Teach English in ShuAnghe XiAng - Chongqing

Discipline in the classroomFor a novice teacher, maintaining discipline among students is one of main worries faced. Even with an excellent knowledge base, well conceived lesson plans and interesting pre-prepared activities, without an understanding of ho w to control the behaviour of students, the teacher may find they consistently fail to meet lesson objectives, or worse lose the attention of the students for good. Even for more experienced teachers used to teaching small classes of adults, when faced with young learners, especially with behavioural problems or difficult personal backgrounds, the difference can be overwhelming if they are not prepared. Attitudes toward this problem have changed over time and remain to this day different in different countries. Rigidly enforced rules and corporal punishment, while once common place, have generally declined in use as global attitudes and laws about the rights of teachers and students and acceptable treatment of children have evolved. In england, for example, caning was a popular technique until it?s banning in state run schools in 1987. Nowadays, the esl teacher is likely to find themselves in a position in which any kind of physical contact with a student may be regarded as a serious act, with strong repercussions for both the teacher and the school. The move away from physical or verbal threats as a response to rule breaking has not come solely as a result of potential litigation, but also an increasing acceptance of the flaws in this technique as part of an overall approach to discipline. While it may be effective in the short term in ending a student?s disruptive behaviour, as a wider tool to instil respect and self -motivation it has been overtaken by more humanistic approaches, and many claim that the overall result is a student that feels resentment, hostility and the need to show even greater defiance to the authority imposed on them. The emphasis today is both on preventing disruptive behaviour and managing it effectively where it occurs, through various techniques developed through behavioural psychology, though there remain a few different schools of thought on this subject. Certainly one of the most widely recognised is ?Assertive Discipline?, developed by Lee Canter. This retains the traditional focus on the enforcement of rules within the classroom, but also adopts the idea of ?catching? good behaviour, so while those breaking a limited number of clearly defined rules are punished, those who show good behaviour are recognised and rewarded, using both carrot and stick. The remains very teacher focused approach, with them as the sole leader of the classroom, whose right to speak uninterrupted is the keystone of the method. Its wide adoption is partly due to its easiness to understand and implement for both teachers and students. Another widely used program is Muller and Curwin?s ?Discipline with Dignity?, which involves an comprehensive and in depth focus on reasons for discipline problems and long term behavioural change, with the key element being a social contract between the teacher and students, with both parties contributing to defining rules and consequences, and requires a greater investment in time and understanding from the teacher. Though there exist many different, and occasionally conflicting approaches, there are a few essential guidelines about which there is a general consensus. One of the most natural responses in novice teachers is to raise their voices in response to unruly behaviour, but this is generally not advised and is an example of the teacher competing with the students rather than having their expectation of silence respected, and does not link the behaviour to a consequence. Rather, teachers are advised to maintain a calm tone, and not start the lesson until everyone is quiet and focused on them. A teacher will generally find it easier to relax control than to enforce it at a later stage. students? understanding of the behaviour expected from them is established early in their relationship with their teacher, and if some behaviours are ignored by the teacher in these early stages it is very difficult to address them effectively later on. Furthermore, disruptive behaviour should never be outright ignored, and ideally should be dealt with in a way that does not further disrupt the flow of the lesson. Lastly, praising students good behaviour is as important, if not more so, than punishing bad, though the teacher should not be in a position of ?bribing? students simply to act in a manner which should be expected.