaks. Another thing he has perfected is the pause between statements; the pauses are neither too long nor too short and as such, aid concentration and comprehension (The video recording of the full speech may be accessed by means of the following link: www.c-span.org/video/?321677-1/meeting-un-general-assembly). Other absolute no-no’s include saying good morning, turning to the board and scribbling for the remainder of the lesson, giving students the class notes and asking them to learn them, sticking the class notes on the overhead projector and asking students to copy them. There is a very simple reason why such approaches detract from the quality of the lesson: the bond or connection formed between the teacher and the students is broken and with it goes engagement, effective learning and comprehension and also discipline. The teacher becomes the delivery man or waiter, delivers the goods and retreats leaving the students to tackle their daily serving of knowledge. Students will copy the said notes on autopilot mode with nothing really sinking in; that will come later, the night before the test when they try to make sense of them; after all, stuff that is deemed tedious is only revisited under duress. Alternatively, they will otherwise entertain themselves by shooting paper pellets at each other, social media, a good cozy gossip; in short, they will make perfect pests of themselves comfortable in the knowledge that the teacher’s pet (or pets) is copying the notes and will share them whether he wants to or not. The board is essentially a teaching aid and as such should accompany teaching; not completely take over leaving the teacher to twiddle his thumbs. This means that the teacher should interrupt his delivery every so often to make notes on the board, provide examples or illustrate a point; a board supplements the lecture; it is not a substitute for it and as such, guarantees continued focus by keeping the lines of communication open, which in turn ensures discipline and compliance. In short, correct delivery of the lecture and proper blackboard use help bolster discipline in class, a point which is often overlooked. Any teacher who leaves the class believing the students have actually learnt something through any of these methods, and the information has been successfully imparted needs to think again. Learning requires engagement and if all those cognitive skills have been shut down due to the monotony of the task, the student just becomes a medium for transferring information from the board to the notebook, which is why a lot of them very sensibly simply photograph the notes on the board much to the annoyance of the teachers, who still cling to the belief that copying involves active mental engagement and learning.
Tedium is a dangerous feeling as once it is allowed to pervade the classroom environment, lack of discipline is quick to follow. Social networking sites with their push button technology guarantee instant gratification at a speed akin to the 100 meter sprint, which is what students have grown up with and have come to expect in all walks of life; suddenly slowing down to a crawl is bound to throw a spanner in the works. At this point, it would be useful to step back for a moment and explain more fully what dramatic changes have taken place in the minds of the current young population. The human brain is filled with millions of neurons all tied together with synapses the strength and weakness of which is determined by the stimuli received. Depending on the said stimuli, certain connections weaken, others strengthen and yet others are formed. In short, our brains are a hub of activity. If we were to examine the kind of stimuli the young brains of our times have been exposed to, we would have to turn to the internet, which is transforming young people’s brains in an unprecedented way. Research has shown that the frontal lobes of young people on the internet light up like a Christmas tree, which is interesting as there used to be no neural activity in the region previously. The specific changes taking place in the brain as a result of internet use mean, according to Nicholas Carr, that “We learn to absorb more information less effectively, skip the bottoms of paragraphs, and shift focus constantly”. He goes on to add that “the brighter the software, the dimmer the user.” Nicholas Carr’s video on the subject may be accessed through the following link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa7qhUth7QY; for Nicolas Carr’s video on the same topic, go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt_NwowMTcg. Nicolas Carr has written a wonderful book on the topic, The Shallows, which is also well worth reading.
What this means in terms of university students is that they are much less capable of deep thinking and deep reading and deep pretty much anything; the said neural pathways having been weakened through disuse or become atrophied. Yet at university, cognitive skills that demand such skills are very much in demand, which puts an enormous strain on prep schools such as our own that are faced with the daunting prospect of not only having to teach the requisite language skills but also deep thinking without which no decent reading activity or essay task can be attempted. Susan Price, CEO and chief Web strategist at San Antonio’s Firecat Studio points out that “those who bemoan the perceived decline in deep thinking fail to appreciate the need to evolve our processes and behaviors to suit the new realities and opportunities”. We as language teachers need to have a good hard think about some of our cherished ways of doing things and alter some of our methods while at the same time preserving our basic principles. Janna Anderson, who contributed to a report for Elon University, Pew Internet and American Life Project in 2012, states that “people are already witnessing deficiencies in young people’s abilities to focus their attention, be patient and think deeply.” These are conclusions arrived at as a result of research and only prove what we have all been observing recently to be true. Susan Greenfield provides the scientific explanation to all that has been mentioned in relation to the loss of deep thinking in a video which can be accessed by means of the following link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri4_CW9P41s.
It is futile to bemoan this fact and complain that students have the concentration spans of newts as Don Quixote so aptly proved in his memorable battle against the windmills. In order not to land in an equally ridiculous situation, teachers must keep up with the times and continually adapt their mode of delivery according to modern trends. This means warm-up activities that worked ten or more years ago will not work in the modern classroom; in other words, flashcards are out and websites such as Quizzlet, Socrative and Wordle are in (quizzlet.com, socrative.com and wordle.com respectively). These sites will provide the modern version of flashcards, which will be completely acceptable as far as students are concerned, creative vocabulary exercises, the opportunity to take tests via smartphones, word maps students will take to like ducks to water and much more besides. The students will discover, to their joy, that they don’t, in fact, need to switch off their smartphones or androids and can use them for learning activities that are very much in line with what they do on a daily basis. Familiarity of this kind breeds this comfortable, happy feeling leading to relaxation, a positive impression of the lesson and the teacher and most importantly, focus, which was the ultimate aim to begin with. A lesson that becomes a battle of wills is bound to be a failure on all sorts of levels as everyone will lose out. The teacher will be unable to impose her / his will on the class; the hostile atmosphere that is created will knock any actual learning on the head, which in turn will lead to discipline problems and soaring failure rates. The class is not the enemy, a lesson is not a battle and a classroom is not a battlefield.
Some teachers may prefer to opt for the ‘pit-bull in a suit’ approach, which can work but at a cost: the positive atmosphere in the class will be destroyed taking the joy out of the learning process. Any teacher who is stuck in his ways and says this is the way s/he has always introduced a certain topic needs to stop and have a good hard think. It is so easy to settle into a pattern, get out of the habit of becoming actively involved in the preparation of a lesson and just pick up the tired notes from a decade earlier each year that it is no surprise that the habit is so common. Yet it is such habits that pave the way for discipline problems for reasons explained above. The websites mentioned above and many similar ones allow the teacher to do what he has always done in exciting new ways which are far more familiar and attractive to students guaranteeing their compliance, attention, enjoyment and successful learning (a power point presentation listing some additional sites can be accessed via the following link: http://prezi.com/2qtoervsi0y0/edtech-workshops/ ). There is an added bonus to getting stuck in and revamping the lesson: more job satisfaction; especially if the ideas work in class making the lesson an enjoyable experience for all.
Many teachers are under the illusion that their particular field of interest is a topic students have been dying to learn about for years; they are straining at the lead so to speak and eager to absorb every crumb of information imparted. Nothing can be further from the truth; the students haven’t the faintest idea about the passive forms for instance, don’t really see the point and feel only language teachers could possibly enjoy grammar. The privilege of love at first sight that continues for a life time all things being equal belongs to mothers and their children. In a classroom, a teacher has to work hard to introduce and cover the topic in such a way as to intrigue students and wet their appetite for more. Only in this way can they become enthusiastic to learn and fully focused. Effort put into making the lesson interesting will also put a stop to all discipline problems; the latter often being the product of boredom and / or incompetence and laziness on the part of the teacher.
Fortunately, modern technology gives the language teacher plenty of opportunities to liven up the lesson and make it an unforgettable experience as already explained. In the modern classroom, variety is key for various reasons: the first is that there are different kinds of learners, (visual learners or kinesthetic learners for instance) and students with different ways of thinking (analytical thinkers for instance), all of which means that the teacher needs to vary her tactics if she is to keep all members of the class engaged for the duration of the lesson. There is a second reason: modern students have grown up with tablets, iphones, computers and all that technology provides. They started with SimCity and moved on to more complicated rapid response games; everything they listen to is accompanied by some sort of visual input; in short, they all have active online lives and feel completely at home with technology. Another thing technology provides is instant gratification, feeding the “I want it now, I get it now” mantra of modern life. There is a program, a website or an app for anything allowing all kinds of work to be completed at the push of a button. When not online, there are remotes making physical movement unnecessary as well. Adapting to this world and the generation that has grown up in it is absolutely vital for any member of the teaching profession; those who are not prepared to do so are in the wrong profession, which brings us neatly to the next issue.
Many people get shunted into a certain path in life and end up taking routes they would never have originally dreamt of all over the world but especially in developing countries, where the competition to get a university degree – any university degree – is ferocious. Such a degree, especially one with good job prospects, opens the doors to a middle class lifestyle with all that goes with it, and respect. Individual desires to read physics and go on to do research are abandoned in favor of becoming a physics teacher – having graduated from the education department – and desires to read literature and do graduate work on 16th century English literature are shelved in favor of teaching English as a foreign language due to practical purposes such as lower points required on the central university entrance exam and better job prospects. This means that there are some who end up in teacher training colleges, where they decide or learn to accept their lot in life, qualify and join the ranks having given up on their dreams. Yet other people fall back on teaching having not been able to find the job they desire; such people go back to school for a year and complete a teacher training course to be able to get the necessary certificate . The third group is people who get fed up with the whole business of trying to broaden the horizons and impart knowledge to ‘those they deem unworthy and undeserving’. They view their efforts of ‘casting pearls to the swine’ as the ultimate sacrifice. Feeling completely underappreciated, they continually bemoan the thankless job they are doing and the ungrateful cretins they are obliged to teach. Such teachers are forever complaining of their lot in life and the degree of stupidity of their students. On one occasion, I ended up, out of exasperation, pointing out to a colleague that she had complained about her students every time I met her and that it not only reflected very badly on her but bored other people. It doesn’t require much to understand that those individuals who have tumbled into teaching by accident and carry their disappointment around with them are far more likely to encounter problems in class, which paradoxically, only leads them to think they were right all along. Everyone is sensitive to a negative attitude and students are no exception. Going into class thinking that they have to keep their private Muppet show on the road creates a toxic atmosphere in the classroom. Responding in kind is a natural knee jerk reaction and one for which it is hard to blame the culprits. The presence of such individuals as this in the classrooms the world over is truly sad. Richard Bach said “The bond that links your true family is not one of blood but respect and joy in each other’s life”. He could have been referring to the ideal classroom. A teacher who earns the genuine respect of the class need not fear discipline problems. If there is the odd incident, it is often dealt with by members of the class.
Attitude need not be a problem only for educators; more often than not, it is an issue for individual students. Not every student comes from a happy, loving home and is completely well adjusted; there are a multitude of different family backgrounds in a class and an equally complex array of individual experiences both of which, combined with the unique proclivities of each individual, create the specific individual and shape his attitude to life and future experiences, which include the classroom and all that goes on therein. Anyone whose job involves dealing with people needs to be well aware of this and adapt the ‘procedure stated in the rule book’ to fit individual circumstances. Imagining that you have got the formula down to a ‘T’ and can face come what may with that and that alone is doomed to look as ridiculous as in the case of the German pilot in that hilarious film “Those wonderful men in their flying machines” who is seen thumbing through his rule book as he is sinking rapidly in the waters of the Channel – having crashed. The truth is that those methodology and educational psychology lessons are very helpful but there is a lot you learn on the job when dealing with people and this is especially true of teaching. Problems can start in class when the ‘one prescription fits all’ approach is pushed too far. Teachers who learn to look beyond the actual misbehavior at the possible precipitating factors and address them nip any unruliness in the bud. What is more, they earn the love and respect of their students, which in turn, guarantees attention and learning. The student who acts out is not necessarily a bad apple; he could be craving love and attention, and negative attention is better than nothing. Alternatively, he could be reflecting the behavior of his immediate social circle. The solution is to deal with each student on an individual basis. It is very hard indeed to lose the battle if the teacher in question cares, has perfect command of his subject and is willing to go the extra mile. The reward is the lasting positive influence on a life, and nothing could be more fulfilling.
There are some nuts that are hard to crack but one thing is certain: confrontation is the worst possible way to deal with such cases. It is much better to try and win them over in more subtle ways. I remember a student I had some years ago now who either read the paper or slept in class. I left him to it quite frankly, as he wasn’t doing anyone any harm. However, I did set myself the challenge of winning him over. In this particular instance, interesting and exciting lessons and modern technology won the day. One day, he suddenly participated and we discovered he was interested in politics and computers. I didn’t bat an eye and continued as if nothing had happened and that was that. Problems are more likely in teacher centered classrooms and much rarer in student centered classrooms where everyone is actively involved in the lesson yet despite evidence to the contrary, there are still many who would disagree and it is to this issue that we shall now turn.
Charter schools are a relatively modern trend in the USA aiming to ‘civilize’ the underprivileged – working class and lower middle class students and especially those of color – and the best known examples were set up in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. The fear that allowed to flourish in lenient and permissive environments, young people would invariably become criminals or social misfits led experts to the conviction that the only way to avert certain disaster was to mould them into the kind of individuals eminently desired by society. The result was a series of schools where rules governed every imaginable aspect of students’ life from the way they walked, their tone of voice, the way they talked, when they talked to how they talked. Students in such schools are only expected to speak when ‘given the opportunity to do so’ using ‘scholar talk’, which means correct grammatical sentences with vocabulary used by the educated native speaker, and no abbreviations. Then there is a dress code that would put North Korea or Maoist China to shame: the rules governing colors, brands, material as well as what is tucked in are all set in stone failure to comply with which can mean suspension or expulsion. The only way to deal with chaotic classrooms is, according to these schools, to crack the proverbial whip mercilessly destroying every glimmer of individual expression the dangers of which the society as a whole needs to be protected from. The higher incidence of crime among people of certain background and the desire to raise academic standards fueled the desire to establish such schools with the fervent support of parents yet the ignorance of basic human psychology and lack of foresight seems astounding .I am not going to discuss in detail the mantra of charter schools in this paper as it is not the issue; what is the issue is the consequence of such harsh discipline. It doesn’t take an expert to guess what the effect of such military style discipline has been on young minds: from the perspective of any dedicated teacher, they are tragic as the students’ spirits are completely crushed. Sarah Carrnov points out in an article published in The Atlantic titled “How Strict is Too Strict?” that the students are “angry, frustrated, stressed, miserable, tired, sad and apathetic”(see: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/12/how-strict-is-too-strict/382228/) . Yes, discipline is ensured but at what a cost. Moreover, if you think people treated in this way through out their school years are more likely to go on to university and not turn to crime, you are much mistaken. Strict enforcement breeds reaction, which doesn’t bode well for learning. The one way communication in the classrooms cannot mean higher standards, a love of learning, intellectual curiosity, interest and focus. Sometimes the price one has to pay for alternative solutions to a problem is too high to make them viable. After all, it is perfectly possible to have perfect discipline in the classroom and have “joyful, excited, motivated, proud, satisfied, focused, calm, content and relaxed” students according to Sarah Carrnov along with discipline. The best examples of this fact are all the democratic schools around the world which function on the highest rungs of Hart’s famous ladder of participation: 6. Adult initiated, share decisions with children; 7. Child initiated and directed; 8. Child initiated, share decisions with adults (see: Ladder of Young People’s Participation www.freechild.org/ladder.htm) . One good example of such schools is the Escuela Nueva schools in Colombia which are highly democratic and encourage full participation. Studies have shown that the fostering of democratic principles at school has a knock on effect on societies by making them more democratic and developing a greater social consciousness and social connections. Raising students in a petty dictatorship and then expecting them to be imbued with hallowed democratic values demonstrates an inexcusable lack of understanding of human psychology. An authoritarian upbringing will foster authoritarian values and not the humanitarian values that accompany a greater social consciousness. Not striving to the best of one’s ability to achieve such a goal is totally incomprehensible; the rewards are so very high. This being the case, if the teacher is not prepared to go the extra mile to contribute to the spread of such cherished democratic principles, he is no different from a drill sergeant and has no place in a classroom.
Discipline, in short, will follow automatically from the correct attitude and the correct approach. The teaching principles we hold dear such as broadening students’ horizons, expanding their knowledge, increasing their curiosity and interest and enabling them to fulfill their potential can also help ensure order in the classroom with the correct methodology and an open mind. Mistakes are made when discipline is considered as a separate entity. Keeping abreast of the changes taking place in students’ lives and adapting to them, a love of teaching, empathy and sympathy will often nip any potential problems in the bud and help teachers worldwide to make a real difference in people’s lives and to society. James Burke said “Why should we look to the past to prepare for the future? Because there is nowhere else to look” so let us as teachers make sure that students have good examples to draw on in later life.
Savage, T. V. (1999). Teaching self-control through management and discipline. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Hart, Roger “Children’s participation: the theory and practice of involving young citizens in community development and environmental care”; U K: Earthscan 1997. Reprinted: 1999, 2007, 2008. Copyright: UNICEF, New York, 1997
Please check the Dealing with Difficult Learners course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the How the Motivate your Students course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Building Positive Group Dynamics course at Pilgrims website.
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