Methods and Practices of Classroom Discipline
Teacher Caused Discipline Problems
Teacher caused discipline problems arise from a number of sources, lack of preparation, inadequate training in discipline techniques, and attitude toward students. [Please be aware that this article is not suggesting that all discipline problems are teacher caused.]
One day when I was sitting in an Educational Philosophy class, another prospective teacher commented to a friend about her student teaching saying, "how I hate these kids!" I wondered if she didn't change her feelings or discontinue her plans to teach, about how many students she would ruin in her teaching career. Students can sense the teacher's attitudes and feelings toward them. A teacher may be able to fool an administrator or a parent, but students can feel whether someone cares. The caring can be found in the desire to teach and in the caring about the individual. Once I attended a class taught by Michael Grinder and he said that traditionally high school teachers teach subjects such as English, math, etc. but that grade school teachers taught students. There is a truth in that statement for many teachers. Students respond much better to teachers who teach students the subject matter rather than teach the subject matter.
The best discipline tool is knowing your subject and your topic. The next best tool is caring to convey that knowledge to the students. Also have fun learning and telling your classes about what you learned, even in areas not related to your classes. [This sharing does not mean to go on and on about a subject; it means to share new things learned as they are learned. It means to show you have fun learning.]
Be honest with your students. They can see through masks' and screens.' Don't be intimate though.
Don't expect to know all things. Don't project the impression that you consider that you 'know all things.' Graciously and gently give your students some room for error and they will do the same for you.
Have some right brain units, but beware of 'uncorking' your class. Right brain activities are a potential source of teacher caused discipline problems. Don't blame them for the results of your starting a right brain activity.... which causes loudness, less inhibitions, and sharing of projects with less restraint. Poetry and drawing are some of the right brain activities that cause these reactions. Plan a transition out of a right brain activity or plan it toward the end of the period so that if necessary, you can be 'saved by the bell.'
Be aware of what it means when students are auditory, visual, or kinesthetic.
Don't be manipulated into wanting them to like you. Aim for respect; then they will like you. Don't be a buddy. They have contempt for teachers they can push around, and they have hate for arbitrary, willful, and otherwise unfair teachers. Be fair.
Don't punish the entire class unless the entire class is at fault. Note: if the teacher will analyze the problem there is almost no situation where the entire class is at fault. See the section 'Philosophy Underlying Discipline' for further discussion of this topic.
Finally, don't attempt to control a class with your physical strength. For instance a student related an incident when another teacher was keeping the entire class after the bell for a discipline reason. In order to ensure that the students didn't leave before permission was given, the teacher stood in the doorway of the classroom to keep the students from leaving. Some of the students ended up pushing past the teacher and leaving.
This shoving action occurred because the discipline force was lowered to the physical plane. A teacher is more effective keeping discipline on a societal, mental, ethical, and emotional plane.
Difficulty Level of Classes
Another issue that relates to teacher caused discipline problems is how difficult the classes are and the reasons for their difficulty. Some teachers have acquired the idea that a class should be difficult and there should be a certain number of various levels of grades, A's, B's, C's, F's, etc. This decision is pre-determined and the students are forced into this preconception no matter what their actual performance as a class may be. Students can feel this fixed attitude being imposed upon them and in response begin to generate a negative defensive classroom mood that leads toward discipline problems.
A teacher who expects a certain number of failures might consider my son's comment 'if it were a parachute school, how many failures would you expect or accept?' Although this question is not exactly analogous because students in a parachute school have much higher motivation, the question properly pondered can reveal when our classroom expectations are simply conditioned responses.
Teachers often derive their classroom expectations from the school they attended. One teacher said "I remember some of the finals that I had. They put the fear into you. I'm going to have my kids feel the same way." [Why] Consider the resultant classroom mood and the contribution toward discipline problems that this feeling may cause.
Some students feel a sort of 'boy, we got through Mr. _____'s class and it sure was difficult.' Students often are not able to discern that there is a -difficult- from the class being designed just to be difficult. They do not realize until they experience it that there is also a -difficult- from the class having clear, competent, instruction with no deliberate difficulties built in but having a lot of growth and knowledge to be gained. Once they realize the difference, the classes that are designed just to be difficult are avoided whenever possible.
There are some teacher attitudes that can lead away from these teacher caused disciple problems. One day as I was leaving the school in the growing dark of autumn, I looked over and saw the football players practicing in the miserable conditions of mud, wet, and cold. I wondered why do they work so hard at that? There is a short 'season of reward' with lots of work, practice, pain, and sacrifice before and during. Furthermore, their coaches sometimes yell at them, criticize them, and expect them to learn many plays and gain many new abilities. It seemed to me they did all this because the coach was helping them' gain what they wanted.' I thought, do my students feel that I am helping them gain something they want? What do they want? Can anything I am teaching compete with the 'glory of football?' I don't know what competes with football, but I know that my classes have responded to my feeling that I am a coach helping them gain what they need.
Tolstoy reportedly said "everyone wants to know what to do and how to act." Many of our students desperately want to know how to read and write better, but they have lost some hope of doing so.* Many more respond with pleasure to increasing their skills with words: understanding them and using them. Some simply know that these abilities are necessary for obtaining a job. All of them can feel and know that the teacher wants' to help them with something that they, the students, want to do.
* NOTE: Some students can remember the day, or moment, that they decided that they were no longer going to work in the educational system. Ask them, "can you remember when you decided not to worry about school work, or do home work any more?" For most it is grade school or middle school. It is beneficial to ponder why these students came to their decisions and how this knowledge affects your teaching strategies.
Setting a 'Level of Law' in the Classroom
An issue related to student behavior and classroom discipline is the 'Level of Law' that is set in the class. The 'level of law' means the working ethical and behavioral system in your class. What level of behavior is allowed in the class? Can students, shout, push, criticize other students, chew gum, eat food, spit, talk politely, interrupt, go to the bathroom, get a drink, criticize the teacher, have their sincere apologies accepted, have their insincere apologies accepted, etc.
As the 'level of law' is being established for a new class, the teacher may need to have some non-complying students removed from the class to signal to other non-complying students that they will have to comply or transfer. Students will transfer out of a class that has behavior standards that they don't wish to, or cannot live. The rest of the class will rise to the 'level of law' set by the teacher, so the advice to teachers is, set the 'level of law' at the level that will be comfortable and natural for the teachers to live by. If teachers do not, or can not, establish the 'level of law' in the classroom, the 'level of law' will be established by the behavioral level of the dominant student or group of students.
As teachers are establishing their 'level of law' at the beginning of the school year, they should not think that non-complying students are their personal enemy. The conflict felt between some students and teachers is simply the principle of the dynamics of living different levels of law. Non-complying behavior is not really 'personal' toward the teacher. The teacher may explain to the class on the first day of class, as the behavior rules are read, that these rules are not personally directed toward any students. The teacher did not spend the summer thinking of some way to personally make a student or students uncomfortable. Instead the teacher may point out that the purpose of the class rules is to allow a comfortable learning situation in the class.
Some teachers feel uncomfortable setting a certain 'level of law' in class, but the reality is that there must be some level set, or the teacher can not teach and the students can not learn. The most natural 'level of law' to set and enforce is the one that the teacher feels most comfortable with. Teachers also should be aware that the majority of the students enjoy and deeply appreciate teachers who set a 'level of law' that results in a comfortable, secure, learning situation. Students will gravitate toward teachers whose 'level of law' matches theirs. If one teacher's level is too high, they will find another teacher whose level more nearly matches their own. Be comfortable.
For the teacher, new or otherwise, who feels at some period after the beginning of the school year that their 'level of law' is too low for comfort, it is difficult but not impossible to raise the level. The level can be raised by removing the student who is living the lowest behavior level and who is also adversely affecting the class. This action can be repeated for two or three other students, so that the class generally conforms to the new level, but real change may have to wait for a new class with new students. For a teacher who is trying to lose a reputation as a lax or easy teacher there needs to be real consistent determination and behavior for several years until the new reputation is spread to the incoming student body. Reputations can be changed, but it takes consistent work. However, teachers who have been uncomfortable for years with a 'level of law' below their comfort level have much to gain in the years they later teach at their comfort level. Then students who are looking for an easy, lax teacher will no longer purposefully sign up for that teacher's class.
All of these situation have to be adjusted to the reality of the school setting. Some schools may have lax behavioral standards and so teachers have to do more work setting behavior levels in their classrooms. Some schools may be so strict that a teacher may not feel comfortable enforcing certain required rules. Therefore some schools may not be a 'behavioral fit' for particular teachers and they would benefit by teaching in another school where they feel more comfortable.
Busy Work, No Work
Another teaching practice that often grows into a teacher created discipline problem is 'busy work.' The term 'busy work' refers to work that is simply designed to keep the class busy. Often it is used to manage discipline problems. If a class has plenty of work to do, then there are few discipline problems [as the reasoning goes.] The students are too busy to cause problems. However, there are problems with this approach. First, if the class is to be kept busy, the best students have to have enough work to be kept busy for the desired period of time. Therefore, slower students will have homework for no other reason than class control, [not for learning]. A low grade hostility builds up toward the teacher and the subject.
When busy work becomes 'institutionalized,' among other teachers or the entire school, it creates such an overload of work for the slower students, that they have to 'buy out' of the system. They will always have more work than they can do because the work is assigned for control and not learning. Once a student or students buy out of the system, many of the usual discipline techniques no longer work because the student feels no longer connected with the educational process. They either have to quit the system or accept the label of failure because they can not keep up. *This giving up is also caused by assignments that are made quite difficult as a punitive measure. The punitive assignment usually has a great deal of value toward a grade. It may work for much of the class, but when one, two, or more students 'buy out' of learning and cooperating, then the punitive assignment does not create the effect that is intended .
Also, many students then take their 'buy-out' attitude on to the next school where they may resist all assignments, and not just 'busy work.'
The worst, teacher caused, discipline problem is class time with Nothing To Do, no direction. It would be better to say that the students could talk than to leave them to their own device, to determine what they could do, or what they could 'get away with.'
Bribing and Bargaining with Students
Some teachers try to bargain or bribe their students into good behavior with rewards, such as food or videos. I have no comment on food, but videos as a reward conditions students not to learn from videos, not to take notes during them, and to turn off their minds to them once the video is over. Consider too, that the teacher can not show in school videos that some students watch outside of school and consider preferable, so that the desired behavior control of videos is limited at best and students may begin to demand further bribes for their continued good behavior.
Another bribe, often termed, a 'reward,' is a period of time when students don't have to do class work. In my opinion one should never reward a class for good behavior by saying that they don't have to do class work. The reward of not having to do work sends a very loud message that work is the opposite of a reward, that one is happiest getting out of work. So then, what are they working for, when no one likes it? The 'reward' should be an occasional change of pace to some other learning activity, perhaps a discussion, a play, riddles, etc. The reward actually arises from the teacher's awareness that the class has been working hard and they need a change of pace.
Don't 'tell' the class that you are giving a reward for good behavior toward yourself; then you are making a situation where the class can bargain with you. You can [and should] reward a class when they behave well for a substitute teacher. Don't reward with not having to do work, but perhaps by giving another day for an assignment.... Tell the class that you remembered their good behavior for the substitute. When they behave well for you, you are doing something right, keep it up. Change the pace by switching occasionally with other types of learning activities when they start to 'droop' and their good behavior should continue.
BTW- listening to student requests and complaints and changing something to their point of view, is not bargaining. If you listen to them, they will listen to you.
Also give them a choice of work options. I once had to increase the pace a class was reading The Odyssey. I gave them a choice of reading so many pages in 5 school days, or less pages per day but with an assignment over the weekend included, etc. We had two votes with a discussion in between. The students presented reasons for their voting the way that they did. The discussion changed the vote. I then printed up a new reading schedule according to the option that they chose, and I didn't hear another complaint about the pace, because they had had a part in choosing, and I had listened.
The Principle Involved is: Design the classes to elicit the behavior that you wish... notes, attention, reading... etc. They must be rewarded for this behavior by progress in their learning and their grade, not by peripheral rewards.
Punishment Attitude
An issue related to student behavior and classroom discipline is the Punishment milieu that is 'set' in the class. This 'vibe environment' is the combination of the inner emotional attitude and the outer mental attitude that teachers have toward 'wrongdoers' in their classroom. It can be termed 'punishment attitude' and it is something that teachers would do well to examine and not to neglect in considering. 'Punishment attitude' may sometimes be described as guiding students' actions, disciplining students, correcting student behavior, etc. but at the basic human level teachers need to know their inner feelings toward punishing students' misbehavior.
Whatever 'punishment attitude' teachers have will come back to them. [As teachers demonstrate firmness and mercy, students will also 'give teachers a break' when they make a 'human error.'] It will come back not only in the behavior of the students they are currently punishing, but in the behavior of the observing students that teachers are not aware of at the time. These other students are also setting their 'behavior watches,' by the 'behavior time' that the teachers set.
For example, in class I have given students 'breaks' by not punishing them as they deserved by the 'law,' for such things as swearing, not doing their work, being tardy, etc., but I did it for the students who were actually trying to live the law that was set for them. [See the article, Setting a 'Level of Law.'] If they are giving all they have, sometimes teachers can overlook the actuality of their behavior and 'carry' them for their intent. But this is for really very few students, in any given class because too many 'breaks' invalidate the law that is set.
Again, giving breaks does not mean do not enforce the 'law' that is set. The students must see teachers reprimand, send someone out of class, penalize them in some way, BEFORE they can realize that the teachers are giving breaks. And teachers should not give breaks to, or relent in their purpose for someone who has no intention of complying with the rules. The bottom line is that that non-complying students must find another place to be. If a teacher is the only one teaching the class that year, the student may have to wait until next year when another teacher teaches, it. The student may have to get help from another teacher with independent study; they may have to get help from the original teacher, but not in a disruptive classroom environment, but perhaps rather, after school. [This latter situation may seem to punish the teacher with more work for a disruptive student, who is getting what is wanted, which is out of class. Teachers can work to prevent this situation from happening... usually, unless there are only a few weeks left in the class, and the student has had passing grades until then. If that is the case, the teacher hasn't been vigilant in enforcing the law earlier in the school year, but has been lenient mistakenly, thinking a student would change. Teachers should discern which students are really trying to live the law and which they are only hoping will change to live the law. By this means teachers can avoid most of the after school special deals at the semester's end. BTW- probably every teacher has been fooled into making a project out of saving a student that needs to at last be removed from class 14 weeks after the beginning.]
Appropriate, consistent punishment takes an alert, consistent, watchful mind. In actuality teachers may not be able to reach this state at all times, but the closer that it can be reached, the more satisfying are the results.
Teachers may avoid punishing students at times by alertly watching student behavior. Teachers can observe the 'Moment' students are deciding on some action they may be punished for. As the teacher observes this 'moment,' a quick glance, a word, an action, a distraction, a moving on in the lesson, etc. by the teacher, may change the student's intended behavior. It may push the student from the 'point of balance' at the 'moment of decision' back to complying with the law.
Teachers shouldn't berate themselves when a student gets deservedly kicked out of class for actions that might have been prevented had the teacher been in an ideal mental/emotional/physical state. Students are responsible for their actions too.
Have a sense of humor.
Teachers shouldn't wear themselves out trying to save a student that they are rationalizing saving because they don't have the courage to discipline them yet. Also they shouldn't let pride or diffidence get in the way of dealing with students. Sometimes administrators cultivate the attitude in teachers that teachers are lacking in ability or have failed if they don't deal with all discipline situations in the classroom. This attitude is unrealistic and raises the stress between teachers, administrators, and in the classroom. Teachers also may not deal with students because they don't want to 'sink to the students' level.' They want to have higher and more caring feelings than misbehaving students do. All of these attitudes can keep the teacher from establishing a peaceful, comfortable classroom atmosphere.
Deal with specific students so comfortably that other students do not go into defensive shock because the teacher's anger might spill over to them. This comfort state takes a great deal of time and effort to establish. A teacher should NOT forget to apologize when needed, but shouldn't become a victim through an apology or because something has been done wrongly. Do not let the students 'milk' the situation. Teachers make mistakes sometimes. They should apologize sincerely, and not do it again [patterning their behavior for the students]. Then they should move on to teaching something worthwhile for the students' time.
Teacher Caused Discipline Problems
Teacher caused discipline problems arise from a number of sources, lack of preparation, inadequate training in discipline techniques, and attitude toward students. [Please be aware that this article is not suggesting that all discipline problems are teacher caused.]
One day when I was sitting in an Educational Philosophy class, another prospective teacher commented to a friend about her student teaching saying, "how I hate these kids!" I wondered if she didn't change her feelings or discontinue her plans to teach, about how many students she would ruin in her teaching career. Students can sense the teacher's attitudes and feelings toward them. A teacher may be able to fool an administrator or a parent, but students can feel whether someone cares. The caring can be found in the desire to teach and in the caring about the individual. Once I attended a class taught by Michael Grinder and he said that traditionally high school teachers teach subjects such as English, math, etc. but that grade school teachers taught students. There is a truth in that statement for many teachers. Students respond much better to teachers who teach students the subject matter rather than teach the subject matter.
The best discipline tool is knowing your subject and your topic. The next best tool is caring to convey that knowledge to the students. Also have fun learning and telling your classes about what you learned, even in areas not related to your classes. [This sharing does not mean to go on and on about a subject; it means to share new things learned as they are learned. It means to show you have fun learning.]
Be honest with your students. They can see through masks' and screens.' Don't be intimate though.
Don't expect to know all things. Don't project the impression that you consider that you 'know all things.' Graciously and gently give your students some room for error and they will do the same for you.
Have some right brain units, but beware of 'uncorking' your class. Right brain activities are a potential source of teacher caused discipline problems. Don't blame them for the results of your starting a right brain activity.... which causes loudness, less inhibitions, and sharing of projects with less restraint. Poetry and drawing are some of the right brain activities that cause these reactions. Plan a transition out of a right brain activity or plan it toward the end of the period so that if necessary, you can be 'saved by the bell.'
Be aware of what it means when students are auditory, visual, or kinesthetic.
Don't be manipulated into wanting them to like you. Aim for respect; then they will like you. Don't be a buddy. They have contempt for teachers they can push around, and they have hate for arbitrary, willful, and otherwise unfair teachers. Be fair.
Don't punish the entire class unless the entire class is at fault. Note: if the teacher will analyze the problem there is almost no situation where the entire class is at fault. See the section 'Philosophy Underlying Discipline' for further discussion of this topic.
Finally, don't attempt to control a class with your physical strength. For instance a student related an incident when another teacher was keeping the entire class after the bell for a discipline reason. In order to ensure that the students didn't leave before permission was given, the teacher stood in the doorway of the classroom to keep the students from leaving. Some of the students ended up pushing past the teacher and leaving.
This shoving action occurred because the discipline force was lowered to the physical plane. A teacher is more effective keeping discipline on a societal, mental, ethical, and emotional plane.
Difficulty Level of Classes
Another issue that relates to teacher caused discipline problems is how difficult the classes are and the reasons for their difficulty. Some teachers have acquired the idea that a class should be difficult and there should be a certain number of various levels of grades, A's, B's, C's, F's, etc. This decision is pre-determined and the students are forced into this preconception no matter what their actual performance as a class may be. Students can feel this fixed attitude being imposed upon them and in response begin to generate a negative defensive classroom mood that leads toward discipline problems.
A teacher who expects a certain number of failures might consider my son's comment 'if it were a parachute school, how many failures would you expect or accept?' Although this question is not exactly analogous because students in a parachute school have much higher motivation, the question properly pondered can reveal when our classroom expectations are simply conditioned responses.
Teachers often derive their classroom expectations from the school they attended. One teacher said "I remember some of the finals that I had. They put the fear into you. I'm going to have my kids feel the same way." [Why] Consider the resultant classroom mood and the contribution toward discipline problems that this feeling may cause.
Some students feel a sort of 'boy, we got through Mr. _____'s class and it sure was difficult.' Students often are not able to discern that there is a -difficult- from the class being designed just to be difficult. They do not realize until they experience it that there is also a -difficult- from the class having clear, competent, instruction with no deliberate difficulties built in but having a lot of growth and knowledge to be gained. Once they realize the difference, the classes that are designed just to be difficult are avoided whenever possible.
There are some teacher attitudes that can lead away from these teacher caused disciple problems. One day as I was leaving the school in the growing dark of autumn, I looked over and saw the football players practicing in the miserable conditions of mud, wet, and cold. I wondered why do they work so hard at that? There is a short 'season of reward' with lots of work, practice, pain, and sacrifice before and during. Furthermore, their coaches sometimes yell at them, criticize them, and expect them to learn many plays and gain many new abilities. It seemed to me they did all this because the coach was helping them' gain what they wanted.' I thought, do my students feel that I am helping them gain something they want? What do they want? Can anything I am teaching compete with the 'glory of football?' I don't know what competes with football, but I know that my classes have responded to my feeling that I am a coach helping them gain what they need.
Tolstoy reportedly said "everyone wants to know what to do and how to act." Many of our students desperately want to know how to read and write better, but they have lost some hope of doing so.* Many more respond with pleasure to increasing their skills with words: understanding them and using them. Some simply know that these abilities are necessary for obtaining a job. All of them can feel and know that the teacher wants' to help them with something that they, the students, want to do.
* NOTE: Some students can remember the day, or moment, that they decided that they were no longer going to work in the educational system. Ask them, "can you remember when you decided not to worry about school work, or do home work any more?" For most it is grade school or middle school. It is beneficial to ponder why these students came to their decisions and how this knowledge affects your teaching strategies.
Setting a 'Level of Law' in the Classroom
An issue related to student behavior and classroom discipline is the 'Level of Law' that is set in the class. The 'level of law' means the working ethical and behavioral system in your class. What level of behavior is allowed in the class? Can students, shout, push, criticize other students, chew gum, eat food, spit, talk politely, interrupt, go to the bathroom, get a drink, criticize the teacher, have their sincere apologies accepted, have their insincere apologies accepted, etc.
As the 'level of law' is being established for a new class, the teacher may need to have some non-complying students removed from the class to signal to other non-complying students that they will have to comply or transfer. Students will transfer out of a class that has behavior standards that they don't wish to, or cannot live. The rest of the class will rise to the 'level of law' set by the teacher, so the advice to teachers is, set the 'level of law' at the level that will be comfortable and natural for the teachers to live by. If teachers do not, or can not, establish the 'level of law' in the classroom, the 'level of law' will be established by the behavioral level of the dominant student or group of students.
As teachers are establishing their 'level of law' at the beginning of the school year, they should not think that non-complying students are their personal enemy. The conflict felt between some students and teachers is simply the principle of the dynamics of living different levels of law. Non-complying behavior is not really 'personal' toward the teacher. The teacher may explain to the class on the first day of class, as the behavior rules are read, that these rules are not personally directed toward any students. The teacher did not spend the summer thinking of some way to personally make a student or students uncomfortable. Instead the teacher may point out that the purpose of the class rules is to allow a comfortable learning situation in the class.
Some teachers feel uncomfortable setting a certain 'level of law' in class, but the reality is that there must be some level set, or the teacher can not teach and the students can not learn. The most natural 'level of law' to set and enforce is the one that the teacher feels most comfortable with. Teachers also should be aware that the majority of the students enjoy and deeply appreciate teachers who set a 'level of law' that results in a comfortable, secure, learning situation. Students will gravitate toward teachers whose 'level of law' matches theirs. If one teacher's level is too high, they will find another teacher whose level more nearly matches their own. Be comfortable.
For the teacher, new or otherwise, who feels at some period after the beginning of the school year that their 'level of law' is too low for comfort, it is difficult but not impossible to raise the level. The level can be raised by removing the student who is living the lowest behavior level and who is also adversely affecting the class. This action can be repeated for two or three other students, so that the class generally conforms to the new level, but real change may have to wait for a new class with new students. For a teacher who is trying to lose a reputation as a lax or easy teacher there needs to be real consistent determination and behavior for several years until the new reputation is spread to the incoming student body. Reputations can be changed, but it takes consistent work. However, teachers who have been uncomfortable for years with a 'level of law' below their comfort level have much to gain in the years they later teach at their comfort level. Then students who are looking for an easy, lax teacher will no longer purposefully sign up for that teacher's class.
All of these situation have to be adjusted to the reality of the school setting. Some schools may have lax behavioral standards and so teachers have to do more work setting behavior levels in their classrooms. Some schools may be so strict that a teacher may not feel comfortable enforcing certain required rules. Therefore some schools may not be a 'behavioral fit' for particular teachers and they would benefit by teaching in another school where they feel more comfortable.
Busy Work, No Work
Another teaching practice that often grows into a teacher created discipline problem is 'busy work.' The term 'busy work' refers to work that is simply designed to keep the class busy. Often it is used to manage discipline problems. If a class has plenty of work to do, then there are few discipline problems [as the reasoning goes.] The students are too busy to cause problems. However, there are problems with this approach. First, if the class is to be kept busy, the best students have to have enough work to be kept busy for the desired period of time. Therefore, slower students will have homework for no other reason than class control, [not for learning]. A low grade hostility builds up toward the teacher and the subject.
When busy work becomes 'institutionalized,' among other teachers or the entire school, it creates such an overload of work for the slower students, that they have to 'buy out' of the system. They will always have more work than they can do because the work is assigned for control and not learning. Once a student or students buy out of the system, many of the usual discipline techniques no longer work because the student feels no longer connected with the educational process. They either have to quit the system or accept the label of failure because they can not keep up. *This giving up is also caused by assignments that are made quite difficult as a punitive measure. The punitive assignment usually has a great deal of value toward a grade. It may work for much of the class, but when one, two, or more students 'buy out' of learning and cooperating, then the punitive assignment does not create the effect that is intended .
Also, many students then take their 'buy-out' attitude on to the next school where they may resist all assignments, and not just 'busy work.'
The worst, teacher caused, discipline problem is class time with Nothing To Do, no direction. It would be better to say that the students could talk than to leave them to their own device, to determine what they could do, or what they could 'get away with.'
Bribing and Bargaining with Students
Some teachers try to bargain or bribe their students into good behavior with rewards, such as food or videos. I have no comment on food, but videos as a reward conditions students not to learn from videos, not to take notes during them, and to turn off their minds to them once the video is over. Consider too, that the teacher can not show in school videos that some students watch outside of school and consider preferable, so that the desired behavior control of videos is limited at best and students may begin to demand further bribes for their continued good behavior.
Another bribe, often termed, a 'reward,' is a period of time when students don't have to do class work. In my opinion one should never reward a class for good behavior by saying that they don't have to do class work. The reward of not having to do work sends a very loud message that work is the opposite of a reward, that one is happiest getting out of work. So then, what are they working for, when no one likes it? The 'reward' should be an occasional change of pace to some other learning activity, perhaps a discussion, a play, riddles, etc. The reward actually arises from the teacher's awareness that the class has been working hard and they need a change of pace.
Don't 'tell' the class that you are giving a reward for good behavior toward yourself; then you are making a situation where the class can bargain with you. You can [and should] reward a class when they behave well for a substitute teacher. Don't reward with not having to do work, but perhaps by giving another day for an assignment.... Tell the class that you remembered their good behavior for the substitute. When they behave well for you, you are doing something right, keep it up. Change the pace by switching occasionally with other types of learning activities when they start to 'droop' and their good behavior should continue.
BTW- listening to student requests and complaints and changing something to their point of view, is not bargaining. If you listen to them, they will listen to you.
Also give them a choice of work options. I once had to increase the pace a class was reading The Odyssey. I gave them a choice of reading so many pages in 5 school days, or less pages per day but with an assignment over the weekend included, etc. We had two votes with a discussion in between. The students presented reasons for their voting the way that they did. The discussion changed the vote. I then printed up a new reading schedule according to the option that they chose, and I didn't hear another complaint about the pace, because they had had a part in choosing, and I had listened.
The Principle Involved is: Design the classes to elicit the behavior that you wish... notes, attention, reading... etc. They must be rewarded for this behavior by progress in their learning and their grade, not by peripheral rewards.
Punishment Attitude
An issue related to student behavior and classroom discipline is the Punishment milieu that is 'set' in the class. This 'vibe environment' is the combination of the inner emotional attitude and the outer mental attitude that teachers have toward 'wrongdoers' in their classroom. It can be termed 'punishment attitude' and it is something that teachers would do well to examine and not to neglect in considering. 'Punishment attitude' may sometimes be described as guiding students' actions, disciplining students, correcting student behavior, etc. but at the basic human level teachers need to know their inner feelings toward punishing students' misbehavior.
Whatever 'punishment attitude' teachers have will come back to them. [As teachers demonstrate firmness and mercy, students will also 'give teachers a break' when they make a 'human error.'] It will come back not only in the behavior of the students they are currently punishing, but in the behavior of the observing students that teachers are not aware of at the time. These other students are also setting their 'behavior watches,' by the 'behavior time' that the teachers set.
For example, in class I have given students 'breaks' by not punishing them as they deserved by the 'law,' for such things as swearing, not doing their work, being tardy, etc., but I did it for the students who were actually trying to live the law that was set for them. [See the article, Setting a 'Level of Law.'] If they are giving all they have, sometimes teachers can overlook the actuality of their behavior and 'carry' them for their intent. But this is for really very few students, in any given class because too many 'breaks' invalidate the law that is set.
Again, giving breaks does not mean do not enforce the 'law' that is set. The students must see teachers reprimand, send someone out of class, penalize them in some way, BEFORE they can realize that the teachers are giving breaks. And teachers should not give breaks to, or relent in their purpose for someone who has no intention of complying with the rules. The bottom line is that that non-complying students must find another place to be. If a teacher is the only one teaching the class that year, the student may have to wait until next year when another teacher teaches, it. The student may have to get help from another teacher with independent study; they may have to get help from the original teacher, but not in a disruptive classroom environment, but perhaps rather, after school. [This latter situation may seem to punish the teacher with more work for a disruptive student, who is getting what is wanted, which is out of class. Teachers can work to prevent this situation from happening... usually, unless there are only a few weeks left in the class, and the student has had passing grades until then. If that is the case, the teacher hasn't been vigilant in enforcing the law earlier in the school year, but has been lenient mistakenly, thinking a student would change. Teachers should discern which students are really trying to live the law and which they are only hoping will change to live the law. By this means teachers can avoid most of the after school special deals at the semester's end. BTW- probably every teacher has been fooled into making a project out of saving a student that needs to at last be removed from class 14 weeks after the beginning.]
Appropriate, consistent punishment takes an alert, consistent, watchful mind. In actuality teachers may not be able to reach this state at all times, but the closer that it can be reached, the more satisfying are the results.
Teachers may avoid punishing students at times by alertly watching student behavior. Teachers can observe the 'Moment' students are deciding on some action they may be punished for. As the teacher observes this 'moment,' a quick glance, a word, an action, a distraction, a moving on in the lesson, etc. by the teacher, may change the student's intended behavior. It may push the student from the 'point of balance' at the 'moment of decision' back to complying with the law.
Teachers shouldn't berate themselves when a student gets deservedly kicked out of class for actions that might have been prevented had the teacher been in an ideal mental/emotional/physical state. Students are responsible for their actions too.
Have a sense of humor.
Teachers shouldn't wear themselves out trying to save a student that they are rationalizing saving because they don't have the courage to discipline them yet. Also they shouldn't let pride or diffidence get in the way of dealing with students. Sometimes administrators cultivate the attitude in teachers that teachers are lacking in ability or have failed if they don't deal with all discipline situations in the classroom. This attitude is unrealistic and raises the stress between teachers, administrators, and in the classroom. Teachers also may not deal with students because they don't want to 'sink to the students' level.' They want to have higher and more caring feelings than misbehaving students do. All of these attitudes can keep the teacher from establishing a peaceful, comfortable classroom atmosphere.
Deal with specific students so comfortably that other students do not go into defensive shock because the teacher's anger might spill over to them. This comfort state takes a great deal of time and effort to establish. A teacher should NOT forget to apologize when needed, but shouldn't become a victim through an apology or because something has been done wrongly. Do not let the students 'milk' the situation. Teachers make mistakes sometimes. They should apologize sincerely, and not do it again [patterning their behavior for the students]. Then they should move on to teaching something worthwhile for the students' time.
