Establishing Discipline in the Classroom - Literature review Example

Education and Student Behaviour/Classroom management Name Institution Professor Course Date Introduction Classroom management entails the diverse techniques and skills that instructors utilise to keep learners orderly, attentive, academic productive and organised while in class. Effective classroom management techniques help in lowering the conducts of learners that may obstruct learning and maximise the conducts that enhance learning. Resourceful instructors display powerful classroom management ability. Classroom-management methods may seem deceivingly easy but impeccably and effectively incorporating them into the learning process calls for different sophisticated methods besides a crucial amount of experience and skill. This essay focuses on establishing discipline through tackling disruptive behaviour in classroom which have become prevalent in most schools around the world. Classroom Management Reynolds and Janzen (2009) define classroom management as the orderly organisation of activities and materials and the establishment of acceptable student conduct within the school learning environment. Groves (2009), on the other hand, defines classroom management as the actions that teachers take to establish a setting that facilitates and supports social-emotional and academic learning. I consider classroom management to simply mean a set deeds, words and rules that a class teacher utilises to keep the classroom running smoothly so that teachers can teach and learners can learn efficiently and safely. Although a deceivingly a simple idea, any consideration of techniques and purpose of classroom management implies numerous other educational concerns. Reynolds and Janzen (2007) stress that classroom management strategies must be in accord with the school’s acuity of the purpose and temperament of instruction and must fulfil a crucial number of legal and ethical concerns. In a similar context, the school organisational structure must be developed in a manner that allows meeting the psycho-educational postulation inherent in any chosen alternative particularly for students in special education. As a result, classroom management techniques must be chosen with respect to much consideration. Classroom management consists of five major domains or areas. These areas include academic instruction which requires the teacher to shine as a teacher given that students require top-notch instruction. Time management is another major classroom management area that requires teachers to be good time managers. The discipline domain requires teachers to establish a conducive learning environment that is orderly and facilitates learning. Relationship building domain requires teachers to establish professional working relationships with administrators, community, colleagues, parents and teachers. The last classroom domain as established by Groves (2009) is job protection that requires teachers to be competent in their teaching practice. Each of these classroom management areas is equally essential and when integrated, they are essential to a teacher’s success. A daily success in teaching depends on how well a teacher masters the rudiments of academic instruction, job protection, time management, relationship building and discipline. Establishing discipline in the classroom is subject to analysis. Discipline and its Importance in the Classroom The moral growth of children and their triumphant entry into the democratic society is dependent to a great extent on how successful schools promote the growth of dependable community membership. Schools are perfect places for moral development because of the diverse population found in the schools and the specialised training that teachers can apply. Upholding and establishing discipline in the classroom is considered one of the major challenges faced by educators (Hue & Li, 2008). Productive discipline is essential in upholding positive environment in the classroom and promoting the learning of students. Discipline refers to an art that calls for skill, self confidence, sensitivity and knowledge. Discipline entails the training that is anticipated to produce a behaviour pattern or specific character particularly training that produces mental and moral improvement (Hue & Li, 2008) . It is the order required in the classroom for students’ learning to take place effectively. Apparently, order is required in the classroom if the classroom activities are to take place. It must be understood that creating the order necessary in the classroom has more to do with the skills involved in effective instruction. Teaching techniques that promote positive conducts starts by creating apparent expectations and teaching learners how to attain these expectations and strengthen appropriate conduct. According to Groves (2009), one of the most essential tolls that teachers retrieve from his/her classroom management toolkit is the skill of kind-hearted and effective discipline. Groves (2009) maintains that discipline is like an immense earth that nurtures and supports the crops. If a teacher fails to discipline his/her students, she/he never provides the students with terra firma of hard values and strong moral principles the students secretly yearn for, these students may never grow into responsible, honest and good citizens. I consider discipline as the most important factor that facilitates effective learning. Apparently one of the common complaints laid by teachers across the world includes issues linked to discipline. Discipline is the order necessary for students learning to take place effectively. Effective discipline facilitates and support teaching and learning. Without sufficient reactions to inappropriate behaviours of students in the classroom, teachers may be unable to present their well-planned lessons. Discipline in the classroom facilitates good citizenship. In most schools around the world, there is an immense deal of concern regarding the call for schools to offer students a curriculum that is able to prepare them for social competence and democratic citizenship. Inadequate discipline in the classroom leads to academic chaos, teacher frustration and exhaustion, and poor students’ performance. However, effective discipline helps in presentation of effective lessons in absence of disruption. Discipline in the classroom promotes attainment of quality education essential in the community. A disciplined classroom does not lead to energy and time wastage and does rob learners the chance to get quality education. In addition, a disciplined classroom promotes effective time management besides promoting the overall effectiveness of a teacher. Discipline in the classroom facilitates understanding of students enhanced through discussion circles, orderly question asking and effective, rewarding and safe learning environment. Establishing Discipline in the Classroom Establishing positive classroom behaviours requires teachers to work with carers and parents to establish a constructive discipline plan (Garret, 2014) .Apparently; order is requisite in the classroom if the classroom activities are to promote effective learning. The most essential point to consider while establishing discipline in the classroom is that creating order has more to do with skills entailed in effective teaching as opposed to how teachers address misbehaviours. If the learning activities are well prepared and planned, if the learning activities offer realistic prospects and are challenging, and if the presentation of learning activities upholds and elicits the interest, involvement and attention of students, then the required order will be created as a portion of these qualities. Effective classroom management begins with executing and upholding classroom discipline in a productive manner. To get a good beginning in the classroom, teachers must establish authority first (Goldstein & Brooks 2007). Establishing authority is attained through having practical rules that students must follow. These rules help in ensuring classroom discipline and management. However, teachers should ensure that the rules are simple with clear consequences. For instance, if a teacher establishes rules concerning time, he/she should make sure that the students understand the consequences of lateness. Secondly, a teacher should establish feasible expectations that allow the students to display the kind of behaviour that corresponds with the teacher’s expectations. In this regard, teachers should begin by making the students understand what he/she expects from them and their expected behaviour. Thirdly, the teacher should make the set rule known to the parents. Teachers should also review the rules on regular basis and constantly remind the students about the rules and behaviour expectations. Teacher should also allow the students to voice out their views as regards the rules for better compliance. However, teachers should be consistent and firm as regards the rules through setting realistic rules and avoiding inconsistencies. They should approach the rules in a constructive manner as this prevents students from associating with rules in a negative way (Lewis, 2008). As a result, teachers should reward positive behaviour that contributes to productive classroom management. Teachers must be professional particularly on how they implement rules. To ensure effective learning, teachers should establish strategies for dealing with trouble makers. This entails speaking with the learners early enough and discussing plans for actions with the school authority. Early detection of behaviour problems and addressing these behaviour problems prevents further disruptions in the classroom. The Nature of Misbehaviour in the Classroom Student misbehaviour entails any conduct by a student that undermines the ability of a teacher to establish and uphold effective learning experiences in a classroom setting. Just like beauty, student’s misbehaviour lies in the eye of the beholder. In this regard, every teacher holds their own concept of what amounts to misconduct. Although there is a huge consensus among teachers as regards some kinds of misconduct such as beating another student , refusal to complete assignments, there are scores of areas where a high extent of difference in teachers’ verdict exist (Goldstein & Brooks 2007) . Teachers’ judgments regarding misconduct vary from student to students and from class to class. Equally, every teacher holds his/her own understanding of a perfect student. In most instances, an ideal student is one who is interested in the learning process, highly motivated and very attentive. Incongruously, a risk for instructors faced with such perfect students is that they are over-tolerant of unproductive teaching and can encourage teachers to allow their teaching quality to trip. As a result, every teacher must decide at what point in any divergence from this ideal represent misconduct. Teachers must decide what extent of such misconduct is tolerable and what extent calls for action. Students’ misconduct can range from simple non-compliance to clandestine disruptive behaviours such as throwing objects across the room. Most student misconduct is quite insignificant but the most frequent misbehaviour in the classrooms include excessive talk, being noisy, not paying attention to what the teacher says, not doing work as required, shifting from ones seat without permission or good cause, lateness, transgressions such as eating and mild misdemeanours. Grave misconduct includes physical aggression, destruction and direct disobedience (Groves, 2009). Most students’ misconducts fall on the non-compliance end of the continuum as opposed to disruptive end. However, in the contemporary world, serious disruptive behaviour such as bullying occurs regularly and is major concern for schools and teachers. Mores serious forms of misbehaviour such as bad language, verbal aggression, refusal to accept authority, disobedience and physical destructiveness are less frequent and can occur if the lesser types of students misconduct are allowed to become commonplace or if students are reacting against academic or personal difficulties. To a great extent, such problem behaviours are addressed through skilful teaching and through the establishment of routines and conventions for conduct that are followed. It must be understood that the discipline which prevails in the classroom is influenced by the teachers expectations and behaviour and by the expectations that students bring with them and more importantly by the dominant ethos in a given learning institutions. However, well-managed lesson combined with a relationship founded on mutual rapport and respect does much to lower problem behaviour in the classroom. How to Handle Behaviour Problems in the Classrooms Students misbehaviour occurs from time to time, even during the lesson of the most effective and skilful teachers. This behaviour has to be addressed properly. However, people should not consider discipline as something that is only concerned with how teachers tackle student’s misbehaviour, separate from the general teaching. Teachers should not establish discipline through focusing on how they will engender fear and dominate because this is not a strategy effective enough to minimise misbehaviour (Glasser, 1990). Such a course of action is objectionable because it directs the attention of a teacher away from considering how to establish the quality of his/her teaching as the basic means of developing order. Additionally, engendering fearing and dominating the classroom undermines teacher’s efforts of creating a constructive classroom environment requisite for facilitating effective learning. According to Glasser (1990), coercive discipline practices are major obstacles to development of democratic school communities as well as in promoting children’s moral development. In fact, coercive discipline practises are documented as a major contributor of school violence and student misbehaviour. The required knowledge base for teachers as regards establishing classroom discipline is not simply a comprehension of pedagogical techniques and subject matters, but how to learn to be their own individuals so that they can subsequently teach students to learn to be their own persons. Teaching learners to be their own persons and uphold a great level of discipline is likely to be unsound if teachers lack a practical understanding of their capabilities and limits. To ensure a disciplined learning environment, adequate emphasis on individual learners’ accountability and consistent teacher expectations are paramount. Once a teacher has established classroom rules, it is important that he/she avoid nagging and instead be patient with oneself and with the learners. Teachers should also avoid too much talk in class to keep the students actively engaged. In event of indiscipline, teachers should discipline learners privately and quietly and avoid disciplinary conversation across the classroom as this would distract other students. With the widespread concern for discipline in schools, scores of classroom management have surfaced. Given that most of the classroom management techniques efforts are committed to redirecting an archetypal behaviour; most of the current advocated techniques derive from intervention techniques applicable in clinical and laboratory settings (Reynolds & Jazen, 2007). Nearly all the present perspectives to classroom managements originate from the biophysical model that stresses on the role of biology as behaviour determinant. Interventions derived from the biophysical models stresses on the control of environmental stimuli to a restrained extent and tend to depend more on the impact of diets, the eradication of environment perils to genetic counselling, use of psychotropic drugs and biological processes. The sociological model stresses on the context of the learning institution in society. This perspective emphasizes on the role of the society in establishing the temperament of behaviours that need control and the social forces that function to inhibit or promote specific behaviours. The classroom management strategies derived from the sociological model focuses on the influence of peer group and community on individual conduct. The behavioural model stresses on the immediate upshots of behaviour given its role in the subsequent happening or lack of happening of behaviour. Classroom management techniques drawn from the behavioural model stresses on the role of teachers in the stipulation of upshots to certain behaviours while considering that behaviour cannot take place in isolation. The natural events coerce certain forms of behaviour. For instance, a chair in classroom promotes a sitting conduct. The last model linked to classroom behaviour as highlighted by Reynolds & Janzen (2007) is the psychodynamic model that represents several alternatives views that conceptualise a person as possessing a vibrant intrapsychic life. The personality that comes from inner forces acts as a foundation for behaviour. Personality establishment and its impact on conduct are construed in a different way across the scores of model. The psychodynamic model considers the foundation of behaviour as the person’s recognition of the causes of his/her conducts. The four models hold significant effect on the establishment of classroom management techniques and in addressing misbehaviour. However the behavioural and psychodynamic demonstrates massive appeal to educators and have formulated scores of variations in approach. Student misconduct in the classroom is an unavoidable and tough task to instructors and it consumes a great time to address it. Misbehaviour in the classroom entails any conduct that undermines the effort and ability of a teacher to uphold and establish effective learning experience. Unsurprisingly, in many regions around the world, student behaviour problem has become an educational issue of national concern (Weare, 2003). In the United States, for instance, programs which aim to assist students learn social and emotional competences are prompted by the need to address the increasing problem of violence in schools. In the United Kingdom, the Department of Education and Skills has established detailed strategy for promoting conduct that is trying to tackle the problem of reported increase in the rate of low-level disruption in the classrooms and in the number of students with long-term and challenging behavioural problems. In Australia, efforts are being made to thwart crime through working in schools (Weare 2003). Misbehaviour in the classroom ranges from non-compliance to explicit disruptive behaviour. Causes of misbehaviour include attention seeking, power-seeking, avoidance of failure, revenge-seeking, learning difficulties, the society and the teachers. Addressing student misbehaviour in the classroom takes up a considerable time of teaching time which consequently affects the learning experience of the students. Present studies confirm that behaviour problems are common in schools and therefore are crucial to schools. To address misbehaviours in the classroom, teachers must first understand the root causes of the misbehaviour. Understanding what motivates a learner to behaviour in a certain way is paramount in addressing misconduct in the classroom. Teachers must measure their emotional responses to the occurrence of misconduct because a teacher’s reaction holds the ability to signal the origin of misbehaviour. Michael, Gordons and Butterfield (2007) assert that misconduct in the classroom cannot be comprehended without first considering it in numerous spheres which include classroom, family, community, individual and society. Student misconduct should not be viewed as a separate factor even if it mainly takes place in the classroom. In this regard, misbehaviour in the classroom should be assessed with respect to entire environment of the student. The best way to deal with misbehaviour in the classroom is to prevent it. According to Lewis (2008), preventing misbehaviour instead of curing it is the best strategy to address misbehaviour in the classroom. This strategy involves teachers assessing and monitoring students’ behaviour and the suitability of learning activities regularly. This strategy helps in upholding academic engagement whenever misconduct appears to happen. Another strategy of addressing student’s misconduct is by developing expectations and rules that govern the classroom behaviour. This strategy is an important aspect of misbehaviour pre-empting. Teachers should be very open about classroom regulations as soon as they meet their novel classes. Another way of addressing classroom misbehaviour is through developing positive student-teacher relationship (Lewis, 2008). The relationship can be created when students accept the authority of the teacher. Positive student-teacher relationship lowers the frequency of misconduct in the classroom. Pre-empting misconduct makes the learning and teaching process effective and smooth besides helping in creating a suitable relationship between students and their teachers. With respect to addressing misbehaviour caused by attention seeking, teachers should set up time strategies and time to give their attention to student. With regard to misbehaviour occurring when students are seeking power, teachers should allow choice and voice, delegate responsibility and appropriate legitimate power. If student misconduct is propelled by the desire to seek revenge, teachers should try to establish caring relationship and teach suitable feeling expression. In event where misbehaviour occurs when students try to avoid failure, teachers should establish confidence in their students and promote relationship. They should also learn to encourage their students and lower the level of stress among the students. According to Tauber (2007), teachers should be well warned to address misbehaving children while they are looking for one of the less serious objectives, for instance, bids for power struggles or attention. With respect to addressing chronic misbehaviour and behaviour-linked disabilities in the classroom, teachers should employ differentiated behaviour management techniques. Teachers should construct certain set of rewards, consequences and expectations for students not favoured by the regular system of classroom (Glasser, 1990). More so, teachers need to access extra help from fellow teachers or the administration. For children with behaviour-linked disabilities, it is important that teachers define the problem behaviours clearly, identify settings, situations, time and events that predict behaviour occurrence, collect information on probable cause of misconduct, and establish and test a theory. For instance, if a student has difficulty in drawing and misbehaves in order to avoid drawing, a teacher should plan activities that do not entail drawing and observe the conduct of the student. If the students fail to misbehave, the teacher should understand that the misbehaviour in linked to difficulties in drawing and therefore should try to encourage the student. Teachers should also change the routine of the students when misbehaviour is predictable. According to Garret (2014), a big percentage of misbehaviour responds to logical consequences of verbal and nonverbal interventions. However, there cannot lack students who do not respond effectively to these strategies thereby making their misconduct to become chronic. One of the most productive ways to address chronic misbehaviour is via behaviour modification which is the systematic application of reinforcement to strength a needed conduct. There are several behaviour modifications systems that are effective. Nevertheless, a well-established classroom conduct modification plan holds three common components which include use of reinforcement, a tracking system and a contract. The initial step in establishing a productive behaviour modification plan is to develop a contract that states the specific behavioural consequences and goals that will be applicable if the learner fails to change her/his behaviour (Edmund & Evertson, 2012). The contract should be created during a meeting with student and a student’s parent if possible instead of enforcing a contract on the learner. Setting contract with the student allows the teacher to spend some time discussing problematic conducts and their effects. Secondly, the teacher should develop a tracking system that allows the learner to track his/her progress toward the classified goal. It is essential to select a visible, concrete way to track the progress of the student. The last step in behaviour modification is the application of positive reinforcement that refers to the act of receiving a reward, privilege or praise that augment the probability of repeating a desired behaviour. Teachers should involve students in selecting a reward that he/she would want to attempt to work toward Conclusion Classroom management continues to be a staid concern for teachers in diverse learning environments. However, establishing and upholding a positive learning environment is a major aspect that influences student’s motivation besides facilitating a positive attitude towards learning. Among the key domains of classroom management, establishing discipline is paramount as this domain influences the success of all the other domains such as time management, relationship building, job protection and academic instruction. Despite the significance of discipline in classroom management, teachers often encounter behaviour problems. Behaviour problems are caused by lack of skills, difficulties in learning, failure avoidance, power seeking, attention skills, boredom, work avoidance, school life, home life and personality conflict to mention but a few. The most effective way of addressing misbehaviour in the classroom is avoiding it. Teachers can do so through regular assessment of student’s behaviours. However, in event where misbehaviour is chronic, behaviour modification strategies should be employed. In addition, setting feasible rules and understanding the source of improper behaviour facilitates effective behaviour management. Effective ways of dealing with misbehaviour in the classroom entails understanding the misbehaviour, contemplate about it and address it with intelligence. Effective learning and teaching is assured when teachers prevent and control misbehaviour in the classroom effectively. References Edmund, E., & Evertson, C. M. (2012). Classroom management for middle and high school teachers (9th Edition). Australia: Pearson. Garret, T. (2014). Effective classroom management: The essentials. UK: Teachers College Press. Glasser, W. (1990). The Quality School: Managing students without coercion. Melbourne: Thomas Nelson. Goldstein, S., & Brooks, R.(2007). Understanding and managing children’s classroom behaviour: Creating sustainable, resilient classrooms. UK: John Wiley & Sons. Groves, E.(2009). The everything classroom management book: A teacher’s guide to an organised, productive, and calm classroom. UK: Everything Books. Hue, M., & Li, W.(2008). Classroom management: creating a positive learning environment. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Lewis, R.(2008). The developmental management approach to classroom behaviour: Responding to individual needs. Australia: Aust Council for ED Research. Michael, A., Gordons, L., & Butterfield, N. (2007).Classroom management. Creating positive learning environments. Melbourne: Thomson Learning. Reynolds, C., & Janzen, E.(2007). Encyclopaedia of special education, Volume 1. UK: John Wiley & Sons. Weare, K.(2003). Developing the emotionally literate school. USA: SAGE Read More