Classroom Management

This was an essay I wrote reflecting my research, beliefs and practices in classroom management.

I taught in Primary 4F of BVPS. This is a neighbourhood school, with an unusually large proportion of Malay students (30% to 40%). Generally, the mother tongue of the students is not English, and many struggled with it, affecting all areas of their lives academically (except Mother Tongue, of course).

From the “common room talk” I have observed the general lack of belief among the teachers in the ability of the children in this school to excel. Many of the teachers are also old and ready to retire, and this perhaps contributed to the general lack of motivation in the school climate.

The class of 38 pupils is generally able to handle English and their Mother Tongue, but has a glaring weakness in Mathematics. Some exceptions do occur, however, like the four students in class who are extremely weak in English (unable even to form simple English sentences), and the two who simply outperform the class academically.

The most striking thing about the class, possibly due to their poor academic performance, is the general lack of self-esteem and ambition. The fact that most of them comes from low-income families, with parents too busy to take care of them, perhaps compounds this lack of self-esteem. I will refer to this class as the background behind the implementations of the classroom management ideas.

I bring to the teaching profession my two main teaching backgrounds. These have influenced my style and manner of handling pupils. I was an instructor and leading hand (a position just below a chief) during the last six years of my nine years in the Navy. This has made me believe strongly in discipline, but also that the men respect you when you lead by example. I also taught in the P6-S1 level of the Sunday school for two years, recently being promoted to Chief Teacher. This has provided me with a background in dealing with children.

I personally believe very strongly that a teacher’s main role is not so much to bring across academic content as to change and impact lives. When the lives are changed, academic learning follows as they seek to learn about the world around them. The children are much more willing to learn from a teacher whom they know cares about them. The children are not stupid – they can tell if we love them, or if they are just part of our “rice bowl”.

My limited experience in dealing with children have convinced me, however, that children tends to have short attention spans, and they want to please a teacher they love. This gives my characteristic “entertainer” style of teaching, with plenty of animation, laughter and smiles. When dealing with behaviour problems, I emphasise the fact that I am upset (you can really see their reaction when they know that!).

I also avoided running the classroom like a military camp, even though I have a strong tradition in this management style. Children are simply different from soldiers – but firmness and fairness in governing the classroom still earns the same amount of trust and respect.

It is very important that the students know at the beginning of the teacher-student relationship how I expect the class to be managed. Each teacher is different, and the students must understand that, and adapt to the teacher’s style. As such, the first day of the schooling year would have to be spent on explaining this.

I would have to plan their seating and queuing arrangements. To remember their names in the classroom, I would ask them to put a personally decorated signboard in front of their desks with their names. It is much easier and convincing to get a student to respond to a “I can see you, Darren” rather than “Boy stop what you are doing”. In addition, it is a tremendous boost to a child’s self-esteem to be called by name rather than “the girl sitting at the third row”.

I would also explain my expectations of them in my class. Expectations help the students by giving them a target to strive for. Expectations also communicate belief in their abilities, provided it is not so high as to sound improbable. Good expectations would be areas like listening and industry, but not academic ability (I believe once listening and industry has been achieved, academic ability follows). In any case, stressing on academic ability in a class fundamentally weak in this area is asking for trouble.

Normally, I would not smile or give any hint of friendliness until I have finished staking out my expectations. I found out that this gives seriousness to my words, but I would have to smile and move on to a less serious topic (like giving more introductions about myself) after I finished, to assure the students of my approachability.

I personally do not believe in letting the students set their own class rules. At the high school level, this flexibility is perhaps admissible, but many upper primary children (except perhaps the girls) are not able to regulate themselves to set rules beneficial to learning instead of self. I would not set more than three rules, and they will be quite general, so as to cover a variety of situations.

To avoid questions of “what exactly is ‘Listen when the teacher or a classmate is addressing the class’”, I would get them to role-play out in class the various situations comprising the infringements and non-infringements of the rules. This can create some very hilarious moments, and helps them exercise their creativity as well. The main purpose, however, is still to get them to remember and understand these general rules.

Other routines like movement between classes, handling up of homework, toilet going and water drinking will also be specified at this time. I personally allow the students to keep their water bottle with them and to drink even while I am teaching (the sips of water actually helps keep alertness). Toilet going, however, is a no-no, except in transitions between lessons.

All the expectations, rules and routines will be posted up on the notice board to remind the students. Initially I would type this out, but after a few weeks with them, I would suggest the class make a more artistic representation to spice up the classroom atmosphere (word-processed rules listings can look boring).

My style of teaching stresses a lot on getting the students involved, by appealing to their emotions, and by bringing in strong stimuli. Boredom fuels disruption! This corresponds to Kounin’s Group Management Approach, which stresses the solving of problems before they begin, by motivating and involving students. Once the students are involved, they would not cause disruptions to the class. On the contrary, a class where students find themselves uninvolved almost always results in disruptions due to bored and unmotivated pupils.

Five teacher practices stand out in this context. They are – with-it-ness, overlapping, smoothness, momentum, and group alerting. A “with-it” teacher is constantly alert to the sights and sounds within the classroom, and as such is able to react to inappropriate behaviour, or feel when the students’ attention span is faltering (necessitating a change in the momentum or stimulus of the lesson).

Attending to two or more events at the same time results in less “idle time” for the students. Smoothness is mostly a result of planning, and a smooth lesson routine, without interruptions, creates a stronger learning atmosphere.

Transitions can kill interest or distract, and a teacher with momentum knows how to keep the lesson going. Finally, moving around the room while the students are doing seatwork, and calling on random for answers while teaching reminds students of the teacher’s attention upon them, and increases the self-awareness to check oneself.

My “entertainer” style of teaching addresses momentum and group alerting especially. When the teacher is constantly bombarding you with new stimulus, and appeals to your emotions (jokes, or stories, or personal experiences – the students absolutely love to hear personal experiences!), the lesson is kept interesting and constantly moving, with no pauses to reflect on any distractions. With the teacher moving around and calling on names at random to pepper his stories, the group is kept constantly on the alert.

The “entertainer” style of teaching especially appeals to those who have difficulty following the pace of the lesson (perhaps due to a language handicap). The increased animation, facial and hand expressions, together with the variance in the tone of the voice, gives many clues to the teaching points of the lesson, and helps the students learn as much as possible within their ability.

Children, being children, will definitely be testing the boundaries of their behaviour (to see what they can get away with). Some are genuinely not able to adapt to the classroom setting, and many old habits will tend to return to disrupt the class. True cases of malice seem highly unlikely in 4F. Still, all these misbehaviour will have to be dealt with.

I personally prefer a personal approach to changing behaviour. I believe that children will change to please someone they want to please. It is important, therefore, that a close relationship be established with them as soon as possible. This can be done through frequent small chats before and after school, during recess and during seatwork. Remembering significant events or people in their lives, visitations (especially useful for eliciting support from parents – I believe in Assertive Discipline too), and generally being interested in them as a whole person (not just as a student!) also achieve this. This would fit in with the Reality Therapy as suggested by William Glasser.

Reality Therapy believes that misbehaviour results from a person’s inability to fulfil his legitimate needs of love, power, freedom and fun within the limits of his environment. Once he is aware of the effect this has on others, and of the consequences upon himself, he can learn to be responsible towards his actions.

I believe the keyword here is learn. It takes time for a person to learn, especially if he has yet to reach his full cognitive development. Reinforcement (in the form of rewards and punishment) and patience often is necessary, especially if the misbehaviour has been strongly ingrained and has become habitual.

The suggested method from Glasser that works well is the contract. This can be as simple as just hooking the pinkie together, a form of verbal contract. A child who knows his teacher believes in his ability to change (and this belief is communicated across by the teacher) and who wants to please his teacher will try his very best to watch out for his actions. However, the child must first be confronted and made aware of not only what he has done wrong, but also why he has done wrong (I depart somewhat from Glasser here), before any contract can be hammered out.

Again, it cannot be stressed enough that when the teacher first encountered the misbehaviour, or even on a relapse when a contract has been hammered out, that he has to be firm and assertive in his dealing of the problem. I would immediately nip the problem, normally by taking away privileges (they are at an age when privileges mean a lot). Assurances of love would still be required, however.

This would be in line with the Assertive Discipline school proposed by Lee and Marlene Canter. They proposed that teachers must be assertive over their rights to teach. As such, they develop a clear reward-punishment system, and communicates their approval and disapproval of the student’s action immediately and publicly (I sometimes avoid going public – it is a case by case basis). The consequences are then followed through consistently. It is indeed suitable especially with my military background, where fairness and respect is very important in getting things done.

A child who has shown improvement (those with a contract) or good behaviour would be praised. A simple “I know you can do it” can do wonders. Appreciation and consistent faith in a child’s abilities would help the child internalise the correct behaviours. Again this is consistent with the Assertive Discipline school, which stresses the reinforcement of appropriate behaviour.

To conclude, I once again draw on the observation I made in the article – children are not stupid, they know whether you love them, or you treat them as part of your “rice bowl”. Giving them clear rules and expectations gives them security, and is a sign of love. After all, if I don’t bother with them, I would not have such expectations of them.

Genuine interest in them as whole human beings also results in students who are more willing to accept the discipline and “contracts” over their behaviour (“misbehaviour” to the teacher). Otherwise I fear even the most ardent supporters of Assertive Discipline and Reality Therapy would have problems implementing successfully their strategies.