Classroom Management: Creating a Positive Learning Environment

5 - Approaches to Students’ Misbehaviour

5 Approaches to Students’ Misbehaviour Li Wai-shing What is your school of thought regarding how students learn, develop, and grow? What is your school of thought regarding discipline? Teachers are either interventionists, interactionalists, or noninterventionists at heart. Although each school of thought comes complete with classroom management models that get the job done — establishing and maintaining discipline — each represents its own unique set of beliefs. Tauber (1999) Synopsis There are various approaches and models to help teachers manage their classrooms. This chapter first introduces four major kinds of classification networks for classroom management and discipline, and then describes Ramon Lewis’s framework which offers teachers a simple and practical strategy for dealing with misbehaviour. Lewis’s framework incorporates various models into three simple approaches: teacher-oriented, student-oriented and group-oriented. Well-known models such as Teacher Effectiveness Training, Assertiveness Training and the Social Discipline Model are discussed in simple and practical terms. Objectives After reading this chapter, you should be able to: • identify commonsense models and theoretically-based models in classroom management; • understand three major approaches for dealing with inappropriate student behaviour, viz. teacher-oriented, student-oriented and group-oriented; • apply the Teacher Effectiveness Training Model in dealing with student misbehaviour; • apply the Canter’s Assertiveness Model of classroom management; • apply Dreikurs’s Social Discipline Model in managing inappropriate student behaviour; 86 Classroom Management • use strategies taken from the interventionist, interactionist or non-interventionist approaches to classroom management Pre-Reading Reflection and Discussion • Do you advocate a child-centred or teacher-centred style of teaching? Why do you think your chosen style is more effective in dealing with student misbehaviour in today’sclassrooms? • Do you think pupils are able to discipline themselves without adult intervention? • Do you agree with the Chinese saying: “Control and discipline first before you start teaching”. Why/why not? • According to the Canters, there are three kinds of teachers: non-assertive, hostile and assertive. Discuss the drawbacks and advantages of each type. • Suggest ways to deal with attention-seeking students in the classroom. • What kinds of strategies would you use in dealing with students who want to challenge your authority, oppose school rules and act in a domineering fashion? Introduction Lack of discipline in the classroom is frequently ranked as one of the main concerns in teaching. A large-scale investigation of pupils’ misbehaviour carried out by Education Convergence (1999) confirmed that Chinese teachers spent a great deal of teaching time in keeping good classroom discipline. Fortunately, most of these disruptive behaviours are relatively minor — such as talking, shouting without permission, copying homework and sleeping in class — but, overall, it appears that pupils’ behaviour is getting worse. For teachers to use coercive methods to regain control of the classroom is ineffective, and so they have to explore other means of maintaining discipline in their classes. Broadly speaking, there are three approaches to managing classrooms: (1) the teacher takes charge and decides how to change a student’s misbehaviour; (2) the teacher works with the class to decide how the student’s misbehaviour can be corrected; and (3) the teacher helps individual students to decide how to change their own behaviour.Various models and strategies have been generated for these approaches (Wolfgang and Glickman, 1986; Johns et al., 1989; Wolfgang et al., 1999) and they work best when they are in line with the teacher’s own philosophy of discipline. Examine the following Chinese lesson in which the teacher, Ms. Chung, is in her first year of teaching. She learned from her professional training course that a teacher sometimes has to exert his/her authority in dealing with inappropriate behaviour, but at other times can let the pupils tackle problems on their own or work with them to Approaches to Students’ Misbehaviour 87 resolve them. What advice would you give Ms. Chung for tackling the case described below? What action should Ms. Chung take if she wants to deal with the problem by (a) exerting her authority, (b) adopting a student-oriented approach and (c) taking a group-oriented approach? Classroom scenario Ms. Chung is giving a Chinese lesson on Monday morning. After about ten minutes in her second period, she sees Chi Fai hit his neighbour, Mei Sheung. Mei Sheung cried loudly while other pupils are working in groups of two to create stories. Ms. Chung decides to help Mei Sheung. Classroom Approaches: An Overview One can view responsibility for discipline in...